to be worth doing. We think them terrible. Life itself is
terrible. But life was not terrible to them, for they were comrades;
and comrades and brothers-in-arms are stronger than life. Those who
live at home at ease may condemn them. The old buccaneers were happier
than they. The buccaneers had comrades and the strength to lead their
own lives."[9]

This stout old breed had long since vanished when Cocos Island once
more became the theater of buried treasure legend. The versions of
this latter story agree in the essential particular that it was Captain
Thompson of the merchant brig _Mary Dear_ who stole the twelve million
dollars' worth of plate, jewels, and gold coin which had been entrusted
to him by the Spanish residents of Lima in 1820, and buried them on
Cocos Island. Then, after he had joined the crew of the pirate, Benito
Bonito, and somehow managed to escape alive when that enterprising
gentleman came to grief, he tried to return to Cocos Island to recover
the fabulous treasure.

The account of his later wanderings and adventures, as handed down in
its most trustworthy form, has been the inspiration of several modern
treasure-seeking expeditions. It is related that a native of
Newfoundland, Keating by name, while sailing from England in 1844, met
a man of middle age, "handsome in appearance and having about him
something of an air of mystery which had an attraction of its own."
This was, of course, none other than Captain Thompson of the _Mary
Dear_. He became friendly with Keating and when they landed at
Newfoundland, the latter asked him to accept the hospitality of his
home. The stranger, who appeared anxious to avoid public notice,
remained for some time with Keating, and wishing to make some return
for his kindness, at length confided that he was one of the two
survivors of Benito Bonito's crew, and possessed a secret which would
make them immensely rich. If Keating could persuade one of the
merchants of Newfoundland to fit out a vessel, they would sail to the
Pacific and fetch home enough treasure to buy the whole island.

Keating believed the strange tale and passed it on to a ship-owner who
agreed to furnish a vessel provided one Captain Bogue should go in
command of the expedition. While preparations were under way, Thompson
was inconsiderate enough to die, but it goes without saying that he
left a map carefully marked with crosses and bearings. Keating and
Bogue set sail with this pre