Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1888-08-25 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

PIRACZ AND HIDDEN TREASURE.  A. REMARKABLE STORY.  The Japan Weekly mad contains a report of the abrupt termination of a voyage from the port of Yokohama m search of hidden treasure. The British schooner Nereid had got from Japan as far as Guam, a snail island belonging to the Marianne group, in the Pacific Ocean. Here the captain went on shore. intending to sail for Yap, in the Caroline., bet on returning to where he -had left his vessel he found she had been carried off either by his mate or two Japanese, or by all three. These were the only persons on board, and as no trace of the vessel has been found there is still some mystery about the affair. The voeage which was brought to a premature end by this act of piracy was a curious one. The captain had sailed in search of a treasure which is alleged Co have been lost under the following circumstances :—ln 1823, during a revolution in Peru. a number of wealthy residents of Lima esirnbined to charter is brig of 300 tons, on which they placed their property in money and jewellery, a large quautity of monastic plate being also sent off for safety. The intintion was to convey this treasure to Spain. It As said that there were doubloons to the ,ad of two minions sterling, and a vast sum in plate"' Put after the treasure was on board, and when its owners came down to the beach. they found the vessel gone. An Englishman, a lieutenant in the Peruvian navy, hearing of the intended flight, had gone on board with a chosen bend, and had cut out the brig within hail of • Peruvian man-of-war. He steered right across the Pacific And in tom se of time reached the Marianne Islands, where the treasure was buried, and a course was made for Honolulu. Before reaching this port qearrels broke out among the pirates, and the lieutenant, with his two officers and a cabin boy, got into a boat and left the crew, having Set fire to the vessel. One of the officers was murdered and thrown overboard before the boat reached Honolulu, where the party represented themselves as the survivors of a shipping disaster. The lieutenant before leaving Lima had been in love with a lady, the wife of a Peruvian officer, who was slain in the revolution, and before taking any bendier steps with regard to the treasure decided to send for her. The cabin boy was despatched as his emissary to Lima but on his arrival there he was seieed and imprisoned, and the lady refused to have anything further to do with a man whom she styled a detestable pirate. The lienteuant and his sole remaining companion accordingly chartered a small fore and aft schooner, the Swallow, commseded by one Captain Thompson, and proceeded to the Mariannse for his treasure. Thompson tied hard to get a charter ter s specified port or ports, but the lieutenant insisted on s broad charter, including any or all the Marianne.. One evening, when they were in sight of the islands, the lieutenant, who was sitting on the lee-rail chatting with his companion, was, it is conjectured, tipped overboard by the latter end disappeared, the usual alarm being raised, but the lieutenant's body was never recovered. I Thompson, from smeary tic, ups of conversation which he had overheard, suspected i the object of the voyage, overhauled the dead lieutenant's effects, and among them found a chart of the ialand on which the treasure was hidden, but with the name omitted. Soon afterwards he sighted another brig, with the master of which he was %equal uted, and proposed to him to search for the treasure and divide it between them, giving the surviving pirate a share Ca condition that he consented to point out the spot, but with a threat that if he did not do so he would forthwith be handed over to the Spanish authorities. At a concerted moment the pirate I was seized by both captains, and the conditions named. He nodded. They asked him if he would indicate the situation of the treasure. He , nodded. They asked if :this was the island, pointtog to the uOtrest of the groap. He again incidded. Theji invited him to step into a boat Isaiah had beeklowered and guide them to the treasure, lie nodded once more, went below, filled his pockets with lead and iron, and then, going down the ladder, pushed off the boat with one foot from the side of the schooner, and dropped feet first into the sea Until within two years ego there wee alive one of the boat's crew who, snatching at the suicide's hair to save him as he mak. plucked from his head a handful of hair, but could not raise the heavily weighted body. This put an end to the treasure hunting ; the chart went into the possession of the Spanish authorities. Meanwhile the captain of the Nereid, who holds, or believes he holds, the clue of the secret of all this wealth, has lost everything. Whatever may be thought of this extraordinary story, what is beyond any question is that an English shipmaster in YokoLarna, at the commencement of the present year set out in a schooner, built under his own supervision, and belonging to himself, to search for the treasure supposed to be hidden more than GO years ago among the coral islands of the North Pacific, and that his crew ran sway with le.s vessel and have not since been heard of. Possibly they, too, having some suspicion of the object of the voyage, determined to recover the treasure on their own account. The story, which is here summarised, was taken down from the month of the captain himself.  AN