The Lost Treasure of Quebec by Noel Richards

On Grand Isle, a French seignior, Clairveux or Clairieux, who had an elegantly furnished chateau here, is believed to have buried 15 heavy chests of treasure near his home. Two traders found his house burned to the ground one day, and in 1880, treasure seekers combed Grand Isle and found about 150 gold louis d'ors. The huge treasure cache of the extravagant Clairveux has never been found.. When the French patriots were struggling for constitutional liberty in 1837, it is said that many of the wealthier people hid their gold and jewels, caskets, gems and trunks of silver plate under the turf and pavement of the island of Montreal.. In 1747, about a year before the British under General Wolfe laid siege to Quebec, a great treasure of louis d'ors, gold, doubloons, jewels and plate, all said to be worth from $2 - 3,000,000, was placed in the citadel in Quebec for safekeeping by the inhabitants of New France. The Marquis de Montcalm, commander of the French forces, ordered that it all be put in chests and bags and buried somewhere up the river St. Charles near Quebec. The four persons knowing the secret of the location later died without disclosing it. In 1909, while rebuilding a fireplace, the owner of an old dwelling outside Quebec found an 18th century silver box containing a section of parchment directing the finder to a small bay on the river St. Charles. In French, the parchment read: "At the little bay on the river St. Charles, 10 feet up the east bank, you will find buried in plaster, burnt wood, plate and an ingot of silver, and a sheep's skull. Beneath is the secret of great treasure." The men dug down 8 feet and found a wooden box, the sheep's skull and a single bar of silver. Inside the box was yet another parchment which read: "Across the river St. Charles to the wood near a small bay and peninsula, 20 feet NW by N toward a clump of firs, 50 feet deep and set in plaster, our great treasure out of the citadel." They dug down many feet but failed to find anything. In the passage of almost two centuries the small group of fir trees had been transformed into a giant woods, and the property specified had come into the possession of the Roman Catholic Church, so the man and his son finally gave up the quest that had looked so promising. It remains there to this day.. The luxury Iiner Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River near the town of Rimouski, Quebec on May 28, 1914 in 21 fathoms of water. Over 1,000 passengers perished in the sinking. The ship's safe and personal possessions of the passengers were all lost.. The French pirate, Captain Duval, made Perce Rock on the western Quebec shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence his headquarters after the British captured Quebec. When his ship was destroyed by British warships, he collected his plunder and buried the treasure here. At the base are two caverns and from these caves, according to the Indians, a secret passage led to the top of the rock. It was here that the pirate Duval cached his many chests of treasure..