The Holly chieftain., 1899-06-23

CHAPTER u.-CoSrISUED.
Among other things, he told me one
night about the loss of Nuestra Sonora
de Sevilla in 1869 on the Santa Rosa
Reef, somewhere south Of Guajan.
The padre was pretty mellow, and
guess said more than he meant to, for
l never could get another word out of
him about the wreck. 1t seems that
native in one of the flying proas-the
island cntamarans, you've heard of
them-found an unconscious officer
dashed to spar several miles out at
sea, and turned him over to Fray lg-
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,
Will 6CNCIhl OtAClbs HI tAC AAuy
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 Guajnn, to this
day. 1t might as well 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 thereT'
"Well, the Alert got from 1000 to
1000 fathoms near there in 1ssl--say
two to four miles. Why. were you
thinking OF diving for it?"
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 1t
was laid down on Dalrymple's and Can
tova's older mups. Dampier said he
found it in 1856, 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"
"Yor mean-?"
That. as is quite proba BILE, they may
have been cruising durAg the sum
mer. That would be he 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 1t when they were
over the exact spot. and the shifting
of the monsoon might make anything
like an accurate search impossible.
Oh, wouldn't venture to say that
there is no reef there; its existence
and position nre 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 or
SO deep, how much chance do you
think there would be of finding even
the fragments of a hulk lost there 100
years ago? Why, man. II would have
a coral jacket on SO thick that you'd
have to use dynamite II it were above
water. Coral deposit increases at the
rate of an eighth of nn inch year, or
more, according to Agassiz; that
would make make thickness Of about
IL inches. Adding shell-fish and other
marine growth, il would be safe to fig
ure two or three feet, wouldn't III"