Part 9 (2/2)
”In the name of G.o.d, amen.
”I, Ramon Alvarez, unworthy sinner that I am and not fit to take the name of G.o.d upon my lips, and well knowing that I deserve no mercy who have ever shown none, expecting to be plunged into the deepest h.e.l.l, yet basing my only hope on the Virgin Mary and the blessed saints and the shriving of Holy Church, do hereby confess the misdeeds of my life.
”From my youth up I was wild. I was with the buccaneers who, off the Tortugas, captured the French s.h.i.+p, _Reine Marguerite_, all of whose crew and pa.s.sengers we put to death. From there we ran to Port au Spain, ravaging and plundering. We captured the city, killing most of the men and boys and carrying off the women and girls. Off one of the Bahama Cays we took a Spanish galleon, and although her people fought stoutly, we made them finally walk the plank. Other s.h.i.+ps we captured whose names I have forgotten. We took great spoils, but the money was accursed and was soon spent in wild living.
”I myself soon became a captain. Down in the Caribbean Sea we won a caravel and killed all on board, one hundred and twenty. I lost my s.h.i.+p in a tornado, but soon got another.
”Many more evil deeds we did that would make me weary with the telling.
We feared neither G.o.d nor man.
”At last, after ten years or more of butchery, the nations sent many frigates in chase of us. I fled to one of the islands and careened my s.h.i.+p. Tired, knowing I would be taken sooner or later, I made up my mind that I would capture one more rich prize and then be done with my wickedness.
”We captured the s.h.i.+p _Guadalquiver_. The fight was desperate and the decks ran with blood. We took ...... thousand doubloons, many pearls and jewels of price.
”I knew of an island off the beaten track where there was good hiding to be found. I took the cutter one night and went ash.o.r.e to bury treasure. Two men with me mutinied and I killed them both. And there the booty is still, unless it has been taken away, which G.o.d forbid.
”Now, standing mayhap on the very brink of h.e.l.l, I have made this drawing of the island where the treasure is buried. I give it freely to Holy Mother Church, and beg that part be spent for candles to be burned before the altar and for ma.s.ses to be said for my unworthy soul.
his
_”Ramon_ (X) _Alvarez_.
mark
”Attest, _Pablo Ximenes_, notary.”
”Good work, Allen,” commended Tyke, as the reader stopped.
”Very cleverly done,” added Captain Hamilton.
Drew flushed with pleasure.
”Those old fellows were well called 'the scourges of the sea,' weren't they?” he said. ”Now here! There are just two things missing that it would be the merest guess-work to supply,” he added. ”One is the date.
We know the century, but the year is absolutely rubbed out. The other is the number of doubloons captured with his last prize. That was in a crease of the paper and had crumbled away.”
”Yes,” replied Captain Hamilton; ”but neither is so very important. Of course, the later the date, the less time there has been for any one to find the doubloons and take them away. We have the names of some of the s.h.i.+ps that were captured though, and we might look the matter up in some French or Spanish history and so get a clue to the date.
”As to the extent of the treasure, we'll find that out for ourselves when we get it, if we ever do. And if we don't get it, the amount doesn't matter.”
”It seems to be a pretty good-sized one, from the way the rascal speaks about it,” remarked Tyke.
”Plenty big enough to pay for the trouble of getting it,” agreed Captain Hamilton.
”Well, now that we know what the paper says, let's git right down to bra.s.s tacks,” suggested Grimshaw. ”In the first place, this particular pirate, Alvarez, was evidently a Spaniard. The language the paper is written in proves that.”
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