Cocos Island Treasure

  Last night I finished reading Sailing by Starlight, In Search of Treasure Island, by Alex Capus, which one of our thoughtful librarians sent home for me with my fiance the other day. Sailing is a remarkably concise, entertaining, and informative little volume of only 122 pages; in which we are painted a realistic, if not harsh, portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson and his chain-smoking wife, Fanny, as they suffer and flounder in their paradisiacal South Seas estate. We are also introduced to Cocos Island, which is apparently the most mysterious and notorious of all the "Treasure Islands", and given a rich history of not only the scoundrels and pirates who used the place as a sort of home-base while plundering the west coast of South America, but also the descending line of explorers and treasure seekers who fruitlessly excavated the entire island searching for the buried treasure of Lima Cathedral, the most famous lost treasure of all time. I was never aware that Stevenson's Treasure Island had any basis in actual fact, or that he died so young (age 44). Sailing is an enjoyable and educational read for anyone interested in literary history or treasure hunting, or someone who just enjoys reading salty tales of wooden-limbed pirates and plunder on the high seas. Thanks, Rockport Library.