The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 27, 1901, Page 1

i /{l i Yl EGAPTAIN PDONPEDRO BENITO R €7 7 OULD you like to have a try \/\/ at the finding of the great ure troveP to dip your finger ting of 300,000 ver, and a gold crown in- to have a try finger in this vho cares about a Ceosta Ricaa of Costa Rican t August Giss- s Island, repub- nds to welcoms of 810,000 asure. It ital v had secured plans nd from the w Scotia mariner who had founl Nova the treasure once, but had been force.! leave it behind. When the Governor of the island this scheme he wrote excitedly to the Consul General of Costa Rica Lic holds forth in San Francisco. H: Consul to take steps to read o nted the ow me to inform you,” wrot: no company with any such intent would have the right even to on Cocos Island, as I hold a con- from the Costa Rican Govern- regard to the said treasurs, in which concession the Costa Liicar rnment has an interest. Certainly anything that might be un- dertaken by such a company from Vict would amount to mnaught without my consent.” Evidently the Governor of Cocoz was very much annoyed. He may have tecn somewhat ruffied. His jus- tifcation lay in its all being about raali matter. For when you read his story of the re trove you will realize that it is a very neat little fortune that he 108 stowed away down there in his back yura. Zy Governor August Gissler. N 1820 Captain Don Pedro Benito, com- brig Relampago, found Caribbean Sea too manding the e waters of the warm to continue his piracies, =0 he took on board of his vessel a lot of Id and silver; the rest he left buried on an island in the West Indies, safled through the Str s of Magellan, and then landed and cached a lot of provisions in case he should need them, After this he salled up the west coast of South America, and when he came abreast of the island of Juan Fernandez, some of his crew mutl- led and wanted the vessel to call into Valparaiso. The captain compromised with the crew by salling to Valparaiso and putting the mutineers into a boat with permission to go on shore, promising to lay off the har- bor for three days. As soon as the boat was out of sight the captain put on all the sail he could and sailed northward, Oftf the northern part of Peru he fell in with a Spanish Government galleon bound for Spain, loaded with a particularly rich Jot of treasure, which the Spanish Gov- ernment wished to ship to Spain on ac- count of the rs..lution AGAINST dym_.Su dominion, which was then beginning. They sailed alongside of the galleon, boarded her and overcame the crew. They transferred the treasure from the galleon to their own vessel, and then sunk the Spaniard. Having this immense treasure on board, estimated at many millions, the captain did not know of a sultable place where it might be landed. After many proposals were made and rejected, the captain came to the conclu- sion that Cocos Island, being 300 miles off the coast of Central Amerfca and out of the beaten track of vessels, would be the most suitable place to go to, his men came to the fsland, found plenty of fresh water and most luxuriant tropi- cal ynditions, wonderful fors R d many natural resources—in fact, a veri- table paradise. They made up their minds to establish their future headquarters there and go on cruising from the is which by the way contains a magnificent sheltered harbor. After they burled on the island all they had on board, the led along the coast and met a fishing vessel, from which they obtained the information that the revolu- tionary war of independence against Spain had broken out in Mexico. They sailed up as far as Acapulco, where they sent out a couple of boats with their most trusted men, who mixed in the port with the crews of two Spanish vessels lying in the harbor at that time. . informed that nd, They were the richest Syawsh peopie of the City of Mexico, nigh government oficials and others were comi- ing down with pack mule trains carrying all thelr belongings, money and treasures, to embark on these two vessel The pirate vessel lay outside of the port of Acapulco, cruising up and down, wait- ing until these two vessels shonld come out. One morning about six weeks after the pirate vessel first arrived off Acapul o, the confederates on shore notified thel, captain that the two vessels were heaving up anchor and ready fo sall, Captain Benito jmmediately stood to- ward shore and saw the vessels Jjust rounding the heads of Acapulco harbor, He had his cannon loaded with grape shot and salled right alongside of the first Spanish vessel. Without any warning he poured shot into her. The first discharge of the cannon killed most of the crew on the Spanfard. The pirate then sent ha of his men on board to kill the rest and take the vessel, in which they succeedcd, as hardly any resistance could be offered. The second vesse] saw what happened and turned about to re-énter the harbor, but could not make any headway against the wind and tide. The pirate attacked her, but could not come near enough for boarding. The crew loaded their cannon with round shot, and after considerable work disabled the Spanish vessel. They then sent boats to her and took possession and killed every soul on board. . This vessel was sinking very quickly and they could not get more than half ot “WITHOUT ANY WARNING HE POURED _/HOT L INTO HER the .reasure srom 1t before It went down in very deep water. In the meantime the rest of the plrates on the first captured vessel had killed all the Spanish on board her. The pirate salled alongside of this vessel and took everything of value out of her, also provisions. They shaped their course for Cocos Island and moored their vessel there and began to station lookouts on several points of the island, to warn them of the approach of dther vessels, One gang was sent on shore with the mate to dig a cave in sandstone on the side of a mountain, and one party of men was sent to the point where the brig was moored to make a ldrge excavation. In this excavation they put more than 150 tons, or more than 300,000 pounds of silver and silver dollars. This they hoisted up from the vessel by a derrick and dumped it into the exca- vatton. Then they put some kegs of pow- der above it to cover the hole and blew up the mountain. They left certain marks cut in the rocks, which are there to this day. In the other excavation which the mate had made they put gold bricks 4x3 inches and two inches thick, and alongside of them they put 273 gold hilted swords, D o October Y 50 1501 inlald with jewels. Further up the river on the fisland fron kettles filled with covered up these caves in jon as they did the large one. The captain and two mer crown, fnlaid with prieeless the same hole put c stones. He then killed the helped do the work. How tain was watched by one of survived a!l of the pirates Meantime the pirates had lost many of thefr number in the various fights, and the captain thought that that part of his crew which he had left at paraiso would return to the West Indles to ap- propriate the treasure. He made a pro- posal to the rest of the crew left on the island to return to the West Indfes and to, get the treasure left there, then re- turn to Cocos; divide there and disband. Some of his crew, dissatisfiled with this, started a fight right on the island and more than twenty men were killed then and there. The survivers consented to go with the captain to the West Indies and carry out the plan In the meantime the crew in Valparals had captured another vessel and set s: for the West Indies to get the treasure themselves. When they were outside of the port of Valparaiso they found that they could not navigate the vessel. They sighted another vessel, which turned out to be a British man-of-w: The captain of this man-of-war, thinking the move- ments of the vessel suspiclous, sent an officer with some men on board to inves- tigate. As-all the pi told different stories they were looked upon as such. They were taken on board of the British man-of-war and were taken to England for trial, which resulted in their bei hanged. One of them turned King's e dence and offered to show where the buried treasure was in the West Indies. The English sent out the British man-of- war Magician, which found this island and located some of the treasure. While the British man-of-war was anchored there, the Relampago, the vessel of Captain Benito, came into the harbor, shorthanded and eshort pro- visioned. Before Benito knew where he was he was right under the guns of the man-of-war Magician. Captain Benito saw that resistance was useless and blew out his brains. The rest of the crew were captured and were tried for piracy at Kingston, Jamaica, and eighty-one of the pirates were hanged on the yardarm of the man- of-war. While they were in prison two of them, Thompson and Chapelle, who had been forced to join the pirates against their will, got away and swam to a whaler in port. This whaler sailed the same night, with Thompson and Chapelle on board. These two men made it up between them to keep everything secret and made plans to obtain suffi- cient money wherewith to get a vessel to return to Cocos Island. The two sur- vivors from the Relampago soon separ- ated and lost sight of each other. After awhile each believed the other dead and each organized an egpedition Chapelle in England and Thompson in Newfoundland. The English expedition could not locate Cocos Island, and finally their vessel was wrecked off the coast of Costa Rica, and Chapélle left all his pa- pers and information there. The other expedition came to the island and found some gold coin. Captain Boag of that expedition disappeared. He prob- ably was murdered by a man by the name of Keating. When Keating reached Newfoundland he carried on his person gold and jewels to the value of £5000. He was agcused of murdering Captain Boag and had a hard time to get out of it. In 1897 I received on the Island a visit from the second wife of Keating, from whom I obtained all the plans and papers. All of the Chapelle papers were obtained by me from Costa Rica, and all the marks indicated and set forth there- in have been found and verifled, and, of course, are now known only to me. The lapse of time and ths luxuriant tropical vegetation will make the uncovering of these riches very difficult. But they are there. [ have been Cocos Island since 1839 and 4 k:‘Jv»: whereof I write. This densely wooded little islana of only twenty-four square miles is the storehouse of a treasure such as romance conceives. And this is not & romance.