o famous and yet so new, around
which all the wonder, all the pity, and all the greed of the age had
concentrated itself. It was an awful thought, and yet inspiriting, that
they were entering regions all but unknown to Englishmen, where the
penalty of failure would be worse than death--the torments of the
Inquisition. Not more than five times before, perhaps, had those
mysterious seas been visited by English keels; but there were those
on board who knew them well, and too well; who, first of all British
mariners, had attempted under Captain John Hawkins to trade along those
very coasts, and, interdicted from the necessaries of life by Spanish
jealousy, had, in true English fashion, won their markets at the sword's
point, and then bought and sold honestly and peaceably therein. The old
mariners of the Pelican and the Minion were questioned all day long for
the names of every isle and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank stood
by, listening serious and silent.

A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul; yet not a sad one: for
his face seemed daily to drink in glory from the glory round him; and
murmuring to himself at whiles, "This is the gate of heaven," he stood
watching all day long, careless of food and rest, as every forward
plunge of the ship displayed some fresh wonder. Islands and capes hung
high in air, with their inverted images below them; long sand-hills
rolled and weltered in the mirage; and the yellow flower-beds, and huge
thorny cacti like giant candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes,
twisted, tossed, and flickered, till the whole scene seemed one blazing
phantom-world, in which everything was as unstable as it was fantastic,
even to the sun itself, distorted into strange oval and pear-shaped
figures by the beds of crimson mist through which he sank to rest. But
while Frank wondered, Yeo rejoiced; for to the southward of that setting
sun a cluster of tall peaks rose from the sea; and they, unless his
reckonings were wrong, were the mountains of Macanao, at the western end
of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls, then famous in all the cities of
the Mediterranean, and at the great German fairs, and second only in
richness to that pearl island in the gulf of Panama, which fifteen years
before had cost John Oxenham his life.

The next day saw them running along the north side of the island, having
passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the castle which the
Spaniards had built at the eastern end f