Jose' Gaspar's Pirate Settlement

Their seems to be quite a bit of information floating around in cyber space on the alleged pirate 'Jose' Gaspar' I will include a few of the links that I've found at the end of this post and let you be the judge.

One thing is certain, if he did exist ( I believe he did) their is a large amount of pirate booty still buried and unaccounted for somewhere along the south and west coast of Florida stretching from the Tampa area all the way south to the Cape Sable, Ten Thousand Islands region.

Here is what I've learned, Gaspar's residence was on or near Boca Grande and in pirate days was know as 'Hightown' and his crew appears to have been located at a place know as 'Lowtown' on the south end of Cara Pelau Island. Gaspar's fortifications were located on La Costa. He supported still another settlement on Captiva Island and as the name implies had one prison like structure where he kept high ranking captives awaiting their ransom.
Communication was maintained between settlements by means of a signal tower or towers. A twenty four hour watch was kept at these sites and when ever a strange ship approached and failed to give proper signal, a sentry would give a loud blast on a conch shell horn. The sound from this would have been heard for quite a distance bringing reinforcements from neighboring pirate settlements.
A number of shipwrecks in the area are believed to be a direct result of this system.

Jose' was a man that loved opulence, as it appears that he was of royal Spanish descent and his home on Boca Grande was very extravagant  for the time. This included all the finest accoutrement's such as a  library, valuable art work, splendid furniture and all the trappings that one would expect to find in the home of a Spanish aristocrat. At one time it appears that he decided to have himself crowned King of Florida .. the neighbors weren't big on this idea.
One key point about Gaspar was the fact that he liked to bury his pirate chests on high ground.

It is a know fact that he had 100 oak chests with copper linings made to order at a carpenters shop in Madeira, off the west coast of Africa. These were shipped to him in care of his agent in Havana and were most definitely used to bury his pirate loot throughout southwestern Florida.
It is supposed that he buried at least twenty of these pirate chests around Tampa Bay alone!
I am also told that Jose' Gaspar left a diary .. However this diary was left within the archives of a church in Havana, Cuba ...  Well , the rest is up to you!!

Here are a few more links - http://www.bonaventure.org.uk/ed/gaspar.htm
and - http://josegaspar.net/AboutJose.htm
Good Luck!