Until now, scrolls and tablets with ancient inscriptions are found in different parts of the planet, which linguists around the world are trying to unravel. Some can be deciphered, but most of the documents cannot be deciphered. Meanwhile, some of them are not only of historical value, but can significantly improve the financial situation.
Portrait of the pirate Jean Lafitte, according to Andrews' assumption, he is also Thomas Bale.
Who is Bale
Bale's treasures were first mentioned in 1855 in a monograph by an unknown author. The original handwritten text is preserved to this day at the Library of Congress. The book tells the story of the hunter and gold seeker Thomas Bale, who visited the Robert Morris hotel more than once. There is an opinion that Bale is a fictitious name, and under it was hiding the pirate Jean Lafitte, attacking and ruining the ships of England and Spain.
One day a frequent visitor left Morris some kind of iron box, which was locked with a key. He said that it contains "papers of exceptional importance" and commanded to open the box in case he did not appear here within 10 years. And Bale did disappear, although before that he had always stayed with Morris a couple of times every month.
Library of Congress letterhead indicating book acceptance * Bale's papers … *
It is not known whether the hotel owner waited until the designated 10 years passed or opened the box after 3 days. But the box was opened, and there were found 3 sheets of paper with encrypted messages. Each cryptogram contained certain information:
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- The location of a certain cache.
- The contents of this cache.
- The names of the heirs and their addresses.
What kind of encryption did Bale use
Cryptograms were series of digital values. In general, digital encryption is far from new, but most of them are quickly deciphered. The documents left by Bale have not yet been decrypted.
Cryptogram 1, which indicates the location of the treasure cache.
At first, it was assumed that each number corresponds to a letter, but the number of numbers used was many times greater than the number of letters in any alphabet.
The author of the monograph writes that he was able to decipher part of Bale's second paper using the "one-time cipher pad" method. He took as a basis the book that was in the gold digger's issue, it turned out to be the US Declaration of Independence. He put numbers next to each word on the first page of the Declaration, then instead of numbers he wrote down words corresponding to the number in the cryptogram.
Cryptogram 2, decrypted with the US Declaration of Independence key, tells about the contents of the cache.
What we managed to find out and what remained a secret
It was about $ 30 million in gold and silver. Bale allegedly found them by accident in the 20s of the 19th century with his partner and hid them "near Buford" in one of the mines. Bale accurately described the place where he hid the treasure, packaged in iron pots with lids, but another cipher indicated the exact location. And the key to them was no longer the Declaration.
There were attempts to use other books that were in Bale's room as a key, but none of them fit, it was just a meaningless set of words. At the moment, more than 8 thousand books and other papers have been used for decryption, but this did not bring results.
Cryptogram 3, which contains the addresses and names of the heirs.
Colonel George Fabian, who was in the service of the American government, became one of the decoders. For two years he tried to uncover the cryptography, but also failed. Then he admitted that this font belongs to the highest category of complexity.
The documents were so interested in the public that in 1968 a community of enthusiastic cryptographers called the Bale Cipher Association emerged, however, they did not advance in search of the key.
United States Declaration of Independence.
There were many enthusiasts who, without waiting for the deciphering of the messages and relying on the available data from the second letter, excavated "4 miles from the Buford tavern" near each mound of stones described in the deciphered Bale document. But even this method was ineffective, the treasure was not found.
Isn't this a tabloid novel?
Some researchers have suggested that the book by an unknown author "Bale's Documents …" is just adventure literature written in the best traditions of the 19th century: treasures and secrets, treasure hunters and pirates. There have even been theories that the author of the monograph is Edgar Poe, who was famous for being fond of leading his readers by the nose.
Edgar Poe.
Recently, a version has appeared that gold has long been found, they just do not report it. And it was most likely found by NASA employees, because only they have the best cryptanalysts and modern computer programs in their composition, which probably were able to reveal the secret of 155 years ago.