The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc., which are sought for to this dayPaine, Ralph Delahaye
History
The Book of Buried Treasure: Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc., which are sought for to this day
Paine, Ralph Delahaye
Treasure troves
As soon as the larger bell and the giant derrick could be put in
service, the happy task of fishing up treasure was carried on at a
great pace. Unlike many other such expeditions, nothing was done at
haphazard. The toilers under water "were first to go to the outermost
dollar, or other article of gold they could discover, and to place a
pig of ballast, with a bright tally board fast to it, against and on
the inner side of the nearest fixed rock they could find. From this
they were then to proceed to take up all that lay immediately on the
surface of the bottom, but not to remove anything else until all that
was visible was obtained. This being done, they were to return to the
place first searched and passing over the same ground, remove the small
rocks and other articles, one by one, and progressively take up what
might be recovered by such removal, but not on any account to dig
without express orders from me."
Life in the camp on Cape Frio had no holiday flavor, and while there
was continual danger afloat, there were troubles and hardships on
shore. "In addition to our sufferings from the wind and rain
penetrating our flimsy huts, we were attacked by myriads of tormentors
in the shape of ants, mosquitoes, fleas, and worst of all, jiggers.
Many of the people frequently had their eyes entirely closed from the
stings of the mosquitoes. At night swarms of fleas assailed us in our
beds, while by day it afforded a kind of amusement to pull up the leg
of one's trousers and see them take flight like a flock of sparrows
from a corn-stack, while there might be a hundred congregated inside
the stocking. Those little insidious devils, the jiggers, penetrated
the skin in almost all parts of the body, forming a round ball and
causing sores which, being irritated by the sand, became most painful
and troublesome ulcers, and produced lameness to half of our number at
a time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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