MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Expedition claims discovery of Robinson Crusoe's treasure

Members of a Chilean expedition believe they have found Robinson Crusoe's legendary hidden treasure of jewels and gold coins dating back to XVIII century with an estimate value of 10 billion US dollars, reports the Chilean press.

"We're in the threshold of having before us the revelation of a reality or a marvellous dream", said Valparaiso Mayor Luis Guastavino.

Seven hundred kilometres west from Valparaiso the Robinson Crusoe island belonging to the Juan Fernandez archipelago, was a refuge for pirates that crisscrossed the Pacific and according to legend Spanish navigator Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverría hid a fabulous treasure.

Legend also recollects that the treasure was unburied and taken to another island by the English navigator Cornelius Web, but nobody, so far, has been able to prove it.

However members of an expedition organized by the Wagner company, equipped with a sophisticated robot that detects metals and determines their chemical composition, believe they have found the place, said attorney advisor Fernando Uribe Echeverría.

"It's the greatest treasure ever found", said Mr. Uribe Echeverria who advanced that excavations will begin as soon as they are awarded the authorization.

The 600 people island, part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, managed by Chile's Forestry Department is a national park and world biosphere reserve.

Gaston Correa local representative of the Chilean Forestry Department said that the Wagner company must first present a search project before it's authorized to excavate.

This is the second expedition searching for Robinson Crusoe's treasure in the last eight years, following the 1998 attempt with a group of American associates under Dutch citizen Bernard Kaiser. The search at the time concentrated to the north-east of the island in an area identified as English port.

The new expedition monitored to the north west of the island where apparently the metal detector robot revealed the "atomic composition of each of the elements", which could be "tons of jewellery and gold", said lawyer Rodrigo Irrazabal.

One of these legends inspired English writer Daniel Defoe who in 1729 wrote the novel "Robinson Crusoe", based on a Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk which was completely abandoned in the island and rescued five years later in 1704.