The Hispaniola Plate

When the Algier Rose was paid off (which was done in a way shameful to our navy-namely, by giving us but half of what was due and the other half in promises, which were not fulfilled until the next King's reign, and then only with difficulty to us) Phips and I, who went to live together near the Strand, saw very soon that we should get no other King's ship to go back to Hispaniola. His Ministers laughed at us when we sounded them; one old nobleman asking us if we thought his Majesty had not enough to do with his vessels, without sending them on any such fool's errand as this? And, indeed, he was right, for things were thickening round James, we being come to the year 1687. People had not forgot the Monmouth rebellion and its brutalities, of which we heard now for the first time; they hated the King's doings and his mass in the chapel, and although he had a great big army at Hounslow this year-which Phips and I rode down to see-all the soldiers had an aversion to his religion, excepting the few Papists among them. On the sea he was not very busy just now, and no fighting done since we went away; yet it was ever thought that trouble would come-as indeed it did, though not in the way expected.

So, therefore, as now you will see who read, we had to turn our thoughts to other ways, and at once we began to look about for some proprietors who would send us forth to look again for the Hispaniola plate.

At first we had no success. Indeed, in the City, to which we resorted, the project was treated by the merchants and goldsmiths with extreme contempt, they jeering at us; while one of the latter told us he had gotten together more plate than he desired, and would cheerfully sell us some. But this was not our business, so we looked again. And now, at last, we heard of one who we thought would do for us-our knowledge of him being produced and brought to us by a friend who knew what we were seeking for. And the person to whom he pointed was Christopher Monk, the second Duke of Albemarle.

This nobleman had in no ways ever done aught to carry on the great reputation of his father; but, instead, he had, on coming into a most enormous fortune at that father's death, twenty years ago, given himself up to loose and vicious courses, as well as having a ravenous liking for drink. Yet one fancy he had which improved on this, and was very good for us and our desires-viz., he loved to hear of treasure-finds, of the sacking of cities for plunder: such as those of Drake in the Indies in the Great Queen's reign, or of Sir Henry Morgan, the buccaneer who sacked Panama and Porto Bello, wherefore the late King gave him the government of Jamaica, which Albemarle was afterwards himself to have; and, above all, of the digging up of hidden wealth. So to him, having obtained a letter introducing us, away went Phips and I to see what might be done.

He listened very attentively to us and, when Phips said he did in truth believe there was three hundred thousand pounds under the water, he sighed and said he would he could have some of it, for he wanted money badly. This we could well believe; for though his father left him so vast a fortune, he was a heavy gambler, and his Duchess-a half-witted creature, granddaughter of the Duke of Newcastle, to whom he was married before his dying father, as he lay on his bed-had ravaged him with her extravagance and debts.

So says Phips to him:

"Then, your Grace, if you will have it you shall. Find me but a ship well fitted and this very year-no other-it shall be yours. It is there, I know; I have much evidence it is; and though I have fished in the wrong place hitherto, yet now will I find it. And, as I say, it is my year."

"Why, sir," said the Duke, "why this year more than any other?"

Yet this Phips would not tell him-confiding in me afterwards that, though he believed in the astrologer, he was ashamed of his belief. So, then, next says the Duke:

"But why seek not the Spanish, or the French, who have now gotten possession of the North of Hispaniola, if not all of the island, for this plate? 'Tis worth their while, if 'tis worth mine."

"Your Grace," says Phips, "it is not possible they should seek for it. Ever and always are they fighting together for possession, when not massacring of the natives-of whom three millions have been slain since Columbus's day-and truly they have neither time nor inclination, even if they believe, which all do not. Then, for private adventurers, there are none among them who can or will risk the money; so that if any find it it must be an Englishman."

In this way, and with many other arguments and proofs, did Phips press it on the Duke-particularly leaning on the boat that came ashore, after the wreck of the carrack, full of plate; so that, at last, he said he would think well upon it, and bade us come again in a week's time.

"For," says he, "of myself I cannot now do it, though I could very well once" – and here he sighed-"when I had my father's fortune. But now I am no longer rich and am even petitioning the King for employment, and have the promise of Jamaica. Still I will see among my friends, and I will ask the King's permission. He, you know, must have a tenth and adventure nothing."

"Let his Majesty have it," says Phips, "and then I'll warrant your Grace there shall be enough to satisfy all."

"Sir, you are very sanguine," says the Duke. "But there, come in a week and you shall hear."

So we made our bow and left him.

Now, I have so much yet to write of the finding of the plate and then all that followed, as well as to tell you, who may read, how you shall also find a fortune if you will seek, that I must waste no space, but crowd on with my story.

So I will briefly write down that, when the week was past, we went to the Duke's again, and he coming up to us-a little flustered with his morning tankard, as I thought, though no ways drunk-takes Phips by the hand and then me, and says he:

"Gentlemen, I think it is done, and we must send you out. So now listen to what I have attempted."

And with that he bade his serving-men begone and see he was not interrupted till he called. Then he went on:

"I have gotten," he said, "a ship for you, not so good as a King's ship, yet well found, of a good burthen. The crew you shall pick up yourselves-God knows there are many sailors now in London wanting bread! Then, as for repayment, you and Captain Crafer" – for so he called me, though I was no captain-"must be willing to be paid by return, or what the merchants call a 'per centum.' Now, are you willing to do this?"

We said we were very willing provided we were put to no expense for provisions or furnishing of the ship, which we could not do, and he said that matter should be arranged, as well as the payment of the sailors, which must be part now and part hereafter, when we returned, out of the proceeds. So after many more particulars we agreed to all, and we left the Duke to go into the city and see the merchants, and then to attend to fitting of the ship.

She was, we found, when we got to her in Limehouse Pool, after we had spoken with the merchants very satisfactory, a good bluff-bowed bark named the Furie, who had been employed in the slave trade, about which we did not inquire too curiously, knowing very well what uses the Guinea merchants put such ships to. Suffice it, therefore, if I say she was large and roomy for her size, with many good cabins, especially on the deck, a good main cabin, and a clear fo'castle. And so we set to work to pick up a crew.

Now, as the Duke had truly said, there was no want of sailors just now; for, firstly, we were not at war with any power; and, secondly, the men went in but slowly to the King's ships of war because their pay was so uncertain; and, thirdly, because all were against him, hating the Papists he had gotten both into the navy and army, and hating him too, as well as his Papist Queen, who had passed off a false heir on the nation, as they said; and also his beastly mistress, Sedley, now made Lady Dorchester. So when we went about the taverns of Blackwall and Wapping, we soon picked up a likely crew enough, and when we told what our cruise was for-namely, to get up a treasure-ship-they were all eager to come. Therefore, at last we did get more offers than we could well accept, seeing that we wanted but twenty, and so made a good pick. Of them some were old King's men who had seen much service like myself, two had taken part in Sir Robert Holme's "bonefire," when he burnt up the Dutch ships, some more had fought under Prince Rupert-as I did-when he beat De Ruyter, others had fought against Selvagees' Armada, and all were of much experience.

Now, therefore, we had but to victual the bark and to put in our beer and water, and all was ready; so to it we went, the merchants behaving very generously. Yet, since Phips felt sure-owing to his belief in his precious geomancer, who was doubtless hanged for a knave ere now-that we should not be gone a year, we by no means overloaded her. Still, all was very well; we went out with a plenty of beef and pork, a gallon of beer a man every day for some months, with, after that, some spirituous liquors, and with good pease and oatmeal as well as bread. Also, which was of equal need, we had good arms, taking with us new cutlashes and muskets, several cannon, including two thirty-two-pound ones and a twenty-four, some pierriers, or swivel-guns, very useful, and several others. And, since this time we hoped not to fail, we took all applications for diving, such as a bell, pumps, bladders for the head, and so forth, such as was used at Mull for fishing up part of the Spanish Armada in the beginning of the late King's reign.

And so we went away again to find, as you shall read, the Hispaniola Plate. But to set it down baldly and to say only that we did so find it, would be to give no help to those who shall come after me, whensoever that shall be. Therefore, when next I take up my pen I must tell of all our doings, of the way in which the treasure was gotten, and of that uncommon villain who was soon now to appear amongst us, and who did, in very truth, by his extreme villainies, lead to my crowding the paper as I do for the benefit of those who follow me.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE OLD MAN'S STORY

Now, therefore, we are again at Hispaniola and have got near unto the Bajo de la Plata, or Boylers, once more, having made an extreme good cruise from England. The Furie was indeed, we found, a good little barky, she sailing well on the wind, which was ever most favourable for us, and so bringing us across the ocean in twenty-four days.

But ere we went out to the reef there were some things that passed which I must write down. First, we anchored off Porto de la Plata, which, as I have writ, was so named from the boat that went ashore full of plate from the wreck fifty years-or now more-before, and which is now the port of St. Jago de los Cavalleros; and here we purchased a tender which it was our intention to use, so that there might be two searchings made for the lost ship. Also we meant to have some canoes, or periagas, so that they could go where neither the ship nor the tender could go themselves, and thereby we did intend to scour all the water round about the reef.

But, Lord! who would not have been discouraged by all the merriment that our return caused-who, I say, but Phips? For those who lived at Porto did openly make mock of us, jeering at us for our coming back, and calling of us the mad Englishmen; while, if it may be believed, people did even come over from St. Jago, which is inland, to see us and our silly ship, as they called it. Now, the people here were of all kinds-there were Spaniards and Portugees, and also some French who had by now gotten all that part of the isle to the west of Monte Christo on the N. and Cape Mongon on the S., though no legal settlement until later, as well as Creoles and mulattoes, and many more. And with one accord all laughed at us, saying, "There is no plate, be sure, or we would have had it long ago."

Yet still Phips, and with him all of us, believed it was there.

But now there came and sought us out the great monstrous negro diver, Juan, who, after finding through me that Phips bore him no ill-will for his last fleering farewell of us, said that he had somewhat to tell us if we would hearken to him. So I gave him an appointment to see the Captain the next day, and a promise that he should be safe from any harm; and so he came out in his periaga to where we lay a league off shore. And he brought along with him the queerest of old men that ever I did set eyes on-an old shrivelled-up Portugee who looked as though he was an hundred, half-blind, and with a kind of shaking palsy all over him.

Then, when I took them into the cabin where Phips was, he, being ever of a jocund vein, called out:

"And good morning to you, Signor Juan, and how do you do? You see you were no true prophet, since here we are come back again."

The hideous negro made a shambling bow, and hoped his honour was well, and then in a jargon of Spanish and English, very hard for me to understand, and not to be faithfully written down, he said:

"Masser Phips, I bery sorry I larf at you when you went away. But I never tink, no never, that you come back again. But since you come, I tell you many tings I have founder outer. Sir, this old Signor, he know much, he berry old" – and here the brute opened and shut his great hands nine times, very quick-"he have see ninety summers."

"Has he, indeed?" says the Captain, "that seems a long while to me who have seen but thirty-six as yet. And what has the Signor seen in all that time?"

"He see many tings. He see the boaty come ashore with the silver plate-beautiful plate, many candlestickies, bagges of pieces, salivers and lumpes. All gone now!"

Then here the old Portuguese screamed out, also in a sort of English,

"Yees, yees. All gone now, Spanish sailors drink all up, then die. Die very soon afterwards. Drink all day and danze with the girls, then die."

"Well," says Phips, "what good's that to me? If the drink and the girls got all, I can profit nothing."

"He, he," laughed the old man, till he nigh choked, "got all that came in the boat, not all under the water. No, no!"

"Plenty more under water," grunted Juan, "so he say. Plenty more. Only no one able to get it and no one believe. He poor old Portygee, me poor negro, so no one believe."

"What, does he know?" says Phips, "and, if you knew, why had you no mind to speak when first we came here and I employed you?"

"Signor Phips," said the black, "then I knew of nothing; I only suspect you fished in wrong place. Then when you go away to English land there make much talk about you, and all ask me if English captain find much? And I say, no, and don't tink anyone find anyting. Then old man here-he ninety summers old! – then old man, Geronimo, he come in from mines of Hayna in middle of country, where he lived forty year, and hear of talk about you and the silver, and of me the Buzo" (which means a diver), "and he say he wish he come back sooner much, because he know where carrack lie, where shift off reefy."

"Shift off the reef!" exclaimed the Captain and myself together, with a glance at each other. "Is that so indeed?"

Then the old Portygee burst out laughing and then choking, and then when he found his voice again, he said,

"Yees, yees; that so. I see sailors come ashore with plate. I drink with them, I danze with girls, too, only I not die. That very long ago now; girls all dead, too. He! he! Oh!" and again he had his spasms.

Then once more he went on:

"And so, Signor, because I was a fisherman, I go out to the Bajo and I look about, only I fear Tiburons (sharks), and once when water very low I see down deep a cannon, then I know the ship had shifted. So another day I go look again, and there floated up a piece of the ship, a rail, so I know for certain she move. Then I speak to many and I say I know where carrack is, but they believed not and would do nothing. And now they all dead, too, like the sailors and the girls. He! he! Ha! ha! Oh! oh!"

We talked long with this miserable relic of the past-who so angered Phips with his recollections of the dead and the gone, especially the girls, that he almost ordered him out of the ship-and, indeed, it did seem as if at last we had lighted on some good news. He said, when he could persuade no one to believe or lend a hand to search further, he went away to the mines of Hayna, in the interior, where a fresh find of gold was made, and there he stayed for all the years, making a little livelihood and forgetting all about the plate ship. Then, having at last struck ninety-on which he laid great stress, as though an action of credit done by himself-he came back to Porto where he belonged, and fell in with Juan. And this black told us that when he did, indeed, come back and heard that we had been and gone, he fell into such a paroxysm of rage and grief that he nearly died, "for now," said he, "my chance is gone."

So the old figger thought all was lost to him, and bemoaned his fate and nigh went mad, until one day the Buzo went off to find him and tell him that the Captain Phips was come once more back, but in another ship. Whereupon he did once more go nearly mad, this time with joy, and then made Juan bring him out in his periaga to us.

So, after hearing all this, Phips says to him:

"Supposing you put us in the way to find this plate, what terms are we to make? What do you want?"

"Half," says the old man. "I am now ninety years of age. I want to be rich for the rest of my life."

"Tush!" says the Captain, "this is foolishness. Why should I give you half? I know now the carrack has shifted; I can find it for myself. You shall have nothing."

"No, no!" screamed the old Portygee, while the big black negro began to mutter; and then Geronimo as he was called, threw himself down on his knees with most marvellous dexterity for his great age. "No, no!" says he, "not that. I will tell you, and you shall offer me what you will. Me and Juan. Give us what you will."

"Indeed I shall," says Phips, "seeing that you came to me, and not I sought you. Therefore, let us see. How much think you there is below the water?"

"The Saints only know," said Geronimo, "but since she was taking home to Spain the fortunes of many from Cuba, as the sailors told me, she must have been full. Oh! Signor Capitano, promise me something, give me something!" and he clasped the Captain's legs about and wept.

"Well, now," says Phips, "see what I will do for you. You and this negro diver shall tell me exactly where she lies, or as near as may be, and if I find her you shall have this."

"The Saints bless you, capitano; I am nearly ninety years."

"Be still. You shall have this between you, the negro to dive for me with my own English diver. You shall have for every five pounds of silver or of gold, one ounce, no matter whether we find much or little. Are you content?"

At first both of them began to grumble, saying it was not enough. But soon Phips persuaded them to reason in a way that was all his own.

"Then," says he, doing so all in an appearance of sudden violence, "begone out of my ship. Away with you! What! shall I come from England twice to find what I knew of a surety five years ago was here, only to traffic with such as you, and you?" pointing his finger at each. "Nay, never! We will find it by ourselves. Begone, I say!"

But to begone was not their purpose, since very well they knew that without us they could do nought. Strange as it may seem-and very strange it was-none in Hispaniola would hearken to the story of the plate ship lying so near-for the Boylers are not a dozen leagues out from the island-and so would do nothing, and therefore they could do nought themselves. For to do anything a small vessel at least was wanted, and the means wherewith to dive-and certainly the Portygee had no money for this, while the black was little than a beggar. Therefore, at once they sang another song, becoming directly very lowly, and saying, "Well, then, they would take the Captain's offer," only I liked not the look on the face of Juan, the Buzo, and from that moment determined to watch him well.

Now, therefore, I have to say that all terms were made, and we were ready to go out to the reef. We bought a tender, and we meant when we got to our little isle of old, where the second mutiny was, to make some canoes of some excellent cotton trees that were there, with which we could go about, and see better when near the reef down into the water.

The negro Juan was to come, first as diver, next as on behalf of himself and Geronimo to see we played fair, and he it was also to whom the Portygee confided the exact spot where he had seen the rail float up years ago, since he would not tell us, saying Juan would take us to the place.

So we went away, being delayed, however, two days by the accursed Blackamoor, who we thought at first had played us false-perhaps, indeed, found new employers who would pay him better. However, at last we saw him coming out in his periaga-and none too soon neither, since we meant to go without him next morning if he came not, and try our luck alone-and when he and his craft were gotten aboard, he excused himself by saying he had been having a festa on shore and getting drunk with some of his friends.

"Good," says Phips when he heard this, "only, my black treasure, remember there is no drunkenness for you here. Because, you see," he went on, "I'm Captain aboard this craft, and if anyone displeases me I let them understand it. So, if you want to keep your brains in your head and your ebony skin whole, remember that. And now, bos'un," says he, "pipe all hands on deck and loose sail for the reef."

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WRECK IS FOUND

And now I have to write down what we found, only, as such long writing is even now difficult to me, I must do it in my own fashion. And that fashion is, that I can do nothing except by proceeding leisurely and describing each incident as it came about. Which I now again attempt.

The soft wind carried us out past the Boylers the next day at noontide, and then, as we went by, we parted with our tender, the ship going on to our little isle of old. For 'twas here we meant to construct the cotton-wood canoes, to take in some of the island water-the sweetest I ever tasted, which caused us to take it from there-and to leave some stores. The tender which we left behind-though not very far, since the isle was but three leagues beyond the Bajo-was in charge of our master mate, as he was rated, an old King's man like myself, and, like myself, sick of the King's service. He was a good sailor and named Ayscough. His orders were to proceed to whatever point near that the African should suggest as the reputed place where the carrack was shifted to, to anchor if possible, or, if not, to put out the floating anchors, and there to remain until we returned. But no matter what was perceived, even should it be the carrack herself at the bottom, neither our own diver nor the Black was to be allowed to descend, especially not the last.

Then, having given these orders, we did remain on our isle two days, what time Phips worked as hard as any man in the ship with his own hands, shaping and arranging of the cotton-wood canoes, inspiring every one with his ardours and cheering them on. What, however, did not cheer any of us, was a-finding that some of the bodies of the mutineers of the isle had the sand blown all off them where they were buried on the beach, and that their skeletons were lying white and bleached before us. Verily, a dreadful memorial of their wickedness!

Moreover, another thing we saw which we liked not any too well; namely, we found drawn up in a little cove a ship's boat, with on it the name, "The Etoyle, Provydence," and in it many ropes, hooks, and head-bladders, all carefully wrapped up and evidently for use in diving.

"Now," says Phips, "this is not well. There is nought to dive for here but one thing-the Plate Ship-therefore it seems to me that someone else has been about our office. Yet it is certain they have not been successful. Had they been we must have heard of it at Porto. What think you, Nick?"

"That depends," says I, "on which Provydence those who own the boat hail from. If 'tis that of the Bahamas, then 'tis very well, since they are ours again since '66, and as King James takes his tenth of our find, we have the precedence of all. So 'tis, if it's that by Connecticut, which is but a hamlet. But if 'tis that off Honduras, then 'tis bad, since 'tis inhabited by buccaneers only, if inhabited at all; and, if them, we may have some trouble."