ief 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 arr