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"Between us both we managed to get the spars into some sort of a raft-shape, so that they would float us more comfortably; and there we watched for the morning. When that came, the sea had smoothed itself, and the wind died away considerably, as it does in the Mediterranean at short notice. We looked every way for the white lateen-sails of the coasting and fishing craft, but in vain.
On the twenty-second of January land was sighted which the pilots declared to be the Philippines, but which Urdaneta said might be the Ladrones, which he afterwards affirmed to be the case from the lateen-sails of the native boats, "which the inhabitants of the Filipinas do not make." The pilots continued to ridicule him, but Urdaneta's reasoning was correct.
Or for Murillo, the Indian, impudent though harmless, full of fancies and fire-water? Or for the return of the whale-boats, with their beautiful lateen-sails? Or for the gathering of the Neapolitan fishermen down under the old Custom House, where they sat at evening looking off upon the Bay, and perchance dreaming of Italy and all that enchanted coast?
Now and then we met a boat of our line; otherwise the blue stretch of the water was broken only by the lateen-sails of the black-hulked lake craft. At that season the delicate flame of the Virginia-creeper was a prominent tint on the walls all round the lake.
The space between the two canoes is laid with plank, and the rest with spars. On one side of the deck, and close to the edge, is fixed a row of knees, pretty near to each other, the use of which is to keep the masts, yards, etc. from, rolling over-board. They are navigated by one or two lateen-sails, extended to a small lateen-yard, the end of which fixes in a notch or hole in the deck.
The natives of those islands, who go naked, and are a very robust and barbarous race, go out to sea to meet the ships as soon as they discover them, at a distance of four to six leguas, with many vessels; these are one-masted, and are very slender and light. These vessels have a counterpoise of bamboo to leeward, and their sails are made of palm-leaves and are lateen-sails.
And the lateen-sails come up the Nile, looking like white-winged promises of future golden days. And at dawn one wakes with hope and hears the songs of the dawn; and at noon one dreams of the happiness to come; and at sunset one is swept away on the gold into the heart of the golden world; and at night one looks at the stars, and each star is a twinkling hope.
Now and then a big ferry-boat puffs into sight, churning the tranquil waters into foam with her huge paddles; a dozen sailing craft are in view, from Lord Mavourneen's smart yawl to the outlandishly rigged Turkish schooner, her masts raking forward like the antlers of a stag at bay, and spreading a motley collection of lateen-sails, stay-sails, square top-sails, and vast spinnakers rigged out with booms and sprits, which it would puzzle a northern sailor to name.
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