The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-26

teenth day, when all We're ready to give
up. they came across the bark North Star.
| You may have read that this craft be-
| longing to Boston, came out OF Havana
with the yellow fever aboard. She had a
crew of eight men, and she was hardly
| clear of Abaco Island, when the captain.
mate and two others died. and the sur
vivors got out a boat and abandoned her.
They landed on the Florida coast, while
the bark. loaded with sugar. drifted out
TO sea. IL was this craft Capt Jones and
his men ran across after she had been
drifting for three weeks, and il Is a matter
of record that the four men, after sailing
her all over the Atlantic and meeting with
a hundred adventures. finally took a pilot
$50 miles off Sandy Hook and got the bark
safely into New York. Capt. Jones got
$1,000 salvage money as his share which
was 5000 more than the Foam cost him.
My Aunt Hetty did not believe that
Uncle Abel meant to leave us and the
brig, but when the gale came on all OF us
felt sure the four men had met their
deaths. We did not work for five DAVIS.
Then, feeling that the disaster had over
taken the quartet, aud that she was a
widow, Aunt Hetty wiped away her tears
and began to stir around She still believed
in the existence of the treasure We had
failed to find it, because we had not looked
in the right spot BY her orders we
weighed anchor and coasted around To
the north of the island. Then we opened
up another bay and cast anchor. The
beach was of sand and about fifty feet
wide. Back Of IT was a thick growth OF
forest. There was a lone tree on the
beach, just above high-water mark but
no rock, as described by Drake. Never
theless, Aunt Hetty decided that we
should go to work. One Of the men paced
off twenty-one PAGES in three directions,
. n Il
found, we tried fourteen PAGES then seven,
then dug up the tree itself
As a matter of fact, we dug up the entire
beach before we left of, or at least so
thoroughly prodded 1t with iron rods that
we felt sure nothing Of value lay buried in
the sands. We were working there fifteen
days before we gave up. Aunt Hetty
wanted to try another place, but the two
Kennebunk sailors had had enough of it,
and wanted to go home, There was set
Element OF fishermen On theporth side. of
the island, and almost every day we had
| been visited by aboat The people knew
what we were after and laughed and ridi-
culed. The idea was TO get three or four
OF these fishermen to help navigate the brig
TO Porto Rico where we could replace them
but as soon as they found we were short
handed they refused to ship unless paid 80
day apiece. Aunt Hetty was purser as
well as cook, and she said she'd let the
brig rot at her mornings before she'd be
robbed
our great good luck came out of a quar-
rel Aunt Hetty got angry because we re-
fused to do more digging, and had a jaw
with the sailor and attempted to give me a
whipping. When / ran from her she took
the small boat and put off for the brig
leaving the three of US ashore. This hap
pened one forenoon. The two men lay
down in the shade to sleep, while walked
along the beach TO gather shells. In going
to the west, and after walking about two
miles, carrying one Of the iron rods on my
shoulder as a weapon, ! came upon a small
Ter bay than the one the brig was lying
in. AT the head of this bay was another
sandy beach, and In the center of the beach
just at high water mark. stood big rock
all by itself. 1 advanced to this rock and
finally climbed upon IL.
had given up all thoughts of the treas
ure, and why the idea came TO me to make
a search here l cannot tell. l first paced
seven steps TO the west and probed the
sand. Then l made IL IA, then 81 Then
returned to the rock and paced to the
east. At the third trial, or at q PAGES,
/ was close to a large tree which had
lost most of its branches in a hurricane.
began prodding en- the north side of it,
where some of the roots were exposed.
and l hadn't worked five minutes before
struck something to make my heart
jump. 1 knew IL wasn't a shell or a
stone by the feel of it. and It didn't occur
to me that 1t might be a plank or a beam
washed up by the sea. So sure was 1
that l had struck a treasure box that l
flung down the rod and ran away to
fetche the sailors and the shovels.
What did my discovery amount to?
Well, we took from under the roots OF
that tree four iron banded boxes full of
Spanish dollars, being $4,000 in all. The
money judging from the dates on the
coins and the condition of the boxes,
had been buried for at least twenty
years, and whether by pirate or some one
else we did not care. We got It aboard
the brig and got the brig to Porto Rico
without anyone being the wiser. and
thence we sailed for home in ballast
with Aunt Hetty acting as boss OF all
hands. That we got safely home, and
that out Of Tom Fools errand and a
dozen pisfortunes my relatives secured
a fortune in ready cash, you can satisfy
yourself by a talk with any Of the old
citizens of Kennebunk. 1t all happened
80 years ago, but there are plenty of peo-
pie still living who will relate all the par
ticulars and give you names and dates.