an easy prey to pirates. One of these pirates on his death-bed, in
gratitude to his former captain, told him the secret of the treasure.
In 1892 this captain was still living, in Newcastle, England, and
although his story bears a family resemblance to every other story
of buried treasure, there were added to the tale of the pirate some
corroborative details. These, in twelve years, induced five different
expeditions to visit the island. The two most important were that
of E. F. Knight and one from the Tyne in the bark _Aurea_.

In his "Cruise of the _Alerte_," Knight gives a full description of
the island, and of his attempt to find the treasure. In this, a
landslide having covered the place where it was buried, he was
unsuccessful.

But Knight's book is the only source of accurate information
concerning Trinidad, and in writing his prospectus it is evident that
Harden-Hickey was forced to borrow from it freely. Knight
himself says that the most minute and accurate description of
Trinidad is to be found in the "Frank Mildmay" of Captain
Marryat. He found it so easy to identify each spot mentioned in the
novel that he believes the author of "Midshipman Easy" himself
touched there.

After seizing Trinidad, Harden-Hickey rounded the Cape and made
north to Japan, China, and India. In India he became interested in
Buddhism, and remained for over a year questioning the priests of
that religion and studying its tenets and history.

On his return to Paris, in 1890, he met Miss Annie Harper Flagler,
daughter of John H. Flagler. A year later, on St. Patrick's Day,