The Brotherhood of the Coast
From distant Lima, from Mexico and from many other sources, looted treasures from the ancient South American kingdoms were being transported to Vera Cruz and the brothers were planning to snatch.
One night in September 1786 a great pirate fleet descended on Vera Cruz and within an hour the city was in flames and captured. This happened exacly one week before the arrival of the Spanish fleet that was to transport the trea- sure back to Spain. What happened afterwards is veiled in mystery. The pirates did reach their island safely and with the treasure intact, they were still there when Napoleon's fleet blew them out of the island in 1806. There was a brief reminder of their wealth in 1923 when an Indian labourer fell into a covered pit and found himself in a vertiable Aladdin's cave filled with Inca gold.
Back in Mauritius, Esperance enlisted the aid of a French doctor and homeopath, Joseph Duval. Employing a Radiestechia mineral detector, Duval traced the source to a small swamp not far from the mouth of the Goulet River. The locals must have thought them mad when they started pumping the water out with a powerful centrifugal pump, but soon changed their minds when the water slowly disappeared and the foundations of an old stone building were laid bare.
In the centre of what was once the temple floor was a round stone that resembled a turtle. With some effort the stone was removed to reveal a shaft with neatly chiselled stairs leading downwards. It took months of labour to reach the bottom of that stairwell. Each night after the spade and pick were laid aside the water would rise mysteriously and fill the shaft. The next day it had to be pumped dry again to snach a few hours' working time. That and two more huge stones chiselled to resemble turtles served as effective plugs.