This story is about a relatively small island in the Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico, which is shrouded in dark mystery.
Until modern times, this land was considered a wild wasteland, not adapted for the life of a white man, and only a few brave men dared to sail here.
And many of them mysteriously disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only frightening legends about what could have happened to them.
The island is officially called Tiburón, from the Spanish Isla del Tiburón - Shark Island.
Its area is 1200 km2 and now it is completely uninhabited, but once it was inhabited by the Seri Indian tribe and it is with it that the mysterious disappearances of white adventurers are associated.
The landscape of Tiburon Island can easily be confused with the lunar one, mostly it is bare dry rocky soil with scanty bushes in which poisonous snakes and scorpions live.
There is almost no fresh water here, and hordes of sharks scurry about through the narrow water channel that separates the island from Mexico, which is why this channel has received the nickname "Hell's Channel" among the locals.
Let's go back to the Seri tribe. When they lived on this island, they were described as very wild people living in almost primitive conditions. They were also credited with eating raw meat, without using fire, including human meat.
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The Seri Indians lived (and still live now) in mainland Mexico, but it was the Tiburon group that was the most backward in terms of social development. They dressed very sparsely and lived in primitive huts.
Because of these ominous history, the island of Tiburon remained relatively unvisited for several centuries and the savages of the Seri lived peacefully in their own world. But from the late 19th - early 20th centuries, more and more people began to come to the island who tried to find reserves of gold here.
According to rumors, there was a lot of gold and other precious metals here and there was no end to the adventurers. Here are just a few returned back. The rest disappeared without a trace and even bones were not found from them.
In 1894, the journalist Rel Robinson sailed to Tiburon, who decided to make newspaper material about the "savage islands". He hired a boat, but had barely landed on the island when he was attacked by a whole group of Seri, who killed him with bows. This incident further confirmed the glory of the Seri as bloodthirsty savages.
In 1904, two prisoners from Mexico fled to Tiburon, after which the governor sent a messenger to the Indians with a request to return the fugitives alive or dead. In response, the Indians smiled and brought the severed hands of the fugitives to the messenger. History is silent about what happened to the bodies.
Most of the missing adventurers who went to Tiburon were discovered by accident. If a person did not have relatives or friends, no one would know what happened to him.
In 1896, Captain George Porter's ship moored to Tiburon Island, after which the captain disappeared without a trace. A search team that went in search of him found on the island only a few traces of the captain's shoes, and then the remains of a large fire, in which Porter's burned shoe was found.
There were no bones in the fire, but everyone was sure that the captain was fried and eaten by the Seri savages, since they found nothing else on the island, having searched him far and wide.
Another traveler (as well as a prospector) named Tom Grindel landed on Tiburon in 1903 and crossed it relatively safely, trying to find signs of gold-bearing veins here. In 1905 he returned with a group of four friends and a guide to set out on a journey from which three of his travelers never returned.
First of all, they quickly ran out of food and water, after which everyone began to go a little crazy from the heat and hardship and scattered in all directions. One of them, named Hoffman, had to survive on bird eggs for 4 months before another ship picked him up completely emaciated. It was then revealed that Hoffman was the only one found from Grindell's group.
Edward Grindell set out in search of Tom's brother, but the search was unsuccessful, and then Edward learned that his brother was apparently eaten.
Later, Grindell personally found the mentioned place on Tiburon, and there were still visible the remains of a large fire surrounded by two circles for ritual dances. Human hands, already severely sun-dried, were nailed to the crosspieces around the fire.
Further, Edward found out that the remains of the equipment did not belong to his brother's expedition. These were other victims that apparently no one was looking for. Most likely a group of miners from Los Angeles who disappeared without a trace on Tiburon in the same 1905.
Ultimately, Edward Grindell searched the entire island meter by meter, but never found any trace of his brother and his associates. No bones, no scraps of clothing, nothing. He offered local hunters a $ 200 reward for finding at least something, but it didn’t work.
In fact, among historians, all these rumors about the cannibalism of the Tiburon series have always caused a lot of controversy. The current series are very friendly people and they have never heard of the cannibalism of their ancestors.
Nevertheless, there is no evidence that there was no cannibalism on Tiburon, and the huge number of people missing without a trace on this island makes us ask very uncomfortable questions.
The scarcity of Tiburon with almost no vegetation and few animals and birds could create a situation when the meat of travelers wandering here became an excellent addition to the Indian diet.