rcely anything more exciting to the imagination than tales
of hidden treasure, especially treasure lost at sea. The mystery, the
wonder, the adventure, the tragedy, the seemingly boundless
possibilities connected with riches lost by shipwreck or war, and yet
not gone beyond the hope of recovery, have given rise to a multitude of
romantic stories, some of them pure fictions, but many founded more or
less on fact.

I have known several cases in which treasure lost by piracy or
shipwreck has been recovered after a century or more. Some years ago a
company of men from Boston made two cruises to the shoals of the Silver
Key on the Bahama Banks, a spot noted for shipwrecks. They had some
clue to a treasure-laden ship which had foundered there long ago. The
first trip was unsuccessful, but on the second voyage the wreck was
found. Divers, armed with modern apparatus, spent several days in the
quest, but in vain, until, finally, just as the last diver was about to
give the signal to be drawn up, he leaned against what seemed only the
barnacle-encrusted end of a beam; but suddenly it gave way, and numbers
of golden doubloons rolled out at his feet. Considerable sums rewarded
further search in the sand-filled and decaying carcass of the old ship;
but exactly how much was realized is known only to the discoverers, who
kept the matter secret, and thus evaded paying a great part of the
share due to the British crown, in whose dominion the treasure was
found.

To Boston also belonged, some two centuries ago, the celebrated
treasure-hunter, William Phips. He was one of twenty-one sons, and was
born at Woolwich, Maine, in 1651. Of a bold, adventurous spirit, his
first and last passion was to follow the sea, although until he was
eighteen years of age he was forced to tend sheep. He then apprenticed
himself to a ship-carpenter for four years, taking a trip down the
coast now and then, and watching his chance for the next move. He is
said to have been inspired by an idea that celebrity and fortune were
to be his destiny; and when his apprenticeship was over, he went to
Boston and worked at ship-building for a year, until he had the good
luck to win the favor of a rich widow. Her he married, and, with the
increase of means thus obtained, Phips launched into various
enterprises, which did not always turn out well. But he never lost
faith in his guiding star, and often told his good wife that "he should
yet become commander of a king's sh