The present day Mumbai city was built on what was originally an archipelago of seven islands of Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Little Colaba.
By 1845, the islands had been merged into one landmass by means of multiple land reclamation projects. The resulting island of Bombay was later merged with the nearby islands of Trombay and Salsette that lay to its North-east and North respectively to form Brihan/Bruhad Mumbai (Greater Bombay). There are several smaller islands that lay to the East of the main seven islands. One of them is called Cross Island, an uninhabited island of India. Thane (an immediate neighbour of Mumbai city and a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region) is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. This city was the terminus for the first ever passenger train in Asia.
Puzzle Story:
The British East India Company occupied Salsette Island or Thana Fort in 1774. So for many years, local people were fighting against the British company rule for freedom and they were called “Thugs” or “Thugs of Thane” by the British company. They were experts in sea-based warfare and began to attack the merchant ships of the British East India Company. They exposed a serious challenge to the expanding British East India Company which had, by then, seized control of large parts of India. Once during the sea-battle, they were trapped by the British company warships but somehow managed to escape. The Thugs ship headed for Goa, which was controlled by the Portuguese. In its course, the ship was stopped at “Cross Island”, an uninhabited island with one type of tree and they disembarked from the ship for searching the food. At that time, one of them found a letter, which was indicating about some secret treasure. They were running out of time as the British company warships were searching for them and they could not waste much time, but they also needed the treasure to make a deal with the Portuguese.
Secret Letter
“Greetings from Captain Baaz the Cannon! This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost found my treasure. But it is never easy to find though a hint is already provided. Beneath the shadow of the south tree however clever rushes to windmill’s west end! Under north dolphin’s end run but intelligent goes to river’s east end!“
Now what would you do if you were one of Thugs? Where was the secret treasure hidden?
.
.
.
B
Y
T
E
–
M
A
N
.
.
.
Solution
Read the last line of the secret letter carefully.
“Greetings from Captain Baaz the Cannon! This is the day you will always remember as the day you almost found my treasure. But it is never easy to find though a hint is already provided. Beneath the shadow of the south tree however clever rushes to windmill’s west end! Under north dolphin’s end run but intelligent go to river’s east end!”
The first alphabet of every words from the last line of the secret letter.
U n d e r b i g t r e e
UNDER BIG TREE
Since the island was uninhabited it’s highly unlikely that anything happened to any tree. Since, there are many trees of same type on the island (if forgot then read puzzle story again), Thugs have to look for the biggest one.
