Daily the small boat put forth and the reef was examined, but to no avail. It was found that the shelf of rock, which had broken the old galleon, ended so abruptly as to form a sheer drop of many fathoms, whereas a few feet away it was only a ship’s-hold distance from the surface. It was conjectured then that the galleon had struck, had filled with water and so had fallen over the edge of the submerged precipice, where she would lay forever, undisturbed by prodding man.
The search was at length abandoned as being futile. The small boat, being slowly rowed away, Adam beheld a plant, of many colors and rare beauty, growing on the reef below them, in the clear, emerald water. He requested a diver to fetch it up. The boat was halted and overboard went the man. He was soon seen spraddling like some singular creature, back up through the brine. He had fetched the plant and he told of having seen on the bottom the encrusted gun of some sunken vessel.
At Adam’s eager command he returned again to the spot and presently arose to the surface with an ingot of silver, slimy and dark, clutched firmly in his hands. The treasure was found!
Putting for the ship at once, where Captain Phipps was somewhat laboriously writing a long report of the second failure, the rover gave the almost incredible news, that set the whole ship afire with amazement and joy.
The entire crew were speedily pressed into service. The work was prosecuted with vigor. Adam looked upon this treasure, coming so late into his sight and life, with a grim smile upon his lips and with scorn in his eyes. He saw the divers fetch up masses of bullion, first, then golden oysters, encrusted with calcareous matter, then broken bags bursting with their largess of Spanish doubloons, and finally precious stones, shimmering, untarnished, in the sunlight.
It was a feverish time. Day after day went by and the boats were filled with fortunes. It seemed as if the more they took, the more they found. The gold on top hid gold underneath.
An old shipmate of Captain Phipps’ whose imagination the ship-builder had fired, months before, arrived from Providence. He was able so easily to fill his boat with gold that he went raving crazy and died in a lunatic asylum at Bermuda.
The provisions on the ship began to run low, before the examination of the sunken wreck was complete. Moreover the sailors, their avariciousness aroused by the sight of all these riches, which daily they were snatching from the sea, for other men to enjoy, grew restive and threatened to take a contagion of mutiny.
Treasure to the value of three hundred thousand pounds had been recovered, and much still remained untouched. Phipps determined to sail with what he had, planning to return to the field in the future. He enjoined silence and secrecy on all the sailors, but the word leaked out and adventurers gathering from far and near, the rotting galleon was despoiled of everything she had hoarded so jealously and successfully throughout the years.
Phipps brought his vessel in safety to England. The enormous success which had attended his efforts so aroused the cupidity of certain of the King’s retainers that they advised James to confiscate the entire treasure, on the ground that Phipps had withheld such information, on his former return, as would have induced the crown to finance the second enterprise, had the truth been told.