“By Jove!” said Dunmore, “perhaps she was a Spanish galleon, and we shall come across her treasure.  Won’t that be a find, eh, old fellow?”

“She’s more likely a pirate,” I answered, as visions of the old buccaneers floated through my brain; and Edgar Poe’s fanciful story of the “Gold Beetle” occurring to me, I sung out, “Whatever you do, keep any parchment you stumble across,” and abandoned myself to thoughts of untold wealth, whilst I wielded a quart pot with the energy born of mental excitement.

“My word! that been big fellow sit down like ’it here,” cried Ferdinand, who, lying on one side, had his bare arm buried at full length in the sand.  “I feel him, Marmy, plenty cold.”

We rushed to the boy’s assistance, and speedily scraped away the shingle, until an old-fashioned gun was exposed to view; it was coated and scaly with rust to such an extent, that we were unable to form any idea as to its age or nationality.  It would most probably have been a twelve or eighteen-pounder howitzer, for it was about four feet in length, and disproportionately large in girth; but one of the trunnions, and the button at the breech, were broken off, the portion that had lain undermost had entirely disappeared, and the remainder was so honeycombed, that beyond ascertaining that it was a piece of ordnance, we could elicit nothing from this curious relic of a bygone generation.

Further search brought to light several more round-shot, but in the same state as the first, and we noticed that in several places the timbers were burnt, most probably by the natives, or the crew themselves, for the sake of the copper bolts.

What a number of melancholy recollections are awakened by the discovery of a forgotten memorial of the past, such as this nameless wreck; and if those old timbers could have spoken, what a strange record of hopes unfulfilled, and high adventure unachieved, would have been disinterred from the dark storehouse of the past!  That the vessel came in her present position by accident, could hardly be supposed.  More probably, having struck on the Barrier Reef, or on some of the hidden coral shelves with which this sea abounds, she had been taken into this secluded creek for repairs.  Cook, the great circumnavigator, careened his ship at a spot not far distant from this; but we were unanimously of opinion that this vessel must have become embedded long prior to his time.  Not only was the framework some distance from the present bed of the creek, but it was raised considerably above the water level.  That the eastern coast of Australia is slowly rising from the waves is well known, for in the neighbourhood of Brisbane valuable reclamations have been made within the memory of living men; but at least two centuries must have elapsed to account for the altitude attained by this old craft.  Our regret was great at getting no more certain information, but although we persevered in digging until sundown, no casket of jewels, no bags of specie, and no mysterious parchments rewarded us; and with the darkness we were compelled to abandon our search, rather angry at having wasted several valuable hours to such little purpose.