It was a grand evening when, after supper, I went on deck for my usual
"constitutional". The salt, ozone-laden breeze was just cool enough to
set one's blood coursing freely through one's veins and to fill one with
the joy of living; the ship was making good headway; and the sky over
our lee quarter was a gorgeous blaze of gold and colour where the sun
was sinking in the midst of a galaxy of clouds of the most wonderful
forms. It was like a yachting experience.
In those latitudes the glories of the sunset very quickly fade, and with
their disappearance night falls upon the scene like the drawing of a
curtain. So was it on the evening in question; but I had grown
accustomed to those rapid nightfalls, and for a few minutes I, immersed
in my own thoughts, was quite unaware of anything unusual in our
surroundings. As the darkness deepened around us, however, it suddenly
occurred to me that there was something strange in the appearance of the
water; instead of its colour deepening under the shadow of night, as
usual, it seemed to be becoming lighter, as though it was being diluted
with increasing quantities of milk, until, as I stood and watched it,
wondering, it became, first of all, snow-white, and then, as the
darkness continued to deepen and the stars appeared, the entire ocean,
from horizon to horizon, became a sea of luminous, molten silver, the
weird, unearthly beauty of which there are no words to describe. Yet,
beautiful as it was, the unusual, almost unique character of the
phenomenon invested it with an awe-inspiring element that was not very
far removed from terror, especially for the men on the forecastle, whose
anxious glances aft, and restless, agitated movements sufficiently
proclaimed their apprehension.
Presently Chips, who was in charge of the watch and who had been padding
fore and aft on the lee side of the after-deck, crossed over and
remarked:
"What's the matter with the water to-night, Mr Blackburn? Boy and man
I've used the sea a good twenty year and more, and never have I seen a
sight like this. Do it signify anything particular, think ye?"
"Nothing beyond a most unusual and exceedingly beautiful state of
phosphorescence," I replied. "I have not used the sea for anything like
so long a time as yourself, but I have seen something of the same kind
once before, though nothing like so brilliant and beautiful as this.
And it was not so very far from this spot that I saw it, while making
the run from Cape Town to Melbourne. It is due to the presence, in
quite unusual numbers, of the animalculae which produce the appearance
of phosphorescence in the water; but while under ordinary circumstances
those animalculae are only present in sufficient numbers to cause the
usual appearance of stars and luminous clouds in agitated water, they
are present here to-night in such incalculable myriads that the light
they emit, instead of being more or less detached, is merged into one
uniform blaze of the beautiful silvery radiance which we see. It may
last for several hours yet, but sooner or later it will become normal
again."
My explanation seemed to afford Chips considerable relief, and he
presently sauntered away for'ard, with the evident intention of allaying
the apprehensions of the forecastle hands; while my prognostication as
to the ending of the phenomenon was verified about an hour later.
There now ensued a full month and more during which we steadily plodded
our way across the Indian Ocean, close-hauled day after day, with
nothing more eventful than the occasional capture of a shark, or a
capful of wind, to break the somewhat wearisome monotony of the voyage,
during which I devoted an hour or two every day to the improvement of
Master Billy Stenson's education; also giving a considerable amount of
study to the late skipper's diary, in the endeavour to arrive at some
sort of conclusion as to the whereabouts of the spot where Barber's
alleged treasure was to be looked for. Taking Barber's determination of
the latitude of the place, 3 degrees 50 minutes South, as being
approximately correct, I ruled a pencil line representing that parallel
right across the chart and noted the various islands that it crossed.
Then, marking the spot where the man had been turned adrift by the Dutch
skipper, I strove to trace the course over which the boat had drifted,
taking into consideration the prevailing winds and currents, as set
forth in the Sailing Directions; and in this way I ultimately arrived at
the conclusion that the spot we were seeking would be found somewhere
between the meridians of 125 degrees and 135 degrees east longitude.
Still assuming Barber's story to be true, I reasoned that the fact of
the stranded ship having remained so long where she was, apparently
unvisited and uninterfered with--until the Englishman's arrival upon the
scene--argued that she was to be found on an island not only uninhabited
but also very rarely visited; and reasoning thus I was at length enabled
to make a fairly shrewd guess as to the most likely direction in which
to look for her; and in that direction I accordingly headed the ship.
It was about a month after our passage through Maurissa Strait that, as
we were working to windward against a light and fickle breeze, land was
sighted about three points on the weather bow. The time was close upon
eight bells in the afternoon watch, and the land sighted was a mere dot
of faintest blue showing just clear of the horizon. I had been
anticipating its appearance at any moment since I had worked out my
sights at noon and pricked off the ship's position on the chart, for the
spot of which we were in search was no unknown, mysterious island.
Careful study of Barber's narrative, as recorded in the late Skipper
Stenson's diary, had convinced me that the island was quite well known
and had been more or less thoroughly surveyed; and exhaustive study of
the diary and the chart combined had finally led me to the conclusion
that if the treasure really existed it would be found not very far from
the peak that had just hove in sight. But of that I should perhaps be
better able to judge when I could see a little more of it. I therefore
took the ship's telescope out of the beckets where it hung in the
companion, and, slinging it over my shoulder, made my way up to the
royal yard, where I seated myself comfortably and, steadying the tube of
the instrument against the masthead, brought it to bear upon the land to
windward. From my elevated position this now showed as a steep cone of
moderate height rising from one extremity of a long range of lofty hills
running away in a south-easterly direction until they sank below the
horizon.
So far, so good; the contours of the distant land, as revealed by the
lenses of the telescope, agreed in a general way fairly accurately with
a sketch--made from memory by Barber--in the late skipper's diary,
illustrating a passage descriptive of the appearance of the treasure
country as it had appeared to the man upon his departure from it. If,
as we drew nearer, a certain arrangement of white rocks outcropping on
the hill-side immediately below the cone should reveal itself, I should
then know, beyond all possibility of doubt, that I had found the spot of
which we were in search. But this condition of certainty could not
possibly be arrived at before the morrow, at the earliest, for the land
was quite fifty miles away, it was dead to windward, and the ship--
working up against a light breeze--was approaching it at the rate of
less than a knot an hour.
Happily for our impatience, matters shortly afterwards improved
somewhat, for with the setting of the sun the breeze freshened, and by
the end of the second dog-watch we were slashing away to windward at a
fine rate, reeling off our eight knots per hour, with the royal stowed.
The breeze held all through the night, and when I went on deck at eight
o'clock on the following morning the cone that I had viewed through the
telescope on the previous evening was only some fifteen or sixteen miles
distant, broad on the weather bow, and the arrangement of white rocks on
the hill-side--five of them forming a vertical line--which the diary
assured me was the distinguishing mark by which I might identify the
spot for which I was searching--was clearly visible in the lenses of the
telescope, while the mouth of the estuary was about five miles ahead.
"Yes," I said to Enderby, who was standing beside me as I closed the
instrument, "we are all right--so far; the opening to the nor'ard of
that curious hummock is the mouth of the estuary into which Barber
drifted while in a state of delirium, and the stranded hulk which is
supposed to contain the treasure stands, according to him, somewhere on
the southern shore. We shall have to make short boards along that
southern shore, keeping a sharp look-out for anything in the nature of a
stranded craft, anchor abreast it, and go ashore and give it a careful
overhaul. Thus far it looks as though there might be some truth in the
man's story. I have no longer any doubt that Barber actually entered
that estuary; but I shall still have to see that wreck before I am
finally convinced of her existence. Barber was admittedly crazy when he
landed yonder, and for all that we know to the contrary he may have
remained crazy all the time that he was there, and have imagined the
whole thing."
"Holy Moses!" exclaimed the boatswain, in consternation, "you surely
don't mean to say, sir, that after all this time you still has doubts
about the truth of that there treasure yarn, do ye? If we don't find
that wrack there'll be the dickens to pay in the forecastle. The men--
especially them Dagoes--'ll be that disapp'inted that there's no knowin'
what game they may try to play."
"How--what do you mean, boatswain?" I demanded sharply.
"Well, Mr Blackburn," he returned, "what I means is that if we don't
find the wrack the chaps'll be so disapp'inted that, in their rage, they
may rise upon us, the afterguard, and try to take the ship from us."
"What good would that do them?" I demanded. "If they were to attempt
so foolish a thing, and were to succeed, what could they do with the
ship? I suppose even they--dolts as they would prove themselves in such
an event as you mention--would not be idiots enough to suppose that they
could compensate for their disappointment by becoming pirates, eh?"
"Blest if I know what they mightn't believe if Svorenssen and the two
Dutchmen got talkin' to 'em," asserted the boatswain. "They're
wonderful talkers, all three of 'em, and they're everlastin'ly gassin'
about one man bein' as good as another, and freedom, and the rights of
man--_you_ know, sir, the sort of slush that such chaps spouts, and that
the shellback swallers as greedily as he would a pannikin of egg-flip!"
"Yes," I said, "I know. I have heard it all, over and over again, until
I have been sick and tired of listening to it; and I have wondered how
it is that sensible, level-headed British sailors, even though they may
not have had very much education, can swallow and believe in such froth.
However, I am very glad that you have mentioned the matter; I will keep
my weather eye lifting, and at the very first sign of trouble I'll act,
and to some purpose, too."
"That's right, sir; I hopes you will," approved Enderby. "And if action
should ever be needful you may depend upon me and Chips to back ye up.
In the meantime I'll keep my eyes and ears open, too, and let you know
directly I sees any signs of trouble brewin'."
When I descended to the cabin, a few minutes later, in response to the
steward's summons to breakfast, I found Billy Stenson already seated at
the table. Billy, I should explain, had, within two days of my arrival
aboard the _Yorkshire Lass_, been promoted from the position of pantry-
boy to that of passenger, in virtue of the fact that, through his
father's death, he had become the owner of the brigantine and the
inheritor of all prospective profits which might accrue in respect of
the present highly speculative voyage; he had also become my pupil, I
having undertaken to ground him in the rudiments of navigation.
"Good morning, Billy," I said. "Do you happen to know whether there are
any firearms, or weapons of any sort, aboard here?"
"Yes, Mr Blackburn," replied the lad. "When Father and Mr Barber
agreed upon this voyage they decided that they ought to have the means
of defending the ship, if necessary, and so Father bought a dozen rifles
with bayonets, and three brace of navy revolvers, with a good supply of
ammunition for both kinds of firearms. They're in two cases, down in
the lazarette."
"Do the men for'ard know they're aboard?" I asked.
"Oh no, sir, I don't think so," answered the lad. "They came aboard and
were stored away a week or more before the crew was shipped."
"Good!" I commented. Then, turning to Enderby, who also was present, I
said: "What you said on deck, a little while ago, suggests to me that it
will be a wise thing to have those cases up out of the lazarette without
further delay. We'll open them, give their contents an overhaul, and
clean and oil them, ready for immediate use, if need be. We may not
require them, but if on the other hand we should, the need will probably
be so urgent that there will then be no time for preparation. We will
have them up immediately after breakfast."
Upon my return to the deck I found that we were just entering the
estuary, the mouth of which was about three miles wide, the shore on
either side being quite low, with, here and there, narrow strips of
beach composed of sand and gravel. The low, flat shore on either side
of the inlet was backed by ranges of hills extending inland as far as
the eye could see, but whereas the low, flat country between the shore
and the base of the hills was less than a mile wide on the northern
bank, it ranged from five to twelve miles wide on the southern side.
The soil was everywhere grass-clad, the grass seeming to be very
luxuriant and about three feet high, while dotted about pretty thickly
all over the plains were clumps of palmetto, palms, trees of various
kinds--some of which would probably be the fruit-trees that had restored
Barber to life--and big clumps of bamboo and scrub. I anticipated that
it would be among those clumps of scrub that we should eventually find
the treasure hulk, if indeed the craft actually existed and was not the
figment of a madman's imagination; and I also foresaw that our search
for the hulk might easily be a very much more arduous and protracted
affair than I had anticipated, for it appeared to me that every one of
those clumps big enough to conceal the hull of a five-hundred-ton hulk
ought to be examined. There was no need, however, for us to begin our
search quite at once, for we were only entering the estuary, whereas,
according to Barber's account, the hulk lay some six or eight miles from
the entrance. This assumed distance was of course a very vague and
unreliable guide, and I therefore determined to take the ship up the
inlet about five miles, anchor her, and commence our search at that
point, gradually working our way upward. Meanwhile, the wind had come
away far enough out from the southward to enable us to hug the southern
shore as closely as we pleased; consequently although the breeze was
light we made good progress, and within an hour had reached a point at
which, I decided, our quest might very well begin. We therefore
anchored, furled all canvas, hoisted out the jolly-boat, and, making up
a search-party consisting of the four foreigners, Enderby, and myself,
went ashore and began our hunt for a craft in the existence of which I
had little or no belief.
Our chief difficulty was that we had no bearings to guide us. I
concluded that at the time of Barber's visit he was destitute of all
means to make notes or records of any kind, for his story was set down
entirely from memory, and was singularly barren of all information but
that of the most general character; there were no little illuminating
details to tell us whether we were or were not nearing our goal. The
one solitary fact from which I could draw a useful deduction was that,
at the time of Barber's arrival in the estuary, he was very ill and
weak, yet despite his feeble condition he was able to reach certain
trees, the fruit of which restored him to health. Now, from that fact I
deduced the inference that the particular fruit-trees to which Barber
owed his restoration must of necessity be at no great distance from the
beach, otherwise the man would not have had strength to reach them;
hence, to find the spot at or near which Barber landed, we must look for
a part of the plain where trees were growing within, say, two or three
hundred yards of the water's edge. There was just one such clump
abreast the spot where we had anchored, apart from which I could see no
others anything like so near the beach for a distance of fully a mile to
the eastward.
I confess that I entered upon this treasure-hunt hampered by a very
strong feeling of doubt. Of course I had ocular evidence of the
existence of such a place as Barber had described as that where the
treasure was to be found, for there it was, visibly before me. I was
also prepared to lend credence to the story of the stranded hulk,
strange as that story might seem, for I actually had personal knowledge
of even stranger happenings than that; but it was the existence of the
treasure itself--those steel-bound chests packed with gold, silver, and
gems--that I doubted. According to Barber's own story he was crazy when
he drifted into the estuary, and, although he may not have known it, he
perhaps remained crazy all the time he was there; and if it was indeed
true that he had stumbled upon a stranded ancient hulk, that very fact
may have so excited his disordered brain as to cause him to imagine the
treasure. Looking back at the episode now, after the lapse of years,
that, it appears to me, was very much my mental attitude with regard to
it; yet, my doubts notwithstanding, I was determined to leave no stone
unturned to test Barber's story to the uttermost; consequently when,
late in the afternoon of the following day, we actually came upon the
hulk, my chief feeling was one of surprise.
There was nothing whatever of an exciting or dramatic character in the
circumstances connected with our discovery; it was all absolutely
commonplace; we were not even molested by natives, of whom we saw no
sign from first to last. Having thoroughly searched, without result,
the entire area of the flat country for a space of eight or nine square
miles immediately opposite the spot where the brigantine was first
anchored, we got under way again and, under fore-and-aft canvas only,
moved the ship some three miles farther up the estuary, intently
studying the country on our starboard hand, meanwhile, through the
ship's telescope, on the look-out for any object suggestive of a
stranded hulk overgrown with creepers. And it was in this way that we
found her, the telescope enabling us to identify her at a distance of
fully a mile.
Arrived abreast of her, we again anchored the brigantine, and the same
search-party, under my command, once more landed and walked straight to
the hulk.
She lay high and dry, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile from
the beach, a dismasted craft of some seven hundred tons burden, built on
the lines of the old Spanish galleon, with a low bow and forecastle and
a lofty stern and after-castle; the great flat stern embellished with
much carving and the remains of a gallery, and surmounted by the iron
frames of three big poop lanterns. No doubt she had once presented a
very gallant picture of paintwork and gilding, traces of which were
discoverable about her here and there, but, apart from these, her whole
exterior had been reduced by sun and rain to a uniform tint of neutral
grey, except where moss and fungus had taken hold of her.
We boarded her without difficulty; but no sooner had we arrived below
than we found ample confirmation of Barber's statement as to her
rottenness, for, what with dry-rot and white ants, her deck planking and
beams had become the merest shells of wood, yielding freely in places to
the pressure of a man's weight, so that, in order to avoid accidents, we
had to move about aboard her with the utmost circumspection.
What was very much more to the point, however, was that we found not
only the ship but also the eight big chests of treasure, exactly as
described by Barber in the yarn given in the late skipper's diary. They
had all been broken open; but their contents appeared to be intact, and
as I very carefully examined them I arrived at the conclusion that they
had never been touched since Barber himself had left them to go in
search of the assistance he needed in order to secure possession of
their contents.
The discovery of the chests and, still more, the sight of their contents
was naturally productive of the utmost excitement, and, also quite
naturally, it at once roused all the greed that was latent in our
natures. So far as Enderby and I were concerned we were quite able to
control ourselves; but no sooner did the four Dagoes set eyes upon the
gold coins with which one of the chests was filled than they threw
themselves upon that chest, as starving wolves might throw themselves
upon a carcass, and proceeded to stuff their pockets with coin. This,
of course, could not possibly be permitted, and Enderby and I, drawing
our revolvers, compelled the quartette to replace in the chest every
coin they had snatched; but they yielded only under compulsion, and with
snarls, growlings, and muttered menaces which were only silenced by my
threat to maroon them on the spot if they showed the least sign of a
disposition to give further trouble.
The transfer of those eight heavy steel-bound chests with their contents
was a trying job, but nothing would induce the men to leave a single one
of them where they were for another night; they insisted on being
allowed to stick to their task until it was completed; and, by dint of
such strenuous effort as probably none of them had ever before exerted,
the task was completed a few minutes after sunset; following upon which
I caused the whole to be securely fastened up and struck down into the
lazarette. The forenoon of the next day was spent ashore gathering an
abundant stock of such fruits as the place afforded; and immediately
after dinner the jolly-boat was hoisted in, the anchor hove up, and the
_Yorkshire Lass_ stood out to sea.