John Oxenham's lost pirate treasure.

[Crow]

Its not often you get to see real documents pertain to buried pirate treasure.


John Oxenham was an English privateer who first came to America under Sir Francis Drake in 1572. From 1576 to 1578 he led a bold expedition to Spanish-held Panama. With support from the local Cimarron runaway slave community, he and his 57 men wintered at Panama, built a ship on the Pacific coast, and in the spring launched a surprise attack on Spanish ships loaded with Peruvian gold and silver. They were eventually pursued upriver and were able to bury some of their treasure. Oxenham and a few of his men fled into the interior and evaded capture for several months, but were eventually captured in Venezuela in 1578.

Here is a detailed file on Spanish efforts to recover this treasure. Oxenham (appearing in the documents in this lot as "Juan de Hoznen") and the others were found with around 5,000 pesos of gold and silver. Agustín de Haro, the accountant of the royal treasury in Panama, was entrusted with the money. Some who had participated in the defeat and capture of the pirates claimed they were owed a share of the treasure for their efforts, and demanded it from Haro. However, the Holy Office of the Inquisition had a legal claim to all of the money. The captured pirates were in the Inquisition''s custody and would be tried in its courts. Because Oxenham and his crew were not Catholics, they were charged with heresy and apostasy, and thus they and their property fell under the jurisdiction of the Holy Inquisition. Haro would not budge, however, claiming that he was given strict orders to not deliver the money to anyone, for any circumstances, until he received orders from the highest authorities claiming otherwise. Haro was eventually jailed for his intransigence.

Official orders regarding the treasure were postponed due to the absence of the comisario of Panama City, Juan Constantino, on missionary work. Haro would die in jail (possibly of suicide) before the comisario could return to resolve the issue. Baltasar de Melo, the tribunal official who collected money and received evidence, complains about the comisario''s persistent absenteeism, and how it indefinitely postponed the resolution of crucial issues surrounding the capture of the pirates: "Es cosa perdida tenerlo aquí por Comisario porque los negocios perecen por su falta y ausencia. ¿Qué poco sirve que vengan de allá mandamientos si no hay acá quien los ejecute?" ("It is a waste to have him here as the commissioner because matters languish as a result of his unavailability and absence. What good does it do to have orders coming from far away if there is no one here to execute them?")

One such issue put on hold was the fate of the pirates themselves--including Oxenham and his sidekicks John Butler ("Juan Buthar/Butlar," known among Spaniards as Chalona) and brother Henry ("Henrrico Buthar"). They had been languishing in their cells, with little progress made on their cases, again because of the comisario''s absence. The pirates (who are mentioned in nearly every document) are spoken of in the present tense (se llaman, or "they are named"), and are mentioned as currently being imprisoned. The above three, who had gained considerable notoriety in the Hispanic world for their previous ventures with Francis Drake ("Chalona" was supposedly renowned for his navigational expertise), are always mentioned by name, along with the maestre "Thomas Jeroes" (Thomas Sherwell). None of the other Englishmen are named, and, curiously, nothing is said of the runaway slaves who avoided execution by being re-enslaved. Authorities eventually received the approval to move Oxenham, the Butlers, Sherwell, and the other more prominent pirates to Lima, where they were publicly executed in 1580. When the texts move forward into the 1580s, the pirates are referred to in the past tense.

The deaths of the pirates and the death of Haro would do nothing to bring back all of the missing wealth. The home of the deceased Haro showed no trace of lost silver and gold, and his estate amounted to little more than worthless "cachivaches y menajes de casa" ("pieces of junk and household items"). As it would turn out, the real reason why Haro refused to distribute the money, and why none of it could be found in his house, was that he had used it. Haro had been lending out the pirate''s loot to several people as far away as Cuzco. Juan de Saracho, another receptor of the Inquisition, petitioned the tribunal to authorize him to side-step the comisario''s absence and collect every last peso of gold and silver from those Haro had lent to. He also asked for the authority to threaten anyone who refused to cooperate with excommunication. Saracho''s petition received approval from the Inquisition in Lima. Soon, he and the other receptor, the aforementioned Melo, ruthlessly demanded the immediate repayment of the loans made with the pirate treasure. While they were able to retrieve much of the money this way, their strong-arm tactics were met with resistance. Included here is a 1583 petition by the family members and descendants of the late Gabriel de Loarte, a leading official whom Saracho and Melo had been targeting, complaining of the harassment. They argued that their father had received the loans from Haro, not them. The last document is a ledger from 1583 showing the enormous amount the two had collected, and the remaining amount, which, for all that is known, may have never been recouped.


So the question remain does some of treasure still remain hidden by the river?

Extensive file on efforts to recover the treasure looted by English privateer John Oxenham in Panama. 46 manuscript leaves plus additional blanks (some with docketing), 12 1/2 x 9 inches, stitched; minor wear and worming. Vp, 1578-83 recently the documents came up for sale sold for 6700 dollars.

The question remains what happened to buried treasure along the river?

Crow

 

[Crow]

Here is more about John Oxenham

In May 1572, John Oxenham joined Francis Drake's expedition to Central America, along with Drake's brothers John and Joseph (both of whom died on the voyage). They left Plymouth with a total of 73 men in the Pasha (70 tons) and Swanet (25 tons), set up an operating base in a creek in the Isthmus of Panama, and raided the Isle of Pines, Cartagena, and Nombre de Dios to divert the attention of the Spanish. With the help of the Cimarrones, they set an ambush on the route for transporting silver across Panama and captured a mule train that was passing during the night. The small guard fled, and Drake sailed back to Plymouth in August 1573 with a significant treasure.

After participating in Drake's successful voyage, Oxenham launched his own expedition to Panama, leaving Plymouth on 9 April 1576 with an 11-gun frigate (100–140 tons, name unknown) and 57 men, and after taking some prizes and prisoners, hid his ship and prizes and proceeded on the Panama mainland. The Cimarrones guided Oxenham and his men across the Cordillera de San Blas to the head of the Chucunaque River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean. During the winter, Oxenham's men and their Cimarron allies felled and milled cedar trees to build a shallow-draft 45 foot, oared boat, that they then floated down the river and into the ocean, making Oxenham the first Englishman to build a vessel in the New World; he wasn't the first to sail in the Pacific as Magellan's master gunner was an Englishman.

The Spanish were taken completely by surprise, not expecting an enemy vessel in Pacific waters, and Oxenham's crew was able to capture two unguarded barques with 160,000 pesetas of silver and gold along with other supplies. However, the Spanish eventually pursued Oxenham up the Tuira River, where trash discarded by Oxenham's men and floating down the river gave them away. Oxenham buried the treasure, but the Spanish eventually recovered most of it.

Oxenham was wounded in the Spanish attack, but managed to escape with a few crew members and survive several months on the run, until the Spanish captured him, and 17 others, who were taken to Panama in 1578; three boys were spared and 12 others were hanged. He was executed by hanging at Lima on 30 September 1580, along with John Butler and Thomas Sherwell, while his former commander, Francis Drake, was himself in the Pacific on his famous raids in the Golden Hind.

The Tuira River is located in the Darién Province of eastern Panama. It flows into the Bay of San Miguel at the province capital of La Palma.
It is the largest river in Panama, and one of its tributaries, the Chucunaque River, is the longest river in Panama. The river starts in highlands of Darien, and runs south/southeast, and then north and west. It runs past villages as it flows downstream including Matuganti, Sobiaquirú, El Balsal, Boca de Cupe, Capetí, Yape, Aruza, Unión Chocó, Vista Alegre, and Pinogana.[4] It meets the Chucunaque River at El Real de Santa María and then flows northwest towards La Palma. Via the Chucunaque, one can reach Yaviza, which is the terminus of the northern end of the Pan-American Highway.

It should be noted not all the treasure looted by the pirates was recovered in a portion still lies along the banks of The Tuira River.

Its tough location to search. But more information can be gleaned from 48 folios to narrow down a search location.

Proverbial needle in haystack

But i have theory they only got far as the saltwater part part of the river. There boat weighed down by treasure they relise they could not carrying the treasure over the mountains through jungle. Some much of it was buried by amazingly not all of it. So in theory the Spanish could missed much.

Still the odds are not great.

But what lost treasure aren't?

Crow

 

[Curiousity]

After 300 years buried in a riverbank...probly sunk so deep that it would cost more getting it out than what it is worth any be lucky to break even or wind up so deeply in debt they never get out of it...🤪

 

[jeff of pa]

or the River Changed course due to Flooding, or time and is now a Distance from the river or under it, Or even Washed out & Scattered for Miles.

a Lot of Detedting area to be covered

 

[Crow]

or the River Changed course due to Flooding, or time and is now a Distance from the river or under it, Or even Washed out & Scattered for Miles.

a Lot of Detedting area to be covered

The area is just too vast to search and covered by dense jungle with hundreds of years regrowth.

So hardly a doable project physically searching for treasure. Perhaps a documentary retracing the steps telling the treasure story.

Crow