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Show Pirate Jfo&rdonan Island 'MMmm mPfmm in the Pacilcj -MffMSWi I 51 . -m HE good bark I r-Tp-N Hesperus will I lkMaf I Pred her I hlto wings at ISM m&tr. Eagle Harbor, '553 V?- Wash., In a few itpr weeks and sail : ';2L ' away across the 'i. Ium Pacific into the heart of the I most fascinating u romance of all I pirate story. I Capt. Frede- ' rick Hacked, In command of the vessel, clnlms to be the only man In all the world who knows the secret of the burled 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 baa been lost and for which adventurers have ought In vain for many years. He Is equipped with hydraulic mining min-ing machinery and has sufficient provisions pro-visions to remain for a year If necessary nec-essary on the Island, which lies 300 miles off the western coast of Central America. That a score of former expeditions 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. Earthquakes, Earth-quakes, he says, have shaken down landslides upon tho treasure cave and chanced the topography of the Island. He will wash the earth away with 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 Iiouls Stevenson's "Treasure Island" seem true In comparison, so much stranger are the facts of this real romance of burled treasure than the dream-adventures, highly colored as they are, wrought by the Imagination Imagina-tion of the novelist. The marvelous tale has Its beginning In the days when savage buccaneers, flying skull-and-crossbones at their mast beads, harried the Spanish main and plundered plun-dered tall galleons on the high seas. It fairly glitters from beginning to end with a fairy wealth of doubloons, pieces of lght, louls d'ors, moldores, sequins and double guineas. In its crowded episodes, blind folded victims walk 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 shallowed In tropic seas, whereon lies burled a treasure beyond the dreams of Monte Crlsto. 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 tho treasure's secret hiding place. Finally It hands down from the far-off time of romance to prosaic modem days a great golden mystery which, like a siren beckoning through the year from purple southern seas, has lured men to ruin and death. According to well-authenticated ac-rounts. ac-rounts. $23,000,000 In pirate treasure la burled on Cocos Island. Of this sum 112,000.000 In money, bullion and plate Is supposed to have been hidden In 1821 by Henlto Hondo, the last or Ihe great pirates who, even after La-ntte La-ntte had passed away, kept alive upon the ocean the lawless traditions of L'Ollonols, Pierre l-e Orand, Roche Urazlllano. England, Hawkins and Sir Henry Morgan. The remaining f11.000.ono Is said to have been concealed In the same rave In 1838 by "Hugs" Thompson. :ne of Honlto's old pirate crew, who lulled away with the treasure from the harbor of Cailao when the government gov-ernment authorities of Feru entrusted It aboard his vessel to save It from rapture by revolutionists. It consisted if money from the public treasury. Ingots In-gots of gold from Inca mines, plate, bailees, ornaments and golden statues stat-ues belonging to the churches and cathedrals ca-thedrals of Lima. Captain Hackett Is fourth In what may be christened the royal line of Ihe holders of the golden secret of Cocos Island. This secret has been banded down In a sort of lineal de-icent de-icent from Thompson. The former ocean freebooter for years carried about a chart of Cocos Island drawn upon a piece of yellow parchment showing the exact location of the cave In which his own and Honlto's tress ure board Is hidden. He gave this chart to a fisherman of St Job a s. N. F., named Keating, with full di-rectlona di-rectlona how to find the treasure. Thompson died under mysterious circumstances cir-cumstances a little later and the suspicion grew that Keating killed him. However that may be, Keating sailed to Cocos Islnnd In 1841 with Captain Ilogue, a seaman of sufficient means to finance the expedition. They found the treasure, but Hogue never returned. Keatl. g said he was drowned In the surf while attempting to climb Into a boat with bis boots and iockcts stuffed with gold. It Is generally believed that Keating murdered mur-dered him. Keating made a second visit to the Island four years later and again found the treasure. In both trips be Is supposed to have brought away gold and jewels to the value of $160,000. He was prevented from recovering the entire treasure by mutinous crews on both voyages. Keating and Ilogue are the only men, so fur 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. Hut he drew another chart which he gave to the Hacketts with explicit Instructions how to And the cave. Keating died In 1883 and Capt Thomas Hackett, the elder brother, sailed In 1885 on an expedition ex-pedition bound for Cocos, but the voy-sge voy-sge 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 seaman sea-man all his life. He formerly sailed out of St. John's, New foundland, where he was born and grew to manhood. For the last ten years he has made his home In Vancouver. ISrltlsh Columbia, Colum-bia, where he Is engaged In the ft (thing (th-ing trade. He Is a bluff, ruddy, bearded beard-ed old sea dog, hale and rigorous despite 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 expeditions expe-ditions to Cocos Island have failed to find treasures that Captain Hackett has had difficulty In raising funds for his present expedition. He succeeded succeed-ed In getting together $100,000, and 'with this sum he has been able to provision 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 Cocoa 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 busy with final preparations for the expedition. "It was not luck 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 treasure treas-ure was to tear up the earth with streams of water thrown by a hydraulic hy-draulic mining engine. 1 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 during dur-ing the violent earthquakes that shook the western coast of South and Central Cen-tral America. Forest trees have grown upon It. and the appearance of that part of the Islar.d ' vastly changed since the days of Honlto, Thompson and Keating. Hut with my bearings and chart and the Instructions given me by Keating In many long Interviews. Inter-views. I believe I can locate within a radius of 30 feet the spot beneath which the treasnre Is burled. "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 waa because my brother and I befriended him when most everybody else looked askance at him that after advancing years made It pretty certain cer-tain that he never would be able to voyage to Coco again, he decided to divulge his secret to us. My brother and I owned the collier. Lord Dufferln. which was kept busy cruising up and down ihe coasts of Newfoundland and New Hrunswick. On one of our voy ages we took Kesting with us. One stormy night as the old man sat by the table In the cabin over a glass of stiff grog, be first told us bow to find the treasure. He began his Strang story with an account of bis first vUU to Cocos with Captain Hogue. "It was a hot day In June, be aatd. when be and Rogue landed. They struck off through the tropical Jungle. ( with Thompson's j 7 IfJ chnrt to guide them. A'vy. "The cave, Keat-Ing Keat-Ing said, waa 15 feet n flftfijf long by 12 feet If Kf't broad, with a cell- 1 fVS Ing high enough to Skritt,. permit a man to " " 'ifc stand upright It K!jft, was full of bars of ,1! gold and sucks of money. Many of the I sacks bore the stamp of the Bonk of nSfllrc: Lima. There were zffcs many golden cruel-fixes, cruel-fixes, chalices and church ornaments. . A statue of the Madonna Ma-donna of solid gold lay upon the floor. It was so heavy that Keating Keat-ing and Hogue together could not lift It, but could only push It along. The glitter of the plies of gold, Keating said, fairly made him reel and seemed to All the cave with a ghostly radiance that at first struck him with awe. "Ilogue 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 w hat they bad seen that they acted act-ed unnaturally and the crew, may be, had suspicions of the truth, anyway. One word led to another, and Ilogut and Keating told as little aa possible, but It was enough for the crew, who made them promlso to go shares. "Right here Keating and Hogue began be-gan to play their game more shrewdly. shrewd-ly. They served out unlimited grog, as If to celebrate treasure trove. Ing before night tho whole outfit was gloriously glori-ously drunk except Keating and Rogue, 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 Hogue slipped off to shore In a whale-boat whale-boat They beached their boat and again made their way to the cave. They filled their pockets with doubloons doub-loons and pleces-of-elght and louls d ors. Not satisfied with the money, Hogue, stuffed bar gold Into his sea-boota sea-boota so that be could hardly walk for the weight In launching the boat. Keating said Hogue went under and was drowned. "Keating," Captain Hackett went on, "escaped to sea with his plunder, leaving 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 landed land-ed him safely near Punta Arenas. He slowly worked his way back to Newfoundland 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 thla adventure too. I wrote the tale out afterwards In Keatlng's own language as nearly aa I could remember re-member It" The first treasure was burled on Cocos Island by Henlto Uonlto a few months before his death In 1821. Honlto Ho-nlto waa born in 1788. He was a Spaniard of supposed gentle blood. Ills real Identity Is not known Henlto Ho nlto was an assumed name. He began be-gan bis carreer as a lieutenant of a Spanish privateer. At the close of the Napoleonic wars be became mate of a Portuguese trading brig. In 1818 he quarreled with bis captain, murdered mur-dered him and selxed the vessel From that date be followed the life of a pirate. pi-rate. One of bis first prlxes taken In West Indian waters was an English slaver named the Lightning. Having cut her out of Matanxas, where she waa lying at anchor one night, he burned his own brig and. transferring his flag to the Hrltlsh 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 Honlto. On this condition condi-tion Honlto spared them. These two men were Thompson, known In Cocoa Island traditions as "Hugs," and a Frenchman named Chapelle, who also figures later In the story of Cocos Is-Isnd. Is-Isnd. In the long, low, rakish Relamnego, which could show a clean pair of heels to anything sailing the Spanish mala, Honlto had a busy and prospermia career as a pirate. From Rio to the Hahatnaa be became a scourge and collet-ted an Immense amount of booty. When the Spanish government sent warships to bunt him, Honlto slipped around Oape Horn to fresh pastures In he Pacific The wealth of the churches of Spanish America Is still considerable, but In the early days of the list century cen-tury the richness of the piatt and or-aaments or-aaments with which they - adorn-1 adorn-1 waa amazing. Uonlte tacked cities and towns up and down the western coast, pillaging the cathedrals and laying lay-ing tribute upon the citizens. His fame as a cruel and rapacious sea robber rob-ber spread from the Horn to the Spanish Span-ish settlements In California. In hunting hunt-ing for a spot In which to bury his growing treasure, he chanced upon Cocos Co-cos (Bland. Cocos Island Is a volcanic speck In the Pacific ocean and belongs to Costa Rica. It Is 300 niilea 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 Honlto's last, a number of his men became dissatisfied. Having rowed row-ed their treasure to the care they gathered 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. Honlto refused. A pitched battle waa fought with cutlass cut-lass and pistol, and In the hand-to-hand engagement many were killed. Honlto was victorious. With the mutiny mu-tiny suppressed, he sailed for the West Indies. Off Valparaiso, some one suggested sug-gested a carouse ashore. Honlto gave his consent Seventeen men were landed and Honlto agreed to He off and on near a certain headland and wait for tbem. With the 17 were all that were left of the mutineers. Including In-cluding Thompson and Chapelle. Hut Honlto proved treacherous. He sailed away and left the recalcitrants to their fate. The 17 were recognized In Valparaiso Val-paraiso aa pirates and captured. They were convicted and all except Tbomp-son Tbomp-son and Chapelle wer. hanged. Thompson Thomp-son and Chapelle escaped by representing represent-ing that they had been forced Into Honlto's Ho-nlto's service and offered to guide a warship to Honlto's secret haunts among the West Indian Islands. The Hrltlsh government was Just then planning a campaign of extermination exter-mination against Honlto and his buccaneers. buc-caneers. Sent to England for the purpose, pur-pose, Thompson and Chapelle guided a Hrltlsh corvette to one of their old chiefs places of refuge In the Car-rlbean. Car-rlbean. Honlto's ship and crew were captured, but the grim old sea wolf, seeing ahead the loom of the gibbet on Execution dock, blew out bis brains on bis 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 trading trad-ing brig, the Mary Dear, which at the opening of the second cbspter of the romance of Cocos Island was lying In the harbor of Cailao. Peru. A revolution revo-lution was under way In Peru. Lima, the capital founded by Plzarro. was In a state of siege. Just before the beleaguering be-leaguering lines of the revolutionists were drawn about the city, the government gov-ernment authorities removed the money from the treasury, and from the churches the plate and ornamenta dating bark to the golden days of the conquest, and sent them for safe keeping to an old stone fortress at Cailao. Cai-lao. When the revolutionary army learned of the removal of the treasure, treas-ure, which was valued at $11,000,000. It marched on Cailao with the determination deter-mination of capturing the rich hoard. In thia crisis, the commandant of the fortress, seeing an English flag flut. tertng from the peak of the Mary Hear, bethought him that under the folds of ihe union Jack Lima's treasure 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 Peruvian aoldlers wer left on board to guard It The Poruvlnn 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 Henlto Honlto's cut-throat crew. Hut with $11,000,000 battened down In his bold the old lawless law-less spirit of bis buccanneerlng days flamed up anew In Thompson, and he could not resist the temptation to turn robber again. In the night watches be and his men slit tho 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 waa distributed among the crew. The remainder re-mainder Thompson carried In 11 boatloads boat-loads around the headland wihcb separates 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 blm. With their assistance he carried the treasure Into the tropical brush and stowed It In Henlto Honlto's old treasure cave. Then he shot the two men. He spread to the winds every stitch of canvas and beaded the brig westward west-ward In a mad hurry to escape pursuit, pur-suit, but before the tall peaks of Co cos Island had dropped below the horizon ho-rizon a Peruvian gunboat hove In sight and sent a shot acros bis bow. When capture seemed Inevitable, Thompson surrendered. Perhaps his cunning brain foresaw the Immunity that must be granted to the sole possessor 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 Peruviana 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 Islnnd Is-lnnd and Thompson and the mate vjre landed under an armed escort Hut the desperado was a man of resource, and be and the mate contrived to es- v cape and kept In hldjng In the caves and undergrowth. For four days armed arm-ed parties searched for them through the length and breadth of the Island, pouring volleys Into every ploqe of thick scrub or likely biding place. At the end of this time, thinking that perhaps the fugitives had been killed by the broadsides with which the Jungles Jun-gles had been raked, the captain of tho gunboat sailed away. The two marooned men eked out a precarious existence on berries and birds' eggs until a vessel called at Co-nos Co-nos for water. Passing themselves off as shipwrecked sailors, they were given passage to the mainland. The mate died soon afterwards of yellow fever at Punta Arenas. Thompson escaped. es-caped. One story has It that be went to Samoa where he lived under the name of MacComber. According to another an-other tale be made his way to Eng land. Nothing was heard of Thompson again until 1844, when on a voyage from England to Newfoundland be fell In with Keating, who was to become belr to tbe secret of the Coco Ulan 1 tieasure. Soon after Thompson had confided his secret to Keating he died. His death aroused no suspicion at the time, but Ijng afterwards In the light of events Keating waa suspected of having murdered him. Keating took over Thompson's effects. Including his map or Cocos Island. Hy Thompson's death. Keating became the sole possessor pos-sessor In all the world of the secret of the Cocos Island treasure How Keat-Ing Keat-Ing lifted the treasure on two voyages to the Island already has been loM. |