to the contrary, most of the crew were more than
half convinced that they would never again set eyes upon the treasure
which they had taken so much trouble to put out of sight.

Three uneventful days later land was sighted on the larboard bow, and
late in the afternoon the headland at the north-eastern extremity of
Yucatan peninsula was passed at a distance of some twelve miles, and the
course was altered to due west for the run along the northern coast of
the peninsula. It was near this spot that, just a year earlier, the
squadron under Captain Hawkins' command had encountered the two
successive hurricanes which had played such havoc with them as to compel
them to run to San Juan de Ulua to refit, with the result that
irremediable disaster had overtaken them; and Dyer, who had looked
forward with considerable trepidation to the time when he would again be
called upon to sail those treacherous seas, was loud in his
thanksgivings for the good fortune which had thus far attended them, for
nothing could be more satisfactory and delightful than the weather which
the voyagers were now experiencing, the only drawback to their content
being an unaccountably heavy sea into which they ran about midnight, and
which Dyer was inclined to regard as the forerunner of the much dreaded
hurricane. With the passage of the hours, however, the violence of the
sea manifested a tendency to moderate, which caused the more experienced
ones among the crew to arrive at the conclusion that, instead of being
the forerunner of a hurricane, the turbulent sea was merely the
aftermath of one which had very recently blown itself out.

And this conclusion was abundantly verified on the following day, for
about mid-morning a floating object was sighted on the starboard bow
which, as the _Nonsuch_ drew nearer, proved to be the hull of a small
ship, dismasted, floating low in the water, and rolling horribly in the
trough of the sea. Then, as now, the sight of a ship in distress always
appeals irresistibly to the humanity of the British seaman and no sooner
was the character of the floating object identified than the helm of the
_Nonsuch_ was shifted and she was headed for the wreck. Shortly
afterwards the Spanish ensign was hoisted half-way up the ensign staff
of the stranger, thus declaring not only her nationality but also that
she was in distress, a fact which was sufficiently obvious to all with
eyes to see.

When the _Nonsuch_ had arrived withi