Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/39

 having the form of a cachucha, and the boxes were buried in front of that. (Cachucha is a flat cap, also a small boat.) Another party came to search on the south side of the village, with no better success, and the last comers looked in vain at the north point. In 1847, when the first settlers came, a youth, looking for fire-wood, let fall his machete (long knife), and it struck something sounding like metal, which proved to be a crowbar. The youth took it away without marking the spot, for he had heard nothing about the treasure; and yet he was within ten steps of it. It can only be found by the one it is intended for. Once I thought I had it. Digging to make the foundation of a house, we came upon human bones; then I had an immense trench opened, but found nothing more."

We thanked Don Pedro for the story, and decided not to look for the bishop's jewels, though we had no difficulty in finding the stone like a cachucha at the north point of the island, and, sixty steps from it, the three stones forming a triangle. In fact an old negro in the city of Tizimin had given us the proper directions, but we never had a chance to dig; there were too many eyes watching us, and it might have cost us our life.