Marinduque, pirates, sunken ships, buried treasures atbp

I’ve said before in related posts that most people who grew up here in Marinduque have heard of stories of gusi filled with gold being unearthed by poor, industrious people who must have done a lot of good things in their lives to be worthy of being led by earth spirits to secret spots with treasures hidden. 

There are even more plentiful stories of gold and precious stones disappearing suddenly when finders are about ready to pull them out, then they go crazy. Such finds are just suddenly covered with earth and sand by seemingly mysterious forces, never to be recovered again no matter how hard the finder might try. It is accepted by many that such buried treasures are zealously guarded by spirits, and not many seem willing to dispute that.

Anthropologist Wilhelm Solheim II conducted studies on archaeological finds in Marinduque.

In folklores from the northern part of Marinduque such hidden treasure stories are associated with pirates of old. At least two neighboring villages in northern Mogpog (Silangan and Guisian), attribute the origin of their place-names to treasures once buried there by pirates. 

Gusi, jar. Brgy. Guisian's symbol found at Guisian Elementary School. Ask anyone from this hamlet. he or she'd tell you that the origin of that name is “gusian”, a place where many gusis were buried in the days of our ninuno.

That is to say, stories also related by the French explorer Marche who got intoxicated by his Marinduque finds, about spirits and terrors conveyed to him by local people then, particularly those about caves and their inhabitants, are still very much alive here. One still hears today of spirits coming out of many caves in procession to pay homage to a particular spot in the woods or elsewhere in a castle by the sea. Another is about a golden galleon sailing out to sea then disappearing behind an islet...

Then there are new, exciting claims: “There’s one cave I know, quite far from here”, says one, “very dangerous as it is inhabited by large snakes and very few have ventured to explore it, but there you will find primitive writings, like those early people had their own alphabet.” My eyes opened wide upon hearing that one. Petroglyphs in Marinduque? But who really really knows?

Isuzu Maru sank off the coast of Marinduque on July 2, 1943 - that's almost exactly 77 years ago today!

But going back to pirates, another century or so later, their stories would merge with accounts of Japanese exploits here during the war. One would suddenly find an empty shell of a bomb beneath the shore, uncovered only now by fierce waves caused by a strong typhoon. Then you wonder if that empty bomb shell had anything to do with a Japanese transport ship that sank off the northern coast of Marinduque after it was torpedoed by an American submarine in WW2.

Ashore you might find yourself looking at the blue waters wondering where the ship might have sunk, what cargo she might have carried or might have unloaded before she was torpedoed? Yamashita, donde esta Sta. Claus?

Natural rock formations, signs, whatever. These are just some of the things I saw. Clues? Photo: Eli J Obligacion

Then you turn around. Your mouth agape, noticing something unusual with some of the rock formations in front of you. Could these really have been done by the waves tossing and turning for ages? Or deliberately carved treasure signs out of rocks and stones, by human hands? Cement poured into rocks and stones that formed patterns as future reference?

Signs? Photo:EliJ Obligacion

 Or maybe best and safe it is to just dismiss them all as mere figments of one's imagination. It could never be that easy, you might mutter to yourself, no, no, no, oh, not again?