The mystery of a huge treasure worth more than 120 million USD on an island in the Indian Ocean

Reginald Herbert Cruise-Wilkins was nicknamed "Treasure Man" by his Seychelles connoisseurs. He spent 27 years of his life hunting for a huge fortune. After Cruise-Wilkins, it was his son John's turn to continue this adventurous business.

Pirate illustration.

After years of digging for treasure, Mr. John still makes people go from surprise to surprise with his story with backpack on his back, trying to piece together an intricate puzzle.

Mr. John explains that the legend of the treasure began in 1716, when a French man named Olivier Levasseur was given the right to run a private ship.

However, within a few months, Levasseur decided to turn to a more profitable career: piracy.

In 1721, Levasseur and 750 pirates came across a British-owned Spanish warship named Nossa Senhora do Cabo in the harbor of Bourbon Island, now La Réunion Island. Levasseur immediately put 250 bandits on board and killed the crew to plunder.

He was surprised to find a huge amount of treasure on the ship.

In the words of John, one historian described the Spanish ship as a "floating treasure house, filled with gold bars, silver, precious stones, rough diamonds, guinea gold coins, holy plates and the chalice of the church".

Mr. John emphasized: "Each pirate is given 42 diamonds and 5,000 gold bars. There is also a surplus of treasure to be divided among the pirate leaders."

However, the pirates suddenly "evaporated" and it is believed that Levasseur hid his gold treasure on Mahé island in the Seychelles island nation.

For historian John, finding treasure is a way of life.

"My father thought that Levasseur was in charge of a group of 20 subordinates. Even Levasseur's subordinates were uncertain about the exact location of the treasure buried. This treasure could be placed in a cave, kept. temporarily, waiting for the situation to calm down, then Levasseur will officially be buried. The group tasked with burying the treasure was later assassinated, "said Mr. John.

Since then, no one but the robber general Levasseur knew the location, but Levasseur was also arrested by the authorities and sentenced to death on July 7, 1730 on the island of La Réunion. Before he died, he caught a glimpse of some pirate members lurking in the crowd, looking at him with a smile.

In front of the crowd, Levasseur threw a piece of paper into the air and shouted: "My treasure is only for those who can understand it".

That piece of paper was a treasure map in the form of a 17-line cipher. Checked for authenticity as early as the 18th century by the British Museum, the ciphertext is a 17-line jumble of symbols.

17 lines of code indicating where Levasseur's treasure is hidden.

Levasseur was a Greek and Latin intellectual and scholar, very good at the art of using symbolic signs.

So Mr. Cruise-Wilkins spent years trying to decipher the code using all the information he could get from Greek, Hebrew, astrology, astronomy, mythology and the occult. secret to breaking the complex system of clues.

Based on his findings, Mr. Cruise-Wilkins believes that Levasseur's cipher is built into a complex puzzle inspired by the 12 Labors of Hercules.

This man thinks the treasure is located in a beautiful area called Bel Ombre on the north shore of Mahé Island, surrounded by blue sea water, lush vegetation and smooth granite rocks. create.

Mahé is such a small island that all the inhabitants know each other. They all shared the same thought about the huge treasure that was supposed to be on the other island. "I don't care what they think, but a lot of people think we're crazy.

And they all have the same question: Why are you hunting for treasure? People don't do such things anymore.

Reginald Cruise-Wilkins has been treasure hunting for 27 years of his life.

However, for him and his late father, the treasure hunt was not only a life but also an intellectual and physical commitment to which they poured all their energy and money.

Mr. John has scoured more than 16,000 square meters around the Bel Ombre area, exploring crevices and caves and discovering what he believes to be the marks left by pirates on the rocks.

He also found human bones, pistols, ball bearings and small statues.

However, John's digging was illegal without the permission of the Seychelles authorities. Although he has been involved in the treasure hunt since 1988, in 2009, John was still suspended by the authorities until he could spend Rs 250,000 to get a license.

"The government owns the land, so they're entitled to 50% of the property by law," Mr. John said. However, he stressed that he will not give up.