ON THE SALVAGES.
As soon as dinner was over the whale-boat was put into the water, and
I pulled off to the landing-place with two of my companions.
The men on shore were still employed in carrying the barrels up to the
cavern, but when we approached they ceased working, and stood gazing
at us, with a not unnatural curiosity. We found the landing-place to
be a queer one. A little channel clove the rocks for sixty or seventy
feet inland. This inlet was so narrow that there was scarce room
within it to work a boat with oars, and, as the ocean swell entered it
with sufficient force to render a collision with the rocks dangerous
for any boat, an ingenious arrangement had been placed there to
facilitate the landing. Just outside the entrance of the inlet a
barrel floated, which was moored to a big stone or anchor at the
bottom; a stout grass rope was attached to this barrel, and the other
end of it was made fast to a rock on shore at the head of the inlet.
By hauling along this rope, which was sufficiently taut for the
purpose, the boat was kept well in the centre of the channel, and all
risk of getting foul of the rocks on either side was avoided. At the
end of the inlet was a rocky shelf, on to which we jumped, having
first made our boat fast to the rope in such a way that she could not
bump against the shore.
Then there came down to us a very brown and amiable-looking old
gentleman, whose dress consisted solely of a short, ragged shirt,
which had once, I think, been of a vivid green, but which had now been
toned down to a more aesthetic tint with age and dirt. He welcomed us
to the island by silently shaking each of us by the hand very
cordially.
I addressed him in Spanish, but he shook his head and commenced to
speak in a language which I recognised as a Portuguese patois of some
description. But we soon contrived to understand each other fairly
well. He told me that he was the padron of the wild crew who stood
round listening to our conversation with grave faces--a sort of
governor of the islet, and chief owner of the barrels of wealth which
lay before us. He was also captain of the schooner.
Then he beckoned us to follow him, and he led us into one of the stone
huts, the furniture of which consisted of barrels like those that were
being landed from the schooner, an open hogs-head of black grapes, and
a demijohn. The good old man pulled out a pannikin from between the
stones of the wall, and proceeded to serve out to each of us a tot of
excellent aguardiente from the demijohn.
One of the half-naked men happened to be bringing another of the
mysterious barrels into the hut; so, without showing any impolite
curiosity, I contrived to hint that I should like to know what it
contained. The padron forthwith dipped the pannikin into a barrel that
had been already broached, and poured the contents into my hand. It
was, as I had expected, not pirate treasure, but coarse salt.
Then he explained to me that he and his companions were natives of
Madeira, that they were in the habit of coming here with their
schooner at this season of the year, and that they made this bay their
headquarters for salting down the fish which they caught, but that for
the remainder of the year there were no human beings on these islands.
He further said that the Salvages were claimed by the Portuguese, and
not by the Spanish. On being asked whether there was any fresh water
on the island, he said there was a small fountain in a hollow on the
summit, and that all the water they used had to be brought down from
there in small breakers on the heads of his men. They were nimble
enough in scrambling down the cliffs under their burdens, as we saw
later on; but all Madeirans are excellent mountaineers.
Then the padron, looking rather sly, inquired in his turn:--'What have
you Englishmen come here for? It is rare that vessels come by here.'
'It is on our way to Teneriffe,' I replied, 'and as this is a pleasure
yacht we are not bound to time.'
'Once before an Englishman came here. I thought you might have come
for the same reason as he.'
'And why did he come?'
'To look for hidden money.'
This was very interesting, but we tried to assume a look of innocent
surprise, as if we had heard nothing of this before.
'There is a great treasure hidden on this island somewhere,' he
continued, 'and the English know of it. Some years ago this milord
came with his yacht, a bigger one than yours, a steamer with three
masts, and they dug for the treasure. Oh! it is a great treasure, more
than a thousand English pounds they say; but the Englishmen did not
find it.'
'Where did they dig?' I asked.
'I do not know. I was not on the island at the time. It was several
years ago.'
That was all he seemed to know; we could elicit no further information
on the subject from him; but it was evident that the 'Alerte' was not
the first yacht that had come to the Salvages in search of the hidden
chests of dollars.
We then set forth to explore the island. We climbed the narrow path
that zigzagged up the bare cliffs, and in the construction of which a
considerable amount of labour must have been expended, a proof in
itself that the rare visitors to the island were Portuguese, for these
people alone take the trouble to make roads on desert islands. They
seem to love for its own sake the arduous work of cutting paths up
difficult precipices, and very cleverly they do it too. We came across
the remains of excellent Portuguese roads even among the apparently
inaccessible crags of Trinidad.
We reached the green downs on the summit. The sky was cloudless and a
fresh breeze was blowing over the sea, so the tramp was very enjoyable
to us after the cramped life on board of a small vessel.
On every portion of these downs we found walls roughly put together of
piled-up stones, which in some places formed long parallel lines, in
others square enclosures. The object of these had probably been to
prevent the soil from being washed into the sea; but whatever
cultivation had formerly been carried on here had evidently been
abandoned long since, in consequence, no doubt, of the insufficiency
of the water-supply. The fishermen appeared to be entirely ignorant of
the history of these old walls. In one place there were traces of an
ancient vineyard. Wherever the ground was not too stony a coarse grass
grew luxuriantly over the downs. There were also wild tomatoes in
profusion and alkaline sea plants of various species.
We saw many rabbits dodging among the rocks, and gulls and cormorants
in quantities. The cormorants dwelt with their families in fine stone
houses which they had constructed with great ingenuity. Some of the
stones were large and heavy; it would be interesting to observe how
the birds set to work to move these and how they put their roofs on. I
have been told that they rake up a mound of stones with their powerful
wings in such a way that by removing some of those underneath they
leave the roof above them. The gulls are not such good architects as
the cormorants, and for the most part live in the natural crevices of
the rocks, or in holes which they steal from the rabbits. We, however,
saw one conscientious gull in the act of making his own house. He had
selected a large stone lying on soft soil, and was burrowing a deep
cavern underneath it.
We walked round the downs, looking over the cliffs into every bay; but
we could see no extensive sandy beach such as that described by
Captain Robinson. There were small patches of sand here and there, and
that was all. The shore was formed of rock and shingle. It is probable
that many changes have taken place on this exposed islet since the
visit of the 'Prometheus'; the sands may have been washed away, and
there is no doubt that rocks and rocky landslips are constantly
falling from above.
We saw clearly that it would be useless for us to dig in any of these
bays; for none of them corresponded with the description given by the
Spanish sailor; so we came to the conclusion that our search must be
undertaken, if anywhere, on the middle island and not on the Great
Salvage.
When on the summit of the island we looked out towards the south for
the famous Peak of Teneriffe, which is said to be sometimes visible at
a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. We were not much more than
eighty miles from it here and the day was quite clear, but we could
see no signs of it; neither was it visible while we were on the Great
Piton, which is eight miles nearer. I have been at sea in the
neighbourhood of Teneriffe on several occasions, but have never yet
had a view of the great mountain, so either I am very unlucky or it
must be rare indeed that it is to be distinguished at anything like
the distance alleged.
Having explored the islet, we proceeded to hunt rabbits. We had
brought no guns with us, so tried to kill them with stones, but failed
completely; we were all out of practice at this sort of sport. We then
descended the path to the huts, where the padron gave us a smiling
welcome, and, inviting us again into the hut, produced for our benefit
an unwonted luxury, a bottle of rough Madeira. We purchased some
grapes from him and a bottle of aguardiente, and, having bade farewell
to our Portuguese friends, we pulled off to the yacht and recounted
our adventures to the others.
When we tasted the aguardiente we discovered that the monarch of the
desert island understood how to trade in quite a civilised fashion; it
was horrible stuff, not at all up to the excellent sample he had
treated us to on our landing.
Shortly before sunset the schooner, having discharged all her salt,
weighed anchor and set sail for Madeira, leaving about six men behind
on the island.
As some of my companions seemed rather keen on taking their guns on
shore and having a few hours' rabbit-shooting, I decided that the
yacht should remain at anchor where she was during the following
forenoon, so as to enable them to enjoy their sport and stock our
larder with fresh meat--a very acceptable luxury--while I would sail
with a few hands in the whale-boat at daybreak to the Great Piton,
effect a landing there if possible, and discover whether there was any
bay which answered to the Spanish sailor's description. In the
afternoon the yacht was to get under weigh, and rejoin me at the other
island.
So at 4 o'clock the next morning, September 14, we had coffee, put
some provisions and two breakers of water into the boat, together with
a few picks and shovels, a compass and other necessaries, and then
sailed away.
I left the first mate in charge of the yacht, having first arranged a
short code of signals with him, so that I could communicate from the
shore when the yacht appeared off the Great Piton.
I took one of the signal code flags with me, which when flying from a
perpendicular staff was to signify 'All Right,' two waves of the flag
indicated that we were coming off to the yacht in the boat, four waves
was an order to the mate to send the dinghy off to us, and eight or
more waves meant that we had found a likely-looking place and that I
had decided to carry on digging operations. We were to indicate the
best anchorage by pointing the flag in the direction we wished the
yacht to be steered.
It was still dark when we got under weigh in the whale-boat, so the
binnacle light was lit, and we shaped our course by compass towards
the still invisible island, which was about nine miles distant.
I had with me the doctor, the second mate, and one of the paid
hands--Arthur Cotton. When we got clear of the protecting island we
found that a fresh wind was blowing nearly right aft; so we set the
two sprit-sails and ran fast across a tumbling sea, the Atlantic swell
looking formidable when our little boat was in the deep hollows
between the lofty crests.
By-and-by a faint light appeared in the east, and a red, rather
stormy-looking dawn broadened across the dark sky.
Shortly after sunrise, the mists clearing from the islet, we perceived
the Great Piton right ahead of us; but we only caught sight of it when
we were on the summits of the waves, losing it again when we were in
the deep valleys between.
We scudded on, and as we approached nearer, the sea became more
confused and a little water tumbled on board occasionally. Outlying
rocks showed their black heads above the water here and there, while
curling breakers indicated the presence of other invisible dangers.
We lowered our sails and inspected the island from a safe distance
before venturing to land; for if proper precautions are not exercised
it is a very easy matter to lose one's boat in a moment while beaching
on any of these small oceanic islets.
We saw that the Great Piton was much lower than the Great Salvage, the
shore was rocky and indented, and there was a good deal of surf in
places. Above the shore was a green undulating plain, while towards
the middle of it rose a steep dome with dark rocks at the summit.
The average height of the plain above the sea seemed to be about
twenty feet, and the central hill, according to the chart, is only 140
feet high. We observed that there were sandy beaches in many of the
little coves, and some of these tallied well with the spot described
by the Spaniard.
The Great Piton is a long narrow island extending from north-east to
south-west magnetic; therefore the whole side facing the south-east
could be accurately described as the south side. It was somewhere on
this shore that the mutineers must have landed with the chests.
Picking our way through the outer shoals we made for what appeared to
be the best landing-place, a snug little cove at the eastern extremity
of this south side. Here we landed without any difficulty; but,
finding it impossible to haul our heavy boat up the beach, we moored
her safely in the bay and waded on shore with our stores.
On a sandy slope above the rocks we found the ruined walls of a stone
hut. By placing our sails over these we made a snug little house. 'And
now,' cried our medical adviser, 'I suggest that, before doing
anything else, we have breakfast.' Our early morning sail on the ocean
had given us all a hearty appetite; so a fire was lit, cocoa made, and
the ship biscuits and tinned beef were duly appreciated. Then we
enjoyed our pipes, and leaving Arthur behind to make the camp as
comfortable as he could, we set forth to explore the island. Our first
discovery was that the corner on which we had landed became a separate
islet at high-water; for it was divided from the bulk of the Great
Piton by a broad depression, across which at about three-quarters
flood the sea rushed with a violent current. This depression was of
rock and lava, and it had been worn into a smooth and level floor by
the action of innumerable tides. At low water it was several feet
above the sea, so that one could then walk across dryshod.
We walked along the whole southern shore of the island, and it
appeared to us that there were at least three coves to which the
Spaniard's description could apply equally well. We found no
inhabitants, but there were frequent signs of the Portuguese fishermen
who occasionally visit the islet. We saw many foot-prints on the
sands, showing that some men had been here very recently. We came
across their rough stone huts full of fleas, some of their
fishing-tackle, mounds of coarse salt, the ashes of their fires, and
in one cavern there were stored the large iron pots in which they
cooked their food.
We found no rabbits on the island, and very few birds. The sole
creatures on shore were beetles, flies, and fleas. The latter lively
insects were a great plague to us at night; it was unwise of us to
pitch our camp in the hut of a Portuguese fisherman. On the beach were
great numbers of very active little crabs. There was no fresh water on
the island.
We ascended the peak, which is named Hart Hill. Its top is formed of
rugged masses of coal-black rock, evidently of volcanic formation, and
this is studded with large black crystals, like plums in a
plum-pudding. These crystals attracted our attention at once. We
chipped off some and found them hard and heavy. We began to speculate
on the nature of this substance, and, as none of us knew much of
mineralogy, we of course at once decided, in our usual sanguine way,
that this must be an oxide of antimony, or manganese, or some other
valuable product. There were thousands of tons of this stuff on the
island, so we clearly saw our way to another vast fortune of a
different description to that we were seeking. It was settled that we
would obtain a concession from the Portuguese before the value of our
find leaked out, then we would sell our rights to an English company
or syndicate for an immense sum. We sat there on the top of our
crystalline treasure and arranged it all. 'It might be worth while,'
suggested one humdrum individual, 'in the first place to send a
specimen home to be assayed, so that we may form some approximate idea
of the extent of our fortunes; but we must send it to some person whom
we can rely upon not to breathe a word of the secret and so stop our
chances of making an advantageous bargain with the Portuguese.'
Later on, when we reached Teneriffe, we did send some of the crystals
home, and when we arrived at Bahia we were informed by letter of the
result of the assay and of the exact market value per ton of the
stuff.
But I will not keep any of my friends who may read this book in
suspense. They need not apply to me for an early allotment of shares
in the great syndicate. We have not made our fortunes just yet. I will
anticipate by giving the assayist's report. It ran thus:--'Volcanic
hornblende. Commercial value--nil.'
But we did not waste much time in building our castles in the air, and
returned to business.
Looking from the summit of our hornblende peak the whole island lay
stretched out before us like a map, and we could easily distinguish
all the features of the Little Piton, which seemed to be about two
miles away. On the Admiralty chart the coast and shoals of the Great
Salvage are correctly drawn; but this cannot be said of the plan of
the Great Piton: this is utterly unreliable. The survey does not
profess to be more than a superficial one, but great changes must have
occurred here since it was made. There are not wanting signs that the
sea has encroached a great deal on the land, and that it is still
doing so. In the first place the island is not three miles long, as
shown on the chart; its length cannot exceed one mile and a half. The
shores, again, are far more irregular in shape, the outer islands and
shoals more numerous, than the chart indicates. Perhaps these last
have been cut off the island by the sea since the survey. We perceived
that the sea was breaking all round the island on far projecting
promontories and shallow reefs; but, strangely enough, where the chart
does mark one well-defined continuous reef joining the Great Piton to
the Little Piton, there appeared to be a broad open channel of deep
water.
We saw one likely-looking bay to the southward of our camp, so, while
we were waiting for the yacht, we three of us set to with our shovels,
and dug parallel trenches in the sand at right angles to the shore,
working upwards from a short distance above high-water mark. We did
not dig these trenches to a greater depth than three feet, for we then
came to a hard soil which to all appearance had never been disturbed.
We found it pretty hard work under that fiery subtropical sun,
unaccustomed as we were to the use of pick and shovel.
In the afternoon the yacht appeared off the island; so we signalled to
her with the flag in the preconcerted manner: 'Come to an anchor.' 'We
will pass the night on shore.' And, whereas eight or more waves of the
flag were to signify that we had found a likely place for the hidden
treasure, we waved most energetically for quite two minutes--a
sanguine signal that must have led my companions on board to conclude
that we had at least discovered the first of the chests of dollars.
The yacht came to an anchor off the bay at which we had first landed.
The mate came off to us in the dinghy, and I told him our plans and
instructed him to send other hands off to us in the morning, together
with all necessary stores. He then returned to the yacht, while we
passed the night in our hut in the company of the innumerable
sleepless fleas.
Early on the following morning--September 15--the boat came off with
five more of my companions, which raised our shore-party to nine.
We then shifted our camp from the torture hut of fleas to a sandy spot
further to the southward under Hart Hill, and here we pitched the two
emigrant tents which had been brought for Trinidad. The boat returned
to the yacht for the stores, and brought back to us all the picks,
shovels, and crowbars, a forty-gallon tank of water, and plenty of
provisions, including a savoury stew of Salvagee rabbits, for our
sportsmen had had good luck on the previous day.
After the camp had been put in order the whole party set forth to
survey the southern shore, and each, having read the Spaniard's
narrative, gave his opinion as to the most likely spot.
Then we arranged a methodical plan of action, and his portion of work
was allotted to each man. We dug trenches in parallel lines in some
places, in others we drew them in A shapes, gold prospector's fashion,
generally working in a sandy earth, but sometimes through shingle.
The surface of the island has, no doubt, undergone many changes since
1804, the year in which it is alleged that the treasure was buried. It
was therefore often difficult to decide to what depth the trenches
should be dug; for we came to a hard, darker soil, which some of us
considered to be of ancient formation, undisturbed for centuries,
while others were of opinion that loose sand mixing with vegetable
matter could easily have consolidated into this in the course of
eighty years. When we had dug the trenches as far down as we intended
we sounded the earth to a still greater depth by driving in the
crowbars at short intervals. At one time some excitement was caused by
the discovery of bones, but our doctor pronounced them to be the bones
of a whale and not of a human being.
By dinner time we had dug a goodly array of trenches; for we were
working energetically despite the burning sun.
While we were enjoying an interval of rest after the midday meal and
smoking our pipes, I took those of the working-party who had not yet
seen the black crystals to the summit of Hart Hill, and asked their
opinion of the mineral. None of them had seen a rock of like formation
before, and they thought this might prove a valuable discovery. Our
sportsman took in the value of the hill at a glance. 'Well,' he said,
'I don't think so much of this as of the other treasures. However, it
may be worth a quarter of a million or so to us. I will put my share
of it on "X" for the Derby.' I may mention that the horse he selected
did not turn out to be this year's Derby winner.
We worked steadily through the afternoon, also for the whole of the
next day, September 16. On this day the mate reported that the
remainder of our salt beef, some 400 pounds, was spoiled. It had,
accordingly, to be thrown overboard.
It was just possible that the treasure had been hidden on the Little
Piton, and not on the island on which we were working. The Little
Piton might be described as the middle island, for it lies between the
Great Piton and another small islet or rock, apparently not marked in
the chart; while the Great Salvage is as often as not invisible from
here.
So on the morning of September 17, leaving the other hands to continue
the trenches, I sailed in the whale-boat with two of my companions to
the Little Piton. We found that this islet also had a sandy down in
its centre; but after several trials we saw that it was impossible to
effect a landing on any part of it. There was no snug little cove,
such as the one described by Cruise. The sea was breaking in an ugly
way along the rocky coast, and the water round the islet was so
thickly studded with rocks and reefs that it was dangerous to approach
it.
After inspecting the shore as closely as we dared we abandoned the
attempt, and, setting sail, hurried back to the Great Piton; for the
sky looked stormy to windward, and a heavy rain-squall came up which
for a time hid all land from our sight--not desirable weather for
cruising about the Atlantic in an open boat, for should a strong wind
rise we should be unable to make any way against it, and might easily
be blown away from the islets out to sea.
We landed again safely on the Great Piton, and after digging for some
more hours, we sat together in council, and upon a little discussion
it was unanimously decided that it was not worth our while to carry on
any further operations on the Salvages. We had already dug hard for
four days and might easily dig for forty more without having explored
more than a small fraction of the sandy beaches on the south side of
the island. Besides this there existed a considerable doubt whether
this was the right island at all. The information was of far too vague
a nature, our chance of success far too remote, to encourage us to
stay longer. Moreover, the anchorage was a very unsafe one should it
come on to blow, and even now the glass was falling rapidly and the
sky looked ominous.
I had originally intended to sail for St. Vincent in the Cape Verde
islands, and had indeed directed letters to be forwarded to us there;
but this island was still a thousand miles distant, and, seeing that
we had lost all our salt beef and had consumed a good deal of our
water--the digging on the island under the sun had, of course,
produced great thirst--it became almost necessary to call for
provisions at some nearer port than St. Vincent.
I accordingly decided to sail for Santa Cruz on Teneriffe, which is
less than a day's sail from the Great Piton, if one have any luck in
one's winds.
So we broke up our camp, struck the tents, carried everybody and
everything on board in two journeys of the boat, then got both boats
on board, and made all ready for sea.
With the exception of the Salvages, I had before visited every place
at which we called with the 'Alerte'; and even the Salvages were not
entirely new to me, for I had seen them from the deck of the
steam-yacht 'Sans Peur' in 1885, when she was on her way from Madeira
to Teneriffe.
This cruise consequently was not quite so fresh and interesting to me
as to my companions, and would have seemed almost a dull one had it
not been for the excitement of treasure-hunting.