The Treasure of Lima is a treasure reputedly removed from Lima, Peru in 1820 and never recovered. Since the 16th century, when Spain defeated the Inca, it controlled Lima. During the next centuries, the Catholic Church gathered a huge treasure in Lima. In the early 19th century, Spain began to have difficulties with its colonies due to wars of independence in South America. Lima was no exception and in 1820 the city came under heavy pressure and finally had to be evacuated. See also Peruvian War of Independence.

In 1820, a Captain William Thompson was ordered to ship the treasure of the church of Lima in his brig, the Mary Dear, to Mexico. It is suspected that Thompson was not able to resist the temptation of the treasure, and he killed the passengers and navigated with his crew to Cocos Island where he buried the treasure. It is estimated that the treasure of Lima was worth the equivalent of US$60,000,000 in today's money. Captain Thompson later joined forces with pirate Benito Bonito and his crew finally arrested when his ship came under attack by a British warship. Under torture the crew all admitted that the treasure had been hidden on Cocos Island. Captain Thompson eventually found himself in Newfoundland, where he died in 1844 under the care of a man named Keating, to whom he revealed the location of the treasure. Keating sailed to Cocos Island where he got into trouble with his crew but was able to flee with a small amount of gold. Since that time, hundreds of treasure hunters have travelled to Cocos Island and tried to find the Treasure of Lima. One of the most notable was the German August Gissler) who lived on the island from 1889 to 1908, but none ever succeeded in even finding the smallest amount of treasure.

Nevertheless, the legend of the treasure on the Cocos Island continues to attract dozens treasure hunters each year.

Stevenson theory

The Swiss author Alex Capus suggests, based on inquiries of Walter Hurni, that Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, found the treasure of the church in Lima around 1890. Despite his episodic ill health, Stevenson shipped for two years from North America to Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean. After arriving there, he seemed to have undertaken a few mysterious sailing tours with unknown destinations. Capus discovered, and he assumes that Stevenson must have found out the same, that the of Tafahi near the Samoa island of Upolu (where Stevenson was living at the time), was called Coconut Island (or Cocos Eylant) at the time Captain Thompson was living and not many people at that time knew the island existed. Shortly after his arrival in Samoa and his mysterious sailing tours, Stevenson became rich and built a large and expensive mansion in Samoa (Vailima) and none of his relatives ever had to work for their living again. Stevenson died from a stroke just four years after his arrival. Stevenson was a successful author who continued to publish works and received substantial royalties from his works which by themselves could account for his wealth.

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