It’s no secret that there is little of substance about “La Buse” (the pirate captain Olivier Levasseur) on the web. Errrm… or anywhere else, to be brutally honest.

One of the few good places is photographer Yannick Benaben’s website, where he has posted up a set of pages called Sur les Traces du Trésor de La Buse Entre Histoire et Légendes Insulaires. This is a mixed bag of “La Buse”-related threads, some of them genuinely historical (which is good), but also a lot of fairly empty cryptogram-based speculation too (which is… not quite so good).

Regardless, I’m happy to recommend his set of “Sur les Traces…” pages as a genuinely useful resource covering the Indian Ocean phase of La Buse’s piratical life (as long you don’t inhale the cipher speculations part of it too deeply).

“Les Diamants de Goa”

However – and this is where it gets confusing – Yannick has also published an online story called Les Diamants de Goa. This has a (fictional) underwater archaeologist called “Francesca Verrazone” working at a (fictional) French underwater archaeological institute in Marseille, albeit one that sounds a great deal like (the very real) Marseille underwater archaeological institute DRASSM, which is indeed one of the first (real) places you’d go if you were looking for an underwater site in French (or formerly-French) territorial waters.

Yannick’s story has his (fictional) Verrazone arrange a (fictional) conference to air her (fictional) theory about the Nossa Senhora do Cabo, the (real) treasure-filled ship that La Buse captured. He then has a whole load of (fictional) marine archaeologists go and look for it: and so it all proceeds.

But though he seems to have enjoyed this writing (I suspect he had the film rights at least half in mind), the piece has ended up unfinished, stranded precariously on the water’s edge of his website. And people (particularly those who rely heavily on Google Translate, I expect) find links to his story high up in their La Buse search results and conclude it must be just as true as the “Sur Les Traces…” pages, when it’s in fact no more than a frippery.

As a result, you have to be very careful as to which “tree” of pages you’re looking at (i.e. the “Sur Les Traces…” set or the “Les Diamants de Goa” set), because while the former is largely factual (though laced with cipher speculation), the latter is simply made up – a bit of cipher-themed fun.

This difficulty becomes most apparent when Benaben’s (fictional) narrative deals with the captured treasure ship…

The ‘Nossa Senhora do Cabo e São Pedro de Alcântara’

There are plenty of things we can say for certain about this (very real) ship. The Nossa Senhora do Cabo e São Pedro de Alcântara (or ‘Nossa Senhora do Cabo’ for short):
* was built in Amsterdam in 1710 and called the ‘Zeelandia’ or ‘Gelderland’;
* was a two-deck 2nd rate ship of the line with 72 guns;
* was bought by Portugal in 1717 and renamed ‘Nossa Senhora do Cabo e São Pedro de Alcântara’;
* entered service in August 1717;
* having survived a terrible storm, was captured in port by Olivier Levasseur (“La Buse”) in 1721;
* subsequently disappeared without a trace (presumed sunk).

(Note that because people writing about La Buse tend to be French, the ship’s Portuguese name tends to get Frenchified into “La Vierge du Cap”.)

In Yannick’s story, however, he has his (fictional) marine archaeologist refer to the (real) “Grande Panorama de Lisboa” (a huge set of tiles depicting Lisbon around 1700):

grande-panorama-de-lisboa_sec-xviii

He has Verrazone (fictionally) assert that a (real) ship (genuinely) drawn near the front of the tiles is the Nossa Senhora do Cabo:

detail_azulejo

As you have probably already worked out from the above, this cannot actually be the Nossa Senhora do Cabo: the tiles were drawn before 1703 (because that was when the artist died), while that ship was not built until 1710, and did not arrive in Lisbon until 1717. Also, while the ship depicted does have two decks, it only seems to have ~44 cannon (rather than 72): the real Nossa Senhora do Cabo was a substantially bigger beast.

(Perhaps someone else will be able to find out what this ship depicted actually was, because there wasn’t anything on the 3decks website that seemed to match: doubtless a plucky Portuguese historian has already trawled through many more fleet descriptions to do precisely this.)

The First Cryptogram

My current understanding is that the first “La Buse” / “Le Butin” cryptogram – the one that Charles de la Roncière wrote about in his 1934 book “Le Flibustier Mysterieux” (and how I’ve tried to get a copy of that book, but without success) – has not been sighted since 1934.

(And for what it’s worth, I still fail to see how this has anything to do with La Buse.)

However, following an exchange of comments on Klaus Schmeh’s recent page on La Buse, I received what seemed to be a low resolution version of a photo of the real first cryptogram (“crypto_musee_2004”). Looking at the EXIF data attached, it was (c) Yannick Benaben and dated 2004:07:18 13:10:30.

cryptogramme_musee

When I then trawled through the Wayback Machine, the only place that this appeared on Yannick’s site was at the bottom of the ‘Préambule’ section of his (fictional) “Les Diamants de Goa” web pages. It therefore seems – unless someone can prove otherwise – highly likely to me that Yannick mocked this up for the purposes of his “Les Diamants de Goa” story sometime before 1st Sep 2009.

The Second Cryptogram

Going forward a little in (Wayback Machine) time to 16th October 2011, we find that Yannick has replaced the (presumed mocked-up) image of the first cryptogram with an image of the second “La Buse” cryptogram, the one which Emmanuel Mezino wrote an entire book about (but which I don’t believe is genuine).

As far as I know, this would have been the first public sighting of this second cryptogram.

cryptogramme_la_buse

Now here’s the curious thing. If we look closely at the ship on the second cryptogram identified as “La Perle” (of which Manu very kindly sent me a close-up copy), we see something rather odd:

1756973360

What is arguably far too coincidental is that the back of “La Perle” is almost exactly the same as the back of the ship drawn on the Grande Panorama:

ship-comparison

My Conclusion

I didn’t believe that the second cryptogram was real before, and now I really don’t believe it all. To be precise, it seems extremely likely to me not only that Yannick Benaben mocked up the image of the first cryptogram, but also that he was the person who created the whole second cryptogram. He had the means, opportunity, and – crucially – the motive to do it.

…unless anyone knows better?

46 thoughts on “Yannick Benaben and the fake “La Buse” cryptogram…?

  1. Diane on March 29, 2015 at 1:14 pm said:

    Nick, according to my favourite easy reference on this sort of thing, it was usual in the 17thC (and 18th and 19th) to put the ship’s shield or other distinctive insignia at the stern.
    The two examples you’ve shown are not identical. One has a shield with three whos-its on it, while the other shows a kneeling(?) figure with hands upraised. I’m reminded of the old Roman figures depicted with billowing veil or shawl (velificatio – and it has a w/ki entry too) .

    This would connect pretty well with the ship’s name, I suppose. Nossa Senhora do Cabo. Though I’ve not seen any images of the Madre di Dios very like the back of the ship.
    My reference, btw is Bjorn Landstrom, The Ship: an illustrated history (1961) and it really is well illustrated, with detail that publishers can’t afford to include now. Fine drawings of the sheets, cross-sections of the hulls, coloured plates and all the rest.

    Would like a larger pic of the emblems.

  2. Diane on March 29, 2015 at 1:26 pm said:

    Oh – it is/was a tradition of the sea that when a ship is lost it is ‘reborn’ as soon as possible. So where you say
    “this cannot actually be the Nossa Senhora do Cabo: the tiles were drawn before 1703 (because that was when the artist died), while that ship was not built until 1710, and did not arrive in Lisbon until 1717.”

    She may have been given the name of that earlier ship as its ‘rebirth’.

  3. Diane: they’re not identical, but they are very similar indeed. As I recall from the ship-related books I have here, it was unusual to mount a bottom row of cannon to defend the back of a ship: pirates often added them in to defend themselves. So I think that this is an unusual shared feature of these two ships.

  4. Diane: according to the various ship sites I have looked at, the Nossa Senhora do Cabo (etc) was the first (and very probably last) ship given that lengthy name.

  5. Diane on March 29, 2015 at 3:16 pm said:

    The ships are similar as you say. The shield on the one is very different from the figure on the other. Both options were apparently popular and are pictured often. In the book cited earlier, p.166 shows (#376) a ship with four guns in the stern, and a shield above showing three fleur-de-lys. The supporters are not two lions as in your sketch (left), but two figures – perhaps heraldic “Indians” rather than titans. The ship is not named, oddly enough, but since the picture was taken from [I quote] so-called “Atlas de Colbert” from 1664-1669.[unquote]. I expect you’ve already checked that out, though. 🙁

  6. Diane on March 29, 2015 at 3:25 pm said:

    G/pics will or may show you a picture of the ship with the four guns at the back and fleur-de-lys shields – search “Poupe-Atlas Colbert”

  7. bdid1dr on March 29, 2015 at 5:03 pm said:

    Am I seeing things (clues) which may be significant? The shape of the manuscript (parchment?) bears a faint resemblance to the Spanish/Portuguese continent. The straight-edged tab which appears on the ‘east’ side most likely was for rolling the map’s left edge fairly tigtht and then tying it closed with the tab.
    The language of the chart/map is Portuguese (?) The language of the Catalan Atlas is Spanish. The language of the “Voynich map’s Nine Rosettes”, ” Magic Circles”, etc. is Espanol and Nahauatl.
    If you are interested in ‘seeing and believing’ the story of the discovery of the “Nuestra Senora de la Atocha” Spanish treasure ship (gold and emeralds) you might like to visit Mel Fisher’s museum (Key West) Florida.
    A sad part of Mel’s treasure hunt was the death of his son and daughter-in-law, when the dredge boat capsized during a fast-moving storm passing through the area.
    The reason I’ve mentioned Mel, a couple of times now, is that he spent many months/years researching the Spanish historical records of New Spain, Hispaniola, Bahamas, Cuba, and Florida Keys .
    Besides Piri Reis, there were pirate ships tracking the Spanish (and Portuguese) treasure ships and the African slave trading ships (El Mina was a slave-trading post, as well as the trading post for the Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Palm Oil, and Bronze work.
    So, I wonder how much the “Catalan Atlas” (Cresques Abraham was of Jewish descent) displays benign travel activities as compared with treasure mining and enslaving of native populations ‘everywhere’.
    :-^

  8. bdid1dr on March 30, 2015 at 1:04 am said:

    I’m not sure if Mel (Fisher) ever got a-round-tuit as far as trying to locate ships from Portuguese ports (Queen Isabella was Portuguese). He did eventually locate the “Atocha”s sister ship. Because much of Mel Fisher’s ‘treasure’ was heavily taxed by the State of Florida, and the continuous pressure for him to produce more, I seem to remember that he still has a ‘museum’ (in Key West, I think).
    When I was living in Cayo Hueso, and working in the small bookstore, men from Mel’s diving team would occasionally drop by to pick up their Sunday edition of the “New York Times”. They would be wearing a heavy-link chain with a Spanish doubloon appended.
    Key West was also famous for the green turtle “kraal”. They still had a few green turtles in the ‘corral’. The turtles were hunted for their meat and ‘tortoise shell’.
    While I’m writing this note, I am looking at my antique (Victorian) ‘feather’ fan (which was made of turtle shell and white egret feathers). The egrets rode the winds from Africa to Cuba, Key West, Bahamas, and Tortugas.
    Another ‘scary’ memory is when “South Beach” was invaded by a “Portuguese Man O’ War” deadly jellyfish. The only way we were able to relieve the little boy’s agony was by wiping with sand and powdered meat tenderizer (from nearby restaurant) — a final rinse of orange juice.
    Those were the days my friends……….
    bdid1dr

  9. Diane on March 30, 2015 at 3:03 pm said:

    sheer poetry, bd. Thank you.

  10. bdid1dr on March 31, 2015 at 12:12 am said:

    Now back to the puzzle:

    Figures of the sun and the moon (with 12 dots & 5 stars) ?
    Dis-proportionate banner with a crowned figure-head — the ‘banner’ seems to be considerably larger than the sheets/sails. Would any ‘rogue or pirate’ ship be approaching any other ships this close to the harbor/mooring?
    The only historic sea-battle that I can recall being discussed anywhere near an armed harbor was Le Ponto ( (Venice?)
    Maybe I’ wa-a-ay off course?

    bd

  11. bdid1dr on March 31, 2015 at 4:14 pm said:

    Battle of Le Ponto: Turk attempt to capture Cyprus and resulting Naval battle with the Pope’s Venetian fleet. If one should find a flag on the Turk’s ship (‘sickle moon — and maybe some stars, well……)
    ?

  12. bdid1dr on April 2, 2015 at 12:28 am said:

    A very good website which discusses in depth the Spanish War History (The Battle of Lepanto, especially discusses the new design of the Italian battleships: called galleasses) which the attacking Turk ships mistook for supply vessels.
    The website is titled The Spanish War History.
    http://www.spanishwars.net/16th-century-battle-of-Lepanto.html
    Fascinating!
    A beautiful full-color painting of the Battle of Lepanto can be found on wikipedia — large blue banner and all.
    😉

  13. Vahana on April 2, 2015 at 1:22 pm said:

    For thoses who can read French, I found 3 free chapters about Olivier Levasseur on this page below… Looks like a treasure hunt about him. Ain’t read all of it yet.
    http://Www.letresordelevasseur.com

  14. bdid1dr on April 3, 2015 at 3:20 pm said:

    So, if one were to be able to see both ends of the ships being portrayed (manuscript and tile display) and if both ends of the ship have cabins, and if between the cabins are rowing oars, and cannon ports above the rowers gallery — we would be viewing paintings of galleases rather than galleons. Less maneuverable, probably, but they were mistaken for supply ships by the Turks. Le Ponto — what a mess!
    bdid1dr

  15. bdid1dr on April 3, 2015 at 8:04 pm said:

    Since when, historically, did pirate ships fly the skull and bones?
    Besides Piri Reis being beheaded on his return to Suleiman’s court (dereliction of his duties as Naval Commander), I wonder what Selim I’s reaction was to his fleet’s failure to take Cyprus (Battle of Le Ponto)?

  16. Diane on April 3, 2015 at 9:29 pm said:

    bdid1dr,
    The origin of the flag is very interesting. When I looked into it some time ago, it seems to derive from a very ancient idea about what lay beneath the depths – then mutated through semitic languages it became.. the arca of the beloved became that of David (which means ‘the beloved’ in Hebrew) hence, the English ‘Davy Jones locker/chest’. But because the seamen were rather keen on Roger in Sicily, they adopted a flag with that motif, while naming it the ‘Jolie Roger’. Other versions show the whole skeleton. The same figure actually appears, slightly altered, in several early Venetian water-marks.. and that’s a whole interesting story on its own.

    It’s the sort of thing people like to argue about, so I shan’t be surprised if you get more comment on this.

  17. bdid1dr on April 4, 2015 at 4:56 pm said:

    Well, another interesting thing I read yesterday: apparently the Ottoman ships had Janissaries aboard (at Le Ponto, anyway). From previous reading, I understood that the Janissaries were the elite marching soldiers (kidnapped when just young boys, and trained for hand-to-hand combat).
    If you take a good look at the painting of the battle of Leponto, you will be able to find the “mother-ship” (galleon with elaborate goldwork lantern). Many ships with the double-headed eagle and/or crosses.
    What puzzles me the most is a large structure which displays a blue ground with dark circle and gold rays and ‘stars’ —–near right of mid-center of the painting.
    To the right of that structure is another blue structure (with stars and sickle moon) which appears to be belching fire and thick smoke.
    Marvelous painting; Not a Jolly Roger in sight.

    Still beady-eyed, and still 1-dring !

  18. bdid1dr on April 4, 2015 at 9:06 pm said:

    Nick, are you acquainted with a young writer named Jason Goodwin ? When I finish reading his book “Lords of the Horizon” – A History of the Ottoman Empire” , I shall be hunting down copies of two of his other books: “The Gunpowder Gardens”, and “On Foot to the Golden Horn”. Fascinating . According to his brief bibiliographyl/biography, he is/was living in West Sussex.
    The copyright page indicates that “Lords of the Horizon” was first published in Great Britain by Chatto and Windus.
    🙂

  19. bdid1dr on April 5, 2015 at 5:10 pm said:

    Goodwin also writes about ‘Cigalazade’ Yusuf Sinan Pasha, Kapudan Pasha, Ahmet Koprulo (Crete-Candia sieges in mid 1600’s).
    I’ll be doing some more look-ups/follow-ups of Ellie V’s favorite Pope (an orphan from Crete, if I remember correctly). All of this business of sea-going vessels seemed to be involved in acts of aggression rather than ‘business as usual”. ?????
    😉

  20. bdid1dr on April 7, 2015 at 4:16 pm said:

    ps: While doing some more research online, I came across another graphic of the battle of LePonto: Identical painting, but reversed in presentation.
    So, if you download a copy of the painting, would you be able to identify the side-by-side structures (one with large blue banner/cover, and the other belching puffs of smoke (St. Anthony’s fire, or cannon-ball trajectory)?
    There is mention of Cervantes and his book “Don Quixote”.
    bd-id-1-dr

  21. bdid1dr on April 11, 2015 at 1:54 am said:

    Correction to my reference to Galleasses: The cannon ports were beneath the rowers’ ports. Most important issue of how to shoot cannons and not destroy the oars: synchronicity required the rowers to raise their oars before the cannons were fired.
    bdid as ever !

  22. bdid1dr on April 14, 2015 at 3:16 pm said:

    Yesterday my husband brought home to me a book by Donald P. McCrory: “The Life and Times of Miguel de Cervantes”

    First off, I indexed any reference to Le Ponto — some 15 items, which I will be reading .Also several portraits of the Spanish Naval Commanders and officers. Another item of interest is a photo of a tapestry by Cornelio Vermeyen, portraying the conquests of Tunis (1573) and La Goletta (1574).
    The publisher of this book is Dover Publications, Mineola New York.
    So, I’ve got some homework to do (NOT housework) ; fascinating!
    Beady-eyed reader (who has been clocked at reading 820 WPM with 98 % memory retention — some 35 years ago.
    😉

  23. bdid1dr on April 14, 2015 at 8:09 pm said:

    So, further and faster reading of McCrory’s “Life and Times of Miguel de Cervantes” has revealed to me that there were two battles of “Le Panto” some 90 years apart.

    So, a brief recap/excerpt of the three types of galera (warship) (from Donald P. McCrory’s “No Ordinary Man” (page 57):

    ‘the galeaza (battleship) by far the biggest with its cumbersome sails; such impressive craft were manned by galley-slaves (forzados).

    This is the best I can do for online discussions and photos:

    Battaglia Leponto in Vaticano – Battle of Lepanto – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    and: Lapanto_formation.png (443×512)

    Fascinating and exciting !

    I’m pretty sure you understand my topspeed reading efforts with only one eye which nerve pathway to my brain was intact.

    (good thing I can touch-type 65-70 wpm — or I’d never get this post posted ‘sometime today’ !
    beady 😉

  24. bdid1dr on April 20, 2015 at 5:05 pm said:

    A tout a l’heure !

  25. bdid1dr on April 21, 2015 at 9:48 pm said:

    An excellent book y’all might enjoy reading just for another look at the piratical prisoners’ prison (bagnio) in which a badly injured Miguel de Cervantes spent five years (Algiers/Barbary Coast).
    Author Donald P. McCrory: ‘No Ordinary Man’ – The Life and Times of Miguel de Cervantes
    😉

  26. bdid1dr on April 24, 2015 at 3:18 pm said:

    Another piratical point of view: Apparently it wasn’t just Ottomans who flayed prisoners alive and cut off their heads and displayed the stuffed skins and heads on spikes. Perhaps the pirates symbol had more meaning than just mentioning ‘Davy Jones Locker’?

  27. D.N. O'Donovan on April 26, 2015 at 8:36 am said:

    I think that the ‘skull’ was originally an alternative way to refer to the same three southern stars which mark South on the Voynich map. (sorry to cross-link the separate themes).

    For clarity, though, here’s the post where I described the latter:
    https://voynichimagery.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/fol-86v-emblems-of-direction-south-and-east/

  28. bdid1dr on April 26, 2015 at 2:44 pm said:

    Southern Cross — brightest constellation in the Southern Pacific sky. I danced the tamure with with new friends while visiting Papeete Tahiti. Almost got a tattoo too. Took one look at the tatoo-er’s toolkit and chickened out.
    When the dance performance group toured the US about a year later, I met them at the back door after the show. I had a handful of photos to give them. They were flabbergasted: no tourist had ever gifted them with photographs of themselves. I went home with a pile of leis on my shoulders.
    BTW: Sometimes ‘Crux’ is confused with another star formation called “The Swan”.
    beady-eyed as ever, but still enjoy viewing the night skies above our mountain perch.

  29. 🙂 Lol. Yannick Benaben didn’t create the second cryptogram. Ask him he will confirmed. This cryptogram is in the hands of a family which found some treasures in Indian Ocean during the 20th century… because they are in possession of “Butin Nagéon de Lestang” papers since a long time.

    You have to know that this family works with Charles Bourel de La Roncière around the 30’s and 40’s…this family is La Roncière’s source…

    Wanna some news of “Scutum” Nick ? 😉 Mail me !

  30. vayid on June 23, 2015 at 8:58 am said:

    whoeve create the cryptogram it do locate a site in reunion.To confirm it the DAC OI must approved

  31. @ Vayid : The DAC OI will give his answer in a few weeks 😉

  32. And just know that thys cryptogram also refeers to other site. You’ve got one site in Réunion, but read Le Clezio “Le chercheur d’or) you will understand that the site described by the author has a link with the cryptogram. But the treasure in Rodrigues was already found, probably in the end of 18th century. Have a good day 😉

  33. CptEvil on September 5, 2015 at 7:37 am said:

    I have been fascinated of the question whether this cryptogram (which you refer to as the second) is real or fake for a long time. I fully agree that there are many signals for the latter, but are there any proofs?

    Some clues that I have struggled with:

    First, we have the last additional lines. These most probably say:
    un bon verre dans l’hostel de le veque dant(S)
    le siege du diable r(Q)uarar(N)te siz(X) degrès
    f(S)iz(X) minutes deuz(X) fois
    pour celui qui le decouvrira
    juillet mil sept cent (T)rente
    la buse

    Translating these lines into English reads:
    a good drink in the hostel of the bishop in
    the seat of the devil forty six degrees
    six minutes twice
    for the one who finds out
    july one thousand seven hundred and thirty
    la buse

    Does this sound familiar? I understand you have read Poe. These lines reminds of the cryptogram in the Gold Bug. But note that the word ‘siege’ – seat, is not translated that way in the French translation of the book, instead the word ‘chaise’ is used.
    So, most likely the creator of the cryptogram was inspired by Poe, and perhaps as a joke. But then, did he not read the French translation of the book? (Perhaps the creator wasn’t French?)
    But, the big ‘but’ here is that there is another possibility. Poe could actually have been inspired of this particular cryptogram, assuming that it is not a fake. He was very interested of cryptography and he made readers submit cryptograms to him. Unlikely – yes, but I am looking for evidence.

    Secondly, also referring to the last lines. Have a look at the mistakes. Especially Z vs X. Why would anyone continuously make these mistakes? The answer is that it is not that obvious how to place the last letters in the pig-pen crosses. Interestingly the author (Ronciere?) of the key – ‘alphabet du forban’ made another interpretation than the author of this cryptogram. This means that the author of the key was not aware of this (second) cryptogram. If he had seen it, he would have interpreted Z differently. On the other hand, if you were about to make a fake, why not use the widely spread key?

    Third, the drawing of the treasure chests are very similar to the ones made by Pyle. But, again no proof; who inspired who?

    And last, the date in the last lines. July 1730. At this time La Buse was imprisoned on Bourbon. Could he really have made this cryptogram out of his head? And sketching the detailed map of the West Indies?

    So, I mostly agree with your thoughts. However not really with your conclusion. I am sceptic of pointing out Yannick as the creator. I think we need to look for the answer further back in time. (Actually I don’t follow your thoughts at all, I see nothing that points in that direction, but this is not on my focus to discuss.)

    Anyway, I would be happy to discuss this further and perhaps with joined forces be able to determine the truth of this (second) cryptogram. Btw, I like the effort with the map on the other page.

  34. CptEvil: studying the map part closely has changed my view of the second cryptogram.

    I think the important thing to begin with is that, because the inherent optimism of treasure hunters makes them prone to telling / believing tall tales, we don’t have any reliable provenance to deal with here: and given that the first reliable sighting was by Yannick Benaben as part of his La Buse fiction, my first suspicion was that Benaben might well have been the genuine source, rather than La Buse himself.

    However, I now think that the internal evidence of the second cryptogram points us to a middle way: that the second cryptogram was assembled from a pile of fragments that had been linked by tradition to La Buse, and that this assembly process took place at least several decades after his death.

    I therefore believe that the first 17 lines were from a genuine cryptogram (though one actually unconnected with La Buse), but that the final few lines were added during that process of assembly, to try to solidify the link with La Buse (your observation about X/Z seems to support this). So the cryptogram as we see it is a genuine 17-line one, with a fake ending appended by the person or people making that assembly. So the second cryptogram would seem to me to be part genuine, part hoax: which is a tricky piece of historical logic to be deducing.

    Moreover, my attempts at a cladistic / stemmatic analysis of the two versions of the cryptogram (i.e. analyzing the likely errors in both and comparing them for internal causality and probable copying sequence) seemed to indicate that both came from a common parent cryptogram, rather than being copied one from the other. But that remains a very hesitant conclusion on my part: there is still much work to be done here.

  35. CptEvil: I should add that the last few lines do indeed uncannily echo the decrypted text in Poe’s Gold Bug, which I must confess I haven’t read in at least twenty years. So I suspect you are correct, well done! I will post about this very shortly…

    Are you sure there was only ever one translation into French?

  36. CptEvil on September 7, 2015 at 8:52 pm said:

    That is a good point. I checked quickly and there seem to be numerous translations. The 1856 translation uses ‘chaise’, while the 1933 uses ‘siege’. But there are at least four other translations including one which keeps the cipher text in English. In addition to that, there may also be unofficial translations where the text was translated and published in newspapers, as this was popular at the time. So, this is unfortunately a dead-end.

    As a small addition to your text above, the ship’s previous name, while in Dutch use, was Gelderland. And it sank at Cape Amber, Madagascar, in 1723. (I have not seen that very long name in Portuguese before, but it sounds like two names. Perhaps two ships?)

  37. CptEvil: I’ve added a new page on La Buse and Edgar Allan Poe here – http://ciphermysteries.com/2015/09/08/la-buse-and-edgar-allan-poe

  38. Marco a on June 6, 2017 at 5:29 am said:

    Hola ,rompi el código del pirata la buse ,y puedo confirmar
    Que con 22 lineas es verdadera solo hay errores con las z
    Cambiarla por una letra y .esta codificado en código templario
    Porque olivier levasseur fue un grand prior o prior y a parte
    De sus tesoros enterrados en diferentes islas .
    Lo mas importante son los tesoros de los templarios dados en este pergamino ej: menorah ,arche allience ,sainte graal ,anillo
    De Salomón ,mesa de Salomón ,archivos secretos ,y en especial los restos de maria Magdalena ,torah ,estos fueron traídos al continente de América .la croix de goa se oculto en ile apolline
    O ile bourbon se movió a mauricio y movida a nosy boraha
    Vendo la llave en $ 2.000.000 de dolares
    Mi correo es [email protected]

  39. Marco is saying (Google Translate, fixed up slightly):

    “Hello, I broke the code of the pirate La Buse, and I can confirm that all 22 lines are valid and there are only errors with the z.
    Change it by a letter and it is coded in a Templar code, because Olivier Levasseur was a Grand Prior or Prior and a part of his treasures was buried in different islands.
    The most important are the treasures of the Templars given on this parchment e.g. Menorah, arche allience, Holy Grail, Ring of Solomon, Solomon’s Table, secret archives, and especially the remains of Mary Magdalene, Torah, these were brought to the continent of America. The Cross of Goa was hidden in ile apolline or ile bourbon, then moved to Mauritius and moved to nosy boraha.
    I’m selling the key for $2,000,000 dollars.”

  40. Marco: perhaps you’re right. But I can think of about 2,000,000 reasons why you’re wrong. :-/

  41. Peter on June 6, 2017 at 10:07 am said:

    Yes, 2’000’000 reasons, I also times believed that there is something. Even the old (original) chifre I had. This all just as advertising for a book!?!
    Anyway, I’m looking for the Fleur de la mare.
    Supposedly Mel Fischer discovered them under 15m rubble.

  42. chevaleresse suzanna anna von Kleve on June 11, 2022 at 8:52 am said:

    Ja es stimmt es war falsch ! Ich kann es aus eigener Erfahrung sagen…..Man muss die richtigen Karten haben so wie ich-zudem sind es mehrere Goldfunde …..
    In der Zwischenzeit wo man lange diskutiert hat habe ich einiges gefunden….
    und es ist noch mehr da !
    Sie haben auch die Festellung das das Schiff falsch ist richtig herausgefunden….es gab keine Aufzeichnungen in Goa……Dies ist aber vollkommen egal …….
    Danke Euch!
    Und PSST!

  43. UnautrevOilier on January 21, 2023 at 9:11 pm said:

    Hello,
    Is Emmanuel saying that the second cryptogram is in the hands of to the Savy’s family??? Is he telling us that the 22 lines cryptogram is the original one?
    So how does he explain that the cryptogram in La Ronciere’s book had only
    17 lines? How is it possible that the supposed original document, regarding to the masonic text, has less “details” (blanks, spaces…) than the 17 lines cryptogram?
    Very strange…
    I thought that the cryptogram was sold for about 29 dollars to Reginald Cruise Wilkins.
    Regards

  44. UnautreVoilier: as far as I know, the 29 dollars figure was from a 2016 Seychellois news article –
    http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/4886/Buried+pirate+gold+Seychellois+family+to+resume+hunt+for+La+Buse+treasure

    As far as what Manu is claiming, I too don’t really see how his story fits together. 17 lines is 17 lines, not 22.

  45. UnautrevOilier on January 22, 2023 at 6:13 pm said:

    Emmanuel Mezino is obliged to consider that the 22 lines cryptogram is the original since his theory is based on it…
    According to me, the 22 lines cryptogram is clearly a copy. The person who did it tried to solve it making drawings. It has artistic skills.
    Was it the masterpiece of de La Ronciere? In his book, at the beginning, he spoke about the “scarabée d’or”.
    Is it the copy made by the Savy’s family before selling it to Reginald Wilkins?
    I notice that below the cryptogram in the site https://www.pirates-corsaires.com/levasseur-la-buse.htm, it is written ph. Bibl. Nat. ie photo Bibliothèque Nationale. Where did de La Ronciere work? He worked in the Bibliothèque Nationale. He probably made a copy before giving it back to Rose Savy. The Savy family knew after a while that the carvings in their land did not match with the indications of the cryptogram translated into latin by de la Ronciere.
    Many people think that the “cryptogram” is a fake. But why are there different crytogram ?
    Regards

  46. Hola, no tienen ni idea cuán hermoso es este criptograma abierto.
    Esta basado en código templarios. Es a traducción de ahora un pendrive 64 g.
    Tiene varios libros a) historia de la piratería b) tesoros ocultos de piratas c)
    Tresors de famille caches d) l’ ordre Du temple e) caída de la orden.
    Las 17 líneas que tiro olivier tenían parte de los tesoros, era un seguro por sí
    A su familia se les perdía la clave, pero el verdadero lo tenía su familia, 22.letras como el abc. De los templarios. Se el código templarios en un 80% , por lo tanto se descifrarlo no un 100% se lo que custodiaba el temple y donde estuvieron.
    Salen como 6 levasseur 1) guillaume 2)paul 3) jean o francois ( abuelo) 4 louis 5)
    Robert 6) olivier . La croix de goa está en la ile nosy boraha y al parecer se la dejo
    Un levasseur ( puede ser un hijo).
    Que libro te gustaría comprar. Olivier dejo en Mayotte, ile del almiral (mahe)
    Rodrigues tesoros particulares y dice que capturó la cruz de goa en ile apolline
    De alexandrie ( reunión)

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