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. 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. "One island is as good as another, so that it has got water
and fruit. The tubs are getting low, and the men are beginning to
need a change of diet; so I hope, Captain, you will lay her to at
the first we come to, and get what we want, whether it is Spaniard
or native we have to fight for it."

"I hope we shall have to fight neither, Standing; but I don't think
we are likely to meet with Spaniards--for all the islands in these
groups are small ones, and the navigation dangerous. As for the
Indians, I fear we may not find them very friendly, seeing that
they will, of course, take us for Spaniards, whom they have little
reason to love. Still, when they see that our intentions are
peaceable, and that we wish only to trade, they may abate their
hostility."

In three hours they were close to the island that they had first
seen, which proved to be much nearer than they had supposed, at
first sight. It was low, and thickly covered with trees, and of
only a few miles' circumference.

"There is no chance of finding the natives hostile here," Reuben
Hawkshaw said. "Their numbers can be but scanty, and the only fear
is that they may hide themselves in the woods at our approach, and
refuse to have dealing with us.

"Get the lead ready to sound, James, and put some grease on the
bottom, that we may see what kind of holding ground it is."

As the sun had risen the wind had fallen, and the Swan was now
moving very slowly through the water. They were about a mile from
the land when the log was first hove.

"Eighteen fathoms, Captain," the mate reported, adding when the
lead was hauled up, "and a sandy bottom."

Casting the lead regularly, they sailed on until within little more
than a quarter of a mile of the shore, and there dropped anchor in
six fathoms of water.

"I shouldn't like to be caught in a gale here," the captain said;
"but if it did come on to blow, we could get up our an