is romantic
activities as a seeker after lost treasure.

He left among his papers a memorandum concerning the galleon, under
date of 1677, which states that "the Spanish wrackship was reputed to
have been the _Admiral of Florence_, one of the Armada of 1588, a ship
of fifty-six guns, with 30,000,000 of money on board. It was burned
and so blown up that two men standing upon the cabin were cast safe on
shore. It lay in a very good road, landlocked betwixt a little island
and a bay in the Isle of Mull, a place where vessels ordinarily
anchored free of any violent tide, with hardly any stream, a clean,
hard channel, with a little sand on the top, and little or no mud in
most places about, upon ten fathoms at high water and about eight at
ground ebb.

"The fore part of the ship above water was quite burned, so that from
the mizzen mast to the foreship, no deck was left. The hull was full
of sand and the Earl caused it to be searched a little without finding
anything but a great deal of cannon ball about the main mast, and some
kettles, and tankers of copper, and such like in other places. Over
the hindship, where the cabin was, there was a heap of great timber
which it would be difficult to remove, but under this is the _main
expectation_.

"The deck under the cabin was thought to be entire. The cannon lay
generally at some yards distance from the ship, from two to twenty.
The Earl's father had the gift of the ship, and attempted the recovery
of it, but from want of skilled workmen he did not succeed. In 1666,
the Laird of Melgum (James Mauld), who had learned the art of the
(diving) bell in Sweden and had made a considerable fortune by it,
entered into a contract with the Earl for three years by which Melgum
was to be at all the charge, and to give the Earl the fifth part of
what was brought up. He wrought only three months, and most of the
time was spent in mending his bells and sending for material he needed,
so that he raised only two brass cannon of a large calibre, but very
badly fortified, and a great iron gun.

"After this, being invited to England, he wrought no more, thinking his
trade a secret, and that the Spanish ship would wait for him. On the
expiring of the contract, the Earl undertook the work alone and without
the aid of any one who had ever seen diving, recovered six cannon, one
of which weighed near six hundred weight. The Earl afterwards entered
into a contract with a German who undertook