Francois le Vasseur. Olivier Levasseur's treasures: the pirate's latest joke? Forward to the Treasures: Bale's Cryptograms
Pirates have always aroused special interest - harsh romance, adventure, an aura of people who could be beggars in the morning, turn into owners of fabulous wealth during the day, and end their lives on the gallows in the evening. Various legends associated with pirate treasures are of increased interest. 
- here a financial background is mixed into the adventures. Well, when the case takes a detective turn, as in the legend of Olivier Levasseur’s treasure, everything becomes incredibly interesting.
Confusion over a piece of paper
French pirates are less known than English ones, but this is more a matter of propaganda than historical reality. In fact, the French robbed the ships of other states, and even their compatriots, very actively in the 17th-18th centuries. One of the most famous French pirates was Olivier Levasseur. He began his pirate career according to the tradition of his time in the Caribbean. But from the second decade of the 18th century, the authorities of England and France took the fight against pirates seriously, so Levasseur, following the example of many of his colleagues, moved to the Indian Ocean, where he settled in the Seychelles.
Levasseur had a very long career as a captain of a pirate ship, more than ten years (usually they did not stay in this “position” for more than two or three years). However, he gained his main fame during a joint operation with another pirate, Taylor, with whom they captured the Portuguese ship La Vierge du Cap near Madagascar in April 1721. The treasures transported by the Portuguese turned out to be so countless that they literally made all the participants in the attack rich. It is believed that part of this particular treasure formed the basis of Levasseur's treasure.
In 1730, the pirate was captured and sentenced to death by hanging. According to legend, at the last moment before his execution, he tore a piece of paper from his chest and threw it into the crowd with words, the general meaning of which is that if someone is smart enough to decipher this cryptogram, this person will find Levasseur's treasure.
It’s difficult to say how true this story is, but since then, copies of this cryptogram have spread around the world - and the treasure hunt has begun...
Are treasures just a stone's throw away?
This hunt continues to this day, since it can only be considered over when someone picks up the stolen pirate jewelry. Although many believe that, purely technically, the search for Levasseur’s treasure has already been completed, there remains a mere trifle - getting it. A retired English officer, Reginald Cruise-Wilkins, played a key role in the search for this treasure. He was discharged from the army in 1941 due to injury, and in 1949 his wounds worsened, an attack of malaria occurred and doctors recommended that he rest in the Seychelles. Here, on the island of Mahe, the largest island of the archipelago, Cruz-Wilkins learned from local enthusiasts the legend of Levasseur's treasure. These enthusiasts had several versions of copies of the pirate's cryptogram and came to the conclusion that the treasure was located on the island of Mahe, in a place called Bel Ombre.
This version was facilitated by their own deciphering of the cryptogram, as well as mysterious drawings and signs found on the rocks in the vicinity of Bel Ombre, clearly left by man and, most likely, representing a system of designations indicating the location of the treasure. Cruz-Wilkins became interested in this - and devoted the next twenty years of his life, along with the bulk of his personal savings, to himself and to the search for the treasure of the French pirate. And these searches, unlike the vast majority of stories involving searches for pirate treasures, cannot be called fruitless. Work under the direction of Cruz-Wilkins helped to identify an obviously pirate structure in the rocks on the coast of the island of Mahe, which was a stone staircase going deep into the rock with several auxiliary rooms.
The operation to find the treasure acquired considerable proportions: a mini-dam was even built to prevent the excavation site from flooding during high tide.
Cruz-Wilkins discovered many artifacts proving that this structure is of pirate origin - objects, coins, weapons and even a cannon from the 17th - early 18th centuries, as well as several skeletons (apparently unnecessary witnesses to the hiding of the treasure). But the treasure hunter was never able to get to the underground room where the stone staircase leads - he simply ran out of money. The excavation site itself has become one of the local attractions, and Levasseur’s treasure, if it really is located on the island of Mahe, is still waiting for its new owners.
Alexander Babitsky
“Find my treasures, whoever can!” February 10th, 2017
Are you planning a trip to the Seychelles by any chance? But I’m thinking about visiting this place someday. The beaches there are very popular for relaxation, and there you can also find almost the largest pirate treasure in history. Do you think this is all fiction? No, part of the path has already been covered, you just need to continue.
Well, now let's go back to the beginning of this interesting story...
The famous French pirate Olivier Levasseur, nicknamed “La Buse” (OLIVIER LEVASSEUR DIT “LA BUSE”) (translated from French as “buzzard” or vulture) was from Calais. His date of birth remains unknown. There is no information about his family, nor about how he spent his childhood and youth.
Historians draw the vast majority of information about Levasseur from a work entitled “A General History of the Robberies and Murders Committed by the Most Famous Pirates.” This book was written by a certain Captain Charles Johnson and published in London around 1724. Like many things associated with Levasseur, it remains a mystery: there is no historical evidence confirming the real existence of a captain named Charles Johnson. According to one of the most popular versions, the writer Daniel Defoe was hiding behind this pseudonym.
The first information about Levasseur dates back to 1716, when La Buse sailed the Atlantic Ocean with his pirate partner Benjamin Hornigold. In the same year, Levasseur took part in a meeting of pirate captains in the Bahamas, during which it was decided to leave the Caribbean Sea, since it was becoming too dangerous here: the English and French authorities announced a real “hunt for pirates.” After this, Levasseur moved to the shores of West Africa and began to engage in maritime robbery in the Gulf of Guinea in company with Thomas Cocklin and Howell Davis.
Having gone to the Red Sea, La Buse was shipwrecked off the coast of Mayotte in 1720: his ship “Indian Queen” received a hole in the bottom. In the Indian Ocean, Levasseur met the pirate Edward England. They plundered together for some time, until England was removed from his post as pirate captain by John Taylor. He was a very ferocious pirate, whom Charles Johnson describes as follows: “a fellow of the most barbarous disposition, who became a universal favorite among pirates for no other reason than that he was a bigger brute than the rest.”
Taylor entrusted Levasseur with command of the ship Pobeda. In 1721, off Reunion Island, pirates discovered a Portuguese ship that had been badly damaged by a storm. The ship's masts were broken, and most of the guns were thrown into the sea in order to stay afloat during the storm. Of course, such easy prey was immediately captured by the pirates. Imagine their surprise when it turned out that on board were such notable persons as the Viceroy of India, Count Conde de Ericeira and the Archbishop of the Portuguese possessions of Goa, and the ship itself was literally crammed with treasures! According to the testimony of the ship's passengers, there were diamonds alone worth three to four million dollars. In addition, chests with gold and silver, silks, pearls and the richest church utensils were found in the holds.
Having taken a ransom of $2,000 from the viceroy, the pirates landed him and other captives on the island, and they themselves headed to Madagascar. Arriving at the port, they divided the booty among themselves, which was so great that even ordinary members of the pirate crew received 42 diamonds and 5 thousand golden guineas.
La Buse's share was significantly larger. In particular, according to some sources, he received all the church wealth that belonged to the archbishop.
After such a successful raid, many pirates from the crew of Levasseur and Taylor, according to Charles Johnson, “were not inclined to put their necks at risk,” and therefore “ended up with robbery and stayed with their old acquaintances in Madagascar.” Apparently, Levasseur himself decided to settle in Madagascar, taking advantage of the amnesty that the French authorities provided to pirates who wanted to end their life of crime.
But, apparently, ordinary life seemed too bland to Levasseur, and from time to time, he broke anchor to pirate in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
In 1729, Levasseur served as a pilot in the Bay of Antongil, offering his services to visiting European ships. One day he boarded the ship Medusa, which belonged to the French India Company. The captain of the ship recognized the pilot as a pirate and ordered his arrest. After this, Levasseur was taken to Reunion Island and put on trial. The trial passed quickly, and La Buse was sentenced to hang. The sentence was carried out on July 7, 1730.
According to legend, standing at the gallows with a noose around his neck, Levasseur threw into the crowd of onlookers a piece of paper (according to another version, a necklace) on which a cryptogram was depicted, shouting: “Find my treasures, whoever can!” It is unknown whether this was the pirate’s last joke or whether he really wanted to give the key to treasures hidden somewhere, but since then treasure hunters all over the world have been going crazy over the countless riches of La Buse, trying to decipher the pirate’s message.
A hundred million pounds would go to anyone's head. This is the amount that the most optimistic treasure hunters estimate Levasseur’s treasure to be. Against their numerous background, perhaps the most striking victim of the search fever is still considered the former British officer Reginald Herbert Cruise-Wilkins.
In 1948, Reginald Cruise-Wilkins arrived on Mahe Island, the main island in the Seychelles archipelago. He expected to rest there for three weeks, to heal old wounds. But fate decreed otherwise. The ship on which the Englishman was supposed to return home was delayed for three whole months. While passing the time in the port taverns. Cruz-Wilkins became close friends with an unknown Norwegian, a former whaler, who for decades had been carrying around a mysterious cryptogram, supposedly a copy of one of Levasseur’s famous dying messages, unsuccessfully trying to decipher the information hidden in the incomprehensible images. It should be noted here that such copies are not at all exceptional. Every self-respecting treasure hunter has a complete set of pirate maps and ship's logs carefully redrawn from archival sources. True, skeptics question both most of these sources and all kinds of transcripts of pirated recordings. Studying Levasseur's parchments, many note that the famous corsair, in order to be able to create such complex cryptograms, must have had remarkable knowledge in the field of ancient history, astronomy and other sciences. But that's not the point. With the permission of the Norwegian, Reginald redrew the mysterious signs for himself and... forever plunged into the search for the famous treasure.
Soon Reginald became friends with a French couple who had been unsuccessfully searching for pirate treasures for several years. Having gained confidence in the retired officer, the couple showed him many letters and other documents of that era, clearly leading to the coveted gold. After reviewing these documents, Reginald decided to start the business on a grand scale. With all his money, plus the remainder of the savings of new acquaintances, he organized a syndicate to search for Levasseur's treasures. Then he hired workers and began excavating in the place where the map indicated.
signs from Levasseur's cryptogram
Soon, from under the shovels of the workers, a rough stone staircase appeared leading down, which was mentioned in one of the documents. Moreover, on the steps of the stairs, excited treasure hunters saw drawings similar to the images on Levasseur’s parchment. The workers continued to dig out step by step, but then the first surprise awaited Reginald and company: instead of leading to a cave that had been filled in, according to the map, the stairs ran into a dead rock.
There was no rock on the map. However, despite the obstacle that arose, the members of the syndicate were already so confident in the proximity of the treasure that it was decided to get it out of the way by any means. For several weeks the workers hammered, blew up and turned over fragments of blocks, the money melted before our eyes, and the coveted cave still did not appear.
He founded the Levasseur treasure-hunting syndicate, and began further searches for the treasure. After examining the cryptogram, he came to the conclusion that the treasures were on the island of Mahe. Treasure hunters began excavations in the place that they thought the pirate's message pointed to, and soon steps carved into the rock appeared from under the ground, where signs similar to those used in Levasseur's cryptogram were depicted. It seemed that the treasure was already close, but soon the steps ran into a solid rock.
At an urgent meeting of the syndicate, a decision was made: there is nowhere to retreat, fantastic wealth looms ahead, which means it is necessary to build a dam and drain a huge piece of the coastal zone. All participants were confident that the cave was somewhere there, below the water level. In it, according to documents, there are eight coffin-like chests filled with the gold of the Viceroy of India and the diamonds of the Archbishop, and a golden cross is also kept there...
famous Levasseur staircase
At the cost of incredible efforts, the searchers built a dam and even partially pumped out the water, but did not find any cave at the bottom. Reginald asked for more money, just a little, but they no longer believed him, and those who believed were completely ruined. The syndicate disintegrated without achieving its goal.
The former British officer spent twenty years and ten thousand pounds sterling of his own savings searching for Levasseur's treasures. Another twenty-five thousand pounds received from members of the syndicate went there. And here are all the finds made over two decades: a sword blade, a flintlock pistol, the remains of a musket, a wine jug, several small figurines, a cannon and one coin from the time of Charles I.
Today, visitors to Mahe Island can admire the remains of concrete walls half-buried with sand - the dam built by Reginald, the only remaining evidence of the most expensive and most unsuccessful treasure expedition.
Levasseur's grave
sources
Centuries ago, numerous islands of the Indian Ocean served as a haven for merciless pirates. “Gentlemen of Fortune” used their secluded bays to repair ships and relax, and deep caves in the rocks and secret holes in impenetrable thickets served as excellent safes for looted wealth.
Vierge du Cap
Whether pirate treasures are stored on these pieces of land or not, it is difficult to say for sure, but each island is shrouded in one or more chilling legends telling of mysterious maps leading to untold treasures, mysterious tunnels guarded by magical signs, decayed corpses of adventurers and other mysticism .
One of these legends has been driving treasure hunters crazy for many years. We are talking about the treasures of the famous pirate Olivier Levasseur, nicknamed the Vulture, who kept sea travelers and traders at bay for two decades. Historians claim that this filibuster, who at one time captured the Portuguese ship Vierge du Cap, inherited untold riches.
On April 13, 1721, Levasseur and his crew, scouring the ocean in search of prey, came across the Vierge du Cap, which was pretty battered by a storm. The ship's crew was unable to resist the corsairs - after surviving the storm, people fell off their feet, and most of the guns were sent overboard in order to at least slightly keep the huge ship afloat. Having captured the ship almost without a fight and tied up the crew, the pirates rushed into the holds.
Olivier Levasseur was the last of the famous Indian Ocean pirates. Although the British had by then driven out the sea robbers from the West Indies, they still had plenty to gain from the busy trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope to East Africa, India and Indonesia.
Even a superficial estimate of production exceeded bee expectations. For Levasseur and his people, the dream of any filibuster came true - the Vierge du Cap turned out to be a real treasury. Such noble persons as the Viceroy of India, Count de Ericeira, and the Archbishop of the Portuguese possessions of Goa traveled on the ship. Such high-ranking persons, going to Europe, took with them almost all of their fortune. Chests of gold, barrels filled with diamonds, priceless church utensils, among them a golden cross studded with pearls, taller than a man. And all this went to a handful of rootless ragamuffins. The size of the loot is indicated by the fact that during the division, the share of one simple pirate was five thousand gold guineas and forty-two diamonds. Levasseur, according to the testimony of his accomplices, used his captain's share to take all the archbishop's church belongings and hid them somewhere in the Seychelles.
 |
| Levasseur cipher |
Mad money
A hundred million pounds would go to anyone's head. This is the amount that the most optimistic treasure hunters estimate Levasseur’s treasure to be. Against their numerous background, perhaps the most striking victim of the search fever is still considered the former British officer Reginald Herbert Cruise-Wilkins.
In 1948, Reginald Cruise-Wilkins arrived on Mahe Island, the main island in the Seychelles archipelago. He expected to rest there for three weeks, to heal old wounds. But fate decreed otherwise. The ship on which the Englishman was supposed to return home was delayed for three whole months. While passing the time in the port taverns. Cruz-Wilkins became close friends with an unknown Norwegian, a former whaler, who for decades had been carrying around a mysterious cryptogram, supposedly a copy of one of Levasseur’s famous dying messages, unsuccessfully trying to decipher the information hidden in the incomprehensible images. It should be noted here that such copies are not at all exceptional. Every self-respecting treasure hunter has a complete set of pirate maps and ship's logs carefully redrawn from archival sources. True, skeptics question both most of these sources and all kinds of transcripts of pirated recordings. Studying Levasseur's parchments, many note that the famous corsair, in order to be able to create such complex cryptograms, must have had remarkable knowledge in the field of ancient history, astronomy and other sciences. But that's not the point. With the permission of the Norwegian, Reginald redrew the mysterious signs for himself and... forever plunged into the search for the famous treasure.
Optimist Syndicate
Soon Reginald became friends with a French couple who had been unsuccessfully searching for pirate treasures for several years. Having gained confidence in the retired officer, the couple showed him many letters and other documents of that era, clearly leading to the coveted gold. After reviewing these documents, Reginald decided to start the business on a grand scale. With all his money, plus the remainder of the savings of new acquaintances, he organized a syndicate to search for Levasseur's treasures. Then he hired workers and began excavating in the place where the map indicated.
 |
| signs from Levasseur's cryptogram |
There was no rock on the map. However, despite the obstacle that arose, the members of the syndicate were already so confident in the proximity of the treasure that it was decided to get it out of the way by any means. For several weeks the workers hammered, blew up and turned over fragments of blocks, the money melted before our eyes, and the coveted cave still did not appear.
Happiness is near
Finally, the treasure hunters were rewarded for their patience - a mysterious staircase with drawings was again discovered under the blasted stones. However, after a few weeks of work, the searchers faced a new misfortune - the diggers had already hit the sandy shore, and the fatal steps continued and continued, descending under the water, apparently to the very bottom of the ocean.
At an urgent meeting of the syndicate, a decision was made: there is nowhere to retreat, fantastic wealth looms ahead, which means it is necessary to build a dam and drain a huge piece of the coastal zone. All participants were confident that the cave was somewhere there, below the water level. In it, according to documents, there are eight coffin-like chests filled with the gold of the Viceroy of India and the diamonds of the Archbishop, and a golden cross is also kept there...
At the cost of incredible efforts, the searchers built a dam and even partially pumped out the water, but did not find any cave at the bottom. Reginald asked for more money, just a little, but they no longer believed him, and those who believed were completely ruined. The syndicate disintegrated without achieving its goal.
The former British officer spent twenty years and ten thousand pounds sterling of his own savings searching for Levasseur's treasures. Another twenty-five thousand pounds received from members of the syndicate went there. And here are all the finds made over two decades: a sword blade, a flintlock pistol, the remains of a musket, a wine jug, several small figurines, a cannon and one coin from the time of Charles I.
Today, visitors to Mahe Island can admire the remains of concrete walls half-buried with sand - the dam built by Reginald, the only remaining evidence of the most expensive and most unsuccessful treasure expedition.
Also known by the nicknames La Buse(French La Buse, which means “Buzzard”) and La Bouche(French: La Bouche).
| Olivier Levasseur | |
|---|---|
| fr. Olivier Levasseur | |
| Nicknames |
Buzzard La Buse La Bouche |
| Date of Birth | around 1690 |
| Place of Birth | France |
| Citizenship | France |
| Nationality | France France |
| Date of death | July 7(1730-07-07 ) |
| A place of death | Saint-Paul, Reunion |
| Cause of death | Executed by hanging |
| Occupation | Piracy |
| Olivier Levasseur at Wikimedia Commons | |
Biography
Initially carried out raids in the Atlantic Ocean, until British and French authorities decided to end piracy in the Caribbean. This led to the movement of pirates to other regions.
Legend of the treasure
According to one of the legends about pirates [ ], Olivier Levasseur hid one of the largest pirate treasures in history. The legend begins like this: Olivier Levasseur goes to the scaffold. And suddenly, unexpectedly for everyone present, La Buse cries out, “Find my treasures, whoever can!” and throws a cryptogram into the crowd indicating the location of the treasure. Levasseur's cryptogram has not yet been deciphered. The most common version about the La Buza treasure is that it is hidden on one of the Seychelles islands, but the treasure has not yet been found.
In 1947, former big game hunter Englishman Wilkins set himself the goal of finding the treasure of Olivier Levasseur. After many years of studying the facts, he became convinced that La Buse had woven the Greek myth of the twelve labors of Hercules into the cryptogram. Until 1970, Wilkins was searching for treasure and conducting excavations on the island of Mahe in the Seychelles group of islands, located about 1000 km north of
Treasures of the pirate Olivier Levasseur in the Seychelles
In the 18th century, Olivier Levasseur was the last of the famous pirates of the Indian Ocean and he plundered a lot of valuables during his life.
At the beginning of 1730, during another voyage in search of prey near Fort Dauphine in Madagascar, the captain of the French ship "Medusa" Lhermit entered into battle with him. After a bloody battle, the pirate ship was captured and Levasseur was taken to Reunion in shackles.
The hearing at the Admiralty Court was no more than a formality, and on July 17, 1730, Levasseur was hanged. According to a legend that is still alive, Levasseur, when a noose was thrown around his neck, pulled out a sheet of paper and said: “Look for my treasures, whoever can!” - threw it into the crowd. This act was quite in the character of a pirate, but it is not known whether it was a joke or whether he posed a real puzzle to the treasure hunters.
Some historians even say that Levasseur was hanged from the ship's yardarm, which means there simply could not have been a crowd of onlookers around him. But the most ardent supporters of this legend claim that only ordinary members of the crew were hanged on the yards, and he himself was executed on the shore. Olivier Levasseur visited the Seychelles more than once, and it is believed that his countless treasures are hidden there.
Many expeditions went to the Seychelles to look for Levasseur's treasures. From the note he threw into the crowd before his execution, numerous copies were made that were distributed throughout the world in many copies. The main landmarks of the map were encrypted, which means that Olivier Levasseur was not just a pirate and sailor, but also a scholar of ancient Greek mythology. But this is unlikely. The pirate encrypted his card too cleverly, who had never shown his “unique” knowledge anywhere else. Did he really hide them carefully?
So far, searches for treasures in Madagascar, Sainte-Marie, Rodrigues, and Reunion have not yielded any results. And this is yet another confirmation that the legend about Levasseur’s treasure is just a legend.
But not everyone thinks so. Australian journalist Atholl Thomas says:
“Olivier Levasseur hid his treasures so cunningly that they cannot be found simply by picking pebbles on the shore.”
William Loring Esperance Becherel, in 1973, searching for Levasseur's treasure, estimated it at 20 million pounds sterling. Becherel said that his late father showed him the place to search. In a giant pit he dug, 45 meters wide and 15 meters deep, he found the remains of stone structures that were once actually built by pirates. However, Becherel believed that these were not ruins, but a map made of stones indicating the true location where the treasures were hidden. During excavations he also found a skeleton. According to the treasure hunter, these were the remains of a slave who helped bury the treasure and was then killed because he was an unnecessary witness.
Unlike his father, who worked by hand, William Becherel hired ten men with jackhammers, dynamite, powerful pumps, diesel and electric motors. He spent £450 a month on the search, and, as he admitted to one journalist, the further his case progressed, the more money it required. The world media followed the work of this treasure hunter and covered his work. But the treasure hunter never found anything.
In the town of Bel Ombre on the main island of the Seychelles archipelago of Mahe, many still believe that it was here that Levasseur buried his countless treasures, the value of which is already estimated at 100 million pounds!
The English treasure hunter Reginald Herbert Cruise-Wilkins believed that most of the treasures from Levasseur's ship Vierge du Cap were buried in Belle Ombre. And he was so actively searching for treasure there that he turned into a living landmark of the Seychelles for a long time.
In 1949, Cruz-Wilkins created a syndicate there to search for the treasure of the pirate Levasseur. He unearthed the steps of a staircase, crudely hewn out of the rock, which apparently led from an underground cave to the pile of rocks that dominate the approach to the sandy shore of Bel Ombre. Some images were carved on the walls of the stairs, but the entrance to the cave was blocked. Either the bulk of the rocks simply settled over the past centuries, or Levasseur specially arranged this to make access to the treasures difficult.
Over the next twenty years, Cruise-Wilkins invested 10 thousand pounds sterling of his own savings and 24 thousand collected by members of the syndicate in East Africa in the search. By 1972, the cost of the treasure hunt was 35-40 thousand pounds.
Cruz-Wilkins had to move 700 tons of rock from a granite ledge to discover images carved into the rocks that were important for further searches. The beach at Bel Ombre was dug with trenches and tunnels below sea level, and concrete walls were built around them to protect pumping equipment from the waves.
Cruz-Wilkins was firmly convinced that he had found the cave in which the treasure was hidden. But to get there, enormous and dangerous engineering work was done. First of all, it was necessary to build a large dam so that the excavation site would not be flooded by the sea.
As Cruz-Wilkins approached the three stones, which he assumed represented the golden apples of the Hesperides, a huge rock began to slide and nearly crushed him.
As a result of enormous expenses, only a flintlock pistol, carved figurines, an 18th-century wine jug, a cannon and a few coins were found. Cruz-Wilkins believed that he was on the right track and that a fabulous cave would soon open where untold riches lay, but no one else wanted to finance his work. Everyone had already lost faith that Levasseur’s treasure really existed.
Charles de Laroncière, in his book “The Mysterious Pirate,” dedicated to Levasseur, writes: “The discovery of his treasure will one day serve as the epilogue to this story...”
This may be so, but so far no treasure of Olivier Levasseur has been found