At last accounts the treasures had not been
reached, and this incident is mentioned only to show how this belief in
buried treasures continues even to the present day.
There is a legend which differs somewhat from the ordinary run of these
stories, and it is told about a little island on the coast of Cape Cod,
which is called Hannah Screecher's Island, and this is the way its name
came to it.
Captain Kidd while sailing along the coast, looking for a suitable place
to bury some treasure, found this island adapted to his purpose, and
landed there with his savage crew, and his bags and boxes, and his gold
and precious stones. It was said to be the habit of these pirates,
whenever they made a deposit on the coast, to make the hole big enough
not only to hold the treasure they wished to deposit there, but the body
of one of the crew,--who was buried with the valuables in order that his
spirit might act as a day and night watchman to frighten away people who
might happen to be digging in that particular spot.
The story relates that somewhere on the coast Captain Kidd had captured
a young lady named Hannah, and not knowing what to do with her, and
desiring not to commit an unnecessary extravagance by disposing of a
useful sailor, he determined to kill Hannah, and bury her with the
treasure, in order that she might keep away intruders until he came for
it.
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