Sesel Sa! January - March 2015 Jan - March 2015 | Page 70

melting down, or otherwise disposing of, religious
artefacts. Perhaps it was the sensibility of his crew
towards their fabulous hoard that drove the pirates
to then do what (it is reported) they did: conceal the
treasure somewhere along the north-eastern coast of
Mahé, principal island of the Seychelles archipelago.
Seychelles would have been a logical choice
because it was out of the way and made up of over a
hundred islands, among which the pirates could lose
themselves and where countless, treacherous reefs
would confound any pursuing warships.
A telling phrase on a Portuguese map of the period
places La Buse at Bel Ombre on Mahé with the words:
‘Owner of land... La Buse’. Further adding weight
to this hypothesis is that fact that, for a period of
Bel Ombre treasure site

copies found their way into various libraries and
archives in France, La Réunion and Madagascar, where
they slumbered for almost 200 years.
It was not until 1923 that Mrs. Rose Savy, walking
her beachfront property in Bel Ombre, Mahé,
discovered strange markings on the rocks, revealed
after a particularly ferocious storm. With her curiosity
aroused, she then made some excavations which
un