TRE A SURE-TROVE. 
19 
Chap. II.—B. S.] 
his grasp. He had been kind to an old countryman 
of his, and when the latter was about to die, he 
confided to him that he had been a pirate, that a large 
treasure was buried on the Cocos Island, a few hun¬ 
dred miles from Panama, and that on the map which 
he handed to him the exact spot was indicated. The 
old man was about to give further particulars when 
the carpenter, intoxicated with joy at the prospect of 
his sudden good fortune, rushed into the open air, 
capering about like a madman. When reason somewhat 
returned, he hastened hack to the bedside, hut the old 
pirate had gone to his account, and the details of his 
revelation were lost for ever. Nevertheless, the car¬ 
penter had no difficulty in persuading a Scotch watch¬ 
maker, a physician of the same nationality, and a 
couple of natives to accompany him to the Cocos Is¬ 
land. They collected as many provisions as they 
could, put them on hoard a large flat-bottomed canoe, 
and started. But they soon became aware that such 
a canoe could never make so long a sea voyage; and, 
taking a leaf out of the hook of the pirates whose 
ill-gotten gains they were about to search for, they 
put themselves alongside a schooner belonging to the 
New Granadan Government, and so frightened the men 
in charge that they willingly exchanged the schooner 
for the canoe. 
After many hardships and a lengthened passage, 
resulting from violent tropical squalls, long calms, 
and the almost total absence of nautical instruments, 
they reached the island, and found it uninhabited and 
densely covered with vegetation. The map had been 
c 1 
