Newspapers / Polk County News and … / Nov. 2, 1911, edition 1 / Page 3
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I . r r HE good bark Hesperus will spread her , white wings .' at Eagle JHarbor, Wash., in a few weeks and sail away across the blue Pacific Into the heart of the most fascinating romance of all pirate story. Capt. Frede rick Hackett, in command of the tessel, claims to be the only man in all the world who knows the secret of the buried treasure of Cocos island. He plans on this expedition to lift the vast wealth plundered by sea rovers in the early part of the last century and hidden on the island in a cave, the exact location of which, has been lost and for which adventurers have sought in vain for many years. is equipped with hydraulic min ing machinery and has sufficient pro visions to remain for a year if nec essary on the Island, which lies 300 miles off the western coast of Central America. That a score of former ex-, peditions have proved failures does not discourage him. The treasure hunters who have gone before have depended upon pick and shovel. He will be the first prepared to use hydraulic mining methods. Earth quakes, he says, have shaken down landslides upon the treasure cave and changed the topography -of the island. He will wash the earth away with 1 streams of water powerful enough to uproot trees and burst rocks asunder, He is confident of success. "When I return to the United States," says Captain Hackett, "I shall have the entire Cocos island treasure battened down, beneath the hatches- of the Hesperus." - ' -'';-.'' The story of Cocos island makes Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" seem true in comparison,-so much stranger are the fact3 of this real romance of buried treasure than the dream-adventures, highly colored as they are, wrought by the imagina tion" of the novelist. The marvelous tale has its beginning In the days when savage buccaneers, flying skull-and-crossbones at their mast-heads, harried the Spanish main and - plun dered tall galleons on the high seas. It fairly glitters from beginning to end with a fairy wealth of doubloons, pieces-of-eight, louis d'ors, moidores, sequins and double guineas. In its crowded episodes, blind-folded victims valk the plank, bronzed and turbaned cutthroats swarm over the bulwarks of captured ships and lay about them with cutlass and dragoon pistol, sea rogues are strung up at yard-arms; towns are sacked and looted, vessels are left to welter to their ruin in flame and smoke. It centers about a lonely Island, palm-shadowed in tropic seas, whereon lies buried a treasure beyond the dreams of Monte Cristo. It rings with the clash of battle on the Island beaches and with the death cries of the men murdered that they might never betray the treasure's secret hiding place. Finally it hands do wrj from the far-off time of romance toe prosaic modern days a great golden mystery 'bich, like a siren beckoning through the years from purple southern seas, has lured men to ruin and death. According to well-authenticated ac counts. $23,000,000 in pirate treasure is buried on Cocos island. Of this sum 5l2,ooo,ooo in money, bullion and Plate is supposed to have been hidden in 1821 by Benito Bonito, the last of the great pirates who, even after La fitte had passed away, kept alive upon the ocean the lawless traditions of L'Ollonois, Pierre Le Grand, Roche Braziliano, England, Hawkins and Sir, Henry Morgan. j ' ". The remaining $11,000,000 is said to have been concealed in the same cave in 1838 by "Bugs" Thompson, one of Bonito's old pirate crew, who sailed away with the treasure from the harbor of Callao when the gov ern ent authorities of Peru entrusted Jt aboard his vessel to save it from capturo by revolutionists. It consisted 01 money from the public treasury, in gots of gold from Inca, mines, plate, chalices, ornaments and golden Stat ues belonging to the churches and .ca bals of Lima. . ( Captain Hackett is fourth in f what ay be christened the royal line of jje holders of the golden secret-of J;ocos island. This secret has been nacderl down in a sort of lineal de Ceit from Thompson. The former aean freebooter .for years carried &out a chart of Cocos Island drawn Pn a piece of yellow . parchment oing thc f xact Iocation of tne caVe nJ i"h h,s own and Honito's treas- heard S hidden.' He gave, this am 'o a fisherman of St John's, N. P., named Keating, with full di rections how to find the -treasure. Thompson died under mysterious cir cumstances a little later and the suspicion grew that Keating killed him. However that may be, Keating sailed to Cocos island in 1844 with Captain Bogue, a seaman of sufficient means to finance the expedition. They found the treasure, but Bogue never returned. Keati; g , said he was drowned in. the surf while, attempting to climb Into a boat .with his boots and pockets stuffed with gold. It is generally believed that Keating mur dered him. Keating made a second visit (to the Isjand four years later and .again found the treasure. In both trips he is supposed to have brought away gold and Jewels to the value of $150,000. He was prevented from recovering the entire treasure by mutinous crews on' both voyages.. . Keating and Bogue are the only men, so far as is known, who ever recovered treasure from Cocos island. Keating passed his secret on to the Hackett brothers, both seamen and his , neighbors in St. John's. Keating had ! lost or destroyed the chart which he had obtained from Thompson- But he drew another chart which he gave to the Hacketts with explicit Instructions how to find the cave. Keating died in 1883 and Capt Thomas Hackett, the elder brother, sailed in 1SS5 on an ex pedition bound for Cocos, but the voy age ended with his death in Havana from yellow fever. Capt. Frederick Hackett, who is about to undertake the latest Cocos island treasure hunt, has himself made two former unsuccessful expeditions. Captain Hackett was formerly, a whaling skipper. He has been a sea man all his life. He formerly sailed out of St. John's, Newfoundland, where he was born and grew to manhood. For the last ten . years he has made his home in Vancouver, British Colum bia, where he is engaged In the fish ing trade. He is a bluff, ruddy, beard ed old sea dog, hale and vigorous de spite his three score years, and full of a boyish enthusiasm over a project that has been his one dream for a quarter of a century. So many expe ditions to Cocos island have failed to find treasures that Captain Hackett has had difficulty in raising iunds for his present expedition. He succeed ed in getting together $100,000, and with this sum he has been able to pro vision his ship properly for a year's voyage and to take along hydraulic mining machinery, In which he-is sure lies the only hope of ever unearthing the . Cocos Island treasure. "I have stood, over millions," said Captain Hackett recently as he sat by the skylight on the quarter-deck of the Hesperus and watched his sailors j busy with final preparations for the expedition. "It was not lack of knowledge that caused me to fall in my two former voyages, but lack of equipment and supplies. I knew after my first expedition that picks and shovels would not do in Cocos, and that the only chance to get the treas ure was to tear up the earth with streams of water thrown by a hy draulic mining engine. I have the latest hydraulic machinery with me now, and I shall set out with perfect faith in the successful outcome of my voyage. "The landslide that now lies on top of the treasure cave probably occurred In the middle of the last century dur ing the violent earthquakes that shook the western coast of South and Cen tral America. Forest trees have grown upon it, and the appearance of that part of the Island U vastly changed since the days of Bonito, Thompson and Keating. But with my bearings and chart and the Instructions given me by Keating in many long inter views, I believe I can locate within a radius of 30 feet the spot beneath which the treasure, is buried. "I knew Keating from youth up," Captain Hackett continued, "He was a rough ignorant man who had been a fisherman 'and a sailor all his life. "It was because my brother and I befriended him when most everybody else looked askance at him that after advancing years made it pretty cer tain that he never would be able to voyage to Cocos again, he decided to divulge his secret to us. My brother and I owned the colMer, Lord Dufferin, which was kept busy cruising up and down the coasts of Newfoundland and New Brunswick. On one of our voy ages we took Keating with us. One stormy night as the old man sat by the table irr the cabin over a glass pf stiff grog, he first told us how to find the treasure. He began his strange story with an account of his first visit to Cocos with Captain Bogue. "It was a hot' day in June, he said. when he and Bogue landed They struck off through the tropical jungle with- Thompson's chartJLo guide them. J.' "The cave, Keating-said, was 15 feet long ' by 12 feet broad, with a ceil ing high enough to permit a man to stand upright. It was full of bars of gold and sacks of money. Many of the sacks bore the stamp of the Bank of Lima. There were many golden cruci fixes, chalices and church ornaments. A statue of the Ma donna of solid eold lay upon the floor. It was so heavy that Keat ing and Bogue together could not lift it, but could only push it along. The glitter of the piles of gold, Keating said, fairly made him reel and seemed to fill the cave with a ghostly radiance that at first struck him with awe. "Bogue, and Keating tied a few coins in a handkerchief and rowed back to their ship. They told the sailors they had found a spring of fresh water, but they were so excited with what they had seen that they act ed unnaturally and the crew, may be. had suspicions of the truth, anyway One word led to another, and Bogue and Keating told as little as possible, but it was enough for the crew, who made them promise to go shares. "Right here Keating and Bogue be gan to play their game more shrewd ly. They - served out unlimited grog. as If to celebrate treasure trove. Long ! before night the whole outfit was glori ously drunk except Keating and Bogue. who took care to remain strictly sober. All Hands turned in early to sleep off their potations and be ready to bring the treasure aboard next morning. As soon as they were asleep, Keating and Bogue slipped off to shore in a whale boat. They beached their boat and again made their way to the cave. They filled their pockets with doub loons and pieces-of-eight and louis d'ors. Not satisfied with" the money, Bogue, stuffed bar gold into his sea boots so that he could hardly walk for the weight. In launching the boat, Keating said Bogue went under and was drowned. "Keating," Captain Hackett went on, "escaped to sea with his plunder, leav ing the ship to its fate, and the men never were seen or heard of afterward. Four days later he was picked up by a Spanish coasting vessel which land ed him safely near Punta Arenas. He slowly worked his way back to New foundland and deposited much money in the St. John's bank. "Keating made a second voyage to Cocos island four years later. He told us of this adventure too. I wrote the tale out afterwards in, Keating's own language as nearly as I could re member it." The first , treasure was buried on Cocos island by Benito Bonito a few months before his death in 1821. Bo nito was born in 1788. He was a Spaniard of supposed gentle blood. His real identity is not known Benito Bo nito was an assumed name. He be gan his carreer as a lieutenant of a Spanish privateer. At the close of the Napoleonic wars he became mate of a Portuguese trading brig. In 1816 he quarreled with his captain, mur dered him and seized the vessel. From that date he followed the life of a pi rate. One of his first prizes taken in West Indian waters was an I English slaver named the Lightning: Having cut her out of Matanzas, where she was lying at anchor one night, he burned his'own brig and, transferring his flag to the British vessel, renamed her the Relampago, which is Spanish for chain-lightning. Most of the crew of the slaver were made to walk the plank. Two pleaded for their lives and offered to join Bonito. On this condi tion Bonito spared them. These two men were Thompson, known in Cocos island traditions as "Bugs," and a Frenchman named Chapelle, who also figures later in the story of Cocos is land, r ,. In. the long, low, rakish Relampago, which could show a clean pair of heels to anything sailing the Spanish main, Bonito had a busy and prosperous career as a pirate. From Rio to . the Bahamas he became a scourge and col lected an immense amount of booty. When the Spanish government sent warships to hunt him,. Bonito slipped around Cape Horn: to fresh pastures in the Pacific. .. N - The wealth of he . churches of Spanish America is still considerable, but in the early days of theN last cen tury the richness . of the plate and or naments' with which piey were adorn ed was amazing. Bonito sacked cities and towns up and down the western coast, pillaging the cathedrals and lay ing .tribute upon the citizens. His fame as a cruel and rapacious sea rob ber spread from the Horn to the Span ish settlements in California. In hunt-., ing for a spot in which to bury his growing treasure, he chanced upon Co cos island. Cocos island is a volcanic speck in the Pacific ocean and belongs to Costa Rica. It is 300 miles off the Costa Rica coast, 500 miles from Panama, and 5 degrees north of the equator. On the trip to Cocos island destined to be Bonito's last, a number of his men became dissatisfied. Having row ed their treasure to the cave they gath ered on the beach In sullen temper, and soon came to open mutiny. They were tired of piracy. They demanded that the entire treasure be divided among them and that they be set upon the mainland and permitted to shift for themselves. Bonito refused. A pitched battle was fought with cut lass and pistol, and in the hand-to-hand engagement many were killed. Bonito was victorious. With the mu tiny suppressed, he sailed for the West Indies. Off Valparaiso, some one sug gested a carouse ashore. Bonito gave his consent. Seventeen men were landed and Bonito agreed to lie off and on near a certain headland and wait for them. With the 17 were all that were left of the mutineers, in cluding Thompson and Chapelle. But Bonito proved treacherous. He sailed away and left the recalcitrants to their fate. The 17 were recognized in , Val paraiso as pirates and capturaL They were convicted and all except Thomp son and Chapelle wer hanged. Thomp son and Chapelle escaped by represent ing that they had been forced into Bo ni j's service and offered to uuide a warship to Bonito's secret haunts among the West Indian islands. The British government was just then planning a campaign of exter mination against Bonito and his buc caneers. Sent to England for the pur pose, Thompson and Chapelle guided a British corvette to one of their old chief's places of refuge in the Car ribean. Bonito's ship and crew were captured, but the grim old sea wolf, seeing ahead the loom of the gibbet on Execution dock, blew out his brains on his own quarter-deck. Of the subsequent fate of Chapelle little is known. Thompson drops out of sight until 1838 when he reappears as Captain Thompson, master of an English trad ing brig, the Mary Dear, which at the opening of the second chapter of the romance of Cocos island was lying in the harbor of Callao, Peru. A revo lution was under way in Peru. Lima, the capital founded by Pizarro, was in a state of siege. Just before the be leaguering lines. of the revolutionists were drawn about the city, the gov ernment authorities removed the money from the treasury, and from the churches the plate" and ornaments dating back to the golden days of the conquest, and sent them for safe keeping to an old stone fortress at Cal lao. When the revolutionary army learned of the -removal of the treas ure, which was valued at $11,000,000, it, marched on Callao with the deter mination" of capturing the rich hoardj Invthis crisis, the commandant of the fortress, . seeing an English , flag' flut tering from the peak of. the Mary Iear, bethought him that under the folds of the union Jack Lima's treas ure would be safe. Captain Thompson gave his , consent to the proposition. The treasure was soon stowed snugly under the Mary Dear's hatches, .and four r Peruvian soldiers were left on board to guard it.""" 4 The Peruvian authorities, of course, did not dream that Captain Thompson, who so bravely flaunted the English flag, had sailed in earlier days under the Jolly Roger with Benito Bonito's cut-throat crew. But with $11,000,000 battened down In his hold the old law less spirit of his buccanneeringdays flamed up anew in Thompson, and he could not resist the temptation to turn robber again. In the night watches he and his men slit the throats of the guardians of the treasure, slipped" their cables and put to sea. The Mary Dear bore up for Cocos Island and dropped anchor in Wafer bay. ! Some portion of the spoil was distributed among the crew. The re mainder 'Thompson carried in 11 boat loads around the headland wlhch sep arates Wafer bay from Chatham bay and there landed it upon the. beach. He sent the boats back to the brig, keeping two men with him. With their assistance he carried the treasure into the tropical brush and stowed it in Benito Bonito's old treasure cave. Then he shot the two men. He'spread to the winds every stitch of canvas and headed the brig west ward in a mad hurry to escape pur suit, but before the tall peaks of Co cos island had dropped below the ho rizon a Peruvian gunboat hove In sight and sent a shot acros his bow. When , capture seemed inevitable, Thompson surrendered. Perhaps his cunning brain foresaw the immunity that must be granted to the sole pos sessor of the key to the hiding place of millions of dollars. At any rate he and the mate of the Mary -Dear were spared that they might guide the Peruvians back to the Cocos island treasure. The other ten men of the Mary' Dear's crew were strung up at the yard-arm.. The warship' proceeded to Cocos -Island and Thompson and the mate ware landed under an armed esbort. But the desperado was a man of resource, and he and the mate contrived to es cape and kept in hiding in the caves and undergrowth. For four days arm ed parties searched for them through the length and breadth of the island, pouring ' volleys into every piece of thick scrub or likely hiding place. At the end of this time, thinking that perhaps the fugitives had been killed by the broadsides with which the jun gles had been raked, the captain of the gunboat sailed away. The two marooned men eked out a precarious existence on berries and birds' eggs until a vessel called at Co cos for water. Passing themselves off as shipwrecked safrors,' they were given passage to the mainland. The mate died soon afterwards of yellow fever at Punta Arenas. Thompson es caped. , One story has It that he went to Samoa where he lived under the name of MacComber. According, to an other tale he made his way to Eng land. . ' - ' - Nothing was heard of Thompson again until 1844, when on a voyage from England to Newfoundland he fell in with Keatihg, who was to become heir to the secret of the Cocos island treasure. ' ',. Soon after Thompson had confided his secret, to Keating he dlfed, ' His death aroused no suspicion at ; the time, but long afterwards in the light of events Keating' was suspected of having murdered him. Keating took over Thompson's effects, including his map of Cocos island. -By Thompson's death, Keating became the : sole pos sessor in all the world of the secret of the Cocos island treasure. ; How Keat ing lifted the treasure on two voyages to the ,,-nd already . has been told.' C PRING FAG. StfetchyflDroviy, stupid, tired, head-achy; "not sick, but dont A feel good. - , . fc Just a few signs that :ybu need that tnbst ef-'.i" fective tonic, Kver-stirr-ing Spring Remedy - a bottle proves. ..; i ; i? , ?' f t. - r The Specific (or Malaria. OuTIs and " -Fever, and a reliable remedy foe all diseases due to a tpiW, liver and sluggish towel . - ' and luaneys. 56c. At Your Druggist ' TBI sxhbss-s xtsxre co".f, ' ;V Waco, Texaa; WANTED TO KNOW. Lire Insurance ' Solicitor If yon live 20 years you get the $10,000 -but If you don't, then your widow will get It. - ' Mr. Kuttlng Hintz How will I know' that she got It? ': ' ' Literary Criticism. They were idiscusslng a "certain 'a4 thoress at dinner, " and a well-known' critic raised a latfgh by remarking: ' "Well, her hair's red, even'if ;hef books are not." ' The mild young man In ' the corner made a mental note fo the Sally f Or f if ture use, and at another party shortly J afterward he carefully gufded the coo versation into literary channels, Tit Bits informs its t eadersT Fdrtunately. , some one mentioned the dfes'fred'name,; and he triumphantly Cried oiit: ''Welt' 1 she's got red hair, even If her books haven't!" More English Humor. 5 it? ' :I; The first night Walter Kelly, knows v to vaudeville as the i4.irgihia Judge, walked up the Strand he. complained to his English, companion that "the fa mous street in London was dark, at nine o'clock. "Why,", said he,' ' "at this hour "Broadway is as' bright as day. There Is .one siga alone, j'Thj Chariot Race,' in wtich there are 60, 000 electric lights." "But Iaypld top," said his ... . English' ' f riend, "wouldn't that be rather conspicu ous?" THE TEA PENALTY. A Strong Man's Experience. Writing from a busy railroad town che wife of an employe of one of th great roads says: - , "My husband is a railroad man who has been so much benefited by the use of Postum that he wishes ' me to ex press his thanks to you for the good It has done him. His waking -hour are taken up with his work, and hm has no time to write himself. "He has been a great, tea drinker, all his life and has always liked it strong. ' . ;:, : ;--"::v "Tea has, of lato years, acted . on-r him like morphine does upon most x people- At first It soothed him, but . only for an hour or so, then It began . to affect his nerves to such an extent that he could not sleep at night, and he would go to his work In the morn- ' ing wretched and miserable from -jthV loss of rest. This condition grew, con- ' Btantly worse, until his friends per-. suaded him, some four months ago, to" quit tea and use - Postum. ' ; r , "At first he used .Postum only for breakfast, but as he liked the taste ctj" it, and it somehow; seemed to do him j good, he added it to his evening meal. ' Then, as he grew better, he began to drink it for his noon. meaL and noif . he will drink nothing-else at table. - "His condition is so wonderfully lm- proved that he could not be hired' to' ; give up Postum and go back to tea. His nerves have become steady . and reliable once more," and his sleep is v easy, natural and refreshing. : He owes all this to Postum, for n , has taken no medicine and made no other change in his diet. V "His brother, who was very nervouji from coffee-drinking, was persuaded by ,us to give up V the coffee and usa Postum and he also has recovered his -health and strength.'-; Name given by Postum Co. Battle Creek, Mich. ' , Read the little book, VThe. Road to 'Wellville " in pkgs. "There's a reasbn.7 r Effr rend tntf abflv. letter? . A n one npnrnrn from tint t time, TaT.- ro crnnlnc (rue. and full of hui luterewt. A l:
Polk County News and The Tryon Bee (Tryon, N.C.)
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Nov. 2, 1911, edition 1
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