Evening star., 1934-05-20
BY WILBUR FORREST.

BY WILBUR FORREST.
" HAT human urge to high ad-
venture, the eternal search for
| lost and buried treasure, is
i again attracting attention with
the report from Papette, Ia
hiti, that an enormous cache OF 70
tons of wedge shaped golden ingots
tracing back to Incan affluence in Peru
has been located on a lonely South
Sea island.
! This huge fortune in pure gold is
said to be valued at S45, 100000, and
the French government is ready to
lay claim to its legal share OF half OF
! it if recovered from the sands of an
atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago,
about midway betwe. IN Australia and
| South America. A clew to the treasure
| is said to have been given by an
ancient pirates map.
Other Expeditions.
| At the same time, thirst for adven-
, ture is being whetted in London, where
an appeal is made to British investors
to put upward of s230,OO0 into Treas
/ ure Recovery, Ltd" corporation
! forming to make another effort to
locate the buried pirate treasures OF
Cocos Island, in the Pacific, off
| Panama.
| Still another expedition is under
way to salvage with modern scientific
| apparatus the millions in Spanish gold
coin and other wealth in gold and
- >lota eo;l 70 lia IN tun hIIlRc
buried deep beneath Venezuelan
! waters for more than $50 years.
! Nothing can compare with the ad-
venturous romance which will ever be
woven into such tales as Treasure
/ Island" and others of lesser note in
! fiction Yet pirate lore and tales OF
| buried treasure, the romancing por-
! trayed in distinctive American litera-
ture which for many generations has
thrown small boys and their fathers
| before them into spasmodic dreams OF
| emulation, need not be all fiction.
Home Of Pirates.
| Few may realize it. but our own
nearby West Indies offer more genu-
inc buccaneering history than per-
haps any other single portion OF the
world These islands. SO closely bound
to the voyages and history of Christie
pher Columbus, are only trifle less
| famous for their part in another
though less known history, the basis
of which has inspired virtually all our
piracy stories of fiction with the yell
| lowed paper chart grasped in the hand
of the pirate skeleton remaining 10
guard the secret Of the buried chest.
The very birth nest" Of Western
Hemisphere piracy is to be found IN
the Caribbean today. On the small
island of Tortuga actual buried pirate
treasure not so long ago cropped out
in reality. This island is a few miles
off the northern coast Of Haiti ana
vas named "Tortuga" by Columbus
because it so much resembled the
shape of the great sea tortoises which
are plentiful in the tropic vicinity.
Tortuga is not inhabited except for
a small group of blacks. who somehow
exc out existence and seldom leave the
island. Native fishermen from the
main coast sometimes visit its shores.
One of these from the tiny port of St,
Louis sailed his dory across the choppy
channel one day and anchored at the
mouth of a small stream which tum-
bled down from the jungle island hills.
He was seining for small fish bait
when glittering objects in the shallow
water attracted his attention. He
gathered all he could find, and they
proved to be silver pieces OF eight -
Here was actual booty from the Span
ish Main, spoils cached in the coves
and hills of Tortuga by the buccaneers
, of the seventeenth century.
Made Comparisons.
MY own quest on Tortuga was not so
much in search of pirate treasure as to
compare the jungle-matted little is
| land of the present with the buccaneer
rendezvous and stronghold of some
three centuries before. Pirate history
relates circumstantially and convinc-
| ingly that here piracy started and
grew until it terrorized the coast lines
and waters from the Atlantic and Gulf
to Cape Horn, and even into the Pac1-
fic. The boldest and worst of French.
Dutch and English buccaneers out
fitted their ships on Tortuga and re-
turned thence after their raids to
divide the plunder and outfit again for
! further expeditions.
1 left the small seaport of Port de
Paix early one morning in a native
! lugger. A black sergeant had been as
signed to act as guide. came to ex-
plore, and explore I did. If the urge
ever comes to write romance around
pirates the scene will be Tortuga.
The history of the place far over
shadows the modern scene. A lone
white rambler constantly finds objects
which recall such implements as picks
and Shovels, such documents as age
yellowed charts, all connecting with
golden hoard somewhere beneath the
earth contained in rusted ironbound
chest. There is, unmistakably, the big
tree, now towering high above a
| jungle-growing mass of hundred dif-
ferent species of tropic flora. To look
sharply and inquisitively along the
four points of the compass from this
tree is invariably to find the big rock
with what seem time-W0rn crosses and
private hieroglyphics on its surface.
One may be hyperbolic without cen
sure. All that appears necessary Is
the dying buccaneers chart and. OF
course. the digging implements. prefer
ably employed at night in the dim
light of Pickering lanterns.
Originated on Island.
The term "buccaneer" originated on
| the island of Tortuga. 1t is derived
from the French word describing men
| who cured meat by the "boucan"
process, a system of smoking the flesh
OH green sticks.
AS early as 1880 the island Of His
PAMELA, which is today Haiti, began to
find French, British and Dutch settlers