The crew didn’t know where the treasure chamber would be. “He broke up his crew in groups of 20 men, my father thought. The pirate then disappeared and is believed to have hidden his treasure on the Seychelles island of Mahé. There were extra shares for the officers,” John said. “There was a share out each pirate got 42 diamonds and 5,000 gold guineas a piece. The pirates quickly fled to their headquarters in Madagascar with the British Navy in hot pursuit, and the booty was divided between the crew. According to John, a historian described it as ‘a floating treasure house, believed to consist of gold and silver bars, precious stones, uncut diamonds, guineas, church plate and goblets.’ Levasseur, who had no idea what was on the ship, was astonished with the haul. They landed 250 men on board and killed the crew. In 1721, Levasseur and his associates – then with 750 pirates over three ships – came across a Portuguese galleon flying British colours, Nossa Senhora do Cabo, in the port of La Réunion, then called Bourbon Island. But within a few months, Levasseur turned to the more lucrative career of pirating. 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. His is a story of hope and of never giving up, despite the odds. Even after all these years of searching, he was still the storybook boy hero armed with his backpack and treasure map, trying to piece together the puzzle. His eyes twinkled and his smile was infectious.
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 couldn’t help but root for.
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