The amount of treasure which passed into the hands of the Netherlands Government during this period was not necessarily all the treasure that was taken out of the _Lutine_. It is possible, and indeed probable, that much of the treasure recovered was concealed by the fishermen salvors and used secretly to swell their own private hoards; but, even assuming that twice as much treasure was salved as was actually declared, there would still be a vast treasure worth over £1,000,000 remaining in the wreck. A series of fierce storms wrought havoc with the wreck and placed her quite beyond the reach of the fishermen, who were at last forced to abandon their profitable quest. For years the wreck was the plaything of the storms, and not until Napoleon was safely imprisoned on St. Helena did any one give a thought to the treasure that lay amid the shifting sandbanks off the island of Vlieland. Then a Dutchman, going to his government, obtained a concession to salve the bullion on condition that half of what he recovered went to the government. For two or three years he fought the sea and sand to get at the treasure. No sight of gold or silver gladdened his eyes. Season after season, for eight years in all, he did his utmost to recover the fortune from the grasp of the sea, but without success. At last, weary of the incessant combat, he gave up the struggle and left the treasure to mock any other adventurer who might happen along. The underwriters at Lloyd’s, however, were not content to see the treasure which had cost them such a huge sum of money pass into the hands of a foreign nation, and at their request the British Government began to treat with that of Holland to induce them to relinquish their title in the wreck. The ways of diplomacy are often long and tedious, and this case was no exception. Many years elapsed before an agreement was arrived at and the Dutch gave up their claims and allowed the legal title in the treasure to pass to Lloyd’s, its rightful owners. For well over half a century the _Lutine_ bore the brunt of the gales which afflict the Dutch coast, spending their strength on the belt of islands and the shifting sandbanks at the entrance to the Zuyder Zee. She was utterly lost amid the sands. Then came a terrific gale that blew for days, and the heaving waters washed the sand away from the wreck and made it possible to get at the treasure. For a period of five years, from 1857 to 1861, salvage men toiled away, and the result of their work was the recovery of bullion to the value of just over £40,000.