The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1896-04-08

and gullies and traversed by mountain
| streams. We had cleared away q tract
and set out coffee plants, with the aid
of the good natured. lazy Indians, and
Tom revived again the legend Of the
treasure farther up in the mountain fast
ness as he had heard it from one and an
other of the Indians in their soft accents
in broken Spanish and Indian. The leg
end was briefly that deep in the center
of crater of worn out volcano the
ancient Indians of that country had ex-
cavated a vault where they had piled up
countless bars of virgin gold. There was
indication Of the hiding place. The Pc
culiarity Of the crater was that it was
four square, half a mile each way, and
from the summit to the floor distance
of 500 feet To reach the floor there was
a hidden path, and this was guarded by
mysterious golden hand. Tradition,
the Indians said, made it possible to To-
cate the mountain in only one way.
That was by climbing the peaks in the
barren region far above us to the south
eastward until one should be found from
whose lofty crest there were three other
peaks forming a straight line. In the
| central mountain was the treasure.
Few burdens could be carried with us
in that high, rare atmosphere, and we
were soon Oh our way with old Zapetl
shaking his head, as if in prediction Of
disaster. Hardened as we were by our
out of door life, the strain was terrible.
We lost our way repeatedly and found
ourselves confronted by vast crevices in
our pathway up the mountain side.
Wide detours costing us half day and
sometimes day Of valuable time, were
perforce made, only to find ourselves at
the top of precipice that barred our
progress. We had with infinite trouble
climbed two lofty mountains only to
find ourselves at the summit out of
range Of the mountain tops, as demand
| ed by the legend, when finally refused
to go farther. It was suicidal. Half our
| provisions and water were gone. But
| Tom pleaded for one more chance. "Do
you see that long range?" he cried.
cit S in one Of those. Let's make one
more attempt.' Tn mistaken pity for
him yielded.
AS we reached the summit, behold
There were three mountain IS in
row. Tom sprang forward 6 tier an
other struggle we were at the top Of the
central mountain. AS we approached
the top it could be seen that there had
been volcanic action in ages past. "a
petl's eyes were rolling in every direc-
ton, on the look out for some superna-
tural phenomenon. Suddenly bursting
through dense fringe Of bushes we found
ourselves on the very edge Of a vast
crater. AS with common impulse we
looked to the center and there was an
immense bowlder cat last" cried
Tom, cat last'' Then he ran his eye
along the verge, scanning it foot by
foot. 'The path" he almost screamed,
and he stumbled along at pace that.
exhausted as we were, we could scarce
| ~ maintain. "Take care, Tom, " man
aged to calculate, though was nearly
as wild as he. But Tom apparently
heard nothing. He had eyes and ears
only for the one goal.
The path along the side Of the preci-
pice, we could see, led upward from the
wide floor Of the arena far below us, but
the top was concealed from our intent
gaze by dense mass of shrubbery.
Around the sides Of the crater we half
stumbled, half ran. When we reached
the spot where we thought it possible to