Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-07-09
STORY OF BURIED
TREASURE COMES TO
light ONCE MORE

Expedition Treasure Hunting-Ex-
petition Which Has Been Failure
May Have Visited Wrong Island in
South Seas
The element of mystery plays its
part in the story of buried treasure
| which is heard once more. The
story is a revival of the 500, 900 900
Peruvian buried treasure expedition
to the South Seas, which has been a
failure, and it is of local interest be-
| cause the expedition was organized
from the belief in story told by an
old captain named Brown, who came
from this city, it is said.
The story he told was that when
he was a boy he was engaged as a
cabin boy on ship among the crew
of which was a sailor who really
knew where the Peruvian treasure
was hidden. on the Island of Cocos
in the Pacific.
According TO Brown his captain
went to Cocos, got much of the
treasure and removed it to the Is
land of Tubai. Brown said the cap
tain of his crew turned pirates and
captured three ships loaded with
gold outbound from Australia. That
extra treasure they also buried on
Tubai. Later lie and the captain and
| one other man reached Melbourne
and deposited 5000 900 IN golo IN the
! bank.
SO the men who heard Browns tale
set about investigating his story.
They sent man to London and dis
covered that there We're three gold
loaded ships lost about the time
mentioned. The deposit i'll the Aus
tralian bank was also verified. 1t
was also discovered that a dozen or
more expeditions had been made to
Cocos Island for the Peruvian treas
ure, that failure to find it had es-
tabnShed tie fact that some body
had come beforehand. like US not
the cabin boys captain.
So they went ahead and organ
lied the Brown Exploring Co. They
gave Browns wife half of the stock.
they bought sailing yacht. the
GCnessee, formerly owned by W.
*. \anderbilt fitted it out sold
$500, 900 worth Of stock and set out
They reasoned if Cocos Island had
yielded no gold, Tubai might. This is
a reef ring with circumference of
j. miles, the most northern of the
Society group. Captain Brown said
the treasure was buried under the
camoufiage marai the natives alter
which is really nothing but u tile of
stone. On the marai, the natives Of
| fer up human sacrifices. Brown said
such Il one was on Tubai, with seven
stones upright at its top. Then start
digging at the second stone from the
end. They took along an expert mo-
ton picture operator. They found il
men and one woman on the island.
One of the men was d giant who
could lift the trunk of a palm tree
weighing 1900 pounds. Tubal is
palm covered and its lagoon is five
miles across with several narrow
passages leading into it from the
sea outside.
The width Of the reef varied from
mile to a mile and u half They
found an altar with the seven up
right stones and started digging.
| They threw up sand with their SHOW
els and then after reaching a depth
! Of six feet sent in a twelve-foot drill.
All they struck was sand and all that
came up was water. Dynamite
worked badly in the wet sand. They
blew up or dug up four native affairs,
sure enough affairs, for the ground
Was strown with human bones. In
order to scare the natives away they
were told that taking motion pictures
was dangerous and they were set to
work building a native hut of palm
trees. Despite the ill-luck of the
expedition, they still think there may
be treasure, for the captain claims
that when the false altar was made
the stones used were taken out Of the
ground of the island That means
. they might have visited the wrong
, island for there are no stones in the
ground of Tubai. so the expedition
heads are up in Augusta after more
, information. This digging could go
on for years and be barren of results
for all the Society Island have affairs
on them.