Here trouble and annoyance awaited him.  He found powerful enemies.  Doubtless ridicule also met his projects.  To plough the bottom of the Atlantic, in search of a ship that had gone down fifty years before, certainly seemed to yield fair food for mirth.  Yet the polite behavior, the plausible speech, the enthusiasm and energy of the man had their effect.  He won friends among the higher nobility.  The story of the mutiny and of its bold suppression had also its effect.  A man who could attack a horde of armed mutineers with his bare fists, a man so ready and resolute in time of danger, so unflinchingly persevering in time of discouragement, was the man to succeed if success were possible.  Finally, the Duke of Albemarle and some others agreed to supply funds for the expedition, and Captain Phips in no long time had another ship under his feet, and was once more upon the seas.

His ship was now accompanied by a tender.  He had contrived many instruments to aid him in his search.  It is said that he invented the diving-bell.  There was certainly one used by him, but it may have been an old device, improved by his Yankee ingenuity.

Port de la Plata was reached in due time, the year being 1684 or 1685.  Here Phips had a large canoe or periago made, fitted for eight or ten oars.  It was hollowed out from the trunk of a cotton-tree, he using “his own hands and adze” in the work, enduring much hardship, and “lying abroad in the woods many nights together.”

The shoals where search was to be made were known by the name of the “Boilers.”  They lay only two or three feet below the surface, yet their sloping sides were so steep that, says one author, “a ship striking on them would immediately sink down, who could say how many fathom, into the ocean?”

The tender and the periago were anchored near these dangerous shoals, and the work went on from them.  Days passed, still of fruitless labor.  The men, as they said, could make nothing of all their “peeping among the Boilers,” Fortunately they had calm weather and a quiet sea, and could all day long pursue their labors around and among the shoals.

A day came in which one of them, looking far down into the smooth water, saw what is known as a sea-feather, one of the attractive products of those gardens of the seas, growing out of what seemed a rock below him.  He turned to an Indian diver, and asked him to dive down and bring it up.

“We will take it to the captain,” he said.  “It is tiresome going back always empty-handed.”

The diver made the leap.  In a minute he was back with the sea-feather in his hand.  There were signs of excitement on his dusky face as he climbed into the boat.  He had indeed a surprising story to tell.

“I saw great guns down there,” he said.

“What? guns?” was the general cry.

“Yes, great guns, as from some ship.”

“Guns!” The despondency of the crew at once changed to ardent enthusiasm.  Had they at length hit upon the spot for which they had so long sought in vain?  The Indian was told to dive again, and see what could be found.