{"id":3734,"date":"2025-04-05T20:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/10-the-end-of-a-legend\/"},"modified":"2025-04-27T15:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:05:06","slug":"10-the-end-of-a-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/10-the-end-of-a-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"10 THE END OF A LEGEND"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

THE END OF A LEGEND<\/span><\/h1>\n

The legend surrounding the cryptogram and the treasure of the pirate Olivier Levasseur has persisted for decades – fueled by romantic notions, popular myths and ever new attempts at interpretation. But a sober analysis of the historical, linguistic and cryptological facts paints a clear picture: the document was not written by La Buse. Several independent findings – from the script used to the alphabet to the correspondence with a map from the time after his death – clearly speak against the authenticity of the story. The cryptogram thus loses its status as a pirate’s treasure map and turns out to be a later construct. What remains is a fascinating mystery – but one with no real connection to Olivier Levasseur or a lost treasure. <\/em><\/p>\n

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The treasure map in Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” (1882)<\/p><\/div>\n

The myth of La Buse and the cryptogram persists. It’s time to dispel it – even if it hurts a little. There are at least six reasons<\/strong> that speak against the story. Each one would be a strong argument in itself.<\/p>\n

From what we know, the likelihood of pirates burying anything of value anywhere is vanishingly small. Even treasure maps, as we know them from popular culture, do not exist – at least not yet. The image we have of them comes largely from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”.<\/em> No X has ever marked the location of a treasure on a map. And yet there is a certain longing in many people that it might be true. In fact, there are people who claim to have seen treasure – or know someone who knows someone …<\/p>\n

The story of the pirate who threw a note into the audience shortly before his execution (see “Le flibustier myst\u00e9rieux”)<\/a> has fascinated all those who want to believe it for 90 years (and I was one of them until recently). Who wouldn’t want to be the one to open a chest overflowing with gold, silver and precious stones by the light of a torch?<\/p>\n

1. the Masonic script<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have shown that the probability that Olivier Levasseur knew the code is negligible. Freemasonry only reached the Indian Ocean towards the end of the 18th century: the first lodge on La R\u00e9union was founded in 1775, the first on Mauritius in 1778.<\/p>\n

Of course, the founding of a lodge does not necessarily prove that Freemasons were not already present – but the period in question (1721-1730) was a time when the movement was just beginning to spread in Europe. The Masonic script<\/a> was still being developed – from the nine-letter grid to the form we know today. And it was certainly not pirates who drove this development forward.<\/p>\n

2. the situation as a prisoner in the dungeon<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea that Olivier Levasseur wrote the cryptogram as a prisoner in a dungeon is quite absurd. Who would have brought him paper, ink and pen? And where would he have hidden the document – on the way to the gallows?<\/p>\n

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Some authors claim that he wore it around his neck. This is absolutely out of the question – his guards would certainly have taken it from him. Cyrille Lougnon is of the opinion that La Buse wrote the cryptogram shortly after the attack<\/a> – which is at least more likely. But even then, the question remains: how could he have concealed it from his jailers?<\/p>\n

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Execut\u00e9 a Cinq heures du soir le Sept Juillet mil Sept Cent Trente<\/p><\/div>\n

The main argument remains: There is not a single contemporary witness account of the famous scene with the note.<\/strong> Such an incident would certainly have caused a considerable uproar. The laconic note next to the death sentence simply reads: “Executed at 5 o’clock in the evening on the seventh of July 1730.”<\/em><\/p>\n

3. the alphabet<\/strong><\/p>\n

The cryptogram clearly contains the letters J and V. As has been proven, these letters were not part of the French alphabet<\/a> in the period 1721-1730. The model for the code appeared in 1745 in the book L’ordre de francs-ma\u00e7ons<\/em><\/a> – 15 years after the death of the pirate. The letters J and V are missing from it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

4. the language<\/strong><\/p>\n

Analysis of the New Transcription<\/a> of the cryptogram clearly indicates that the scribe was not a native French speaker. The text is written phonologically (“as one speaks”)<\/em>, contains grammatical errors (fume<\/em> instead of fumez<\/em>) and shows lexical-semantic weaknesses (orefils<\/em> instead of orifice<\/em>, peser<\/em> instead of presser<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Such errors are what you would expect from a non-native speaker. It is practically impossible that a French speaker would have deliberately imitated these errors – and why should they? There would have been far more plausible means of making the code more difficult. Instead, the text was created in two stages: a non-native speaker wrote the original text, which was later used by a “planner” as filler text for the space between the “special signe”<\/a>.<\/strong> This is how the intended gibberish was created, which treasure hunters and researchers have been trying to understand for decades. (All details in the article “THE NEW TRANSCRIPTION”<\/a>).<\/p>\n

5. the map<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably the most convincing argument is the correspondence of the “special signs”<\/a> in the cryptogram with a map from 1753. If the cryptogram is placed on the map at the correct magnification and rotated 45\u00b0 clockwise, four geographical markers match exactly: Port Louis, Piton de la D\u00e9couverte, Piton de la Petite Rivi\u00e8re Noire and the southern point of the island. A mere coincidence is therefore out of the question. The map was not published until 23 years after the violent death of Olivier Levasseur.<\/strong><\/p>\n

6. the complexity<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to hide a treasure and find it again later, you need to think about two things: How do I mark the location as inconspicuously as possible in the terrain and how do I remember the location with the markings? <\/strong>What we have here is a highly complex system of coded text with hidden symbols that correspond to geographical points on a map. And that’s not the end of the story. Up to this point, there is still no indication of a specific location on the map. The system must therefore still have a continuation (see “The map”). The effort involved bears no relation to the desired purpose! It is absolutely implausible why a pirate would have chosen this route if there were clearly much simpler ways of memorizing and marking a location.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The verdict is clear: Olivier Levasseur was not the author of the cryptogram<\/strong>. Charles de La Ronci\u00e8re’s assertion is false. (Side note: The “hard Ks”<\/em> he uses to justify La Buse all turn out to be Ls – KET<\/em> = LES<\/em>, KORTFILT<\/em> = L’OREFILS<\/em>, KE<\/em> = LE<\/em>, IUDFKU<\/em> = RECELE<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The story turns out to be what it always was: a legend that refers to a historical event (the death of La Buse) but has no relation to reality in terms of the cryptogram.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And there is another important consequence of this: If the cryptogram is not<\/strong> from La Buse, it almost certainly has nothing<\/strong> to do with an alleged treasure. All treasure hunters who rely on the cryptogram need to fundamentally rethink their theory.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Sources mentioned:<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Stevenson<\/strong>, Robert Louis: Treasure Island. London: Cassell & Company, 1883.<\/p>\n

– Acad\u00e9mie fran\u00e7aise<\/strong>: Dictionnaire de l’Acad\u00e9mie fran\u00e7oise. 4e \u00e9dition. Paris: Bernard Brunet, 1762.<\/p>\n

– P\u00e9rau, Gabriel-Louis Calabre<\/strong>: L’Ordre des francs-ma\u00e7ons trahi et le secret des Mopses r\u00e9v\u00e9l\u00e9. Amsterdam: Jean Neaulme, 1745.<\/p>\n

– Lacaille, Nicolas-Louis de<\/strong>: Plan de l’Isle de France trac\u00e9 sur les observations g\u00e9om\u00e9triques et astronomiques faites en 1753.<\/p>\n

– Lougnon<\/strong>, Cyrille: Olivier Levasseur dit “La Buse” – Piraterie et contrebande sur la Route des Indes au XVIIIe si\u00e8cle. Paris: Riveneuve, 2023.<\/p>\n

– Dresen<\/strong>, Erik Alexander: The Paragon Island. Augsburg: Erik Alexander Dresen, 2015.<\/p>\n

– de La Ronci\u00e8re<\/strong>, Charles de: Le flibustier myst\u00e9rieux: histoire d’un tr\u00e9sor cach\u00e9. Paris: Le Masque, 1934.<\/p>\n

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All articles Cryptogram<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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The cipher that has been sprouting the fantasies of many people in all its aspects for 90 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

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All articles La Buse<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The life and work of the most famous French pirate of the 18th century.<\/a><\/p>\n

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All articles Backgrounds<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

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Stories and history about the “Golden Era of Piracy”, La Buse and the cryptogram.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many have ignored it, some have speculated wildly about it: About a handful of special characters in the cryptogram that clearly do not belong to the code. They are the key to the steganogram, a riddle within a riddle. – from Daniel Krieg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4287,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions\/4287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labuse-facts.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}