* * *

"Fear naught, then said the palmer, well avized,
For these same monsters are not there indeed,
But are into these fearful shapes disguized.

* * * * *

"And lifting up his vertuous staffe on high,
Then all that dreadful armie fast gan flye
Into great Zethy's bosom, where they hidden lye."

In view of the description given, may one be gay upon the Encantadas?
Yes: that is, find one the gayety, and he will be gay. And, indeed,
sackcloth and ashes as they are, the isles are not perhaps unmitigated
gloom. For while no spectator can deny their claims to a most solemn and
superstitious consideration, no more than my firmest resolutions can
decline to behold the spectre-tortoise when emerging from its shadowy
recess; yet even the tortoise, dark and melancholy as it is upon the
back, still possesses a bright side; its calipee or breast-plate being
sometimes of a faint yellowish or golden tinge. Moreover, every one
knows that tortoises as well as turtle are of such a make, that if you
but put them on their backs you thereby expose their bright sides
without the possibility of their recovering themselves, and turning into
view the other. But after you have done this, and because you have done
this, you should not swear that the tortoise has no dark side. Enjoy the
bright, keep it turned up perpetually if you can, but be honest, and
don't deny the black. Neither should he, who cannot turn the tortoise
from its natural position so as to hide the darker and expose his
livelier aspect, like a great October pumpkin in the sun, for that cause
declare the creature to be one total inky blot. The tortoise is both
black and bright. But let us to particulars.

Some months before my first stepping ashore upon the group, my ship was
cruising in its close vicinity. One noon we found ourselves off the
South Head of Albemarle, and not very far from the land. Partly by way
of freak, and partly by way of spying out so strange a country, a boat's
crew was sent ashore, with orders to see all they could, and besides,
bring back whatever tortoises they could conveniently transport.

It was after sunset, when the adventurers returned. I looked down over
the ship's high side as if looking down over the curb of a well, and
dimly saw the damp boat, deep in the sea with some unwonted weight.
Ropes were dropt over, and presently three huge antediluvian-looking
tortoises, after much str