Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-28
HUNT TREASURE
IN SOUTH SEAS;
FIND SKELETONS
100000 Search for Fortune of
S9O,OOO,OOO a Costly
Failure.
ONE GOT HALF MILLION

NEW BEDFORD, Mass, June 2s.-
"Pansy" Barros, who has sailed the
seas many years, and for several years
Transportation Company, arrived here
with a story of treasure hunting in the
South Seas for buried pirate gold.
The expedition was a 100000 failure.
Not coin of the supposed fortune of
1000, 900 was recovered. All the search
ers unearthed after three weeks Of dig
ging were the skeletons of fifteen or
twenty cannibal natives.
On the tale of an ancient down east
mariner, a Captain Brown of Augusta,
Me-, the expedition was fitted out. The
old sailor, it appeared, had been cabin
boy sailing the South Pacific years and
years ago. One of his cruises was under
sailor who really knew where the
| treasure was hidden on the island Of
| Cocos. One day Brown said his captain
visited COcos and removed most of the
gold to Tubai. Maybe the lure OF gold
got in his blood. At any rate the skipper
turned pirate himself and captured three
vessels, adding heir treasure to the cache.
HALF MILLION
is DEPOSITED.
The old salt said his captain had taken
100000 of the treasure to Australia and
deposited it in a bank there Captain
Browns story was investigated 1t was
| ascertained that 100000 had been de
posted by that captain in an Australian
( bank.
TheFeupon the Brown exploration
| company was organized Capt. James
| T. Houghton of New York, Capt Ar
thur L. Crowley Of Boston, James
Mnnn n ~
| Edward Kendall of Babylon, Long
| Island, were among the promoters
Capt. Crowley of the Coastwise Trans
portation Company obtained an aux
Hilary schooner yacht, a likely craft
Of III tons burden which was for
/ merly owned by ". K. Vanderbilt. she
was named the Genesee
The raising of the funds was ac-
complished under a veil of mystery.
The South Pacific iFlm Company
was organized Its apparent purpose
was the filming Of the South Sea ma
ttves. All the time preparations were
going on, secret investigations Of the
old mariners tale were being made. The
checking up process was carried to Lon
don and there 1t was learned that ships
! had disappeared under the conditions
described by Captain Brown.
Early in December everything was
in readiness. All available data had
been obtained. on Dec II the Genesee
slipped down New York harbor and
headed for the Panama Canal.
There followed an uneventful voyage
across the wastes OF water to the islands
about II degrees south latitude and 1916
west longitude" said Pansy Barros
today. Barros was chief stewart on the
cruise.
There were thirty-slx Of us on the
Genesse The members OF the crew were
Kept in ignorance at first Of the true pur-
pose Of the trip On February y, we
sailed out OF Tahiti for Tubai. We left
our craft In the beautiful harbor and
went ashore there Excitement ran high
as the news OF the search leaked about
among the crew. Captain Crowley and
the other leaders bad their charts and
maps. Of course
ut was inland, where there were grow
ing thousands Of cocoanut trees, that
the charts marked out the mound sup
posed to contain the loot There We
found mound exactly where the treas
ure should have been.
Now begins the sad part. We be-
gan digging and blasting We dug and
blasted until our hands were sore and
our backs ached. We must have dug
down thirty feet over an area longer
than a big room. An engineer in the
party rammed long feelers through the
soft sand for farther distances. Every
one of the thousands OF prods was
futile Nothing had arrested the prod
ding. There was no gold sticking to the
ends when we hauled up the feelers.
"All we unearthed for our pains were
the bones Of cannibals, fifteen or twenty
In all. These proved Of some interest
to the surgeon of the party, Mr.. Hough-
ton. but not much to anybody else.
Throughout the digging operations
the blum of getting moving pictures was
kept up. We got many interesting pic
lures of the natives We snapped do
nestle scenes. Some of the natives could
speak an English that we could under.
stand and wore clothes Some appeared
quite savage and wore only scanty native
costumes.
while we were digging we kept them
from getting too close by telling them Of
the danger of the frequent explosions Of
the funny box on legs. We eventually
dug over the whole Of the interior Of
Tubal"
Barres left the Genesee tied up at
South Brooklyn and came here to take
a packet back to the Cape Verde Islands.