ON THE BAHAMA REEFS.
"And so your sister's going to spend the winter at Nassau, forher health, eh? Well, she might do worse, for it's very pleasantthere, with its lovely climate, and pineapples, shells, sponges, andcuriosities. Yes, I've been to the Bahama Islands. Didn't start forthere, 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 woodenpier, angling for fish, which, I may add, we didn't catch.
The captain, now that his active sea days were over, lived with hisbrother near-by, and was never so happy as when fishing with us boys,or spinning yarns to while away the time whenever the inconsideratefish refused to bite.
"I reckon I may as well tell you about it," he went on, "since thatsteamboat has stirred up the mud till no fish can see the bait.
"I was eighteen years old then, and the doctors gave me just twelvemonths to live, for I was very delicate, and so, when we started, oneraw November day, from Boston, for a voyage to Rio and back, I was asblue as an indigo bag.
"The wind was fierce and cold, and the sea was lumpy, and we tumbledand rolled about like the mischief for five or six days, when we struckfiner weather, and I at once began to feel better.
"But a few days later the weather grew bad rapidly, so that by midnightit was blowing half a gale, with a tremendous sea on that made the goodbrig _Polly Ann_ tumble about as lively as a Scotchman dancing theHighland fling.
"It was a fearful storm, indeed, almost a regular hurricane, and lastedfor two days before it gave any signs of blowing itself out.
"And then, when at last it began to subside, we found that we hadsustained considerable damage, both our topmasts being gone, themainmast sprung, and the rudder so twisted as to be of little service.
"We had taken no observation for sixty hours, and were rather uncertainas 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 Iwas awakened by a tremendous shock that made everything tremble.
"As I sat upright in my berth, there was a second shock, lighter thanthe 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 aftersomething, with a scared look on his face, and cried out:
"'We're on the reefs, and the brig's going to pieces!' and then herushed on deck again.
"I got up and tried to climb the ladder, but a dash of water camethrough 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 upon 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 theBahama reefs, and as the ship was easy now, and there was no immediatedanger, we could do nothing but wait for daylight.
"As dawn broke, I was on deck with the rest, the excitement of theoccasion, or something else, having put new life into me, and I carednothing 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 withsand hills, and a few cocoa palms, their long, slender leaves thrashingabout in the wind like a lot of enormous feather dusters.
"The sea about us was churned into a mass of foam as the incoming waveswere broken in pieces on the coral reefs, whose sharp, jagged tops ofhoneycomb rock rose here and there above the surface like the brownteeth of some marine monster.
"Between the coral reefs and the shore there was a stretch of smootherwater, in marked contrast with the tumbling sea outside.
"It was a perfect caldron of foaming water close about us, in which noboat could live a second, and so we waited as patiently as we could forthe going down of the adjacent sea.
"Half an hour thereafter, to our great relief, we beheld a stanchlittle schooner rounding a point well inside the reefs, and makingfor us; and as she drew nearer we saw that her decks were full ofmen, white and black, clad in such a variety of costumes, with suchdiversity of loud colors, as at once suggested a piratical band of theseventeenth century.
"But appearances were deceptive, for instead of freebooters bent onplunder, the strangers were good Samaritans coming to our rescue--a lotof Bahamian wreckers--men ever ready to save life and property for aconsideration.
"The captain of the little craft, which rejoiced in the highlyappropriate name of the _Fearless_, a sturdy, square-built man offifty, with light hair and bluish eyes, and a salty air about him,balancing himself with the skill of an acrobat on the port rail, andmaking 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 ifwe weren't ashore mighty soon, as the wind, backing to the northwest,would blow great guns again in a few hours, when our brig wouldprobably go to pieces.
"As the result of this confab, the wreckers began to make preparationsto get us off the brig, which they accomplished in a skillful andcourageous manner, running a line from the _Fearless_ to our vessel,over which we were hauled in turn, though we were sorely battered anddrenched by the angry sea that leaped up furiously, as if loath to loseits prey.
"It was well they worked so rapidly, for we were scarcely ashore, andthe schooner anchored behind a point, when the storm began to rageagain with great fury, burying the old brig in mountains of foamingwater.
"When at last the storm abated, it was found that the brig had brokenin two, the stern part sinking in deep water, and the cargo beingscattered for miles along the coast, some of it being picked up, butin a useless condition, so that the wreckers realized substantiallynothing in the way of salvage.
"In a few days our company went in the _Fearless_ to Green Turtle Cayvillage, where they eventually secured a passage home.
"As for myself, I refused to accompany them, having discovered adecided improvement in my health, which I naturally attributed to theclimate, which was perfection itself, with a clear, bright sky, soft,genial breezes, and a pure, dry atmosphere that seemed to put new lifeinto me with every breath.
"So I remained to complete the cure so auspiciously begun, lodgingwith a planter named Bethel, whom, to pay my board, I helped with thelighter work in his pineapple fields by day, giving his children a bitof schooling by night, to the mutual satisfaction, I am certain, of allconcerned.
"The half of the hulk of the _Polly Ann_ still clung to the greatreefs where she had struck, at low tide being nearly out of water; andevery day I looked at it, for it was in plain view from our veranda,with feelings of mingled pity and friendship--for it somehow alwayssuggested to my mind my far-away home and the dear ones there.
"Ever since the wreck, the weather had been perfect--such charming daysand nights as can be found only in the Bahamas following each otheruninterruptedly, until, as Christmas approached, I conceived the ideathat it would be nice to have our holiday luncheon on the deck of thehulk, and in this scheme all acquiesced, thinking it would be novel anddelightful.
"But the twenty-third of December ushered in a gale that swept withfury along the coast.
"For twenty-four hours the elements held high carnival, and then, onChristmas Eve, there came a great lull, and the fierce storm, veeringto the southward, died away as suddenly as it had arisen, giving ushope that our original plan might yet be carried out.
"We were up early on Christmas morning, and looking seaward, wereastonished beyond measure at what we saw.
"The hulk of the _Polly Ann_ had been loosened from the clutch of thecoral reef and carried bodily over the ledge by the great waves--hadbeen hurled upon the low inside beach, a huge broken mass, with itsstern buried deep in the wet sand, its heavy timbers splintered topieces, and its rusty iron bolts twisted like corkscrews.
"We rushed to the beach--now as hard and smooth as a floor--and saw,s
cattered about near the nose of the _Polly Ann_, some circular pieces,which we at first took to be brownish-colored shells, but which we soondiscovered 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 someinscription on one side and figures on the other, which we couldscarcely 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 Bethelthat it was a piece of silver.
"'My stars!' he cried out, in great excitement, 'if it's not an oldSpanish 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 hatswere nearly full of the pieces.
"'Where in the world did they come from?' asked Bethel, after we hadgathered in the last coin. 'I didn't suppose your old brig carried sucha 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 yearsold, and these coins are near two hundred, if they are a day, why, itdoesn't stand to reason they were in the brig. However, we will soonsee. If they came out of her, there's more inside. Come, we will look.'
"We crept inside the old hull and examined carefully among hershattered timbers and twisted bolts, and spent two hours in prying upthe planks inside the bow and along the bottom, but at last, tired andbreathless, gave it up as a bad job, and came out as empty-handed as wewent in.
"'I told you so,' said I. 'They never sailed the sea in the _PollyAnn_.'
"We spent the afternoon in counting our coins, finding we had betweenthree and four hundred of them, and we grew quite hilarious over ourChristmas gift, as we styled it, and speculated in vain as to where thecoins could have come from.
"The next morning Bethel said to me:
"'I've been thinking half the night about those coins, and I remembermy father used to tell of a Spanish vessel that went ashore somewherealong 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 seafrom the old wreck. It's curious, however, that we never found any ofthem till this brig came plowing up the beach with her nose.'
"While we were talking, two of the children came in with several of thepieces, which they had found at the water's edge, exactly like those wehad picked up the day before.
"'I tell you, sir,' cried Bethel excitedly, 'my guess was right. Ibelieve that old Spaniard lies buried in the sand right where the_Polly Ann_ has stuck her bow in the beach. Man alive, there may bemillions down there!'
"We rushed to the beach, and with shovels began to dig up the sandvigorously all about the wreck.
"Every now and then we came across another coin, which encouraged ustremendously, and we worked until we had dug a hole big enough to holdan ox cart.
"But no more coins appeared, and we were getting discouraged, whenBethel 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 fastbetween the decaying timber and the forefoot of the brig.
"The splinters from the box were fresh and clean, showing that it hadbeen crushed to pieces by the stem of the brig when she was driven intothe 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 theothers, which we carefully and eagerly secured and piled up on the drybeach near by.
"There was no longer any mystery as to where the coins came from, forwe found the rotten timbers of the old Spanish ship underlying the sandin every direction, none being less than ten feet from the surface.
"For days we pursued our hunt for treasure, tunneling all about, butexcept those in the teak box not another piece did we find, and at lastwe desisted, satisfied that we had exhausted the deposit.
"We kept the thing a secret, lest the authorities, taking advantage ofsome 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 blewlater on, filled up our excavations in the sand, this was an easy thingto 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 ensuingsummer, and disposed of it to a broker in Boston, who was very curiousto 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; outwhat I valued far more was the fact that my eight months' residence inthe lovely climate of the Bahamas made me a well man, and my lungs eversince have been as stout as a blacksmith's bellows.
"It's all right, my boy. Tell your sister she'll have a nice time atNassau, and if she doesn't come back in the spring as good as new, thenCaptain Joe'll never prophesy again as long as he lives.
"She'll not find any Spanish dollars, maybe, but there's things worthmore--and one is good health."