Pirates’ Gold Is Sought Again
Cocas Island in Hudson Bay District Interests Prospector
Cobolt, Ont.–Cocos Island and its pirate gold loom once more thru the mists of romance two points on the weather bow of public interest. Andrew B. Cullen, miner and prospector, has been engaged, it is said, by a New York Syndicate to locate the buried treasure.
Prospecting in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, near Nipigon House, where the Hudson Bay Company, now closing out its prairie land to settlers, still pursues its ancient trade in furs. Cullen invented a divining rod, which, he declares, is infallible at indicating the location of gold deposits or buried treasure. The instrument, it is said, operates on the principle that affinities attract each other. It is equipped with an electrical device and a lump of gold is fixed at its point.
Whether there is treasure left on Cocos Island is a question. “Bugs[?]” Thompson and Benito Bonito, the latter famous as “the last of the great pirates,” are supposed to have buried plate, jewels, and money valued at $21,000,000 on the island off Costa Rico early in the nineteenth century. Some believe Thompson’s or Bonito’s old companions lifted the treasure secretly. Certain it is that only one expedition of a score or more that have gone treasure hunting to Cocos ever found a doubloon.
The one successful expedition was made in 1844, and it was headed by Keating and Bogue, of Newfoundland. Thompson had died at Keating’s home and bequeathed him an old chart of the island showing the location of the treasure. Keating came back with $10,000 worth of gold and jewels. He said he and Bogue had found a cave filled with plate, bar gold and sacks of coin. The crew of the ship mutinied. Bogue lost his life under mysterious circumstances and Keating escaped from the island in an open boat.
Who the New York men are who plan to test Cullen’s divining rod in a new search for the lost riches of Cocos Island has not been made known. The last expedition to Cocos, armed with the chart which Thompson gave to Keating, sailed from Vancouver seven years ago and returned empty handed.
Source: Pirates’ Gold Is Sought Again, The Lima News & Times-Democrat, 8 September 1920, p. 4.