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Treasure of the salvages
Among the islands of the Atlantic is a group of Islands known as the salvages. Barren and waterless the island group is several hundred kilometers off the North West African coast. Early Portuguese explorers discovered the Island and passed it by on their voyages around Africa to India. Its barren waterless terrain was very unappetizing to any would be colonist and so history moved on leaving the islands as a lonely deserted island group the people rarely ever visited.
It was only bothered to mark the group on the map because of the location of the island group. The Islands lie in the path of the major shipping route from Europe to India and therefore posed a shipping hazard to any would be voyager to India. And yet in the days of the buccaneers the group was used as a marshaling point for pirates to attack shipping along the coasts of Africa with slaves, gold ivory and Spices and treasure from India. Who knows what shipwrecks lie among the islands of the salvages and perhaps even a treasure or two?
There is a curious story that must have impressed the British Admiralty so much that dispatched two frigates to the islands to search for buried treasure. The story goes that a lone sailor who was captured by pirates and was only left to live because he was able to navigate the vessel. The pirate vessel was returning from Brazil around 1830 carrying 3 chests of gold when members of the crew mutinied and went on as they account and became pirates, murdering the captain and all who stood in their way.
For a couple of months they roamed at large raiding what ever ships they came across, plundering them raping and murdering the passengers and crews. The leader of these pirates was a Portuguese man who was cruel and ruthless murderer. At one time suspected some of his men were plotting against him, he had them murdered.
After a close encounter with a British frigate in which they nearly did not get away from, the pirates decided to bury the bulk of the treasure on one of the remote beaches on one off the islands in the Salvages. And because most of the pirates were Spanish or Portuguese planed to return to Spain and scuttle their ship off the coast and posed as shipwreck sailors. Meeting again in Portugal to hire a ship and recover the treasure.
They wrecked their ship off the coast of Spain as posed as shipwreck sailors. But by their manners and free spending of much money soon gave themselves away when the authorities became suspicious. Some of the surviving victims of piracies identified them and sealed their fate with a date with the hang man. Two men were spared one was a slave because he had no control of what his master bid if him and the other the lone sailor who was forced to navigate the vessel.
It was from this navigator that claimed treasure was buried on the Salvages and the British admiralty eager to recover the ill gotten gains of the pirates went there with two frigates. It is later claimed in William Knights book Voyage of the Alerte 1889, which mentions the salvages story that the navy searched the wrong island in the group and the Sailors and marines dug up the wrong beach and found nothing. They could not search any further because the navy vessels were urgently dispatched elsewhere.
Was there any truth to this story or was it an old sailors yarn? Interesting enough we have two historical items that may confirm the story. There is a historical record of a pirate called Benito De Soto who led a very similar life piracy to the above story. Who was hanged and quartered with other pirates in Gibraltar around 1830.
Interesting of all is a strange article in an Australian Newspaper called the Maitland Mercury Saturday 30th June 1831. Saying that a group who had knowledge of a treasure buried on one of the Salvages could not recover the treasure. But the captain it appears that he had found the treasure and headed for Lisbon. And Lloyds are not sure in which manner the treasure has been obtained. Is this just gossip or true?
Had this mystery captain really found this treasure? Or perhaps some where on this windblown group of barren rocky islands lie three treasure chests waiting for a lucky treasure seeker to stumble upon?
Hardluck
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