202 A, EH. Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 614 
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 
“ Wire-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 fire- 
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 particular marked Yellow-wood tree on Ireland Island was prob- 
ably near the present site of the market. 
