After burying all the useless things obtained from the shipwreck on that uninhabited island isolated in the sea, Hunter didn't clean up too thoroughly and left the island.
There was internet on Paradise Island, but the seaside villa he rented did not provide internet service.
Therefore, if he wanted to search for information about the "West Wind", he would have to change to a hotel.
However, after thinking about it, Hunter was not in a hurry to check out of the seaside villa.
After finding a staff member on the island to ask, he drove towards Nassau!
Nassau is the capital of the Bahamas. Although by American standards, it could only be considered a small coastal city with a population of no more than one or two hundred thousand! But after all, it is the capital of a country, and Nassau has everything it should have!
After asking around for a while, Hunter arrived at the largest library in Nassau!
"Hello, my name is Hunter Sun, and I am a writer and reporter from the United States!"
"I am currently writing a book about missing American ships, and I have found that a ship named 'West Wind' sank in the waters near the Bahamas over a hundred years ago!"
"I would like to ask, where in the library can I find more detailed information of this kind!"
Arriving at the counter inside the library, Hunter saw only a middle-aged man!
He looked around and didn't see any surveillance.
He flipped his palm, took out a Franklin from his private space, and pushed it over!
Should one say it is indeed the omnipotent Franklin? The librarian was originally unhappy that Hunter had interrupted his reading!
He was even frowning and looked impatient while listening to Hunter's request!
But when he showed that one hundred us dollar bill, the librarian, who had originally looked impatient, quickly smiled!
"Wait a moment, sir!"
The middle-aged librarian said to Hunter in as gentle a tone as possible!
While speaking, he unobtrusively used the book he was reading to cover the Franklin that Hunter had handed him!
Then, he continued to ask: "Sir, can you be more specific?"
"If there is only a ship name, it would be difficult to find it."
"Well, let me think!"
Hunter always had a faint smile on his face. In the last few months, he had truly felt the power of money!
"The ship that might have sunk in the waters near the Bahamas is named 'West Wind', and it should have sunk over a hundred years ago."
"I am not yet sure about the name of the ship owner."
"But when I was investigating in the United States, I seem to have seen scattered materials where the name Tillman Thorpe appeared!"
"I don't know if this counts as a clue!"
Tillman Thorpe was a name Hunter had seen not long ago while checking the scattered items obtained from the skeletons on the ship. It was a name seen inside the case of a gold pocket watch.
He decided to ask, to see if there would be any unexpected gains.
If he really couldn't find it, Hunter wouldn't force it.
After all, the treasure was already in hand.
The reason he still wanted to investigate was just because the treasure was too vast.
The ship was loaded with nearly ten tons of gold dust alone, even looking back over a hundred years ago, Hunter also felt that the ship and its owner were definitely not simple.
Although not everyone who can serve as a librarian is necessarily a knowledgeable person, but obviously, being able to stay in such a boring library all day, except for some book lovers, ordinary people really couldn't stay.
Therefore, after Hunter said a few keywords, the librarian thought for a moment, and his expression changed immediately.
"Tillman Thorpe?"
"Could it be the tyrant Tillman Thorpe?"
"The time matches..."
"He was indeed a major slave trader active in the Caribbean Sea and Central America over a hundred years ago."
"Sir, if the 'West Wind' you are looking for is really related to the tyrant Tillman Thorpe, then please wait a moment..."
After speaking, the librarian hurried up and left.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to put the Franklin that Hunter had used to tempt him into his pocket.
Hunter found it funny, but stood aside and waited patiently.
About seven or eight minutes later, the librarian walked back to the counter, holding three books.
"Sir, information about the tyrant Tillman Thorpe is recorded in these three books."
"You can take a look at this book first. Of course, this book has the most complete records, but it is written in Latin, and I don't know if you can understand it."
"And this one, you need to start reading from the third part."
Hunter didn't expect there to be such an unexpected surprise.
He quickly thanked him, and the moment he took the books, he stuffed another Franklin into the librarian's hand.
He had just obtained a treasure from that shipwreck worth at least several hundred million, and potentially over one billion us dollar in total value.
Therefore, a mere one or two hundred us dollar.
Hunter was naturally willing to spend the money now!
"Thank you!"
After taking the three books from the librarian whose face was beaming with a smile,
Hunter found an empty table nearby, sat down, and began to flip through them.
His Reading skill level had already reached lv5.
Coupled with his nearly photographic memory, he could now read about ten lines at a single glance.
As for Latin, it posed no challenge to Hunter either.
His foreign language skill had also been leveled up to lv4.
Although Hunter could only manage some simple Reading in Latin for now, and writing was still quite difficult...
But this was sufficient!
Hunter read very efficiently and quickly found the answers he was looking for.
Tyrant Tillman Thorpe, a descendant of white immigrants born in the American South.
His family were major local landowners in Florida. After the family fortunes declined,
Tillman Thorpe saw others making huge profits from the slave trade.
However, he himself lacked the means to purchase merchant ships to cross the Atlantic and trade slaves from Africa.
So, he turned his attention to the indigenous peoples on the islands of Central America and the Caribbean Sea.
Thus, driven by his ambition for sudden wealth,
he sold off the family plantation, bought several merchant ships, and hired some henchmen.
Over the next two or three decades, Tillman Thorpe frequently appeared in Central and South America and the Caribbean Sea region.
He launched large-scale attacks on local indigenous tribes, collaborated with local colonists, and transported and sold slaves to the slave-holding states of the American South, amassing immense wealth.
According to local records in the Bahamas, it is conservatively estimated that at least over 30,000 Bahamian natives were seized, purchased, transported, and sold to America by Tillman Thorpe back then.
Because his methods were sufficiently sinister and cruel—he would often brutally beat captured slaves who dared to resist until their flesh split open, then throw them into the sea to feed the sharks—
he earned the title of 'Tyrant'.
Not only did he feel no shame about this, but he was actually quite proud of it.
It is said he even specially crafted a personal gold knife, a gold gun, and a silver powder horn for himself, inscribing the name 'Tyrant' on them.
Tillman Thorpe preferred to use gold to buy and sell the slaves he captured.
During his decades-long slave trading career, it is said he accumulated wealth comparable to that of a small kingdom's king.
However, his glorious enterprise also came to an end with the conclusion of the American Civil War.
After the U.S. federal government won the Civil War, they set their sights on this slave trader who had been consistently providing slaves, money, and weapons to the Southern slave-holding states.
They dispatched several warships, attacked and destroyed Tillman Thorpe's slave-trading islands in the South, and placed a bounty on his capture.
It is said Tillman Thorpe's final fate was that he took his beloved woman and set sail,
fleeing to Central or South America, and was never seen again.
Probably no one would have thought that this once-notorious slave trader in the American South, Central America, and the Caribbean Sea region
would ultimately end up, along with his beloved woman and the staggering wealth he had accumulated over decades, all sunk to the seabed near the Bahamas.
And that location was only about a dozen nautical miles from Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.
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