CHAPTER I. 



HIDDEN TREASURE. 



Ninety miles due north from the coast of Venezuela, 

 and forty from the north-western point of Margarita 

 Island, seven lonely islets rise sheer and steep from the 

 depths of the sea. In the language understood by the 

 English sailor they go by the name of " The Seven 

 Brothers." 



No one lives on them ; no one ever seems to have 

 heard of them ; there are no signs that anyone ever 

 visits them. Except for the sea-birds, which nest there 

 and return daily to roost from their fishing excursions, 

 and the few — very few — land-birds and animals which, 

 like hardy adventurers, have wandered and settled there 

 by accident, there is nothing to break the silence which 

 endures from year's end to year's end among their massive 

 piles of cactus-strewn granite. 



For all we know, no human voice had broken this silence 

 since Ludwig, a German geologist, paid a very hasty 

 visit to them in 1883. Beyond mentioning that the islets 

 consist of eruptive rocks, apparently of the nature of 

 diabase, and that boobies and a small black and white 

 gull mowe " — probably the sooty tern), as well as a 

 smaller, black sort (? a shearwater or a noddy), are 

 very plentiful on one of the group, called Pico, Ludwig 

 had practically nothing to say about them. We saw 

 nothing of either of these two birds, whatever they may 

 have been, on the particular island we explored, but it is 



