Island of the Dead The Mystery of the Unknown Fire

About 400 nautical miles off the coast of Mexico in the eastern Pacific Ocean, there is an island of death that is widely circulated in the Americas - Torch Island. Those who set foot on this island will become a torch and be burned.

This island of the dead is deserted, and many archaeologists, explorers, fishermen and even pirates have suddenly encountered an unnamed fire on the island and were burned into coke. It is said that this is the spell of the princess of the declining Indian kingdom at work. American scientist James decided to go to the island to find out, but not only revealed the secret, but also discovered a strange and precious medicinal material...

Island Adventure

James Ritchie is a sociologist at the University of Washington. One day in July 2011, James suddenly learned that Ryden, the son of his old friend and famous collector Repi, had died unexpectedly. Thinking that Repi only had Ryden as a son, he hurried over to comfort his old friend.

To James' surprise, Repi did not hold a farewell ceremony before the burial of his only son, like many people, to take a last look at his son, but put Ryden in a coffin early and buried him hastily.

Looking at James' puzzled look, Repi pulled him aside and lamented: "Of course I want to see my son one last time, but Ryden went to Renju Island to hunt for treasures without telling me and my friends. He has been burned to coke, and it is impossible to see at all..."

James was taken aback: of course he knew about Renju Island, and he was more aware of the various mysterious legends about Renju Island. It is said that about 500 years ago, the ancient Indian kingdom went from prosperity to decline due to natural disasters and other reasons, which led to the invasion of foreign races, and the king died in battle. The king's only daughter, Princess Ismail, followed her father's orders. When the kingdom was about to perish, she took countless treasures and a few personal servants that the royal family had gathered over the years to take refuge in a boat in order to make a comeback. They drifted with the waves on the sea to an uninhabited and unnamed desert island and lived a primitive life of exile.

Unexpectedly, Princess Ismail's subordinates had two servants who coveted the treasure. They plotted to kill the princess and then captured the treasure and fled the isolated island, but they were reported before they could do anything. Princess Ismail ordered the two servants to be set on fire alive, and issued a poisonous curse: the treasure belongs to the country, and whoever covets these treasures will end up with the same fate as the two servants - being burned alive by fire!

Princess Ismail and her servants were never able to leave the island again. After her death, she also became the "island god" of the island. Her poisonous spell was very effective. Since then, many people have intentionally or inadvertently Came to this island to search for treasures, and as a result, many people were charred by the inexplicable sudden fire on the island, making this island more and more mysterious. Later, the island was named "Man Torch Island" by the navigator Columbus, which means that once a person gets on this island, it will turn into a burning torch.

James had heard a lot of mysterious legends about Torch Island, but the legends were just legends after all, and he didn't believe them. Now, an old friend's son told him with death that this incident was not groundless, which aroused James' strong interest, and he decided to figure it out. So James found a young man named Binns who had been to Torch Island with Ryden, and wanted to hear from him what they had encountered on the island. When Binns saw James, he just wanted to find out the truth of the matter, so he told them what they had seen and heard on Torch Island:

Several friends such as Binns and Ryden like to collect, and they often do some reselling of cultural relics. They have also heard the legend of the treasure hidden by the princess on Renju Island for a long time, but they dare not act rashly because of the chilling spell. Not long ago, they went to Las Vegas to gamble, and they lost a mess and owed a lot of debt. Because the creditors were chasing hard and were forced to be helpless, they decided to go to Renju Island on an adventure to hunt for treasures.

They rented a fishing boat and tossed at sea for five days and five nights before finding Renju Island. The island is rocky, and the woods are full of small, airtight trees. It looks like the island has been dressed in green clothes, which is very beautiful. But no one dared to go to the island rashly. At this time, Ryden, nicknamed "Thief Bold", suddenly proposed: "Otherwise, whoever of us goes to the island first will get 10% more of the treasure in the future." Everyone agreed. Ryden was afraid that such a good thing would be preempted by others, so without saying a word, he came to the island first, and jumped directly from the boat without even letting go of the gangway.

Binns said that after Lai landed on the island, he quickly disappeared into the bushes, and the others waited patiently on the boat. Unexpectedly, about 20 minutes later, Binns noticed a sudden flash of light in the bushes where Ryden disappeared, followed by a muffled bang. Then, a Burning Man ran towards the sea while screaming, it was Ryden!

Everyone hurried over to help Ryden put out the fire. However, after everyone hurriedly helped Ryden put out the fire on his body, the flesh on his head, arms and feet were burned, revealing white bones. Ryden was still alive at the time, but he moaned and wailed in pain for a while before he lost his breath, and he didn't have time to tell everyone what happened to him on the island. Everyone was frightened by this bizarre scene, and hurriedly turned the bow and fled the Torch Island with Ryden's body...

Horror legend

Although Ryden was unable to tell the situation on the island before his death, James still heard something strange from Binns' description: When Ryden was burned by a strange fire on the island, why did it look like an explosion? What about the flashes and rattles?

In order to find out the truth, James consulted a lot of information about Renju Island. According to historical records, from the mid-18th century to the end of the 19th century, for about 150 years, there were at least 700 adventurers, fishermen and pirates who were killed by the strange fire on Renju Island. No one knew where the strange fire came from., Why is it so powerful, the only explanation is that mysterious princess poison spell. Therefore, since the 20th century, few people have dared to venture to Renju Island again, and it has become a familiar mysterious legend.

One of the sources caught James' attention: One summer in the mid-19th century, three Spanish adventurers set off from Mexico to Torch Island, also looking for the legendary treasure. After arriving at Torch Island, they found a boat moored on the island with a pirate flag composed of skulls and axes! They were afraid of pirates and were about to leave, but found that the boat had no life at all. The three dared to lean over slowly, and suddenly found more than a dozen charcoal-like corpses lying on the deck of the pirate ship. Climbing on the boat and taking a closer look, he found that there was still a person lying on his stomach in the cabin. The person also had traces of fire burns, but he was much lighter, but he was already dead. There was also a diary in front of the man. Obviously, after the man was burned by the fire, he was unable to drive the boat away alone, and wrote down their experience in the diary before he died.

The diary said that the pirate ship came to Renju Island to shelter from the wind. The wind blew for seven days and seven nights without stopping. Due to the limited fresh water and food on the ship, they had to disembark and go to the island to find food. As a result, a lot of big mice weighing about 5 kilograms were found on the island. Someone raised a gun to beat the big mice, angering the "island god". She surrounded the pirates with a string of fire, and those people were soon burned into charcoal. Fortunately, the diary writer named Kant was older, walking behind the crowd and less injured. He couldn't bear to see his companions on the corpse desert island, carrying the seventeen bodies that had been burned to pieces on the boat, but he was no longer able to sail, so he left this diary...

There is also a Japanese explorer named Yokogi Kei who left a document saying that in July 1903, his expedition ship with five people was inadvertently blown to Renju Island. They did not know the legend of the treasure of the ancient Indian princess on Renju Island., but in order to find fresh water, they also went to the island. As a result, they were attacked by swarms of big mice, but did not encounter any strange fire, but left Renju Island safely after the wind calmed down.

Later, Yokogi and the others came to Mexico, Colombia, Peru and other places. They heard the legend of Renju Island in these places. Only then did they know that they had missed an opportunity to make a fortune and planned to go again to hunt for treasures. As a result, they found no treasure on the island. What they didn't expect was that they didn't plan to hunt for treasure at the beginning, so they didn't encounter a strange fire, but this time they planned to hunt for treasure, they really encountered a strange fire. The three people who went to the island were all severely burned. Due to the lack of medical care on the ship, the three people suffered for a few days and died. " It seems that it may really be Princess Ismail who has appeared. "Yokogi wrote.

Yokogi Jing also described the situation on the island, saying that Renju Island is lined with strange rocks from the sea, but the island is full of small basins, some are only a few meters deep, some are tens of meters deep, and the road is difficult to walk. In particular, broad-leaved shrubs grow in these small basins, covering the sky and the sun. Although it was the hottest season of the year, the broad-leaved forest was very cool...

After entering the 20th century, with the development of science, people began to re-discuss the inexplicable fire on Renju Island, and made various assumptions and speculations, but so far no scientific explanation can be convincing.

Of course, James didn't believe in the appearance of princesses in the ancient Indian kingdom. While reading these materials, he thought to himself: Why did the mice on Renju Island grow so big? Why do these materials show that there are strange fire incidents on Renju Island in July and August? Do the historical traces of artificially taken stones have anything to do with this? Also, why did Yokogi and the others not plan to look for the treasure and nothing happened, but once they consciously searched for the treasure, the strange fire appeared again?

In August 2011, James decided to go to Renju Island to find out for himself. In order to prevent being burned by the strange fire, he prepared himself the kind of flame retardant clothing that firefighters wear, and of course gas masks. When his assistant and two students learned of the incident, they also asked to follow. James felt that it was unsafe to have too few people, so he had to agree.

It was already evening when they arrived at Dazhuo Island. James asked everyone to rest well and get ready to go to the island again the next day. Unexpectedly, there was a sudden storm that night. Fortunately, James asked the captain of the boat to moor the boat in a bay, which was fairly safe. James accidentally saw from a distance that strange things really happened on Renju Island. He saw that with the combination of thunder and lightning, the island would burst into flames from time to time, echoing the lightning in the sky, just like Renju Island wanted to reach out. Hold on to the lightning, and it's like someone is screaming angrily in the face of the sky. But at the time he didn't want to understand what was going on.

Clever reveal

Early the next morning, James asked everyone to put on flame retardant clothing and gas masks, as well as self-defense pistols, leaving only one person to guard the boat, and he took an assistant and a student to the island.

As Yokogi said in the information, because this small island is isolated from the ocean, its four sides have been eroded by wind and rain, leaving only strange rocks. Renju Island was obviously formed by volcanic eruption, because the stones on it are the kind of Igneous rock full of holes. Climb to the top of the mountain and you will find that the ridge is not flat, but sunken, and there are dense broadleaf shrubs growing everywhere. Although James didn't believe in any princess's curse, he was still a little drummed in the face of the situation in front of him. At his signal, the three of them filed into the bushes.

After entering the forest, James once again experienced the feeling described by Yokoki: There are small basins formed by volcanic eruptions everywhere, the small ones are only a few meters deep and more than ten meters in diameter; the large ones are more than ten meters deep and nearly 100 meters in diameter. The ground was covered with a thick layer of animal feces, and there were small black beans that James had never seen before. He picked a few grains and put them in his pocket. In the forest, people sometimes climbed up and down between small pots. Although the weather was hot, it was almost like a simple roof was covered on their heads because of the airtight broad leaves in the forest. Very cool. Maybe it's because there is no sunlight all year round, and there is too much animal feces on the ground, the air here is filled with a strange smell.

Just as they climbed up the edge of a small basin, suddenly, dozens of big mice swarmed up from nowhere to surround them. They all weighed about 5 kilograms, and all looked at them with curious and greedy eyes. James and the others. Thinking of Yokogi's statement that he had been attacked by big mice, James hurriedly reminded his two subordinates in a low voice: "Be careful, the data says they will attack humans!"

James' student was busy using the camera to film, and the assistant was anxious. He raised his hand and fired a shot at the group of mice on the high stone behind him. The mice immediately stirred up, but still did not attack them. The assistant turned around and fired a shot at the rats in the small basin in front of him. Unexpectedly, with the sound of the gunshot, there was only a "boom" sound. There seemed to be an explosion in front of him, and a group of flames suddenly jumped up. Some big mice were caught in the fire. They were on fire, and they were desperately running around. For some reason, as they fled to different places, there would be an explosion and a group of flames burning from time to time, so more mice would be on fire. Soon, the ridge became a sea of fire.

Fortunately, the three of them took precautions in advance, and they escaped from the fire. Except for James, who broke his leg due to a fall, the two subordinates did nothing.

Since James was injured, they had to go home. Back in Washington, the video James took on Torch Island and the strange little black beans he picked were shown to a botanist friend named Monlinton, who recognized it at a glance: "It's the elf bean! Where did you find it?"

Monrington told James that this kind of beans had been found in the tombs of ancient Indians thousands of years ago, which shows that they used to be one of the food of ancient Indians. But because this elf bean is particularly prone to flatulence, people will keep farting after eating it. Probably for this reason, it was later abandoned by the ancient Indians, and some botanists even thought it had become extinct.

Monlingtun said happily: "Great! It must be that the big mice on the island have no other food, so they have to eat elf beans. But did you know that the excrement that feeds on elf beans is a very good heat-clearing and antidote. The raw materials of medicine are very valuable, and you are rich!"

James' eyes lit up, and he suddenly understood the reason for the nameless fire on Torch Island: Humans must have brought mice to Torch Island, because they have no natural enemies, so they grow bigger and bigger, and there is no other food on the island, They had to eat elf beans. But eating too much bean fart, the main component of fart is methane, which is a kind of combustible gas. Due to the small basin on the island and the dense broad-leaved forest covering it, the methane cannot be emitted, so the small basin is full of methane. Such combustible gases, as long as there is a fire, can immediately cause a raging fire. The explorers went to the torch island, and the metal utensils they brought collided with each other, especially the collision between the metal digging tools and the rocks, and even the friction between the shoe nails and the rocks on the island could generate sparks, igniting flammable gases in an instant. Mars or lightning collided by humans can cause unnamed huge fires, which is why assistants shoot high rats without catching fire, but when they shoot rats in the basin, they explode. People sometimes catch fire when they go to the island, and lightning can also cause fires, and why fires always happen in the summer when broad-leaved forests are dense!

In order to verify his speculation, at the end of 2011, James brought his assistant to Renju Island again. This time, since the broad-leaved forest had fallen leaves, the methane could be dissipated by the wind, so they tossed around the island without any strange fires. But they detected a small amount of methane in all the small basins, which shows that his speculation is correct. As for whether there are treasures hidden by ancient Indian princesses on the island, that is a matter for archaeologists.

James wrote an article about his findings and published it in Life magazine. James also had a windfall. After research, he found that the feces of mice that had eaten elf beans could indeed make a valuable heat-clearing and detoxifying drug. At present, James is considering transporting rat feces that are more than a foot thick on the island to make a lot of money. In a sense, James accidentally found his own "treasure".