about noon
In anticipation of the possibility that we might be pursued , I now shaped a course due west , right off the land , that being , in my opinion , the direction in which we were least likely to be looked for , and when we had been running to leeward for about half an hour , and had made an offing of nearly four miles , I burned three portfires simultaneously as a preconcerted signal to the schooner that all was well and that she was to follow us , and an hour later she came foaming up on our weather quarter and hailed us . We now hove-to and sent alongside her the boats that had hitherto been towing astern ; and as soon as they were hoisted in we both filled away once more , still standing straight off the land , so that when day dawned I had the satisfaction of finding that we had run the coast out of sight . We had , of course , long ere this secured our prisoners , numbering in all two hundred and twenty-six men , and now the problem was how to get rid of them ; for I did not at all care to have so many men aboard who would require to be constantly watched in order that they might not rise upon and overpower us at some unguarded moment . Happily , the problem was soon solved ; for about noon we sighted a trading felucca , bound from Porto Bello to Santa Marta , which the schooner brought to , and as she proved to be a fine , roomy craft I hove-to , lowered the boats , and transhipped our prisoners into her , despite the protests of her unhappy captain , who called all the saints to witness that the food he had on board would not suffice to feed so many men more than a couple of days at most . This objection I met by pointing out to him that he could bear up for Tolu , on the Gulf of Morrosquillo , which he could easily fetch in twenty-four hours , and so left him to settle the matter in whichever way seemed best to him . As soon as we had parted company with the felucca , and were fairly under way again , I set to work to search for the treasure , of the actual presence of which on board I had as yet had no time to satisfy myself . Hoard was of opinion that it would be found stowed away in a strong-room beneath the cabin deck , in the position usually occupied by the lazarette , and there , sure enough , I found such a room -- a solidly built structure of hard timber , fully six inches thick , plated with iron , the door being secured by three massive iron bars passed through thick iron bands , and secured at either end by heavy iron padlocks , six in all , the keyholes of which were sealed with great seals the size of the palm of my hand .