as only waiting for an opportunity to
go and dig up the gold. Some arrangement was made between them, and the
Spaniard procured a small vessel, and set sail with the Portuguese on
board. The vessel became short of provisions and water, and off Yalahao
encountered the patron of our canoa, who, as he said, on receiving
twenty-five dollars in advance, piloted her into that place for
supplies. While there the story of the treasure leaked out; the
Portuguese tried to escape, but the Spaniard set sail, carrying him
off. The fishermen followed in canoas. The Portuguese, under the
influence of threats, indicated a place for the landing, and was
carried on shore bound. He protested that in that condition he could
not find the spot; he had never been there except at the time of
burying the gold, and required time and freedom of movement; but the
Spaniard, furious at the notoriety given to the thing, and at the
uninvited company of the fishermen, refused to trust him, and set his
men to digging, the fishermen joining on their own account. The digging
continued two days, during which time the Portuguese was treated with
great cruelty, and the sympathy of the fishermen was excited, and
increased by the consideration that this island was within their
fishing limits, and if they got the Portuguese into their own
possession, they could come back at any time and dig up the money
quietly, without any wrangle with strangers. In the mean time, our old
friend Don Vicente Albino, then living at Cozumel, hearing of treasure
on an island belonging to nobody, and so near his own, ran down with
his sloop and put in for the Portuguese. The Spanish proprietor was
obliged to give him up. Don Vicente could not get hold of him, and the
fishermen carried him off to Yalahao, where, finding himself out of the
actual grasp of any of them, he set up for himself, and by the first
opportunity slipped off in a canoa for Campeachy, since which he had
never been heard of.

[Engraving 67: A lonely Edifice]

Early in the morning, under the guidance of two of the fishermen, we
set out to visit the ruins. The island of Mugeres is between four and
five mile long, half a mile wide, and four miles distant from the
mainland. The ruins were at the north end. For a short distance we kept
along the shore, and then struck into a path cut straight across the
island. About half way across we came to a santa cruz, or holy cross,
set up by the fishermen, at which place we h