614 A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 



The old depositions are interesting as showing the superstitions 

 still held at that time, even by intelligent and more or less educated 

 men. 



Some of the deponents, including ex-Judge Stafford, swore that 

 "Fire-drakes" had been seen to fly over that portion of Ireland 

 Island where the treasure was buried. Mr. John Hurt swore that he 

 had himself sundry times seen the " Fire-drakes rise out of the said 

 place or ground and assend the aire towards Ireland, by which scim- 

 tomes or marks this deponent supposes a great shipp or Spaniard to 

 be cast away or lost right off from this Cooper's Island." The tire- 

 drakes (fire-dragons) that they referred to were probably shooting 

 stars or meteorites, for that was a common designation of the latter, 

 at that time. 



Others testified that " astrologers" (clairvoyants as they would now 

 be called) and dealers in the " dark arts " had been there from New 

 England and other countries to look for the treasure. Ex-Judge 

 Stafford swore that when a young man he had been induced to go, 

 with several others, in company with a mysterious foreign treasure 

 finder, to look for the buried treasure, and that the said searcher 

 showed them a curious white stone by means of which he expected 

 to find the gold, and said he had found treasures in New England 

 by its use. But Governor Haydon (1669-1680) heard of their trip 

 and ordered them to return, for he and his council deemed it unlaw- 

 ful "to find treasures in that way." He probably considered it prac- 

 ticing the " dark arts." It must be remembered that at about that 

 time and for some years previously (1652-1672) there were many 

 prosecutions for witchcraft on the islands, and that at least four 

 women and one man were executed for that crime by burning or 

 hanging, and that the ordeal by water and the pricking of moles 

 were regularly used at that time to detect witches. 



One deponent swore that he and others had seen the apparition of 

 ghostly ships sailing swiftly about Cross Island, without wind (like 



yards or paces, in some definite direction from such a marked tree. The cap- 

 tain alone may have known the exact distance and direction. In such a case, 

 amid luxuriant vegetation, it would be hard for any one else to find the spot, 

 without these data, especially a few years later, even by a vigorous and pro- 

 longed search, which we have no reason to think ever took place. 



But the selection and marking of these particular trees may have been for 

 other purposes, quite apart from burying treasures. Still it is not impossible 

 that valuables were actually buried in their vicinity and never yet found. The 

 location of this pai'ticular marked Yellow-wood tree on Ireland Island was prob- 

 ably near the present site of the market. 



