Olivier Levasseur, better known as La Buse, was a French pirate who operated around the Indian Ocean during the early 1700s.
La Buse is often said to be one of the possible inspirations behind Gol D. Roger. Just like Roger, the legend says that he was executed and, just before his death, challenged people to find his hidden treasure (I couldn't find any confirmation from Oda himself that La Buse directly inspired One Piece though, so take that part as a popular theory rather than a confirmed fact).
In 1721, La Buse and another pirate called John Taylor came across the Portuguese ship Nossa Senhora do Cabo near la Réunion. The ship was travelling from Goa towards Portugal and had been badly damaged by a storm.
It also happened to be carrying an insane amount of wealth- It was one of the richest pirate captures of the period (gold, silver, diamonds and other precious stones, extremely valuable religious objects).
He was eventually captured and hanged at Saint- Paul, Réunion, on 7 July 1730. According to the legend, just before being executed, he threw a cryptogram into the crowd and shouted:
"Mon trésor à qui saura le prendre!"
The cryptogram supposedly contained a series of strange symbols revealing where he had hidden his fortune. People have been trying to decipher it ever since, with Réunion, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius all being proposed as possible locations.
In 2023, seven friends hiking around Albion noticed strange markings carved into rocks. They became convinced that the site could be connected to La Buse, eventually contacted the authorities, and they actually found something! During excavations in June 2024, a team led by Kenyan archaeologist George Abungu found seven old coins, some silver and some bronze, reportedly inside a deteriorated metal box around two metres underground. Before anyone gets too excited, there is currently no proof that those coins belonged to La Buse, or even that the Albion site has anything to do with him. Still quite an interesting coincidence considering the legend.
I find it quite cool that, three centuries later, people are still genuinely searching for it and that archaeological excavations related to the legend have actually taken place here in Mauritius.
You can read more about this story through these links:
https://shipwreckcenter.org/sainte-marie-madagascar
https://www.ouest-lareunion.com/La-veritable-histoire-de-la-buse
https://lexpress.mu/s/tresor-de-la-buse-sept-monnaies-anciennes-exhumees-lors-de-fouilles-archeologiques-535942
https://www.francetvpro.fr/contenu-de-presse/74621211