f Ibiza and Formentera slipped past the dark
horizon. When the sun arose a vertical spot of rose color like a tongue
of flame, appeared above the sea line. It was the high mountain of
Mongo, the Ferrarian promontory of the ancients. At the foot of its
abrupt steeps was the village of Ulysses' grandparents, the house in
which he had passed the best part of his childhood. Thus it must have
looked in the distance to the Greeks of Massalia, exploring the desert
Mediterranean in ships which were leaping the foam like wooden horses.

All the rest of the day, the _Mare Nostrum_ sailed very close to the
shore. The captain knew this sea as though it were a lake on his own
property. He took the steamer through shallow depths, seeing the reefs
so near to the surface that it appeared almost a miracle that the boat
did not crash upon them. Sometimes the space between the keel and the
sunken rocks was hardly two yards wide. Then the gilded water would
take on a dark tone and the steamer would continue its advance over the
greater depths.

Along the shore, the autumn sun was reddening the yellowing mountains,
now dry and fragrant, covered with pasturage of strong odor which could
be smelt at great distances. In all the windings of the coast,--little
coves, beds of dry torrents or gorges between two peaks--were visible
white groups of hamlets.

Ferragut contemplated carefully the native land of his grandparents.
Toni must be there now: perhaps from the door of his dwelling he was
seeing them pass by; perhaps he was recognizing the ship with surprise
and emotion.

A French official, motionless near Ulysses on the bridge, was admiring
the beauty of the day and the sea. Not a single cloud was in the sky.
All was blue above and below, with no variation except where the bands
of foam were combing themselves on the jutting points of the coast, and
the restless gold of the sunlight was forming a broad roadway over the
waters. A flock of dolphins frisked around the boat like a cortege of
oceanic divinities.

"If the sea were always like this!" exclaimed the captain, "what
delight to be a sailor!"

The crew could see the people on land running together and forming
groups, attracted by the novelty of a steamer that was passing within
reach of their voice. On each of the jutting points of the shore was a
low and ruddy tower,--last vestige of the thousand-year war of the
Mediterranean. Accustomed to the rugged shores of the ocean and its
e