The legendary gold of the pirates
Where is Treasure Island from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel of the same name? Cocos Island, an old pirate nest off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, is considered by many to be the template. It was there that Ina Knobloch caught treasure fever when she landed on the island in 1988 while researching for a travel guide.
For two decades she rummaged through archives around the world and set off on further expeditions to Cocos Island. The results of her now-documented research shed a different light on Stevenson's classics and put her on the trail of one of the greatest pirate treasures of all time-the Church Treasure of Lima.
Could Stevenson also be inspired by the hunt for gold on Cocos Island? In the USA, expeditions to the island during the second half of the 19th century madeCentury headlines and should not have escaped the author, who worked as a journalist in San Francisco around 1880. In fact, Knobloch came across astonishing correspondences to the historical sources and even tracked down an alleged key to the treasure's hiding place.
The author is a botanist by training. Maybe that's why she succeeds in presenting the natural wonders of Cocos Island so vividly to the reader. Above all, however, Knobloch is a good storyteller – her lively language images awaken a longing for adventure; she easily bridges the gap between traditional facts and South Sea legends.
And the treasure? It's still on Cocos Island, Knobloch is convinced of that - although she can't show any gold. Because the targeted search for hidden treasures is now forbidden on the island.
If you consider the sad fate of many a fortune-teller, who paid for his thirst for gold with his life, it remains true for the time being: "The treasure and the island brought luck, fame and fortune to only one person: Robert LouisStevenson."
