Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/35



ONNECTED with almost all the small islands in the neighborhood of the Mexican Gulf and the Caribbean Sea there is some "treasure story," but perhaps none so well authenticated as that of Mugeres Island. This lovely little isle is in latitude north 21° 18′, and longitude west 86° 42′, Greenwich meridian, and about a hundred and twenty miles from British Honduras.

Pirates' exploits and their buried piles of gold and gems are the inexhaustible source of all the romantic stories that the fishermen love to tell on moonlight nights, seated on the bottom of some boat turned up on the beach. They suspect that others dream of treasures as much as they do, for strangers are closely watched. Whichever way we strolled, some one kept us in view. When we mentioned this to Don Pedro Pobedano, one of the oldest inhabitants, he said, "They think you have come for the treasure, which they would never allow to be taken by a stranger." So we invited Don