Cocos Island

“ I saw nowhere any member of the Palm family, which is the more singular, as 360 miles northward, Cocos Island takes its name from the number of cocoa-nuts. The houses are irregularly scattered over a flat space of ground, which is cultivated with sweet potatoes and bananas. It will not easily be imagined how pleasant the sight of black mud was to us, after having been so long accustomed to the parched soil of Peru and Northern Chile. The inhabitants, although complaining of poverty, obtain, without much trouble, the means of subsistence. In the woods there are many wild pigs and goats ”

“ Charts and genuine information are no longer necessary to one of these expeditions. Cocos Island is under such a spell as has set a multitude to digging for the treasure of Captain Kidd. The gold is there, this is taken for granted, and no questions are asked. The island was long a haunt of buccaneers and pirates, this much is certain, and who ever heard of a true pirate of romance who knew his business that did not employ his spare time in "a-burying of his treasure?"
[1] Strong, or robust. ”

“ This is what I found in the encyclopedia:
“‘Cocos Island, volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, S. W. of Costa Rica, with steep rugged coasts and quite level interior; comprises about nine square miles, is uninhabited and is reported to have been the place of concealment of treasure, jewelry and plate sent there by wealthy inhabitants of Spanish colonies on the neighboring mainland early in the nineteenth century, during the wars in which they achieved their independence from Spain. ”

“ This protest was paid due heed, but two years later, an Englishman, Claude Robert Guiness, persuaded the officials of Costa Rica to listen kindly to his plea, and he was granted the right to explore the island for two years. Gissler stood by his guns, drew up a list of grievances, and sailed for the mainland in a small boat to assert his rights to his kingdom. At that time, a wealthy British naval officer, Lord Fitzwilliam, was bound out to Cocos Island in his own steam yacht with a costly equipment of machinery and a heavy crew to find the treasure. ”

“ We went on shore, on the island of Cocos, to pass the rest of the day. That little island, the highest part of which is not above seventy-five toises above the level of the sea, is formed of very white calcareous stones. Having risen from under the water, time has not much altered the form of the madrepores, which enter into its composition. They may be traced even on the rocks, which are the most exposed to the injuries of the air. The island is terminated on the south-east, and on the north-west, by the same kind of stones. ”

“ May you have more success. My Cocos Island Exploration Company has wasted its money.”
The visitors from the Valkyrie eyed each other dubiously. If the chart of Benito Bonito’s boatswain had failed to locate the treasure, what about the chart of Captain Thompson of the brig Mary Dear? This was poor news for Señor Ramon Bazán. They would say nothing about it.
“If you decide to stay longer, Don Miguel,” said Cary, “I see no reason why we should get in each other’s way. We shall be digging a good many rods from here.” ”

“ Having completed the survey of the coasts and islands of the South American continent, the Beagle sailed across the wide Pacific to Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia, in order to carry out the chain of chronometrical measurements round the world. From Australasia a run was then made for Keeling or Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean. This lonely island, 600 miles from the coast of Sumatra, is an atoll, or lagoon island. The land is entirely composed of fragments of coral. ”

“ You see, it is a short voyage through the Canal and into the Pacific. You will not have to climb a tree, like El Draque, to look at the great South Sea. You are wondering why I should have so much faith in this chart? I am easily fooled? Well, then, it will cost a great deal of money to pay for a ship and a crew to go to Cocos Island and dig up the treasure. Nobody ever saw Ramon Bazán spend a dollar unless he knew what he was doing. They call him the stingiest old tight-fist in Cartagena. ”

“ The boys will want me to charter this old hooker. They have dug up enough silver to keep things going for some time. But see here, sir, you’ve got me puzzled, too. How much of this treasure stuff honestly belongs to us? What if we do find the rest of it? Señor Bazán outfitted the voyage, and it was his chart that steered us to the right place on Cocos Island. ”

“ Like the Azores, they are volcanic, but they are much more extensive, the islands being both larger and more numerous; while volcanic action has been so recent that a large portion of their surface consists of barren lava-fields. They are considerably less distant from a continent than either the Azores or Bermuda, being about 600 miles from the west coast of South America and a little more than 700 from Veragua, with the small Cocos Islands intervening; and they are situated on the equator instead of being in the north temperate zone. ”

“ It is girded with splendid sands, and in certain places low rocks project from the edge of the sand into the sea.... From the landing place a path leads up a low cliff and runs across the island through parklike lawns and woods. Barking deer sport in its charming glades.... The grass is always green and the water brooks fail not [1] .
The serpent of this Eden is the deadly sea-snake of the encircling waters.
Attached to the Hanthawaddy district for administrative purposes are the Cocos, two islands of no great size or importance, lying nearly due north of the Andamans [2] . ”

“ The Cocos nucifera, or coco-nut palm, is a native of the island, and may justly be considered the most valuable of its trees. It grows in vast abundance alone the entire sea-coast of the west and south sides of the island, and furnishes almost all that a Sinhalese villager requires. Its fruit, when green, supplies food and drink; when ripe, it yields oil. ”

“ Setting sail therefore from the Gallapagos on the 12th June, they shaped their course in lat 4° 40' N. with the intention of touching at the Island of Cocos, [in lat. 5° 27' N. and long. 87° 27' W. from Greenwich.] This island is seven or eight leagues in circuit, but uninhabited, and produces a pleasant herb near the sea coast, called Geamadael by the Spaniards. It is so environed with steep rocks as to be inaccessible, except on the N.E. where ships may safely ride in a small bay. ”

“ The Cocos, Keeling Islands and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean have been colonized by few animal forms, chiefly sea-birds and insects, while they are clothed with abundant vegetation, the seeds of which have been carried by currents and by other means, but the variety of plants is by no means so great as on the mainland. ”

“ The lagoon is very shallow and the passages between many of the islands are fordable on foot. An opening on the northern side of the reef permits the entrance of vessels into the northern part of the lagoon, which forms a good harbour known as Port Refuge or Port Albion. The coco-nut (as the name Cocos Islands indicates) is the characteristic product and is cultivated on all the islands. The flora is scanty in species. One of the commonest living creatures is a monstrous crab which lives on the coco-nuts ”

“ Everyone has heard of the treasure of Cocos Islands, off Panama, to which many expeditions have been sent, though without success. The treasure was hidden by a pirate named Beneto Bonito, and hidden so securely that, although many expeditions—some of them recent ones—have been sent out to find it, none has yet succeeded. But, despite failure, year after year men go forth, secretly and well equipped, seeking the hoards of riches that they fondly believe they will some day find. ”

“ It is true that one may encounter heavy gales off the Cape of Good Hope at any season of the year, but in the summer they are less frequent and do not continue so long. And so with time enough before me to admit of a run ashore on the islands en route, I shaped the course now for Keeling Cocos, atoll islands, distant twenty-seven hundred miles. Taking a departure from Booby Island, which the sloop passed early in the day, I decided to sight Timor on the way, an island of high mountains. ”

“ Rangoon.
[99] Since 1879, when the Cocos were transferred from the Commission of the Andamans to that of Burma, several settlements, less unfortunate, have been made in the same island for the purpose of trade in coconuts and timber. There is now a lighthouse on Table Island—the most northerly of the group—where many wild cattle (originally domestic) roam.
[100] As one goes from South to North, the tribes become larger in stature and redder (less black) .—M. V. Portman, Jour. ”

“ In order to render this passage perfectly intelligible it is necessary to observe that the island of Cocos lies in the latitude of 15 degrees 10 minutes south; and, according to Schovten’s account, is well inhabited, and well cultivated, abounding with all sorts of refreshments; but, at the same time, he describes the people as treacherous and base to the last degree. ”

“ Of all the freebooters' treasure for which search is still made by means of curious information having to do with charts and other plausible records, the most famous are those buried on Cocos Islands in the Pacific and on the rocky islet of Trinidad in the South Atlantic. These places are thousands of miles apart, the former off the coast of Costa Rica, the latter several hundred miles from the nearest land of Brazil and not to be confused with the better known British colony of Trinidad in the Leeward Islands group of the West Indies. ”

“ We kept plying off and on, and sounded in foul ground from 80 to 50 fath; the latitude of the island I make 9 minutes N. ’tis a mere rock: so we left it, and steer’d away for another S. W. being the same which the Spaniards make to lye under the equator. We run along shore but can find no anchoring: so that being unwilling to lose more time, we make our best way to the isle of Cocos, where we hope certainly to get fish, fowl, and coco-nuts; our people being very sick and weak. ”

“ As to the Cocos Islands, the highest point is, I understand, about twenty feet, and tidal waves are not unknown upon the Pacific, so that the community holds its tenure at very short and sudden notice to quit.
On the morning of September 17th a low coast line appeared upon the port bow—Australia at last. It was the edge of the West Australian State. The evening before a wireless had reached me from the spiritualists of Perth saying that they welcomed us and our message. ”

“ Economy ::Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Economy - overview:
Coconuts, grown throughout the islands, are the sole cash crop.
Small local gardens and fishing contribute to the food supply, but
additional food and most other necessities must be imported from
Australia. There is a small tourist industry.
GDP (purchasing power parity) :
$NA Labor force:
NA Labor force - by occupation:
note: the Cocos Islands Cooperative Society Ltd. employs construction workers, stevedores, and lighterage workers; tourism employs others
Unemployment rate:
60% (2000 est.) ”

“ The day before we were due to sight the islands, Ted and I spent a number of hours checking the charts and making our plans. The Cocos are low islands, with an altitude of only 10 feet plus the height of the palm trees. If the day continued overcast so that we could not get a good position, we might have quite a job finding them. If the weather was bad, we would have to decide whether to attempt an entrance, to lay off until the weather improved, or give the islands a miss altogether, which would mean continuing on to Rodrigues, 2,000 miles to the west. ”

“ The island seemed to produce nothing, but cocoa-nuts, which must be the only food of the natives, except when they are so fortunate as to catch fish. Towards evening we stood out of the bay, and hove to off the south-west point, where we sent a party on shore to collect a quantity of cocoa-nuts, of which there was a dense forest, that promised an abundant supply. Our people were no sooner on shore than they saw the natives approaching them in different directions, armed with spears and paddles, making signals to each other, and signs, for the intruders to depart. ”

“ The very poverty of their island homes—mere sandbanks covered with coconut and pandanus palms only—drives them to the sea for their food; for the Ellice Islanders, unlike their more fortunate prototypes who dwell in the forest-clad, mountainous, and fertile islands of Samoa, Tahiti, Raratonga, &c., live almost exclusively upon coconuts, the drupes of the pandanus palm, and fish. ”

“ During another day I visited West Islet, on which the vegetation was perhaps more luxuriant than on any other. The cocoa-nut trees generally grow separate, but here the young ones flourished beneath their tall parents, and formed with their long and curved fronds the most shady arbours. Those alone who have tried it, know how delicious it is to be seated in such shade, and drink the cool pleasant fluid of the cocoa-nut. In this island there is a large bay-like space, composed of the finest white sand: it is quite level and is only covered by the tide at high water ”

“ The very cocoa-nuts, hanging over the heads of the workmen, were as safe as those in the middle of the island. It happened rather fortunately, that there were so many cocoa-nut trees, near the skirts of the harbour, which seemed not to be private property; so that we could generally prevail on the natives to bring us some of these nuts, when nothing would induce them to bring any out of the country. ”

“ The handles were carved to represent a man's face, or some animal familiar to them. The lash itself, was, in several strands, finely braided from twine of the cocoa-nut husk. The natives were, in general, naked, except a wrapper round their waists, and had a sickly and feeble look. The island is very fertile, producing, in many parts, large quantities of cocoa-nut and bread-fruit, and is capable, without further improvement, of sustaining some thousands of people. The population has greatly diminished within the recollection of recent visiters. ”