Show MILLONS Of TREASURENEAR CUBA 1J 1 Tons of Gold and Precious Jewels Lie Heaped On the Submerged I < Sub-merged Rocks of the Island I Our new Islands in the West Indies I furnish one opportunity for Yankee speculative genius that has been curiously I ously overlooked On the submerged rocks and reefs and in th dangerous passages around Cuba andPuerto Rico I lie untold wealth millions of dollars In gold coin silver bars and jewels In the past Spains rapacious rule has prevented the recovery of much of this treasure although several men have been made millionairesby the findings of divers In Cuban waters I During the early years of Spains rule I In the new world hundreds of galleons sailed yearly from Mexico and the I shores of South America for Spain l stopping at the ports of Cuba and pass lag out into the Atlantic through the Windward passage Fr more than a century there was a close rivalry between be-tween the buccaneers and the hurricanes hurri-canes to see which could sink the greater number of these treasure 1 fleets In many cases the location of the wrecks is now definitely known I while in many others the records at Madrid and at Havana show the location i loca-tion only approximately Test India I waters outside of the harbors are exceedingly ex-ceedingly clear so that it is oftentimes often-times possible to see to the depth of eighteen or twenty feet making it easy for divers to make the necessary exploration ex-ploration Indeed with some of the recentlyinvented submarine boats I such a boat for instance as Simon Lakes Argonaut which crawls on the bottom of the seait would be a com I paratively easy task to prowl around on the bottom of the sea and discover these old wrecks and loot them of their gold LOST 1000000 EVERY YEAR A little research into the musty r cords c-ords of Madrid shows that during the early part of the seventeenth century over thirty million dollars worth of silver alone was shipped from Spain During the latter part of the seventeenth seven-teenth century one mine the Valen dana of Guanazuato employed 4000 slaves and the company owning it lost 1000000 every year by pirates and accidents ac-cidents at sea without in the least Impairing Im-pairing its credit in European markets mar-kets Most of these enormous losses strew the ocean bottom arouna the West Indian Islands A careful search of old Spanish records would reveal the approximate location of scores of the treasure wrecks so that they could be visited with very little difficulty My researches have been limited to such ancient Spanish records as may be found in America and from these alone ana tneir numoer compares witn tne immense libraries of such works in Madrid Ma-drid as a drop to a stream have unearthed II un-earthed the stories of more than a score of vessels and fleets the wrecks of which now lie in American waters FLEETS OF TREASURE WRECKS I East of the Isle of Pines are the Gardinillos or famous Jardine rocks where lies a wliole fleet of good ships I was here that the daring buccaneer captain Barthelome Portugues lost the richest prize he eer took in his adventurous ad-venturous career and I lies there today to-day awaiting the lucky submarine aaitng submainE ex plc er The account of the wreck in the old books is most circumstantial Barthelome Portugues had fitted out a small threepounaer vessel at Golpho I Triste oh the Gulf of Campeachy and I with a crew of thirty menhe had captured cap-tured a treasure galleon bound from i Cartagena to Havana I was a lucky I adventure The inventory of the ships goods showed over 100000 worth of I gold and silver bullion with a much more in coin Portugues set his sails I for Tortuga but as they were passing Cape Corrientos three swiftsailing guard vessels from New Spain swept down upon the ship and captured him I and the entire crew and took them in I irons to San Francisco in Campeachy The old account tells how Portugues I escaped that night and after an almost incredible journey through the swamps i secured a canoe from f friend enlisted I i thirty men and actually recovered the I ship that had been taken from him I Then he sailed away again for Tortuga that island of blood and spoil Off the Isle of Pines a hurricane brought down vengeance upon him and carried him irresistibly on the Jardine rocks and the galleon with all its I treasure went down Some o the hardy buccaneers escaped in a small boat to tell the story but the gold and silver I bullion for which they risked so much is still heaped in some hollow of that rockbound bed of the seas This treas ure would pay richly for the recovery FIFTEEN TONS OF SILVER BARS Another account of sunken treasure is told a a musty joke on a musty tome In 1G50 three canoes manned by I fifteen buccaneers each crept around the western end of Cuba and came suddenly I sud-denly upon one of his majestys treasure treas-ure ships bound from Caracas to Havana Ha-vana They swarmed over the side of the great vessel like so many rats and threw every Spaniard overboard The uncouth victors ransacked the vessel I for booty but to their disgust found only a small quantity of wine in the officers quarters and in the hold a lot of greyish metal which some wiseacre wise-acre on board decided to be tin ore and not wishing their newly accmired ves sel to be laden with such trash the leader ordered it to be thrown overboard over-board and there it lies to this day not far from the Colorado banks not less than fifteen tons of fine silver bars Sir William Phipps a baronet of New England who was once governor of Massachusetts enriched his ancestral house and left his descendants among the wealthiest in New England by sharing shar-ing the secret of a smuggler who saw a platefleet go down m a storm about half way between the nearest points of Cuba and Hayti Phipps fortune ha been famous ever since And yet Jt is said that he found only one of the sunken ships of the fleet containing not less than thirtytwo tens of silver with I jewels enough to make 2000000 The I remainder of the vessels still lie off the I eastern point of Cuba and they are estimated timated to contain many millions of I dollars LOCATION OF THREE MILLIONS I Another treasure wreck is the center of a most romantic and thrilling story I of crime In the year 1717 Charles Vane a notorious pirate of the West Indies captured about 80000 in pieces I of eight that were being taken by divers from one of five plateships that j S 4J 0 had gone down In a storm just east of Key West The silver bars as they were brought the surface by divers j were stored In a little fort on the mainland main-land to await the Guardacosta which was carrying the treasure in install mentsno Havana Vane learned of this and made a sudden descent upon the fort captured the treasure rowed out to the vessel where the divers were at work captured the ship and sailed away leaving the destitute crew and t divers marooned on the barren key The plalefieet of five galleons on which these divers were working was carry lag 1000000 in bullion when it was wrecked and less than onefourth was recovered and captured by Vane The 1 oldrecords estimate that 3GOOOuo still I remains in the sea at this uolnt I TREASURE IN FLORIDA GULF Another circumstantial but incomplete incom-plete report tells of the wreck of several sev-eral treasure galleons In the Gulf of Florida in 1676 Of this treasure uoo CGO in pieces of eight were recovered and carried to Havana Fifty thousand more after belne stored on the hure were captured by the famous Captain Cap-tain Jennings who had hastily CQUID ped three slooos in Jamaica Afcer this assault the Spaniards abandoned all further Tjork on the sunken galleons gal-leons and lost all knowledge of their exact locality There is no quettun that a little exploration here vli reveal re-veal this sunken fleet which still Crl tains according to the old records several sev-eral million dollars in sold and fMM Somewhere a Sewmiles southwest uf TREASURE t GALLEONS y SUNK I67 iFIvE SPANISH 4fe GALLEONS fe SUNK 1717 m y sfOOOOOQ 50 TONS SILYEN THROWN wtSSS rMtm t 7 en SPANISH TRtASU E GnLLLOU SUNK < 5 a < a ci wlCNS < CAPTftlN JErfNELZ lzTcft 5ILYEJ ti of CUBA SHOWING L0ToH I50 11iiiiiiiro or urttt TtbUR NiIwiillJ + 3N ADJCaNT WATEj the Isle of Pines there is a nnncely fortune in diamonds and gold avtAit ins the hunter who will travel the bottom bot-tom of the Caribbean sea and car a searchlight carefully over the halls of sunken treasure ships It is the remains re-mains of a Spanish ship in the royal service whose commander DC n Sebastian Se-bastian Jomlnsz touched at SaaUa de Cuba in 1560 on his way to Sna n He was carrying thj > kings fifth from the silver mines of Guanacaboa amounting to nearly twelve tons f good silver bars and unknown but Immense Im-mense quantities of personal treasure shipped by homegolng merchants Upon sailing from Santiago he was caught in a terrific tempest which tore the ship from its anchor and drove it unon the rocks within sight of the observers ob-servers on the bluffs at Santiago No vestige of ship or crew was ever seen again The galleon probably lies not far from the recent naval battleground battle-ground between the Spanish and American Amer-ican fleets and it offers a princely lure for the bold submariner who will Conduct Con-duct a patient search RICHEST OF THE SHIPS Another and probably the richest of all treasure ships lose in the Wes Indies In-dies was wrecked in 1679 A n table company cf officials ecclesiastics and citizens of New Spain were on b ard bound for Spain at the invitation of the king They carried the most c > st y personal possessions The record tells of diamond crosses of enormous value and presents that were to win the favor fa-vor of the great king of Spain besides many tons of silver bullion which was actually used as ballast But many times richer than all these were the bars of gold which most of the officials were carrying with them bark to Spain in the hopes of living the rest of their days in distinguished onulence One of the ladies Dean Inez Escobedo was taking with her an Indian slave as a present for her brother vhi was governor of one of the Canary isiinds The few negro slaves on board vere servile enough but the Indian n h se name the records do not give was unmanageable un-manageable and grew more obst rate at every pcnishment One morning when the ship v is a few leagues southeast of the IsT of Pines the captain was horrified to find that water was pouring into the hoi 3 He was about to descend through the hatchway to discover the cause vh n the warning voice of the Indian d clared that the first man to apT > ear through the opening would be > c > i > t Immediately those who gathered > < at heard the blows of a hajtchet upor the bottom of the vessel The hrr Lc truth then dawned upon them thi the untamable Indian intended to es ane slavery by wrecking the ship vli al on board They threw down a negro slave believing that his body would receive re-ceive the fire of the Indian but ee thing above the hatches was pan v visible from the darkness below and the negro lay where he fell stup fli 1 with fear while the blows of tse hatchet rained faster than rer arl the roar of the water constantly increased in-creased in volume At last an oUi f fleer Jose Nunez sprang sud > n y through the opening into the IvJ waistdeep in water and ehargvi up 11 the Indian sword in hand Ho v s followed by half a dozen others Th y splashed around and finally found v Indian under a beam beneath the water where he had crawled art drowned himself The most frantic efforts ef-forts were made to stop the look Kit the ship sank and it was with dPl culty that even one boatload cf the passengers was able to escape Numerous attempts were made by the Spaniards to recover the treasure fr na this ship but divers could never find it These are only a few of many srnre of similar wrecks the records of whlh can be found in the old Spanish r ports and histories They will indicate In some measure the enormous rixh nasa of these hitherto undet cnbt > i resources re-sources of our new possessions C M STEVANS |