Awhile back we was plunderin' on Longs Island. Mightbe some swabs had been there sooner, 'cause though we beat and tortured the townfolk everywhere's we went it seemed like there was nothin' on the whole fly-encrusted cowpie of an island that were worth our makin' the trip. Finally we came down to an outpost and out come the head man. A meek, shriveled-up sorta fella, he said that if we spared them our 'persuasion' he would lead us to a wonderful treasure they had uncovered in a deep forest clearin'. Blast me but if it weren't a beautiful chest o' shiney black pearls!
Right off the crew swarmed all 'round it and fer a bit the chest were lost to me sight. I couldn't tell but how many of the precious gems had already been pilfered before I slashed out and wounded a few men just to push 'em back and slam down the lid. "The next swab what moves for this chest'l swing high from the yardarm", I bellowed at the sorry bunch of jackgapes. That taste of me cutlass seemed to bring 'em around for a bit, but no amount of threats beyond it would make them hand over any pearls that they done took in the melee.
Well then, on the voyage away, the strangeness started. It seemed we had no end of trouble movin' along. The ship would stop sometimes, becalmed for no reason at all. The crew were restless too. Instead o' mindin' their posts, they was always hangin' at the gunwales and scannin' the sea, as if every lone rock might be hidin' a chest of treasure just fer them alone. It got to wheres we were sailin' in loops and circles and weren't to be gettin' anywheres at all.
I called Voodoo Jack, and he did some spiritin' and come to find out that our beautiful pearls was under an awful spell, put on 'em by powerful Ground Sprites! "Any man what took one of them will be cursed to to the end of his days. His weather eye can never shut - he'll never know a moments rest. He'll always be lookin' over his shoulder for enemies and under every rock and bush for sumpthin' but he'll never know quite what," says Jack. "Even should he throw the pearl away, he'll never have peace. He'll think on it night and day and sometimes, when he least expects, it'll call to him from across the waters with a haunted voice that only he can hear."
Well that got us movin' right quick it did. Jack said the only thing to be done were to find some of these Sprites and leave them be their treasure. We put in at next land and sailed up a stream that come down from a mountain in the South. When we couldn't go no further we had reached an eery fairy-type glen. The Sprites be here, says Jack. Hidden eyes seemed to be all around us, and them of the crew what were not the undead said they felt their skin crawlin' like it wanted to get right off 'em and run away itself. I stood a nervous guard whilst Voodoo Jack and the First Mate dragged the chest off and left it's black cargo where no mortal eyes might ever chance to behold it. Then we made haste back to the sea and away for good.
Time's gone by, and as it has I think I come to know which of me crew filched them pearls in that ruckus. They be always the first to step forward when a landin' party is needed, and the last 'uns back to the ship when it's time to set sail. Their tired faces, their nervous eyes, their oddly bulgin' pockets - it's all testifyin' to the torment of their sad lost souls.
Stay away, says we. No treasure on earth be worth a cursed fate such as theirs.