Free Bluenose Ghosts by Helen Creighton

suddenly became prosperous with no rich relation to account for his changed circumstances.
    This also happened at Blandford. Just a few years ago two powder horns full of gold coins were found by two children playing in a quarry at Yarmouth. A chest filled with coins was taken from a stone wall when the Imperial Oil Refinery at Dartmouth was about to be built, and the owners of that property have prospered ever since. A Mochelle field is supposed to have given its pot of gold, and three silver spoons hidden by the Acadians, were dug up at East Pubnico. Men came to Victoria Beach and asked permission to dig on a certain property. They left before daylight, but not before placing two twenty dollar gold pieces on the owner’s gatepost. How much had they taken away that they could afford to be so generous? At Berwick a story is told of a family who came to the eastern end of the Province soon after the Acadians left. They hired a yoke of oxen and a French plough from a neighbour. They were brought up with a jerk as the plough caught in the bail of a huge iron pot.The farmer suddenly realized what it was and sat on the ground to hide it. He said to the boy working with him, “Unhook the oxen and take them home.You can leave the plough where it is. I have a violent cramp in my stomach and when I recover I’ll let you know.” As soon as the boy left he unearthed the pot and with its contents, he and his wife bought a fine house. When they died they left a property worth $12,000. The pot was about two feet across and was kept in the family for many years. The story was told me by the descendants. Other French money was supposed to have been found on Goat Island by men named Delap and Holliday.
    These are just a few instances to show that stories have some basis of fact and are not mere imagination and desire. We would know more if people were not so secretive about their financial affairs. They regard the finding of buried treasure as a personal matter and of course, in the days before there were banks to safe–guard our wealth, it was dangerous to tell that one had it.
    In the preceding stories the extrication of treasure was not fraught with any danger because presumably it had been buried in the normal way. Pirates, however, were not content with this and, to make sure that their booty would have an added safeguard, they turned to the supernatural for aid. Stories in support of this come from all races throughout the whole Province, and are so much an accepted part of their thinking that they deserve considerable attention. Because we have this deep-rooted belief, and because eye-witness stories have been handed down and do not vary, we must acknowledge a custom which could have originated only in a diabolical mind. The following story in explanation of this came from an Indian and had descended through several generations of Micmacs from one of their members whose name was Glode.
    â€œThere used to be pirates around on the south shore of Nova Scotia and one day this Indian named Glode was out in his canoe. He had his little girl with him and when they got to a place where there is a point of land, he saw a ship sailing towards them. They were scared of strangers in those days, so he paddled into a cove and hid his canoe away in the woods.Then he climbed a tree. From there he could see everything that went on, and he watched that ship. It stopped and the pirates on board took down the sails, lowered a rowboat, and four or five of them came ashore. They came straight to that point, chose a spot and started digging. The captain gave the orders. After they got a trench dug big enough, he sent two of the men to the boat for a big chest. After they had brought it up and put it down beside the hole he lined them all up and said,‘Have you got everything ready? Who’s going to keep this money?’ One of them says, ‘Well, the other fellers don’t say much. I’ll look after