Hello Cryptid
You should really expand your horizons a bit more than falling into the academic trope that there is no such thing as buried treasure.
For lack of a better word, I have bookmarked the dozen or so historical sources you posted and will look at them in closer detail later, but I can immediately see: (a) some of them do not relate to pirates, (b) some are ambiguous English translations of Spanish documents, (c) some do not even mention that treasure was buried and (d) one looks like a forgery. I also agree with THE TRUE SEEKER that there is the issue that numerous sources you posted conflate completely different historical persons/groups, motives, behaviours, and eras. For example, the story recorded by the Franciscan friar Agustín de Cevallos in 1610 you quoted about a sergeant-major named Muñoz—is about a 16th century Spanish colonial expedition member. Muñoz was certainly not a pirate but a crown-appointed officer serving the Spanish Monarchy and he never attacked or robbed ships. According to the friars' account, in 1570, Muñoz found gold in indigenous burial places on land (meaning conquistador grave-robbing) and filled two large chests with it and buried or put them under a tree. The Spanish wording in the document:
The following excerpt was taken by photocopy back in the days before smartphones. Taken from Archives des Indes.
it took captain Munoz, sergeant of Perafan Ribera, governor and general captain thas was of Costa Rica, from seculchres that he found one league that entered in the coast, so quantity of gold that filled two big drawers of Castile, and greedy of more wealth, he wanted to enter with 60 soldiers in the inland and leaving buried near a tree the two drawers ...... walking a league, the indians killed several soldiers and he had to embark escaping as quickly as possible and leaving the two buried drawers and all theis soul, and there they are ........
From a letter of father Agustin Ceballos, Granada, Nicaragua, March 10, 1610
AGI (Seville), Section Panama, bundle 17 below
The "buried near [under] a tree" (or a similar) translation of the Spanish text is
found in books but an alternative plausible translation of the words
dej̄ando enterrados Al Pie de Vna ceiba is that the chests were wedged into the massive root buttresses at the base of the ceiba tree or its hollows. The latter makes more sense since the text indicates that Captain Muñoz’s unit was moving quickly inland. Digging a hole large enough to bury two heavy, iron-bound Castilian chests (
cajones de Castilla) amidst the thick, interwoven root system of a giant ceiba tree without heavy entrenching tools would have been extremely difficult and time-consuming. Regardless of whether the chests of gold were buried or left under the tree's root buttresses, the document explains these chests were stashed temporarily because of an emergency. Muñoz stashed the two chests so his unit could travel light while marching inland (
"quiso entrar... La tierra adentro"). When his troops were attacked and forced his retreat back to the sea, he was forced to flee without retrieving the chests so he did not plan to leave the chest for long. This means that the chests were only stashed as a very temporary logistical measure (obviously different to the fictional literary trope of pirates burying treasure). All that said, it is doubtful any of this actually happened. The friar was writing 40-years after the event and was relying on second-hand sources, but if it did happen, it is not even an example of a pirate burying treasure.
Privateer John Oxenham sailed with Sir Francis Drake, raided Spanish ships for gold and silver and was the first Englishman to build a boat in the Americas and to sail the Pacific - before meeting his end in the hangman’s noose. Now, his extraordinary tale, told in a contemporary manuscript of that era which records events from 1578-83, below, please look at the date of the document. September 1578
The 16th century document (the page you showed) does not mention treasure was buried:
Received on September 1, 1578 Most Illustrious Lords On September 1, 1578
Regarding the five thousand pesos of gold from the Englishmen that were seized in Panama.
The Englishmen reconciled by the Holy Office were named: Captain Juan de Hoznen [John Oxenham] = Juan Buthar [John Butler] = also named N. Chalona = and Henry Butler his brother = and Thomas Beroes Master = No. 30.
[Main Body Text:] By order of Your Worships, I was notified that regarding the gold placed in my deposit—taken from the Englishmen who came to this South Sea—so that it might be secured at present, I should turn over 5,000 pesos, to be held in deposit under my care along with a command to [deliver it to] an authorized person until Your Worships should order otherwise. To which I answered as was fitting and appropriate, in full obedience to the mandates of the Holy Office.
After said order, the Royal Audiencia [High Court] of the said city ... certain individuals who owed gold pesos from my said deposit requested them and entered into a lawsuit with the prosecutor in the said Royal Audiencia ... and ordered them delivered. In execution of this, after four months had passed, charges amounting to about 800 pesos of fine gold were demanded of me to pay, under threat of imprisonment.
Having been served regarding this matter, I argued that these funds were granted and held in deposit by order of Your Worships, with strict instructions not to pay them under pain of major excommunication, and that I would answer for them in person or through a representative as someone compliant with the decrees of the Holy Office. I petitioned for a injunction directed to the said Royal Audiencia to remit my case back to the Holy Office.
But the Royal Audiencia, having reviewed the matter and considering the documentation presented regarding the lawsuit I had with Gaspar Pérez, a merchant from New Spain, ordered that I pay it so the mandates would be satisfied without charge. However, it was ordered that the bailiff arrest me, seize my property, and levy the costs of the proceedings upon me. This was carried out, and they have sold the enslaved servants (negros) of my household while I remain imprisoned, as Your Worships will see from the legal records attached.
I beg Your Worships to review this matter and instruct me on what I ought to do, as my intention and desire has always been to serve Your Worships. May Our Lord guard and preserve your Most Illustrious persons and increase your state. From Panama, July 7, 1578.
Most Illustrious Lords, Your servant,[Signed] Diego Madrigal "el Mozo" [or local notary/depositary]
I did look this up, and found the following: Joannes de Laet's
Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien (1630) contains a chapter titled “De voyagie van Ian Oxenham Engelsman” (“The voyage of the Englishman John Oxenham”). The Dutch text says this account was supplied by a Portuguese informant and the
relevant passage (relating to treasure) appears in this chapter. To summarise: the Spaniards followed the English up the Tuira river in Panama and then searched to find a hut where the English had left treasure: “een hutte van tacken ghemaeckt, daer de Engelsche al de schat geborgen hadden”. Translation: "A hut made of wood [branches] in which the English had stored the treasure". They were being pursued by the Spanish so left their treasure behind in a hut. I think you misread a
website. The text at the bottom from this site ("
They were eventually pursued upriver and were able to bury some of their treasure") is not a translation or accurate summary of the document. The earliest dated source to mention that the treasure was buried is
Dottings on the Roadside, in Panama, Nicaragua, and Mosquito by Thomas W. Pim (published in 1869; pp. 167-168 [see below]). It tells the story differently. It states that the Spanish arrived at the place "where the treasure had been provisionally buried". This was not mentioned in the 1630 Dutch source and the variant tale of buried treasure dates to the late 19th century. Similar to the previous source you posted, in both of the Oxenham accounts (1630 and 1869) the treasure was left behind as a temporary or expedient logistical measure in the circumstance of a pursuit, rather than a long-term hiding place intended to preserve wealth for some future recovery. That distinction matters when comparing these sources with the fictional trope of pirates burying treasure for later retrieval for a different purpose. A temporary measure taken is not evidence of broader burial practice.
So are you still convinced that, in your words, all pirate-buried stories are just an invented fictional literary trope of pirates burying treasure that traces back to the 19th century?
Yes. Nothing you have posted refutes that. My view is more or less the academic consensus. One book I can recommend is
Why We Love Pirates: The Hunt for Captain Kidd and How He Changed Piracy Forever (2020) by the scholar Rebecca Simon who emphasises that the popular image of pirates burying chests of gold and drawing maps with "X marks the spot" is purely fictional. She documents that the overwhelming majority of pirate plunder during the Golden Age of Piracy consisted of trade goods—cloth, sugar, lumber, tobacco, and alcohol—which would rot or ruin if buried. Treasure was also divided immediately among crew members as per ship articles and spent quickly at pirate-friendly ports like Nassau or Port Royal. As I noted in a previous comment, most pirates died within two to three years of taking up piracy; they lived fast and spent their money quickly; they had no long-term financial planning or motivation to hoard treasure underground. That said, there are some maritime historians, who as THE TRUE SEEKER points out, have argued that Madagascar was an exception and that pirates there stored treasure for longer periods. However, there is no evidence that pirates in/near Madagascar buried treasure or hid it underground, even if they stored it for longer. The mention of "Buried" in the 1707 pamphlet is an economic metaphor.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Daniel Rolph stumbled upon a mysterious letter written in 1716 about a buried treasure. There is no doubt the note is authentic (shown below), but there are other questions being asked. The biggest ones being, ‘Was the treasure ever retrieved?’ or ‘Is it still there where the letter says it is, waiting to be discovered?’ But for us, the point in question is below. The letter was sent from St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica. This location, along with the timing and contents of the letter, raises suspicions that the treasure is an actual buried pirate treasure! It is well known Jamaica was a favored location of many pirates traveling the seas in the late 17th and early 18th centuries But it is not proof of pirate treasure, although it does show the concept of buried treasure is much older than the 19th-century fictional book trope.
I am aware of this letter but it looks like a forgery. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has no record explaining how the letter entered its collection. A document in a collection like this having no acquisition record is highly suspicious. Its filing card in the collection does not establish ownership prior to entering the collection so it has no provenance before 1996 (when a researcher said they stumbled across it in the collection). To my knowledge, there have been no tests to authenticate the age of the document and ink. There are possible linguistic anachronisms (20th century) in the document as well and these have been discussed elsewhere.
