they showed
us. With picks and crowbars, however, they declared it would be easy to
obtain an unlimited supply of gold.

When we reported the finding of the gold to Donna Isabel, she vowed she
would never consent to abandon the treasure. "The sea cannot always be
rough," she said. "A calm must follow. Let us, therefore, wait in
patience until it comes, so that we may land and enrich ourselves."

Hartog, also, was in no mood to leave the gold until every effort had
been made to obtain it, so we continued to beat about in the vicinity
of the island awaiting a calm.

After three weeks tossing on the ocean, during which time of stress we
suffered much hardship by reason of our decks being continually
drenched by the seas which swept us fore and aft, a calm suddenly fell,
as it does in the tropics, without the least warning. Fortunately we
were not far from the island when the calm fell, so that we lay within
easy reach of it.

Without loss of time we manned the two pinnaces, I taking command of
one and Janstins of the other, and made for the shore. Donna Isabel
insisted upon coming in my boat. She had discarded her feminine
apparel, and now appeared in the sailor's clothes we had given her when
she first came aboard. Hartog, as captain, remained in charge of the
ship.

When we came to the island we found no difficulty in landing, and were
soon engaged with the picks and crow-bars we had brought with us, in
the work of gold-getting. We found the report given by the Spanish
sailors, who had been the first to land, to be somewhat exaggerated.
Still, there was an abundance of gold between the crevices of the rock,
and, what was more remarkable, we came upon what had evidently been
vessels of beaten gold, thus proving beyond doubt that the island had
formerly been inhabited.

During the course of the morning we obtained as much gold mixed with
quartz as the boats could conveniently carry, when we returned to the
ship, intending, after our midday meal, to come back for a fresh supply
of the precious metal, but on getting aboard we found Hartog much
perturbed by the extraordinary behaviour of the compass, and the
strange appearance of the sky.

"I don't like the look of it, Peter," said Hartog, when we descended
together to the cabin to discuss the situation. "I never knew this to
happen before but once, and I am not anxious to repeat the experience.
Unless I am greatly mistaken, there's something big coming."

When we