A few minutes’ calculation enabled the master to announce that 22° 4’ N., 82° 46’ W. was the corrected position, and to the unbounded satisfaction of us all it was found that it marked a small island almost in the centre of the Rosario Channel, agreeing with the description which Pedro Alvarez had given. As there was now no sign of the buccaneering craft, the _Gannet_ put about and returned to Port Royal, there to wait until the return of the cruising squadron should set us free to pursue our adventure. For nearly two weeks we remained in suspense, Captain Poynings refusing leave for fear that a man’s tongue might get the better of his discretion, till early one morning we perceived to our great joy the sails of our consorts approaching the port. CHAPTER VII--Concerning the Treasure Island Hardly had the fleet anchored when Captain Poynings boarded the flagship and obtained, with little ado, permission to part company. We then revictualled, took in fresh powder, and weighed, steering a westerly course till Negrille Point was well abeam. Thereupon we stood nor’-westward, passing close to Grand Cayman. Here misfortune dogged us. For days we were becalmed, the _Gannet_ wallowing motionless in the oily sea within one hundred leagues of our destination. Then the dreaded "yellow jack" made its appearance amongst us, and forty men lay sick to death on the ballast, of whom, I grieve to relate, more than half died. When the pestilence would have ended it would be hard to say, had not a favourable breeze sprung up, and on the eighteenth day after leaving Port Royal we brought up off the cay shown in the chart. It was an island some three miles in extent, and about half that distance in breadth, a line of rugged hills running from east to west, terminating in low cliffs. Viewed from the north’ard, where we lay, the shore appeared to be flat and lined with breakers, but Pedro told us that a little creek opened out close to the western end, where a boat could make a landing in safety. No sign of a human being could be seen, even as the Portuguese had said, yet it is passing strange how easily even a trained seaman can be deceived. Being late in the day when we arrived off the cay, it was decided not to land till the morrow. Nevertheless, we made preparations for the expedition, provisioning the longboat and the like. Early on the morrow we weighed anchor, and, under the guidance of Pedro, towed the _Gannet_, there being no wind, through a gap in the reef, so that her new berth was within half a league of the landingplace--though there was an inner reef close inshore, on which the sea brake, though not with such violence as on the outer reef.