ousand Three Hundred and Ten Pounds Weight. And supposing
himself to have gained sufficient information of the right way to such
a wreck, it was his purpose upon his dismission from his Government,
once more to have gone upon his old Fishing-Trade, upon a mighty shelf
of rocks and bank of sands that lie where he had informed himself."

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[Illustration: The oldest existing print of Boston harbor as it
appeared in the time of Sir William Phips, showing the kind of ships in
which he sailed to find his treasure.]

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Never was there so haunting a reference to lost treasure as this
mention of that gold table that went down with Governor Bobadilla. The
words ring like a peal of magic bells. Alas, the pity of it, that Sir
William Phips did not live to fit out a brave ship and go in quest of
this wondrous treasure, for of all men, then or since, he was the man
to find it.

Bobadilla was that governor of Hispaniola who was sent from Spain in
1500 by Ferdinand and Isabella to investigate the affairs of the colony
as administered by Christopher Columbus. He put Columbus in chains and
shipped him home, but the great discoverer found a friendly welcome
there, and was sent back for his fourth voyage. He reached Hispaniola
on the day that Bobadilla was sailing for Spain, in his turn to give
place to a new Governor, Ovando by name. Bobadilla embarked at San
Domingo in the largest ship of the fleet on board of which was put an
immense amount of gold, the revenue collected for the Crown during his
government, which he hoped might ease the disgrace of his recall.

The Spanish historian, Las Casas, besides other old chroniclers,
mention this solid mass of virgin gold which Peter Martyr affirmed had
been fashioned into a table. This enormous nugget had been found by an
Indian woman in a brook on the estate of Francisco de Garay and Miguel
Diaz and had been taken by Bobadilla to send to the king. According to
Las Casas, it weighed three thousand, six hundred castellanos.

When Bobadilla's fleet weighed anchor, Columbus sent a messenger urging
the ships to remain in port because a storm was imminent. The pilots
and seamen scoffed at the warning, and the galleons stood out from San
Domingo only to meet a tropical hurricane of terrific violence. Off
the most easterly point of Hispaniola, Boba