While visiting my bestie in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts, I was taking an early-morning walk along the oceanside beach with my two dogs. I had just finished a ghost-writing project and was taking a much needed break before re-reading it and making any necessary revisions. There was no one else on the beach but me, my dogs and the birds; the seals were nowhere to be seen as the day hadn't warmed up yet. I was pondering what my bestie had told me about the history of the area. It was said, and many artifacts had been found on the ocean side of the Cape, that many a Pirate Ship and others as well had sunk in the area. In the early spring, many ship parts washed up onto the beaches in some areas and treasure sometimes can be found, but at what cost? The waters are very dangerous and many attempts at diving for the treasure without the proper equipment had brought death to those that have tried. This is all real and true and many still try to get to these ships each year. These were Pirate waters at one time and many still speak of possible untold treasures buried in the area.
I was brought out of my reverie when my Aussie barked that he had found something interesting at the base of the sand dunes. He started digging, and then my Border Collie joined in, digging to uncover whatever it was. I called them off it when I saw the neck of the bottle with a cork in it. But then, I encouraged them to dig until it was totally uncovered and I could easily pick it out of the dune without worry of it breaking.
It looked to be a very old, dark amber coloured bottle with a cork and, when I shook it, to my surprise, it sounded like it had something in it! I encouraged the dogs to fill in the hole they'd made and we took the newfound prize back to my girlfriend's beachfront cottage. My Aussie ran "zoomies" around the sofa until he dried off fully, then he jumped up on the protective cover and fell asleep next to the Border Collie who had already claimed her spot.
I sat at my laptop, took a picture of the bottle with the webcam and searched for what it might be. The results that came back stunned me, it was a pirate rum bottle from the eighteenth century. How in the world did it get to Cape Cod and how did it survive? Or was it some kind of joke? The only way to find out would be to open it and see what's in it, and hope it's not filled with sea creatures.
I got a trash bin liner, opened it up and spread it across the table. I placed the bottle on the table, went out and got the adjustable wrench and needle nose pliers out of my car's tool kit. Returning to the table and bottle, I carefully took hold of the cork with the wrench and worked it out. Luckily there was nothing inside but a rolled up piece of paper that looked like it might be parchment, tied with a string secured to the bottle with the cork. It was old as well, and very fragile. I used the needle nose pliers, ever so gently pulled out the rolled up paper and laid it on the table. I tried to unroll it but it had obviously been in that bottle so long, it was not going to stay unrolled.
I got the idea to get something going to create steam to help the paper relax. I started a pot of water on the stove and heated it to a simmer, took the tongs from the drawer, picked up the parchment carefully and wafted it slowly through the steam. Sure enough, it worked, the parchment started to unroll and straighten out. I was careful not to hold it in the steam too long as to make the ink run. I placed the now somewhat flattened parchment back on the table, placed some seashells on the corners to hold it open and help it flatten out.
The writing looked to be not in Queen's English, but something different. So I did with the parchment like I did with the bottle, took a picture of it with the webcam on my laptop and it turned out to be a version of Scots Language, from the lowlands of Scotland, but not modern. I looked the document over and down in the bottom right corner was what looked like a signature and possibly the date it was written, 1824!
So I searched for a decent translator online, I'd heard some were not so accurate, good thing I could understand most of what was written. It turned out to be a treasure map of sorts except in written words.
At least I could read the beginning, which gave a positive note for the rest of the letter. It read as follows: "Whoever finds 'n' keeps this letter upon thair body, is hereby th' rightful gaffer o' ony bounty ah hae hidden i the marshes o th' cape, south o pilgrim harbor ." The rest of the message took some time to decipher, but it gave directions and, upon research as to where Pilgrim Harbor might be. I wasn't far away, in fact, I was just around the corner from it!
The rest of the message read as follows: "I ma many travels, A have amassit a fair amount o bounty. Some o which A now give tae ye, finder o this bottle an message. Travel tae cape cod, the tail o massachusetts colony. Find the southern most tip o pilgrim harbor closest tae the hill. The bounty hidden can be found at the coordinates of 42.051042, -70.120099. That is whaur ye'll fin' th' bounty that ah buried thare, that is noo yers. Sae sayeth ah, Gregor MacGregor 1 December 1824."
I texted my bestie and she came over immediately to see what I had found. She was as surprised as I had been. She looked at the coordinates, looked me straight in the eye and told me she knew exactly where those coordinates were, on her property! I placed the message paper in a ziploc bag and, leaving the dogs in my cottage, my bestie and I took the message paper, our phones and she grabbed two shovels out of the garage. Using the gps app with the coordinates typed in, we found the spot where supposedly the treasure was buried.
Placing our phones in our pockets we started digging, about fifteen feet down there was a 'thud'. We looked at each other and dug around the 'thud' spot until we uncovered what looked like an actual chest. We kept digging until we could reach the handles, on either side. It wasn't really a big chest, about two feet wide, two feet high and two and a half feet long. It was a bit heavy, so my bestie went back into the garage and returned with a hand truck, a ladder and a rope. Once we got the chest secured onto the hand truck, we filled in the hole.
Carefully, we took the chest back to my cottage. I spread open a trash bin liner on the floor and we ever so gently put the chest on it. Of course, it had a lock on it, but with a proper angle of the shovel head hit against it, the lock opened and we took it off. Upon opening the chest, we found many scrolled love letters and journal pages, it seemed of Gregor MacGregor, dating from 1795 to 1824. One larger scrolled parchment was tied with a red ribbon, upon opening, I found it to be the deed to property in Scotland. Taking the letters out revealed another layer of 'treasure' hidden under a short cape that was placed over the items underneath. When the cape was removed, a small twine tied parcel containing a hand drawn portrait in a small oval frame tumbled out, which my bestie picked up and removed from it's outer covering. In the bottom of the chest there were gems, jewelry, gold and silver coins, and letters of mark signed by none other than Kings George III and IV!
My bestie was speechless while looking at the portrait, she nudged me with her elbow and I looked at her, her jaw was dropped. She turned the portrait around so I could see it, and the portrait looked like it could have been me or a relative of mine. The treasure we had found was worth more than money, at least to me, the signature on the back of the portrait was "To My Love Gregor. Yours Always, Anna Dunwythe."