ransom, to each
ship, one hundred pearls of the size of dove's eggs, and that the cargo
of the frigate was to be transferred to the "Golden Seahorse". To the
first part of our demand the King made some demur, but when we
threatened to take him away with us on our voyage home, he promised to
send some of the big-eared men for his ransom if we would give him
speech with their chief. To the latter part of our demand Thedori
readily agreed.

"You will find nothing on board the frigate," he said, "but some bags
of stone ballast in the hold. Everything else of value has long since
been taken on shore, and is being made use of by my people."

While the messengers were away procuring the King's ransom, we
questioned Thedori as to how the Spanish frigate came to fall into his
hands, when we learnt that some time since, during a calm, the frigate,
caught by one of the strong currents which prevail among these islands,
had drifted into the harbour of Porne, where an attack had been made
upon her, and she, being short of ammunition, has been taken as a
lawful prize. The Spaniards had been allowed to depart in their boats.
So, for the second time, Donna Isabel and her people were probably
castaways upon some unknown shore.

Thus does Providence reward treachery.

When, in the course of three days, the messengers returned with the
King's ransom, we sent his Majesty ashore, to find his way back to his
own kingdom as best he could. A more splendid lot of pearls than those
paid to us I had never seen, and these we divided equally between the
"Golden Seahorse" and the "Speedwell", to be allotted among the
officers and crews of both vessels in such proportions as might be
decided upon on our return to Amsterdam. The stone ballast, which, as
we expected, turned out to be the gold-bearing quartz we had obtained
from the island of Armenio, we transferred to our own ship.

And now, with a cargo which for richness had surely never been
surpassed, we once more set sail for home.

CHAPTER LII

CONCLUSION

As we neared Amsterdam I began to think, with some trepidation, of my
inevitable meeting with Pauline. It was now three years since I had set
out upon my second voyage in the "Golden Seahorse", compelled to this
course by reason of the incompatibility of temper which existed between
my wife and me, making a happy union between us impossible. Yet when I
took myself to task I could not but blame myself for much that had
occurred