Puzzle Zone

The Beale ciphers are one of the great unsolved puzzles of all time. In 1845 a Virginian, Thomas J. Beale buried two wagons-full of gold and silver in Bedford County, near Roanoke USA. There are local rumours about the treasure being buried near Bedford Lake. He wrote three encoded letters telling what was buried, where it was buried, and who it belonged to. He entrusted these three letters to a friend, Robert Morriss, the proprietor of a hotel where Beale had stayed, and went West. Later he wrote to Morriss asking him to keep the box for 10 years and then open it up if he had not called for it by then. Beale was never heard of again. Morriss, however, waited for some 25 years before opening the box but it was a further 20 years before a friend of Morriss was able to break one of the codes, the one used in the second letter. The code used the text from the Declaration of Independence. A number in the letter indicated which word in the document was to be used. The first letter of that word replaced the number. For example, if the first three words of the document were “We hold these truths”, the number 2 in the letter wouldrepresent the letter h. One of the remaining letters supposedly contains directions on how to find the treasure. To date, no one has solved the code. It is believed that both of the remaining letters are encoded using either the Declaration of Independance in a different way, or another very public document or well-known book such as the Bible. TEXT for part 1 The Locality of the Vault.

71,194,38,1701,89,76,11,83,1629,48,94,63,132,16,111,95,84,341,
975,14,40,64,27,81,139,213,63,90,1120,8,15,3,126,2018,40,74,
758,485,604,230,436,664,582,150,251,284,308,231,124,211,486,225,
401,370,11,101,305,139,189,17,33,88,208,193,145,1,94,73,416,
918,263,28,500,538,356,117,136,219,27,176,130,10,460,25,485,18,
436,65,84,200,283,118,320,138,36,416,280,15,71,224,961,44,16,401,
39,88,61,304,12,21,24,283,134,92,63,246,486,682,7,219,184,360,780,
18,64,463,474,131,160,79,73,440,95,18,64,581,34,69,128,367,460,17,
81,12,103,820,62,110,97,103,862,70,60,1317,471,540,208,121,890,
346,36,150,59,568,614,13,120,63,219,812,2160,1780,99,35,18,21,136,
872,15,28,170,88,4,30,44,112,18,147,436,195,320,37,122,113,6,140,
8,120,305,42,58,461,44,106,301,13,408,680,93,86,116,530,82,568,9,
102,38,416,89,71,216,728,965,818,2,38,121,195,14,326,148,234,18,
55,131,234,361,824,5,81,623,48,961,19,26,33,10,1101,365,92,88,181,
275,346,201,206,86,36,219,324,829,840,64,326,19,48,122,85,216,284,
919,861,326,985,233,64,68,232,431,960,50,29,81,216,321,603,14,612,
81,360,36,51,62,194,78,60,200,314,676,112,4,28,18,61,136,247,819,
921,1060,464,895,10,6,66,119,38,41,49,602,423,962,302,294,875,78,
14,23,111,109,62,31,501,823,216,280,34,24,150,1000,162,286,19,21,
17,340,19,242,31,86,234,140,607,115,33,191,67,104,86,52,88,16,80,
121,67,95,122,216,548,96,11,201,77,364,218,65,667,890,236,154,211,
10,98,34,119,56,216,119,71,218,1164,1496,1817,51,39,210,36,3,19,
540,232,22,141,617,84,290,80,46,207,411,150,29,38,46,172,85,194,
39,261,543,897,624,18,212,416,127,931,19,4,63,96,12,101,418,16,140,
230,460,538,19,27,88,612,1431,90,716,275,74,83,11,426,89,72,84,
1300,1706,814,221,132,40,102,34,868,975,1101,84,16,79,23,16,81,122,
324,403,912,227,936,447,55,86,34,43,212,107,96,314,264,1065,323,
428,601,203,124,95,216,814,2906,654,820,2,301,112,176,213,71,87,96,
202,35,10,2,41,17,84,221,736,820,214,11,60,760.