Wreck?

From Spanish

Very Old Coins at Wau, New Guinea

SPANISH coins and a remarkable bowl with human figures as a border deco ration impressed around the rim were re ported recently to have been found on a mining claim at Wan, New Guinea, it was stated in the March issue of the Pacific Islands Monthly. The finds suggested that at some period people, possibly Europeans, had discovered and worked the goldfield.

Another theory has been advanced that the coins were originally taken from a wrecked Spanish vessel, and passed from tribe to tribe from the coast into the in terior. Colour is lent to this by the fact that Spanish coins and other articles from sunken ships are reported to have been discovered among the natives on islands in the Torres Strait, south of New Guinea.

In the Melbourne Herald on April 4, Mr.

E. K. Patterson, dealing with the subject of Spanish wrecks in Torres Strait, wrote as follows: Most people in Australia usually asso ciate sunken treasure with other parts of the world, little realising that there is said to be much wealth of this type under our own seas, particularly our tropical seas.

The coral seas of Torres Strait are prob ably richer in sunken treasure than any other part of Australian waters. The Strait is a veritable graveyard of ships.

Since the very earliest days of Australia, long before the continent was known by that name, countless vessels of all nation alities met their doom in these reef-studded waters.

Northern Australia is full of fascinating stories of ancient mysterious wrecks, said to have been located by pearlers, the ves sels, in most cases, being now almost en tirely covered with thick coral. It is thought that many of these mysterious wrecks are the remains of Spanish ships, which, centuries ago, used the Strait when voyaging to and from the then Spanish colony of Manila, in the Philippine Islands and the East Indies.

Forty years ago, beneath the anchor of one of these wrecks, the late Frank Jar dine, a well-known northern fisherman, found a small fortune in ancient Spanish gold dollars.

Similar coins are said to have been found on many of the islands in Torres Strait. A number are reported to have been picked up on Murray Island, near the far north ern end of the Great Barrier Reef. These discoveries. coincide with a story which has been handed down among the Murray Island natives for generations, that many, many years ago, a ship was wrecked on the reef surrounding the island.

The natives say that the survivors man aged to bring some boxes of coins and gold ashore before the wreck slipped down into deep water. That night, however, the natives killed them all, and distributed the gold and coin amongst themselves.

Some years ago a diver, who went down to see if he could locate the old wreck, found that it had been almost entirely cov ered by coral.

Another allegedly rich wreck in the Strait is believed to lie on the sea-floor somewhere off Prince Edward Island. About 40 years ago Captain Kane, a pearler, while exploring the island, came across a cave almost hidden by dense undergrowth.

He entered the cave, and some distance from the mouth found the skeleton of a

tall man, alongside which lay a huge rusted sword of ancient Spanish design.

This is now in the possession of a Thurs day Island resident. The skeleton was obviously that of a Spaniard—the survivor of a shipwreck near the island who sought shelter in the cave to escape from the natives, ultimately dying there from starvation.

A few years after the discovery of the skeleton a native sold a gold goblet of pe culiar design to Captain Brown, another pearler, who was later murdered in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The native said he had found the goblet on the beach of Prince Edward Island.

Lonely Booby Island, a little-known rocky speck, 30 miles west of Cape York, is alleged to be another treasure island, but the treasure in this case is believed to be buried on the island. In the days be fore Captain Cook named the island, Booby was the headquarters of the only pirates Australia has ever known. These were a band of Asiatic cut-throats, who plundered the Spanish vessels.

Only a few years ago a number of an cient Spanish gold coins were reported to have been picked up on the island, and this discovery has given rise to the belief that some of the pirates’ treasure may still be hidden there.