Show in all the 01 d nothing stirs the blood or excites the imagination so much as a search for hidden treasure in fiction or in fact nothing Is so en thrill ng as are the treas lire tales of robert louis stevenson tales just as thrilling are being en acted in truth in different parts of the globe to day at present several interesting treas lire hunts are under way in the lit tie bay of tobermory Tober mory on the west coast of scotland a syndicate Is en deavo ring to reach the strong box of a suni en ship of the spanish armada which plunged beneath those waters with wealth estimated at 15 efforts are being made to raise a british warship which was s ink in balaklava bay during the crimean war those at the head of this en ter prise expect to reap a golden har vest of 3 in prosy england the marshes of the wash are being explored for the royal jewels and treasure of king john h ch were lost by him during hia flight in 1216 for some months an army of la borers has been digging for treasure on the island of mauritius once the resort of daring successful pi rates of the indian ocean within ahe last 70 bears no fewer than IS gold seeking exi editions have ex elored cocos island ia the and n amero is deadly clashes h ve re s cited in the search for the millions thought to be b r ed there A search for treas ire is going on there now ii to almost every clime and to thrilling adventures the golden ignis fat us of hid len treasure is luring mei soldie s of fortune never woe more romanti or dramatic stories than those of the present se areles tor buried gold seek armada treasure ship at present a golden thread of ro mantle interest is being spun like a shimmering slider web over tober bay one of the lovel est inlets on the west coast of scotland this ba offers shelter to mariners and fishermen off the northwest corner of the isle of M ill at that point a ned search Is on for treas re which it la be lieveld has lain qu egiy under the wa ter for more than three centuries A halo of romance and tradition surrounds the gold which Is supposed to have gone do with the admiral of t lorence or florentia the treasure ship of the spanish armada in 1588 legena has it that in september of that a large spanish galleon tre florentia in trying to avoid the storms and save the treasure on board 1 antil suitable veather made possible her escape so ethward took ret ige in the safe land locked bay of tober mory according to reports the florentia had on board 15 in english acne the and men who were starving demanded food from the mcleans of mull in return tor supplies after due ne got lation the admiral agreed to land men to assist the mclean clan of scotland which at that time was at swords points with the mcdonalds ho was also to pay the mcleans a large sum of money as well if they would assist him to repair his ship this promise of money is taken to show the presence of a considerable quantity of specie on board and as the vessel was a flagship it Is able that she carried the treasure of the entire armada the men were landed and as elated in defeating the mcdonalds they afterward allowed to return to the ship but the held three as hostages until the debt be paid kept chieftain a prisoner they also sent one of their bains donald glas mclean on board the vessel to collect the price agreed upon but the spanish admiral dis armed him and kept him a prisoner during the night so the story goes mclean discovered the position of the powder magazine the next morning as the slip was getting under way the chieftain was brought on to take a last look at his native land breaking away from his captors he rushed below and blew up the ship perishing with most of the crew since then a number of endeavors have been made to recover the treas ure in 1641 and again in 1655 the dukes of argyle attempted salvage op orations erat ions but without success ID 1730 ft diving hell was employed at that time a fine bronze cannon was recovered with many gold and coins since then other guns and relics have been brought to the surface but the supposed to contain the treasure has never been reached among the articles already ered are sword blades and scabbards pistols large and small a peculiar tapering necked bottle of crude work manship and bones ot drowned span lards the sword blades and scab bards were heavily incrusted with lime and the bottle covered with one of the early divers found that the deck of the vessel from the zen mast forward was blown away and that cannon and other contents of the ship were scattered about for a distance of 20 ards the poop from the mainmast aft however was intact here it is believed the treas ure room is located since then the vessel has settled considerably and a formation of sand and mud now covers it to get through this a wrecking crew la work ing under direction of capt william burns who has had considerable ex per lence in salvage work sand pumps are being used and the divers work by the aid ol 01 a 2000 candle power electric light they have brought up candlesticks flagons copper pans coins a gold ring and a number of metal and stone cannon balls it Is believed that the wrecking crew has located the position of the and will in a short time be able to penetrate to the treasure half of all recovered it is understood Is to go to the duke of argyle who owns the surrounding land and the remainder to the scotch company that s prosecuting the search on island of mauritius for some months an army of labor ers has been digging on the island of mauritius in the indian ocean search ing for a treasure valued at or more supposed to have been burled at the time of the british con quest or some time before by the french officials this expedition is being directed by a company formed for the purpose of unearthing the treasure part of the wealth Is said to have been secreted in the of the black mountain by french officials and it is in that locality that the present feverish search is being prose buted england Is excited just now over an attempt to recover the royal jewels and treasure lost by king john in the wash when he fled across the marshes in 1216 in preparation tor the search st john hope assistant secretary of the society ot antiquarians has made a study of the tides and land from the time king john lost his bag gage and his wealth until the present the wash has changed in its course since 1216 and mr hope calculates that the treasure wagons will be lo 10 bated at sutton bridge where there is 23 feet of silt another search for wealth long hid den beneath the waters Is being con ducted at sebastopol in the crimea armed with government authority salvage experts have undertaken to raise from the bottom of balaklava bay a large british man of war sunk by russian gunfire directed against the british french and turkish op ponente of the czar it is stated ha members of the rus sian admiralty possess trustworthy information to the effect that the sunken man of war contains a larg sum of money originally destined for the payment of the british forces the present attempt is progressing under the supervision of a well known specialist in salvage sig an italian knows of pirate s hoard A few freeks ago a boston woman ho signed the name sadie J ma son at the bottom of a newspaper ad vert lement tor backers for her en ter prise alerted aser ted that she had learned the hiding place of millions of treas ure which was captured by the it throat chew of a ship that flew th jolly roger for a number of sue years and was finally burned three quarters of a century ago on an island in the st lawrence gulf miss mason asserted that in the spot of which she had learned there were millio pg in gold silver and jew els waiting only to be away at last accounts th s vast treasure trove had not been unearthed familiar to every newspaper read of recent years is the story ot the famous cocos island treasure during the last 70 years no fewer than 18 expedit ons have set out to recover this p ie of gold and jewels indeed more than once parties have engaged in deadly conflict search Is in reas there at the present time cocos island is a patch of land 18 square m les in extent rising from the pacific ocean off the coast of costa rica to w ich antry it belongs two treas re plants are supposed to be located there one of 60 and the other of 15 the fl st is ballel the bonita treas re after tl e notorious pirate of that name for many years bonita flew the black flag and cross bones in the caribbean sea and accumulated great stores of pi ader driven from those waters finally he cross sed the isthmus of panama and began operations on the pacific wealth buried by bonita in 1821 after fter the surrender of dodaja to the liberator iturvide hide vast stores of government wealth were re moved from the city of mexico bonita it is stated managed to cap tuie the treasure and hurried with his spoil to cocos island where ha buried it the other plant called the mary dier treasure was committed to the keeping of cocos island by the crew of the ship of that name which happened to be in the harbor of cal lao peru during a war upheaval all the treasures and plate of the cathedral and of the churches of lima and the surrounding country were hurried to the scotch ship mary dier in addition many wealthy citizens placed their choicest possessions on the vessel in all it is stated that the ship s unexpected cargo amount ed in value to over 15 th s proved too much tradition states for the officers and crew the guardians of the wealth were over po vered and the treasure was land ed and buried on cocos island until such time as it could be recovered ani ased some time later the vessel and most of the crew were lost the captain named thompson made his way to canada and died there he corn m his secret to one keating who made several trips to the island an 1 succeeded in recovering about 3 in golden doubloons S nee then numerous exploring ex 1 flit ons have visited the island only last year two of these came into conflict and a savage fight ensued hare have been other fights over the treasure many parties hunt treasure at present the island is guarded by capt matthews its governor and part aner he is directing the search harold gray of ireland claims the concession to hunt the treasure but the claim is combated by others an armed expedition under lord fitz williams of england bad a brush with the gray forces last year ind the costa rican government was corn belled to send a gunboat to restore order As far as 1 the cocoa island treasure remains undiscovered most treasure hunts a being con ducted by companies which provide capital as a speculation now and then however the story comes to abt of some gold dazzled individual who s aks all his possessions in chas ing the golden will the wisp one such man william S meade died recently penniless and alone in new aorl early m life he made a fortune through an invention b spent it all chas ng the ignis faiuu ot hidden treasure meade asserted he had fallen hen to maps and d erections ions that would leaa to buried wealth that would run up into the mill ons he purchased a large and expensive steam yacht manned it pitr a large crew and ma chinery for rais ng bunken galleons gal leOns supposed to be full of spanish gold and soon after the civil war set sail tor the bouth seas D wreck and privation fell to the ot ot the first cruise and meide me ide and his companions were forced to return without a single find more money was sunk in fitting out another exi ed t on but this too was a failure that ended in a shipwreck |