one side, which looked like a church, with
altar, pillars and arches. There was a little hole, on one side of this
room, about three feet wide, which led, our negro guide said, to a great
cave, which ran along about a mile, until it reached the sea. There was
no knowing what skeletons, and treasures, and old half-decayed boxes of
coins, hidden by pirates, and swords with jewels in the handles, and
loose jewels, and silver plate, and other things we might have found in
that cave, if we had only had a lantern or some candles to light us
while we were wandering about in it. But we had no candles or lantern,
and so did not become a pirate's heirs. It was Corny who was most
anxious to go in. She had read about Blackbeard, and the other pirates
who used to live on this island, and she felt sure that some of their
treasures were to be found in that cave. If she had thought of it, she
would have brought a candle.

The only treasures we got were some long things, like thin ropes, which
hung from the roof to the floor of the cave we were in. This cave wasn't
dark, because nearly all of one side of it was open. These ropes were
roots or young trunks from banyan-trees, growing on the ground above,
and which came through the cracks in the rocks, and stretched themselves
down so as to root in the floor of the cave, and make a lot of
underground trunks for the tree above. The banyan-tree is the most
enterprising trunk-maker I ever heard of.

We pulled down a lot of these banyan ropes, some of them more than
twenty feet long, to take away as curiosities. Corny thought it would
be splendid to have a jumping-rope made of a banyan root, or rather
trunklet. The banyans here are called wild fig-trees, which they really
are, wherever they grow. There is a big one, not far from the town,
which stands by itself, and has a lot of trunks coming down from the
branches. It would take the conceit out of a hurricane, I think, if it
tried to blow down a banyan-tree.

The next day was Sunday, and our party went to a negro church to hear a
preacher who was quite celebrated as a colored orator. He preached a
good sensible sermon, although he didn't meddle much with grammar. The
people were poorly dressed, and some of the deacons were barefooted, but
they were all very clean and neat, and they appeared to be just as
religious as if they had all ridden in carriages to some Fifth Avenue
church in New York.

CHAPTER XVIII.

I WAKE UP MR. CHIPPE