Pirate Treasure

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  Lin Qiu bought a 3,600-ton "Dongya" old-fashioned merchant ship from Shanghai Mai Bian Yang Hang. He purchased this old steamship entirely because of its attached route from Shanghai to Nagasaki. He was trying to verify the legend that William Kidd's treasure had been found in the Ryukyu Islands.

  William Kidd was one of the most notorious pirates in American history at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries.

  At the end of the 17th century, between Madagascar and the Malabar Coast, the great pirate Captain William Kidd plundered a fleet of the Indian Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, gaining an uncountable treasure worth about one billion marks. He left behind a mysterious combination of numbers: 44-10-66-18, and three fragmented treasure maps. According to analysis, the treasure is hidden on some island between the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

  Almost every sailor knows the story of his life in the distant 18th century, and for a long time the stories about Flint's treasure have not subsided, until today archaeologists and those who believe in their luck are still searching for the spoils of this Scottish pirate. This treasure has not only gold bars, beautiful pearls and sparkling rubies, but also diamond pendants the size of plums and extremely dazzling jewelry with exotic flavors. Many of these unparalleled treasures once belonged to the Prince of Oran - the ruler of the Indian Mughal dynasty.

  William Kidd was a privateer hired by the Earl of Bellomont, governor of Massachusetts, to hunt pirates. Instead of catching pirates, Kidd himself became one. In 1697, William Kidd raised a red pirate flag on his ship's mast and attacked an Islamic pilgrim ship from Mecca in the Red Sea, starting a string of pirating activities. Over the next two years, William Kidd became "the terror of the seas" between Madagascar and the Malabar Coast, accumulating untold wealth and finding a safe haven for himself.

  In 1699, Gente stopped at the Spanish island of Hispaniola in Latin America. After arriving at Boston Harbor in July of that year, he wrote a letter to Lord Bellomont in Boston, hoping to get his support for a general pardon and promising to pay him ￡400,000 for it.

  On 16 February 1700, Captain Kidd was brought back to London as a prisoner of the British Crown. He spent nearly a year in English prisons before being tried and convicted of piracy and murder. The authorities allowed his wife to visit him in prison for a final farewell. During this meeting, Kidd slipped a small piece of sheepskin paper to his wife, whispering something in her ear. The guards observing from outside immediately noticed the secret exchange between the couple and confiscated the small paper bundle.

  On the paper ball were written four numbers full of mysterious colors: 44-10-66-18.

  On May 23, 1701, Kidd was hanged. After his death, more and more people began to consider the mysterious numbers he left behind and the legendary treasure. People kept trying to solve the mystery of Kidd's lost treasure.

  Soon, someone cracked the numbers he wrote and thought it was hinting at 44°10′W, 66°18′N. According to this coordinate, on the eastern end of Long Island, not far from New York, there is a small island called "Gardiner". Treasure hunters flocked to this unknown island to find gold, diamonds and a large number of jewels.

  300 years had passed and no one had any leads on the treasure of Gent until 1932, when a British man named Palmer bought an old sea chest with iron bands in an antique shop. Inside the chest, Palmer found a strange small wooden board; he lifted it up and underneath was a piece of parchment made from sheepskin.

  There was a map of a small island on the paper, and on this map you could clearly see that there was a bay next to the atoll lake, then coral reefs, and notes indicating trees and clear step distances. At the same time, there was also a hint on the edge of the sheepskin: "To find my treasure, you must follow this path. Captain Kinder, 1696." Palmer was stunned, he simply didn't dare to believe his eyes.

  After calming down, Palmer fell into confusion again, because the paper did not specify which island, region or sea area it was. Palmer spent all day in libraries, archives and antique shops, looking at yellowed old nautical charts, he tirelessly inquired about Captain Gantt's information, searching for relics used by Captain Gantt in the past. He spent more than a year searching for an answer to this question, but did not solve the mystery.

  In the summer of 1933, he bought a slant-top desk that had been used by Grant from an antique dealer.

  He examined the writing-desk very carefully, and in a tiny hole, stuck with tar and pitch, he found a small ball of sheepskin. Palmer discovered that everything on the second map was almost identical to the first, except for one thing - the hint about the name of the island was missing. On the unfolded sheepskin, Palmer found several extra letters which he recognized as "China Sea".

  It so happened that in the same year someone sold Palmer a second, old wooden chest that had once belonged to Kidd. In a secret drawer of this chest, hidden behind a false bottom, Palmer found a third piece of parchment with another treasure map drawn on it, which not only showed the outline of the mysterious island but also indicated its geographical longitude and latitude.

  With the three treasure maps in hand, Palmer was so excited that he couldn't sleep all night. In order to find this mysterious island, he decided to go to London and compare his three treasure maps with hundreds of new and old ocean maps found in the Geographical Survey Department of the British Museum. Finally, this matter alarmed the British Admiralty. They carefully verified the authenticity of the three treasure maps. After confirmation, the British Admiralty agreed to provide Palmer with a treasure-hunting ship and necessary assistance, but on the condition that Palmer must hand over all the evidence of the treasure to the British government. Palmer refused this suggestion.

  Palmer was determined to follow his friend to find the small island. However, fate played a trick on this treasure hunter, and he suddenly died during the preparation for the treasure hunt, and the three treasure maps and Captain Kidd's treasure were once again shrouded in thick fog.

  More than 20 years after Palmer's death, in 1951, a man named Braunholtz bought the treasure map of England's pirate captain from Palmer's former housekeeper and sole heir for ￡5,000.

  At last, a two-masted sailing ship named "Ramona" carrying Braun and 12 treasure hunters from five countries set sail. However, their speedboat encountered a hurricane at sea. After drifting at sea for four days, they met the supply ship of the English fleet, and as a result, they could only be towed by the supply ship. Braun ended this treasure hunt trip full of hope in frustration.

  In 1952, some Japanese fishermen took refuge from a storm on a small island called "Kurumajima" in the northernmost part of the Ryukyu Islands between Taiwan and Kyushu, Japan. In a purely accidental setting, they discovered extremely rare mountain goat rock paintings on stone walls with cracks.

  This meaningful discovery brought endless reverie to a treasure hunter on the island of Nahae. Nahae systematically traversed the uninhabited island and finally found an entrance to a cave behind a dense thicket. Nahae lit a torch, feeling his way forward step by step, passing through a stone gate, and came to a darker stone chamber. He stopped there, rapidly opening his eyes wide, staring at the iron chests all over the ground. When he opened the heavy lid, a strange scene appeared before him: here were not only countless unbelievable gold and silver coins shining brightly but also exquisite jewelry and gems. This was William Ginter's million-dollar spoils of war - one of the largest treasures found to date. For more than two hundred years, these heavy treasure chests had been placed in that remote cave in the Ryukyu Islands.

  The material value of the treasure meant little to this private researcher, Nagai Kitaoka, who only sought compensation from the Japanese government for his research and search expenses, even refusing the reward money given to him. The treasure was transported to Tokyo under the strictest security measures, after which another batch of treasures worth tens of billions of dollars was discovered by the Japanese government and military near this batch of treasures. Some people even speculated that Japan's resurgence after World War II had something to do with these treasures. In the end, however, Kitaoka's hundreds of millions of treasures were still unknown, and his spoils of war once again disappeared into the vague and mysterious fog filled with legends and rumors.

  As an archaeologist, Lin Xiao had personally visited the two so-called treasure locations in his previous life. Regardless of whether they were true or false, Lin Xiao wanted to confirm the authenticity of the two treasures on "Jingyuan Island", and he yearned for this great wealth in his heart, because that grand plan in his heart indeed needed a large amount of financial support.

  Lin Xiao gradually replaced the crew of the "Dongya" with his own men, and while running the sea transportation, he deliberately deviated from the route, passing by Jingyin Island to investigate the situation.

  Kurumijima is a deserted island with no human habitation, and even if someone goes there, it's to escape the wind and rain. There are actually many such small islands in Ryukyu, some of which are ideal places for pirates to hide their treasures.

  On April 29, 1899, the "East Asia" arrived at Jingyin Island under the cover of night. This time Lin Qiang was well-prepared and brought two teams of naval officers and soldiers with him. The steamer dropped anchor in the southwest of Jingyin Island, and Lin Qiang personally led more than 150 people to disembark in small boats. Then, everyone followed Lin Qiang's lead and rushed straight to the legendary treasure location.

  Although the scenery on the island over a hundred years ago was completely different from that of later generations, Jingyuan Island was not very large, and Lin Xiao quickly found the goat stone painting indicating the location of the hidden treasure. According to the indications on the painting, the group discovered an entrance to a mountain cave in the dense forest at midnight. Then everyone lit torches and felt their way forward step by step in the dark cave, passing through a stone gate and coming to an even darker stone room.

  As they went in, everyone stopped in their tracks. Before them was a stone chamber filled with iron chests and wooden boxes. Lin Xuan's heart racing with excitement, he carefully opened the lid of one of the heavy chests, revealing an astonishing sight: the chest was filled to the brim with beautiful pearls, glittering gems, and dazzling jewelry that seemed to radiate an otherworldly aura. Everyone's eyes widened in amazement, wondering if they were dreaming.

  He opened several more chests, and Lin Xiao could confirm that a large part of the treasure boxes were filled with gold and silver coins minted by the Spanish and Dutch in the 15th century. Another part was ancient Japanese gold and silver ingots, and another part was Chinese Ming-style gold and silver yuanbao. This made Lin Xiao curious about the origin of this batch of treasures, but it was certain that this was not the so-called William Ginter's pirate treasure.

  Another headache for Lin Xiu was that this batch of treasure, according to his estimate, had around 160 tons of gold and more than 800 tons of silver, making transportation a huge problem.

  Lin Xiao let Uncle Li be in charge of leading the team to transport, while a part of the people stayed behind, and he led more than ten people to search for another batch of treasure nearby.

  At dawn, Lin Xiao and his party found another treasure in a cave not far away. Although it was not as rich as the treasure in the stone room, there were also several boxes of jewels and more than 200 tons of gold and silver.

  The treasure-hunting team took three whole days to move all the treasures from the two caves onto the cargo ship. During this time, Lin Xiu was worried that something unexpected might happen, but fortunately, everything went smoothly, and not even a shadow of a fishing boat was seen near the deserted island.

  On the third day at dawn, "Dong Ya" set sail again, and Lin Xiu finally let out a sigh of relief.

  Lin Xiao carefully studied the origins of the two batches of treasures on the ship. Some textual descriptions indicated that the larger batch of treasures belonged to Li Dan, a Chinese maritime merchant who traveled to Japan at the end of the Ming Dynasty, while the other batch belonged to Wang Zhi, another notorious Chinese pirate before Li Dan.

  Li Dan was the largest maritime merchant leader before Zheng Zhilong in the late Ming Dynasty, controlling all navigation routes in the South China Sea and Japan for more than 20 years. Later, he was murdered by Zheng Zhilong and died suddenly. Zheng Chenggong, the son of Zheng Zhilong, relied on the huge wealth accumulated from maritime trade to occupy Taiwan at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. According to historical records, Li Dan's annual trading profit exceeded 13 million taels of silver during his heyday, while the Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue was less than 300,000 taels of silver at that time, making him truly rich and powerful enough to accumulate such a huge fortune.

  In a strict sense, both of these fortunes should belong to China. Afterwards, the Japanese government must keep their contents and value strictly confidential. One reason is that they are afraid that the Chinese side will ask for this part of the treasure, on the other hand, the hiding place of this treasure can also prove that the Ryukyu Islands were already opened up by the Chinese in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty.

  Two days later, the steamer finally returned safely to Haimen. Under the strict protection of the heavily armed guards, this large batch of gold and silver treasures was temporarily transported into the Dongjun Arsenal in Haimen. When all the treasures were moved into the specially vacated underground warehouse, everyone cheered with joy, exhausted to the point of collapse.

  After inventory, this batch of treasure jewelry has more than 13,000 pieces, 3.87 million taels of gold, 33.06 million taels of silver, with a total value exceeding 1.02 billion taels of silver, and there are also many treasures and cultural relics that can be called priceless.

  There is no eternal secret, Lin Xiao just didn't want people to find out too early.