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A meeting of sailors in the Waterloo Hotel in York Street, Sydney, elicits a reminiscence of 1854 from an old sailor. After his arrival from the Bendigo goldfields in Sydney, the spending of his money and partial recovery from alcohol, he was recruited with a number of sailors for a private voyage to a North Pacific island. The captain had been a castaway on an island there and discovered a cave of gold with the help of a maiden who found him. They return but have to fight their negro cook and the islanders who discover their object. They escape with the girl and their lives. The captain subsequently marries her and they settle at Port Mackay (Queensland?). Tale of buried treasure, native taboo and unsuccessful attempts to seize it. Rumours of much gold in the fabulous islands of the Pacific etc. Romance/adventure. (PB)
