Posted in Adventure, Historical articles, History, Sea, Ships on Thursday, 2 June 2011

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This edited article about Olivier Levasseur originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 957 published on 12 July 1980.

“My treasure is buried here . . . find it who may.” These were the dramatic words shouted out to the crowd gathered around the foot of the gallows on the Isle de Bourbon – known today as Reunion – as the noose tightened around the neck of a notorious French pirate. He was Oliver Levasseur, nick-named La Buzze (the Buzzard), and he died 250 years ago on 17th July, 1730.

Levasseur plied his pirate’s trade in the lucrative Indian Ocean. Here, along the coast of the island now known as Malagasy, hundreds of pirates lurked during the 18th century, awaiting their chance to plunder the heavily laden British, French, Dutch and Portuguese East Indiamen as they lumbered around the Cape of Good Hope on their homeward voyage to Europe.

In his ship Le Victorieux, he met and joined forces with an equally disreputable Englishman named Taylor and his band of cutthroats on their vessel Defence. Together they plundered and pillaged, becoming the most hated and feared men on the high seas. They were left well alone – until, that is, they captured two treasure-ships, La Duchesse de Noailles and La Ville d’Ostende, belonging to the French East India Company, and, for good measure, a Portuguese ship carrying the Bishop of Goa and his treasure.

This was too much for the French. They started to hunt down the pirates in earnest; yet it took five years to catch Levasseur. During that time he hid his treasure, reputed to be 90,000,000 gold French francs and a hoard of other valuables. After his death the search for La Buzze’s treasure was on, and eventually it centred on the then uninhabited Seychelles Islands.

Making treasure maps is a thriving “cottage industry” among the Seychelles islanders. Nearly every family now living on those lush green tropical islands, where many other pirate treasures are buried, has a map of one kind or another drawn in blood on parchment or on a piece of dirty old cloth. This, they will claim, shows where some fabulous treasure is buried, the secret hiding place of which they are prepared to reveal – at a price!

Over a century ago a cryptogram and a cryptic map, said to be copies of the papers drawn from within his silk shirt and thrown to the crowd by the arrogant Levasseur just before he was hanged, were given to Berthe Morele by her father. Berthe, who died 25 years ago in her mid-80s, spent most of her life trying to decipher the message the papers contained.

Before she died, Berthe met a one-time Grenadier Guardsman, whose sole claim to military glory was mounting guard outside Buckingham Palace on one occasion. He persuaded Berthe to let him have a copy of the documents to see if he could decipher them. This he claimed to have done.

According to the ex-guardsman, the instructions on how to find the treasure were based on the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. All clues centred on the astronomical constellations of Greek mythology. They pointed to a rocky cliff on land owned by Berthe’s family at Bel Ombre on the island of Mahe, the largest of the group. “Cruise” Wilkins, for that was the name of the one-time guardsman, made an agreement with the owners permitting him to prospect for the treasure on their land.

Following the weather-worn marks on the rocks, which coincided with those on the cryptic map, Wilkins reached a point near the edge of the cliff, and started to blast his way down through the rock. In the cryptogram it was written that strange things would be found.

An old jar, which bore the name of a Bordeaux chemist, a rusty flint-lock pistol and a broken wine glass were amongst the many odd things which turned up deep below the surface.

Was this a hoax? Had some earlier searchers planted these things there? Whatever the truth, funds ran out, but news of the finds spread far and wide. Wilkins had no difficulty in finding subscribers to the venture when he issued a prospectus.

Coffers now replenished, work was re-started. It was decided to abandon the tough digging through the rock from the surface, and to tackle the problem from seaward. Time however, was running out. They had only three months in which to find the treasure before the spring tides would flood the workings – a calamity which no one would be able to avoid.

Tunnels were found, and so, too, was an underground spring, which required the installation of expensive pumps to keep the water at bay. The finding of the tunnels caused the Seychelles Government to take a mild interest in the venture by contributing a modest sum of money towards the mounting cost of the search.

Then it seemed there was a breakthrough. One of the clues in the cryptogram stated that a door would be found and that behind that door would be found a woman. There was considerable excitement when an old door was found – and behind it was an old-fashioned doll. Had it been planted there by some joker?

The work continued slowly, and expensively. Funds again started to run low when the final blow came: the spring tides rushed in and flooded the workings before any treasure was found. The search was abandoned, and Wilkins died a few years later. But the Seychelles islanders are convinced that Levasseur’s treasure still lies hidden somewhere, waiting to be found.