rough which it
filtered prior to its passage through the rifts. Greater surprise was
in store, for presently I discovered that the walls were literally
covered with sculptured figures of men and animals, done in high relief,
and about life-size. The sculptures appeared to be records of hunting
and fighting episodes, and were executed with great vigour and skill.
In reply to my astonished enquiries, Lotta informed me that Ricardo
attributed this work to the original Caribs, and very probably he was
right.

The treasure was all neatly arranged in a recess near the narrow passage
by which we had entered the cavern, and a pretty careful inspection of
it soon convinced me that Ricardo had been only speaking the truth when
he assured me that, although it was probably the booty of some dead-and-
gone gang of pirates, he had certainly had no hand in its accumulation.
For everything bore unmistakable evidence of having lain where it was
for a great many years--probably at least a hundred, if one might judge
by the dates on a few of the coins which I examined, and which formed
part of the treasure. The man who accumulated the store must have been
an individual of a very enterprising nature, for there were great piles
of strong, solid wooden cases packed to the brim with doubloons and
pieces-of-eight; two hundred and eighty-five gold bricks, weighing about
forty pounds each, every brick encased in the original raw-hide wrapper
in which it was brought down from the mines, now hard and dry and
shrivelled; quite a large pile of rough, shapeless ingots of gold and
silver, conveying the suggestion that at various times large quantities
of gold and silver plate and jewellery had been run through the melting
pot; and, finally, a leather bag containing not far short of a peck
measure of gems of every conceivable description, all of the stones
being cut, and evidently taken from pieces of jewellery of various kinds
that had probably been broken up and melted. I had not the most remote
idea of the value of the whole, but I was convinced that it must be
something fabulous, and I afterwards learned that I was right.

We spent nearly two hours in the cave, partly because there was so much
of interest there to engage our attention, and partly because of its
delightfully cool temperature, which was a positive luxury after the
extreme heat of the house, both by day and by night. Before we left the
cave to return to the house, Lotta half-jes