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Open Legend · Unsolved

Isla de Mona Caches

1500s, 1699, Mona Island, between Puerto Rico & Hispaniola
COLD TRAIL
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Isla de Mona Caches: still unexplained.

Pirate silver, Kidd's among it, they say

The law of this ground: A Puerto Rican nature reserve, access by permit; digging prohibited.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Pirate silver, Kidd's among it, they say
Last known, where the trail went cold
Kidd's sloop watered at Mona in 1699 on his way to surrender, riding lighter, the stories insist, than she had sailed in.
The account

A waterless rock riddled with caves, set in the busiest treasure lane of the Spanish Main. Portugués hid here; Kidd paused here with a hold he never fully accounted for. The caves have swallowed searchers' lanterns for three centuries and kept their answer.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • Where the trail goes cold: Kidd's sloop watered at Mona in 1699 on his way to surrender, riding lighter, the stories insist, than she had sailed in. That is where any serious search begins.
  • What you are chasing is Pirate silver, Kidd's among it, they say. Work the documented record of Isla de Mona Caches back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore before you commit time or money.
  • The ground: A Puerto Rican nature reserve, access by permit; digging prohibited.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Where the trail goes cold: Kidd's sloop watered at Mona in 1699 on his way to surrender, riding lighter, the stories insist, than she had sailed in. That is where any serious search begins.
  • What you are chasing is Pirate silver, Kidd's among it, they say. Work the documented record of Isla de Mona Caches back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore before you commit time or money.
  • The ground: A Puerto Rican nature reserve, access by permit; digging prohibited.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 18.090°, -67.890° (approx.) View on the Map