River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-11-02

and GOWNS up and down the western
coast, pillaging the cathedrals and lay
ing tribute upon the citizens. His
fame as cruel and rapacious sea rob-
Der spread from the Horn to the Span
ish settlements in California. In hunt
| ing for a spot in which to bury his
growing treasure, he CHANGED upon Co.
cos island.
Cocos island is volcanic speck in
the Pacific ocean and belongs to Costa
| RIGA. It is 800 miles off the Costa
RIGA coast, 500 miles from Panama.
and degrees north of the equator.
On the trip to Cocos island destined
to be BonitO's last, a number of his
men became dissatisfied. Having row.
ed their treasure to the cave they gath
cred on the beach in sullen temper,
and soon came to open mutiny. They
were tired of piracy. They demanded
that the entire treasure be divided
among them and that they be set upon
the mainland and permitted to shift
for themselves. Bonito refused. A
| pitched battle was fought with cut
lass and pistol, and in the hand-to-
hand engagement many were killed.
| Bonito was victorious. With the mu-
| tiny suppressed, he sailed for the West
Indies. Off Valparaiso, some one sug-
| geSted a carouse ashore. Bonito gave
his consent. Seventeen men were
landed and Bonito agreed to lie off
and on near a certain headland and
wait for them. With the II were all
that were left of the mutineers, in
Guiding Thompson and Chapelle. But
! Bonito proved treacherous. He sailed
away and left the recalcitrants to their
| fate. The IL were recognized in Val
paraiso as pirates and captured. They
were convicted and all except Thomp-
son and Chapelle wer- hanged. Thomp-
+, son and Chapelle escaped by represent
ing that they had been forced into b.
| nito's service and offered to guide a
warship to Bonito's secret haunts
among the West Indian islands.
The British government was just
then planning campaign Of exter-
mination against Bonito and his buc-
cancers. Sent to England for the pur-
pose, Thompson and Chapelle guided
British corvette to one of their old
chiefs places of refuge in the Car
ribean. Bonito's ship and crew we're
captured, but the grim old sea wolf
seeing ahead the loom of the gibbet on
Execution dock, blew out his brains
on his own quarterback
Of the subsequent fate of Chapelle
little is known
Thompson drops out of sight until
| 1888 when he reappears as CAPTAIN
| Thompson, master of an English trad
ing brig, the Mary Dear, which at the
! opening of the second chapter of the
romance of Cocos island was lying in
the harbor of Callao, Peru. A revo-
luton was under way in Peru. Lima,
the capital founded by Pizarro, was
in state of siege. Just before the be-
leaguering lines of the revolutionists
were drawn about the city, the gov
eminent authorities removed the
money from the treasury, and from
the churches the plate and ornaments
dating back to the golden days of
the conquest, and sent them for safe
keeping to an old stone fortress at Cal
lao. When the revolutionary army
learned Of the removal of the treas
ure, which was valued at $1,000, 900,
it marched on Callao with the deter
mination of capturing the rich hoard.
In this crisis, the commandant of the
fortress, seeing an English nag f1ut-
tering from the peak of the Mary
Dear, bethought him that uader the
folds of the union jack Lima's treas
ure would be safe. Captain Thompson
gave his consent to the proposition.
The treasure was soon slowed snugly
under the Mary Bears matches, and
four Peruvian soldiers were left on
board to guard it.