From old legends like the Knights Templar treasure, to the Disney fantasies likeTreasure Island, people have always been enamored with the idea of gold and gems hidden in mysterious parts of the world. He got a job working as a pilot for ships in Antongil Bay located in the Northeastern side of Madagascar. What if the pirate Levasseur truly left a clue to his very real and very missing treasure, one which has remained undeciphered to this day? The tree-covered island is one of about 360 small islands in Mahone Bay and rises to a maximum of 35 feet (11 m) above sea level. He attacked several ships in route, most notably a slave ship coming from Angola. Belmez Faces: Mystery of the People in the Floor. Question: are you a true fan of Mystery and Crime? Olivier Levasseur was born in Calais, northern France in 1690 to a bourgeois family, and he served as a French Navy officer during the War of the Spanish Succession. Canadas Spotted Lake: The Most Alien-Looking Lake on Earth, 10 Shocking Facts about the Ancient Romans, The Secret Tomb of the First Chinese Emperor Remains an Unopened Treasure, Archaeological Treasure Trove! DOES ANYONE KNOW THE DIRECTIONS TO RANCHO DE LOS YUMAS ? Olivier Levasseur Hidden Treasure. The Scarborough was a 32 gun Royal Navy vessel that hailed from England, and sailed with a crew that had a thirst for pirate blood. In 1730, Levasseur was captured and sent to Saint-Denis, on the island of Runion, where he was hung for piracy. He was eventually captured and hanged on the island of Bourbon (today Runion), on 7 July 1730) 17h00, for his crimes of piracy. During his educational years, he was regarded as an excellent student, and graduated into the French Naval Fleet as an officer. There was considerable excitement when an old door was found and behind it was an old-fashioned doll. RUAVOUSSERERLADOBAUCGEAETPOURVE This was in cooperation with the English pirate John Taylor. The Crown of Spain took a fifth of the wares and precious metals of private merchants, a tax known as the Quinto real. Yeah, you, the one still reading. [4] In 1719, he operated together with Howell Davis and Thomas Cocklyn (who had also served under Moody) for a time. His nickname was apparently La Buse (The Buzzard), because he would swoop down with the speed of a bird of prey. Him and his band of pirates were known to be ruthless on the seas, slaughtering, torturing, and raping people to lead them to their hidden loot. These legendary riches turned out to be real, and are still waiting to be found. Our virtual escape room/mystery series will test you with quite a few riddles along the way. Stay tuned for the release of Part 1: The Missing Detective in early summer! In 1729, 7 years after the capture of the Nossa Senora, La Buse was recognized by someone in port at Fort Dauphin in Madagascar. You are using an out of date browser. John has searched more than 40 acres around the Bel Ombre area, exploring crevices and caverns, and uncovering what he thinks are pirate markings on rocks. The treasure buried at Bel Ombre, a district in the north of Seychelles' main island Mahe, is believed to be that of pirate Olivier Le Vasseur also known as La Buse ,who stole it from the Portuguese ship the Virgem do Cabo a week after Easter Sunday in April 1721. After hiding out for sometime to let the seas calm, so to say, Levasseur and his crew sailed north to begin preying on easy targets again. But as he showed me around what he believes is the treasure site, and talked about the clues and what he had left to do, the gruff man melted into one you couldnt help but root for. Carved onto the necklace was seventeen lines of text in an unfamiliar script. The Oldest Art in the World Wasnt Made By Homo sapiens, Thessaloniki Metro Construction Reveals Unimaginable Treasures, The Legendary Emerald Tablet and its Secrets of the Universe. It was in 1721 that Levasseur and Taylor captured the Nossa Senhora della Cabo, a Portuguese treasure ship that had been sitting on a sandbar as a result of damages sustained during a storm. He was also very widely known for the way he would verbally attack his opponents, striking fear in them without firing a single shot. Until that happens, the story of John and the pirates will never have a happy ending. What is the most famous pirate treasure ever found? The Mysterious Man from Taured Evidence for a Parallel Universe? VPULEZPLVSPRENEY2LETCASSESURLECH We all love a good mystery, and whats better than a treasure hunt? When Levasseur was finally captured and executed on 7 July 1730 on La Runion, he apparently knew there were members of his pirate brotherhood in the crowd. Based on what he uncovered, he believed the bounty was buried according to a complex riddle inspired by the 12 Labours of Hercules, and, after many years identified the treasure to be in the stunningly beautiful area of Bel Ombre on Mahs northern coast, surrounded by turquoise sea, lush vegetation and huge smooth granite boulders sculpted by the waves. John explained that the fascinating tale of the treasure started in 1716 when Frenchman Olivier Levasseur, otherwise known as La Buse (The Buzzard) because of the speed with which he would attack his enemies, was given a letter of marque to operate as a privateer. He had indeed committed the crimes that he was sentenced for, and to some he did in fact deserve death, but others were not so sure as he had given up his old ways. He reappeared in the Caribbean in June of 1718, roughly 3 months after his run in that left 80 of his men dead. 7 Child Monarchs from History and How They Changed the World, The Chilling Mystery of the Octavius Ghost Ship, What is a Wendigo? Incidents include 115 vessels boarded, 11 attempted attacks, 5 vessels fired upon and 1 vessel hijacked. In contrast to his predecessor Henry Every, it was reported that La Buse didnt lay a single finger on any of the passengers aboard the vessel. Levasseur began his new career as part of the Flying Gang, a group of pirates who were based in Nassau, on the island of New Providence, in the Bahamas. Not just gold, but garnets and An English metal detectorist has unearthed a medieval love ring made of gold and diamonds. So today, we are going to look at another story of Pirate treasure. What happened to Lamont Young? They thought my father was crazy. That would most likely make people suspicious and blow his cover. They started to hunt down the pirates in earnest; yet it took five years to catch Levasseur. From 1721 onwards he committed his raids from his base on the island of Saint Mary's, off the Madagascar coast. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Grace OMalley: Irish Pirate Queen of Connacht, Beale Ciphers and the Lost Treasure in Bedford County, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Levasseur, https://cipherfoundation.org/older-ciphers/la-buse-cryptogram/, MV Joyita: The Ghost Ship that Couldnt Sink. But back to regular programminglets chat about pirates and treasure and cryptograms. Levasseur, who had no idea what was on the ship, was astonished with the haul. And more specifically, today Im going to bring you the story of Olivier Levasseur, and how he left his legend of buried treasure behind, for future generations to discover. From Cousteaus Rediscover The World series.]. What is the most valuable treasure on earth? Needless to say, this peculiarity of Levasseurs has become one of the most iconic features in todays popular imagery of pirates. He wants to prove his father right, and like his dad, he wants to understand what made the pirate tick. . (TheLastBrunnenG/ CC BY SA 4.0 ). [Online]Available at: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170425-the-island-with-100-million-hidden, The Cipher Foundation, 2017. I happen to believe that its out there waiting to be found. He died on May 3, 1977, before cracking the final code. Seagar died when they sailed to Madagascar to divide their take;[5] Levasseur and Taylor split the remaining gold, silver, and other objects, with Levasseur taking the golden cross. His later allies would tell of the respect that his crew had for him, and the exceptional way he commanded them. Note also that Charles Baudelaires (1845) translation of the Gold Bug rendered this as Un bon verre dans lhostel de lvque dans la chaise du diable quarante et un degrs et treize minutes nordest quart de nord principale tige septime branche, whereas a 1933 translation rendered Poes seat as sige. We all know that the ancient world was a violent place, but we often dont appreciate just how violent it was. Source: phopsak / Adobe Stock. The pirate then disappeared and is believed to have hidden his treasure on the Seychelles island of Mah. Such as the Indiana Jones movies in the 80s and also one of my personal favorites in the early 2000s, National Treasure. Levasseur, known as La Buse ("The Buzzard") spent years pillaging his way across this corner of the Indian Ocean before settling on the Seychelles. The La Louise sank with 80 of Levasseurs men on March 9th, 1718, off the coast of Cotinga Island. 1920 a woman, on the isle of mahe in the indian ocean, found a rock with markings on it. 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These help us understand and improve your and other users experience with the website, and make it easy for you to share pages. He raced from safe harbor to safe harbor, at Cananeia, at Ilha Grande and at Ubatuba, always driven on by the relentless Portuguese. After a small skirmish with the Portuguese killing 10 of La Buses men, the La Louise took shelter Cananeia to allow the smoke to blow over. When Cruise-Wilkins died in 1977, John was only 18. The natural world has many wonders. 2DOEURSQESEAJTETECHERALFUNEKORT Though he already had a scar across one eye limiting his sight, Levasseur proved himself a good leader and shipmate. The alphabet used was easily decoded into plain text, but the message that remains, with its clues as to where Levasseur left his treasure, has never been translated. The fortress was known as, and forgive me the pronunciation, Fort of Sao Joao Baptista de Ajuda. History of Britain from Roman times to Restoration era. I almost gave up. When the conflict ended in 1714, Versailles no longer needed its privateers. It was decided to abandon the tough digging through the rock from the surface, and to tackle the problem from seaward. 1 Blackbeard. They were left well alone until, that is, they captured two treasure-ships, La Duchesse de Noailles and La Ville dOstende, belonging to the French East India Company, and, for good measure, a Portuguese ship carrying the Bishop of Goa and his treasure. Is Levasseurs treasure still out there waiting for someone to find it? Thanks for listening. Cruise-Wilkins spent years trying to decode the cryptogram, using everything from Greek, Hebrew, astrology, astronomy, mythology and the occult to break the elaborate system of clues. Are there millions of dollars worth of pirate booty buried on beaches? But thats the beauty in the fascination that drives us to continually try to find the answers, to what we have yet to lay our hands on. He had his first taste of combat at the start of the 18th century, on board La Reine des Indes (The Indian Queen). One of the clues in the cryptogram stated that a door would be found and that behind that door would be found a woman. La Buse was sailing a 22-gun merchant ship that he named the La Louise, on the way to the South American coast. Levasseur left the crew of the ship on their destroyed vessel to die, and brought the 240 slaves to shore on an island off the coast of Macae near Rio de Janeiro. In spite of the numerous failed attempts to locate the treasure, there are those who have dedicated their lives to finding it and are not ready to give up just yet. Olivier Levasseur (1690-7 July 1730) was a French pirate who was active during the Golden Age of Piracy, known for his large hidden treasure. But there was a small precondition in order to receive the Royal Pardon: He would have to turn over his treasure to the French government. At the end of the war, Levasseur had no intention of giving up his activities, and therefore turned from privateering to piracy. What is the origin of the legend of the Christed Son who was born of a virgin on December 25th? Olivier Levasseur was a French pirate between 1688 and 1730. You see, becoming widely famous has its disadvantages as well, and the stories of Levasseur was no exception. On his way to the gallows, Levasseur wore a necklace tucked under his shirt collar. Background on La Buse. He broke up his crew in groups of 20 men, my father thought. This island chain was located at the Eastern edge of the Somali Sea, and appeared to be the perfect spot for him to lay down his roots. in a cave he found a pirate sarcophagus. Please, Legend tells of a pirate named Olivier Levasseur who, while standing on the scaffold to be hanged, threw a necklace containing a 17-line, After a few more years of piracy, which included joining forces with an English pirate named. Under this system, two fleets sailed each year from Seville (Cdiz from 1707), consisting of galleons, heavily armed with cannons, and merchant carracks, carrying manufactured goods (and later occasionally slaves). Levasseur had amassed a fortune of 90 million gold French francs from his raids on heavily laden mercchant vessels. I didnt expect a warm welcome; John is constantly hounded by writers and locals who stop him wherever he is, asking if he is looking for buried treasure. The other, which is a 17-line cipher, became known due to its publication in a 1934 book entitled Le Flibustier Mysterieux, by Charles Bourrel de la Roncire, a French marine historian. Olivier Levasseur was born to a wealthy family in Calais at the end of the 17th century. Was this a hoax? Ive used all sorts of equipment: water pumps, rockdrills, jackhammers, hand tools, even excavators and blasting at certain times, [as well as] the latesttreasure detection equipment from Germany, he said. Or perhaps, maybe it is. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Posted in Adventure, Historical articles, History, Sea, Ships on Thursday, 2 June 2011. However, some still find the lure interesting and containing a small nugget of truth. The Island with 100 Million Hidden. In recent years, images of a previously unknown second version of the cryptogram began appearing on the Internet: Even though this contains broadly the same seventeen line cryptogram (though with a number of minor differences), it also has an additional five lines that were written using the same cipher system, which can be decrypted to read: Elsewhere on the picture are the words LA BUSE (again enciphered using the same system), along with a drawing of a pirate (presumably La Buse) about to be hanged in front of a church (La Buse was taken to Runion and hanged there for piracy on 7th July 1730), along with a number of pirate-style features a copy of a map of the Caribbean, various pirate ships and prize ships, treasure, powder kegs, and numerous stylized details. Even so, this 17-line cryptogram seems genuine, even if its cleartext is extremely confused and its supposed link with La Buse (and indeed with pirate treasure at all) appears extremely spurious. 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