GOLDEN OYSTERS.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM PHIPPS, when Adam left him at Jamaica, had returned, as
he had said he intended, to the waters wherein the old Spanish galleon,
with her golden treasure, was supposed to have sunk. He had met with a
small measure of luck, for an old sailor had pointed out what he alleged
to be the exact reef of rocks on which the galleon had split, half a
century before. This spot was a few leagues to the north of Port de la
Plata.
Having examined the place without success, Phipps had then discovered
that his crew was not reliable and the ship not much better, in point of
soundness. He had therefore headed for England, coming in due season to
anchor in the Thames.
Undaunted by the failure which his enterprise had been, he sought out
the King, reported what he had done, and requested the use of another
ship and a better lot of men.
James was amused and entertained. He commended the bold skipper on his
courage and his tenacity of purpose; he believed his story. But he shook
his head at the thought of furnishing funds and a new ship and crew for
further adventures with pirates and mutineers in the Spanish Main.
However, at the Court, Captain Phipps had made influential friends. He
was admired for his manly qualities; he was trusted as a man of
exceptional integrity. The Duke of Albemarle, with several friends,
agreed again to back the doughty Captain for the venture. They secured a
new charter for the business from the King; they found a good staunch
ship. Away went Phipps, with a hope so high that nothing could have
served to suppress it.
It was when the captain arrived once more at Port de la Plata that Adam
Rust and the beef-eaters joined him. The meeting was one in which the
demonstration of a great and enduring affection between the two big men
was the more affecting because of its utter simplicity and quietness.
Adam was welcomed to his share in the new promise with that great spirit
of generosity and justice which characterized everything that Phipps was
ever known to do.
The preparations for a careful search were pushed ahead rapidly. A
small, stout boat was built and launched, near the fatal reef, while the
ship was anchored at some distance away, in less treacherous water.
Daily the small boat put forth and the reef was examined, but to no
avail. It was found that the shelf of rock, which had broken the old
galleon, ended so abruptly as to form a sheer drop of many fathoms,
whereas a few feet away it was only a ship’s-hold distance from the
surface. It was conjectured then that the galleon had struck, had filled
with water and so had fallen over the edge of the submerged precipice,
where she would lay forever, undisturbed by prodding man.
The search was at length abandoned as being futile. The small boat,
being slowly rowed away, Adam beheld a plant, of many colors and rare
beauty, growing on the reef below them, in the clear, emerald water. He
requested a diver to fetch it up. The boat was halted and overboard went
the man. He was soon seen spraddling like some singular creature, back
up through the brine. He had fetched the plant and he told of having
seen on the bottom the encrusted gun of some sunken vessel.
At Adam’s eager command he returned again to the spot and presently
arose to the surface with an ingot of silver, slimy and dark, clutched
firmly in his hands. The treasure was found!
Putting for the ship at once, where Captain Phipps was somewhat
laboriously writing a long report of the second failure, the rover gave
the almost incredible news, that set the whole ship afire with amazement
and joy.
The entire crew were speedily pressed into service. The work was
prosecuted with vigor. Adam looked upon this treasure, coming so late
into his sight and life, with a grim smile upon his lips and with scorn
in his eyes. He saw the divers fetch up masses of bullion, first, then
golden oysters, encrusted with calcareous matter, then broken bags
bursting with their largess of Spanish doubloons, and finally precious
stones, shimmering, untarnished, in the sunlight.
It was a feverish time. Day after day went by and the boats were filled
with fortunes. It seemed as if the more they took, the more they found.
The gold on top hid gold underneath.
An old shipmate of Captain Phipps’ whose imagination the ship-builder
had fired, months before, arrived from Providence. He was able so easily
to fill his boat with gold that he went raving crazy and died in a
lunatic asylum at Bermuda.
The provisions on the ship began to run low, before the examination of
the sunken wreck was complete. Moreover the sailors, their
avariciousness aroused by the sight of all these riches, which daily
they were snatching from the sea, for other men to enjoy, grew restive
and threatened to take a contagion of mutiny.
Treasure to the value of three hundred thousand pounds had been
recovered, and much still remained untouched. Phipps determined to sail
with what he had, planning to return to the field in the future. He
enjoined silence and secrecy on all the sailors, but the word leaked out
and adventurers gathering from far and near, the rotting galleon was
despoiled of everything she had hoarded so jealously and successfully
throughout the years.
Phipps brought his vessel in safety to England. The enormous success
which had attended his efforts so aroused the cupidity of certain of the
King’s retainers that they advised James to confiscate the entire
treasure, on the ground that Phipps had withheld such information, on
his former return, as would have induced the crown to finance the second
enterprise, had the truth been told.
King James, however, was too honorable a monarch to resort to trickery
so infamous. Instead he commended the captain in the highest terms, made
him an intimate of his court, knighted him Sir William Phipps and
invited him to become an Englishman and reside with them there for the
remainder of his life.
Phipps received his honors modestly. He was too patriotic to desert
America and bluntly said so to his King. He and Adam received, as their
share of the treasure, the one tenth agreed upon, amounting to thirty
thousand pounds, of which sum all that the Captain could prevail upon
Rust to accept was a third, a sum, the rover said, far in excess of the
needs of his retinue and himself.
------------------------------------------------------------------------