The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-08-04
LADIES DISCOVER
PIRATES TREASURE
Expedition Will Visit Cocos
Island
SOME OF ITS HISTORY
Many Expeditions Have Already Wis
tied Mysterious Place Where the
Pirate, Bonita, Is Said to
Have Buried Millions
SOME OF ITS HISTORY

Iouaon. Aug 3-(Special)--Once more
Cocos. a tiny island in the Pacific ocean,
is to be visited by an experition in search
of the fabulous treasures reputed to have
been buried there by pirates.
Two women who here on the island last
year are said to have located the precise
position of the hoard, which successive
! parties have failed to discover, and a
syndicate has been formed to pursue in
vestigations. At Plymouth, the steamer
Melmore, vessel with a ten-knot capac-
ity, hitherto engaged in the cross-channel
traffic. is fitting out for the search, and
will shortly leave the port for Parry to
| take in coal preparatory to sailing for
| Panama where she will pick up the ladies,
said to hold the key to the treasure.
Thence she win go TO Cocos, 800 miles
southwest of Panama. included in the
personnel of the expedition is the cine
matograph operator to secure films of
the treasure seekers at work.
1t is reported that another expedition,
with the treasure as its object, is on its
way to the island, but in London last
night the rumor was discredited
/
of buried treasure nearly a century ago,
| but though there have been 20 different
/ expeditions to the island, the secret of
the whereabouts of the hoard has remain
1 ed inipenetrable so far.
| 1t was in 1921 that the notorious pirate.
| Bonita, having ravaged the West Indies
| and the west coast of South America.
engineered his last great coup of captur-
| ing the Mexican treasure The worth of
| ho, 10 rot a a6 of millions and
| he buried 1t on Cocos, where, a fierce
| fight ensuing among his cut-throat crew,
| ne left Is of them dead ere he set sail for
the West Indies. His Infamous career
1 ended in that region.
| Fourteen years later the British barque-
rentine Mary der Captain thompson
| was lying In the harbor of Calais when the
| Spaniards who were being evieted from
| Paris decided TO consign their treasures
| valued at e4000.000 to her hold for safety
| The honesty Of the captain and crew
| melted away before the vision OF UNI
| dreamt wealth, and numbering the guard
whom the trusting Spaniards had left in
| charge of the riches, they slipped away
| from Calao in the darkness. This treas
ure was also hidden at Cocos before the
/ Spanish man owar sent in pursuit cap
| tured the captain and his crew, most of
whom were shot. The captain escaped
| this fate confided the position of the
| treasure to Canadian named keating.
/ who, legend states. twice recovered val
/ tables to the amount of R20OO.
| Thus Cocos has acquired the reputa-
| ton of a veritable treasure island, and
| like all the vague islands of that type,
| Il is practically uninhabitable. For IL
| years a German, having obtained con-
cessions from the Costa Rica government
/ which controls Cocos. existed there In 8
| Robinson Crusoe primitiveness. and
sought high and low for clues to the hid
ing place OF the pirates ill-gotten gains
and at intervals exploring parties have
hunted over its extent of 16 square miles
In 1896 Admiral Palliser, of II. NJ. s
| Imperience, landed party of sailors and
marines on the island. but without result
Seven years afterwards the admiral made
a second essay and in 1906 was member
of expedition under Earl Fftzwilliam
which left England in the veronique os-
tensbly to look for potential coal fields
but was next heard of on Cocos.
In a landslide some native laborers
| ,ost their lives, and members of the ex-
pedition-the earl among them-were in
jured At that time sensational reports
obtained currency that the party had met
rivals in quest for the treasure and a
battle had ensued. but these were repu-
dated
The ladies who are said to have dis
\ covered the hiding place of the treasure
are Mrs. Barry Till and Miss Davies, who
are already on their way to Panama
to join the Melmore when she arrive
there. The exact date of the departur,
Of the latest expedition to Cocos slant
has not been fixed, but It will probabl,
be within week or so.