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"Exactly so," said the Major. "What are those now we may conjecture?" continued Glenarvan. "That the shipwreck occurred in the southern seas; and here I would draw your attention at once to the incomplete word GONIE. Doesn't the name of the country strike you even in the mere mention of it?" "Patagonia!" exclaimed Lady Helena. "Undoubtedly."
Now, do you admit that there are aborigines in Australia?" "Bravo, Paganel!" said the Major. "Well, do you agree to my interpretation, my dear Lord?" asked the geographer again. "Yes," replied Glenarvan, "if you will prove to me that the fragment of a word GONIE, does not refer to the country of the Patagonians." "Certainly it does not. It has nothing to do with Patagonia," said Paganel.
"Your Lordship is right," said John Mangles, "and besides, we're all familiar with the language." "Very well, then, I'll set to work." In a few minutes he had written as follows: 7 Juin 1862 trois-mats Britannia Glasgow sombre gonie austral a terre deux matelots capitaine Gr abor contin pr cruel indi jete ce document de longitude et 37 degrees 11" de latitude Portez-leur secours perdus.
We have not the slightest indication of the place, meantime, nor of where the catastrophe happened." "Perhaps the French copy will be more explicit," suggested Lady Helena. "Here it is, then," said Lord Glenarvan, "and that is in a language we all know." The words it contained were these: troi ats tannia gonie austral abor contin pr cruel indi jete ongit et 37 degrees 11" LAT
I think we can make out from the incomplete words in the first line that a three-mast vessel is in question, and there is little doubt about the name; we get that from the fragments of the other papers; it is the BRITANNIA. As to the next two words, GONIE and AUSTRAL, it is only AUSTRAL that has any meaning to us." "But that is a valuable scrap of information," said John Mangles.
The learned geographer, thus called upon, executed his task in the most convincing manner, descanting on the syllables GONIE and INDI, and extracting AUSTRALIA out of AUSTRAL. He pointed out that Captain Grant, on leaving the coast of Peru to return to Europe, might have been carried away with his disabled ship by the southern currents of the Pacific right to the shores of Australia, and his hypotheses were so ingenious and his deductions so subtle that even the matter-of-fact John Mangles, a difficult judge, and most unlikely to be led away by any flights of imagination, was completely satisfied.
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