"And so your sister's going to spend the winter at Nassau,
for her health, eh? Well, she might do worse, for it's very
pleasant there, with its lovely climate, and pineapples, shells,
sponges, and curiosities. Yes, I've been to the Bahama Islands.
Didn't start for there, and didn't make any entry
at the custom house, but I got there, all the same. It was a
lively adventure, and no mistake."
It was Captain Joe who made this speech, one day, as we
sat on a wooden pier, angling for fish, which, I may add,
we didn't catch.
The captain, now that his active sea days were over, lived
with his brother near-by, and was never so happy as when
fishing with us boys, or spinning yarns to while away the
time whenever the inconsiderate fish refused to bite.
"I reckon I may as well tell you about it," he went on,
"since that steamboat has stirred up the mud till no fish can
see the bait.
"I was eighteen years old then, and the doctors gave me
just twelve months to live, for I was very delicate, and so,
when we started, one raw November day, from Boston, for
a voyage to Rio and back, I was as blue as an indigo bag.
"The wind was fierce and cold, and the sea was lumpy,
and we tumbled and rolled about like the mischief for five
or six days, when we struck finer weather, and I at once
began to feel better.
"But a few days later the weather grew bad rapidly, so
that by midnight it was blowing half a gale, with a tremendous
sea on that made the good brig Polly Ann tumble about
as lively as a Scotchman dancing the Highland fling.
"It was a fearful storm, indeed, almost a regular hurricane,
and lasted for two days before it gave any signs of
blowing itself out.
"And then, when at last it began to subside, we found that
we had sustained considerable damage, both our topmasts
being gone, the mainmast sprung, and the rudder so twisted
as to be of little service.
"We had taken no observation for sixty hours, and were
rather uncertain as to our location, which did not add to our
comfort by any means.
"It was well past midnight, and I had dropped off into a
doze, when I was awakened by a tremendous shock that made
everything tremble.
"As I sat upright in my berth, there was a second shock,
lighter than the first, and then the brig began to pound and
thump, with a grinding, crushing sound.
"In another moment the mate came running down into the
cabin after something, with a scared look on his face, and
cried out:
"'We're on the reefs, and the brig's going to pieces!' and
then he rushed on deck again.
"I got up and tried to climb the ladder, but a dash of water
came through the open hatch and washed me back.
"Somebody jammed the hatch shut, and I was a prisoner
below.
"The next moment a big wave lifted the brig up and sent
her higher up on the reefs, and she rested quietly with no
more pounding or thumping.
"The captain came down after a while, and said we were
ashore on the Bahama reefs, and as the ship was easy now,
and there was no immediate danger, we could do nothing but
wait for daylight.
"As dawn broke, I was on deck with the rest, the excitement
of the occasion, or something else, having put new life
into me, and I cared nothing for the sheets of spray and
foam that, flying over the rails, drenched us all to the skin
every minute.
"Before us, half a mile distant, was a low, white coast,
covered with sand hills, and a few cocoa palms, their long,
slender leaves thrashing about in the wind like a lot of enormous
feather dusters.
"The sea about us was churned into a mass of foam as
the incoming waves were broken in pieces on the coral reefs,
whose sharp, jagged tops of honeycomb rock rose here and
there above the surface like the brown teeth of some marine
monster.
"Between the coral reefs and the shore there was a stretch
of smoother water, in marked contrast with the tumbling
sea outside.
"It was a perfect caldron of foaming water close about
us, in which no boat could live a second, and so we waited
as patiently as we could for the going down of the adjacent
sea.
"Half an hour thereafter, to our great relief, we beheld a
stanch little schooner rounding a point well inside the reefs,
and making for us; and as she drew nearer we saw that her
decks were full of men, white and black, clad in such a
variety of costumes, with such diversity of loud colors, as at
once suggested a piratical band of the seventeenth century.
"But appearances were deceptive, for instead of freebooters
bent on plunder, the strangers were good Samaritans coming
to our rescue—a lot of Bahamian wreckers—men ever ready
to save life and property for a consideration.
"The captain of the little craft, which rejoiced in the highly
appropriate name of the Fearless, a sturdy, square-built man
of fifty, with light hair and bluish eyes, and a salty air about
him, balancing himself with the skill of an acrobat on the
port rail, and making a trumpet of his hands, began a shouting
conversation with us, in which he informed us that he
wouldn't give a penny for our lives if we weren't ashore
mighty soon, as the wind, backing to the northwest, would
blow great guns again in a few hours, when our brig would
probably go to pieces.
"As the result of this confab, the wreckers began to make
preparations to get us off the brig, which they accomplished
in a skillful and courageous manner, running a line from the
Fearless to our vessel, over which we were hauled in turn,
though we were sorely battered and drenched by the angry
sea that leaped up furiously, as if loath to lose its prey.
"It was well they worked so rapidly, for we were scarcely
ashore, and the schooner anchored behind a point, when the
storm began to rage again with great fury, burying the old
brig in mountains of foaming water.
"When at last the storm abated, it was found that the brig
had broken in two, the stern part sinking in deep water, and
the cargo being scattered for miles along the coast, some of it
being picked up, but in a useless condition, so that the wreckers
realized substantially nothing in the way of salvage.
"In a few days our company went in the Fearless to Green
Turtle Cay village, where they eventually secured a passage
home.
"As for myself, I refused to accompany them, having discovered
a decided improvement in my health, which I naturally
attributed to the climate, which was perfection itself,
with a clear, bright sky, soft, genial breezes, and a pure, dry
atmosphere that seemed to put new life into me with every
breath.
"So I remained to complete the cure so auspiciously begun,
lodging with a planter named Bethel, whom, to pay my
board, I helped with the lighter work in his pineapple fields
by day, giving his children a bit of schooling by night, to the
mutual satisfaction, I am certain, of all concerned.
"The half of the hulk of the Polly Ann still clung to the
great reefs where she had struck, at low tide being nearly
out of water; and every day I looked at it, for it was in
plain view from our veranda, with feelings of mingled pity
and friendship—for it somehow always suggested to my mind
my far-away home and the dear ones there.
"Ever since the wreck, the weather had been perfect—such
charming days and nights as can be found only in the
Bahamas following each other uninterruptedly, until, as
Christmas approached, I conceived the idea that it would be
nice to have our holiday luncheon on the deck of the hulk,
and in this scheme all acquiesced, thinking it would be novel
and delightful.
"But the twenty-third of December ushered in a gale that
swept with fury along the coast.
"For twenty-four hours the elements held high carnival,
and then, on Christmas Eve, there came a great lull, and the
fierce storm, veering to the southward, died away as suddenly
as it had arisen, giving us hope that our original plan
might yet be carried out.
"We were up early on Christmas morning, and looking
seaward, were astonished beyond measure at what we saw.
"The hulk of the Polly Ann had been loosened from the
clutch of the coral reef and carried bodily over the ledge by
the great waves—had been hurled upon the low inside beach,
a huge broken mass, with its stern buried deep in the wet
sand, its heavy timbers splintered to pieces, and its rusty iron
bolts twisted like corkscrews.
"We rushed to the beach—now as hard and smooth as a
floor—and saw, scattered about near the nose of the Polly
Ann, some circular pieces, which we at first took to be
brownish-colored shells, but which we soon discovered were
nothing of the kind.
"I picked up a piece and found it to be nearly two inches
broad, perfectly flat and smooth, the edge worn almost sharp,
with some inscription on one side and figures on the other,
which we could scarcely trace, so black and discolored was
the entire surface.
"I ran to a bit of honeycomb rock and rubbed the piece
briskly over it, until presently the tarnish began to come off,
and I shouted to Bethel that it was a piece of silver.
"'My stars!' he cried out, in great excitement, 'if it's not
an old Spanish dollar.'
"And then he danced about like mad for a minute.
"Next we fell to work picking up all we could find till both
our hats were nearly full of the pieces.
"'Where in the world did they come from?' asked Bethel,
after we had gathered in the last coin. 'I didn't suppose your
old brig carried such a cargo, did you?'
"'I never thought so, surely,' said I; 'nor do I believe
she did.'
"'Where else could these coins have come from?' asked
Bethel.
"'I don't know,' said I. 'But as the Polly Ann is only ten
years old, and these coins are near two hundred, if they are a
day, why, it doesn't stand to reason they were in the brig.
However, we will soon see. If they came out of her, there's
more inside. Come, we will look.'
"We crept inside the old hull and examined carefully
among her shattered timbers and twisted bolts, and spent two
hours in prying up the planks inside the bow and along the
bottom, but at last, tired and breathless, gave it up as a bad
job, and came out as empty-handed as we went in.
"'I told you so,' said I. 'They never sailed the sea in the
Polly Ann.'
"We spent the afternoon in counting our coins, finding we
had between three and four hundred of them, and we grew
quite hilarious over our Christmas gift, as we styled it, and
speculated in vain as to where the coins could have come
from.
"The next morning Bethel said to me:
"'I've been thinking half the night about those coins, and
I remember my father used to tell of a Spanish vessel that
went ashore somewhere along here when he was a boy, and
was gradually washed to pieces; and, do you know, I've an
idea these pieces have been cast up by the sea from the old
wreck. It's curious, however, that we never found any of
them till this brig came plowing up the beach with her nose.'
"While we were talking, two of the children came in with
several of the pieces, which they had found at the water's
edge, exactly like those we had picked up the day before.
"'I tell you, sir,' cried Bethel excitedly, 'my guess was
right. I believe that old Spaniard lies buried in the sand
right where the Polly Ann has stuck her bow in the beach.
Man alive, there may be millions down there!'
"We rushed to the beach, and with shovels began to dig
up the sand vigorously all about the wreck.
"Every now and then we came across another coin, which
encouraged us tremendously, and we worked until we had
dug a hole big enough to hold an ox cart.
"But no more coins appeared, and we were getting discouraged,
when Bethel struck a heavy timber that ran under
the forefoot of the brig, and which did not belong to the
Polly Ann.
"We cleared away the sand alongside this timber, and
there lay a box, made of teak wood, split open from end to
end, and jammed hard and fast between the decaying timber
and the forefoot of the brig.
"The splinters from the box were fresh and clean, showing
that it had been crushed to pieces by the stem of the brig
when she was driven into the beach by the storm.
"And then we dug out the sand from under the debris of
the teak box, and down came a shower of black silver pieces,
exactly similar to the others, which we carefully and eagerly
secured and piled up on the dry beach near by.
"There was no longer any mystery as to where the coins
came from, for we found the rotten timbers of the old Spanish
ship underlying the sand in every direction, none being
less than ten feet from the surface.
"For days we pursued our hunt for treasure, tunneling
all about, but except those in the teak box not another piece
did we find, and at last we desisted, satisfied that we had exhausted
the deposit.
"We kept the thing a secret, lest the authorities, taking
advantage of some old and unjust law, might claim a portion
of our treasure trove; and as there were no near neighbors,
and as a brisk gale, which blew later on, filled up our excavations
in the sand, this was an easy thing to do.
"We divided our find, and my portion was nearly five
thousand dollars, which I brought with me to the United
States late in the ensuing summer, and disposed of it to a
broker in Boston, who was very curious to learn where I
got it.
"But he will never know, unless he learns it from this
story.
"My Christmas gift was most acceptable, as you can readily
believe; out what I valued far more was the fact that my
eight months' residence in the lovely climate of the Bahamas
made me a well man, and my lungs ever since have been as
stout as a blacksmith's bellows.
"It's all right, my boy. Tell your sister she'll have a nice
time at Nassau, and if she doesn't come back in the spring as
good as new, then Captain Joe'll never prophesy again as
long as he lives.
"She'll not find any Spanish dollars, maybe, but there's
things worth more—and one is good health."
