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Updated: May 2, 2025
The captain laughed, and even Pengarvan smiled. "I fear, Roger, it would be hardly safe to leave the ship in your hands, at present. You are some six hundred miles away from Pengarvan's islands, and but seventy less from mine.
The contents of the canoes, chiefly fruit and vegetables, were spread out on the deck, and the mate and Roger bargained with them, giving them little looking glasses, and strings of beads, in exchange for their wares. "They are mighty reasonable in their demands," Roger said to Pengarvan. "It seems almost a shame to take these great baskets of fruit and vegetables, in return for such trifles."
"Pengarvan, do you get out the Spanish flag from the locker, and run it up to the peak." This was done, though it was easy to see, by the looks the crew cast towards the strange craft, that they would gladly go in and fight them. "Another time, lads," Captain Reuben said cheerfully, as he saw their mood.
An exclamation of surprise broke from James Standing, but Pengarvan only nodded again. "But this is not all," Reuben went on. "So far, the Spaniards have not gained much store of gold from these islands; but I have learned that, among the natives, there is talk of a rich nation lying somewhere farther to the west, where gold and riches of all sorts abound.
"It would matter little if we could, Captain," Pengarvan said; "for any ships along that shore would be to leeward of us, and we should pass the end of the island long before they could beat up there; but it would be awkward if there happened to be a port, with two or three of their ships, just beyond that point. We should be caught between two fires then, and have to fight the lot of them."
Although the Spanish ships were still three-quarters of a mile away, a bustle was at once observable on their decks. Men clustered at the bows, and could be seen at work there. "They are getting up the anchors," Pengarvan said, as he watched them, shading his eyes with his hands.
Standing and Pengarvan were standing, one on each side of the captain. The latter took off his cap and waved it to his son, and the mates lifted their hands in token of adieu. A cry from below caused Roger, as he returned the salute, to look round. They were but a ship's length from the rocks. Another moment a great wave lifted the vessel, and on its crest she went thundering forward.
It seems to me, sometimes, that I have a sort of notion why it is; but it is not clear, even to myself. I could not put it into words." The first mate now looked into the cabin. "Here we are, James. Pengarvan puts her here, opposite these three little islands. I put her here some sixty miles away." "It matters not at all, that I can see, which it is," Standing said.
Pengarvan was a good scholar, and Reuben had taught him what he knew of navigation, and always made him keep a log from the time when he first became a mate; at first comparing their calculations every day, and then but once a week; arguing over the allowances each had made for tide and leeway; and sometimes finding to his surprise, on arriving in port, that Pengarvan's calculations were even nearer to the truth than his own.
"That I cannot tell you, Roger. You must leave those questions for wiser heads to settle. I only know that it is so of that there is no doubt at all; but why, I have not the least idea. "How does it strike you, Pengarvan?" The Cornishman shook his head. "I have thought it over, Captain, many times.
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