count was found,
with the exception of one enormous piece of coral, in which were
embedded a number of old Spanish dollars. This object was sold to a
tourist at Nassau for the suns of $250. Experience convinced Paul that
the tales of vast treasure in the Indies were more fabled than real;
still, strange to say, old Balbo firmly believed in them. Every time
the water closed over Paul's copper helmet, his sanguine nature firmly
expected that untold wealth was about to be opened up to them. During
this cruise Paul had neglected no opportunity to secure rare specimens
of shells and other marine novelties. In a letter he received from
his father during his last visit to Nassau, he was informed that his
share of the goods shipped had covered the cost of the submarine
armour, dredging apparatus, etc., and that he had placed eight hundred
and sixty dollars to his credit in a New York bank. This letter he
showed to Balbo who to use his own expression, was "thrown on his beam
ends" with astonishment. Paul now persuaded him to give up the
dredging of wreckage and treasure hunting and devote the whole time to
seeking curiosities. The old man was loth to give up his pet ideas of
treasure-hunting and of making long, useless voyages in quest of
phantoms. Paul assured him that there was more chance of finding
treasure ships by systematically working one locality, so he agreed to
turn the schooner into a "shellhunter" as he sarcastically termed
it. Everything was ready for another cruise through the Keys and small
islands, when the captain, who had secretly been interviewing another
fortune-teller, announced his intention of sailing to the coast of
Mexico. The first point sighted was Cape Catoche, the northeast point
of Yucatan. Along this coast they were most successful and soon filled
the schooner with a large and valuable collection of curios with
which they sailed to Campachie where they were transferred to a vessel
bound for New Orleans. While at Campache, news came in of the wreck
of a Mexican brig that occurred on the Alakranes Bank.

The daughter of a rich planter living near Merida, Yucatan, was one of
the lost passengers and her father offered one thousand dollars reward
for the recovery of her body. An agent was sent down from Sisal to
negotiate with Captain Balbo, with the result that the "Foam" bore away
to the north taking along one of the surviving sailors of the brig. They