The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-12-13

E0lupp1ueB was uOOepenoency. Inc
return galleon brought the proceeds
Df these speculations; though, Is the
boletas, or shipping permits for trans
portation space, were issued by the
for revenue, they prac-
tically amounted to Philippine sub
idy."
That's about % I remember 1t.
There were good many galleons
wrecked on the coral islands, weren't
there?"
Lots of them; they were great un-
wieldy tubs, always loaded beyond
their carrying capacity. And, by the
way, that reminds me of an instance
which happen to know about, more
or less directly. Last voyage, Padre
Julian. who has been in charge Of the
mission on Saipan for 80 or 40 years,
came home with me. The old chap
is q good deal Of student, and has
the history of these islands at his
finger-ends-best judge of rum and
sherry ever saw. used to fill him
up with good liquor, just to see him
enjoy it and hear the stories he told
when the stuff got into his blood.
Among other things, he told me one
night about the loss of Nuestra Sonora
de Sevilla in 1860 on the Santa Rosa
Reef, somewhere south Of Guajan.
The padre was pretty mellow, and
guess said more than he meant to, for
I never could get another word out of
him about the wreck. It seems that
native in one of the flying proas-the
island catamarans, you've heard of
them-found an unconscious officer
dashed to spar several miles out at
sea, and turned him over to Fray Ig
nacio, who was then running the
church at Agana, when he came in.
The fray and his brother priests sue
ceeded in restoring the man long
enough to get his account of the
wreck, together with the approximate
position of the galleon when she
struck; then he died. Being method
ical old chaps, they jotted the story
all down, and Fray Ignacio signed it.
Then, like the pious old imbeciles that
they were, they buried the document,
with several Others, in the trays
sarcophagus when he got through
with life. believe he and his box are
now in the crypt under the church.
The story seemed straight enough,
and / guess there's no doubt of there
being two or three millions of good
rusty money lying at the bottom OF
the ocean, south of Guajan, to this
day. It might as we'll be in the Bank
of England as far as we are con.
cerned. Another case of life's little
ironies, isn't it?"
"How deep is the water there?"
''Well. the Alert got from 1000 to
1000 fathoms near there in 1sS1-say
two to four miles. Why, were you
thinking of diving for so"
Not exactly. meant the depth on
that reef
"Oh, Santa Rosa? Icouldn't tell you
that. There are no soundings of 1t,
even on the Spanish charts, though it
was laid down on Dalrymple's and Can
tova's older maps. Dampier said he
found it in 1886, four fathoms under
water. One of the galleons struck on
it in trying to avoid his ships while
they were lying at Guajan, and had q
deuce of time getting off, but no cap
tain has seen the slightest indication
of reef there since that time. Most
Of these islands are volcanic, you
know, and it may have sunk to the
three or four mile level"
"very likely. Still, the ships that
looked for it might have been there at
q time of year when the weather was
unfavorable for search"
ssYou mean-?"
"That, as is quite probable, they may
have been cruising during the sum-
mer. That would be the southwest
monsoon, wouldn't it? Rain, fog, hur-
ricanes-"
"That's so."
"And the water might have been SO
lumpy that careful sounding would
have been out of the question"
Hardly. They wouldn't attempt to
+. sound in bad weather, unless for their
own safety. Still, they might not have
happened to try it when they were
over the exact spot, and the shifting
Of the monsoon might make anything
ike an accurate search impossible
oh, wouldn't venture to say that
there is no reef there; it's existence
and position are not definitely known
that's all. But suppose there is. Sup
pose for the sake of argument that its
lagoon isn't more than 100 feet OF
so deep, how much chance do YOU
think there would be of finding ever
the fragments of hulk lost there 12t
years ago? Why. man, it would have
coral jacket on SO thick that you'e
have to use dynamite if 1t were abov,
water. Coral deposit increases at thu
rate Of an eighth Of an inch year, o.
more, according to Agassiz; tina
would make make thickness of abou
IS inches. Adding shell-fish and othe
marine growth, it would be safe to fig
ure two or three feet, wouldn I'll t?"
probably; but I thought that coral
diatomaceae, and foraminifera depos
tied perpendicularly on these volcano
atolls?'
s'That's so. If the wreck Law in