dd's behalf. He testified in corroboration of the fact that Kidd had
brought home the two French passes taken out of his captures, and his
experienced mind was quick to recognize the importance of the documents
as a sound defense against the charges of piracy.

Curiously enough, the name of Captain Edward Davis has since been
linked with a buried treasure story, that of Cocos Island in the
Pacific. Certain it is that he and his comrades took great spoils
along the Spanish coasts of South America and the Isthmus, and that he
used Cocos Island as a convenient base for careening ship and
recuperating the health of his hard-fighting, careless crew. Wafer has
given the following description of this popular resort for treasure
seekers of modern times:

"The middle of Cocos Island is a steep hill, surrounded with a plain
declining to the sea. This plain is thick set with cocoanut trees; but
what contributes greatly to the pleasure of the place is that a great
many springs of clear and sweet water, rising to the top of the hill,
are there gathered as in a deep large basin or pond, and the water
having no channel, it overflows the verge of its basin in several
places, and runs trickling down in pleasant streams. In some places of
its overflowing, the rocky side of the hill being more perpendicular
and hanging over the plain beneath, the water pours down in a cataract,
so as to leave a dry space under the spout, and form a kind of arch of
water. The freshness which the falling water gives the air in this hot
climate makes this a delightful place.

"We did not spare the cocoa-nuts. One day, some of our men being
minded to make themselves merry went ashore and cut down a great many
cocoa-nut trees, from which they gathered the fruit, and drew about
twenty gallons of the milk. They then sat down and drank healths to
the King and Queen, and drank an excessive quantity; yet it did not end
in drunkenness; but this liquor so chilled and benumbed their nerves
that they could neither go nor stand. Nor could they return on board
without the help of those who had not been partakers of the frolic, nor
did they recover under four or five days' time."[3]

Captain Edward Davis had found this delectable islet during a
singularly adventurous voyage. The English buccaneers and the French
_filibustiers_ who had long cruised in the West Indies, were driven
from their haunts by the vigorous activity of the European governments,
and in 1