by Captain Pereira, a Portugese, and had a crew largely
Portugese on board. We have found specimens of his plate with the
Pereira arms engraved on the plate border. She carried breech loading
guns on her upper deck, and you will see one of them at the Blue Coat
School now removed from London to the suburbs.

On the lower deck were some guns got from Francis I at the Battle of
Pavia. I have a very fine one at Inverary Castle, got from the wreck
in 1740. Diving with a diving bell was commenced in 1670 and
discontinued on account of civil troubles. Pereira foolishly took part
in local clan disputes, helping the MacLeans of Mull against the
MacDonalds. One of the MacDonalds, when a prisoner on board, is said
to have blown up the vessel as she was warping out of harbor.

I found an old plan and located the "Spanish wrack" from the plan, but
only sent a man down once from a yacht.

There was little obtained during the last divings, cannon balls,
timber, a few pieces of plate, small articles--about 70 dollars, etc.

Yours faithfully,
ARGYLL.

Kensington Palace,
April 25,--1910."

[1] A cliff which was the key to the position held by the MacLeans.

[2] Divers.

[3] Iona.

CHAPTER VIII

THE LOST PLATE FLEET OF VIGO

No treasure yarn is the real thing unless it glitters with ducats,
ingots, and pieces of eight, which means that in the brave days when
riches were quickest won with cutlass, boarding pike, and carronade, it
was Spain that furnished the best hunting afloat. For three centuries
her galleons and treasure fleets were harried and despoiled of wealth
that staggers the imagination, and their wreckage littered every ocean.
English sea rovers captured many millions of gold and silver, and
pirates took their fat shares in the West Indies, along the coasts of
America from the Spanish Main to Lima and Panama, and across the
Pacific to Manila. And to-day, the quests of the treasure seekers are
mostly inspired by hopes of finding some of the vanished wealth of
Spain that was hidden or sunk in the age of the Conquistadores and the
Viceroys.

Of all the argosies of Spain, the richest were those plate fleets which
each year carried to Cadiz and Seville the cargoes of bullion from the
mines of Peru, and Mexico, and the greatest treasure ever lost since
the world began was that which filled the holds of the fleet of
galleons that sailed from Cartagena, Porto Bello, and Vera Cruz in the
year 1