In other words, an unimportant naval captain deserved this censure because he had not been content to take what was graciously flung at him by Lloyd's and the Admiralty, but had stood up for his rights as long as he had a shot in the locker. There is something almost comic in the figure cut by Commander the Honorable J. F. F de Roos, who reaped the reward of another man's labors and received the formal thanks of Lloyd's as the chief treasure finder of the _Thetis_ frigate. Captain Thomas Dickinson was a dogged and aggressive sort of person, not in the least afraid of giving offense in high places, and had he not been of this stamp of man he would never have fought that winning fight against obstacles amid the hostile cliffs and waters of desolate Cape Frio. He shows his mettle in a fine outburst of protest, the provocation for which was a sentence in a letter published in a London newspaper while his case was under discussion: "Had Captain Dickinson relied on the liberality of Lloyd's Coffee House, _he would not have been a poorer man_." This was like a spark in a magazine, and the captain of the _Lightning_ flings back in retort: "Here, then we arrive at the development of the real feelings of the Underwriters; here is exposed the head and front of my offending. Rely on the liberality of Lloyd's Coffee House!! So that because I would not abandon my duty to my officers and crew, or separate my interests from theirs, and place myself and them at the mercy of the Underwriters, therefore the enterprise and the services of fourteen months, besides the rescue of nearly six hundred thousand dollars, are to be considered as utterly unworthy of mention. Can it be necessary, in order to entitle a British officer to honorable mention in Lloyd's Coffee House that he should abandon a right, and succumbing to the feet of its mighty Committee, accept a donation, doled out with all the ostentation of a gratuitous liberality, in place of that reward which legally took precedence even of the ownership of the property rescued!!" [1] The matter quoted in this chapter is from the privately printed account by Captain Dickinson (London, 1836), entitled, "A Narrative of the Operations for the Recovery of the Public Stores and Treasure sunk in H.M.S. _Thetis_, at Cape Frio on the coast of Brazil, on the Fifth December, 1830, to which is prefixed a Concise Account of the Loss of that Ship." [2] Dredged. [3] Portable machines used as capstans. [4] Strong pieces of timber placed vertically in the ground for fastening ropes to. [5] Wrappings. Captain Kidd uses this old word in his own narrative. See page 109. [Transcriber's note: the words "woolding" or "wooldings" appear nowhere else in this text.] [6] Midshipmen. CHAPTER XIII THE QUEST OF EL DORADO