d you will be able to tell it again
to your young friend, if it pleases you to do so."

"How, then?" replied Harris. "Speak, comrade, speak!"

"The 'Pilgrim,'" continued Negoro, "as on the way to Valparaiso. When
I went on board, I only intended to go to Chili. It was always a good
half of the way between New Zealand and Angola, and I was drawing
nearer Africa's coast by several thousand miles. But it so happened
that only three weeks after leaving Auckland, Captain Hull, who
commanded the 'Pilgrim,' disappeared with all his crew, while chasing
a whale. On that day, then, only two sailors remained on board--the
novice and the cook, Negoro."

"And you took command of the ship?" asked Harris.

"I had that idea at first, but I saw that they distrusted me. There
were live strong blacks on board, free men. I would not have been
the master, and, on reflection, I remained what I was at the
departure--the 'Pilgrim's' cook."

"Then it was chance that led this ship to the coast of Africa?"

"No, Harris," replied Negoro; "there has been no chance in all this
adventure except meeting you, in one of your journeys, just on that
part of the coast where the 'Pilgrim' was wrecked. But as to coming
in sight of Angola, it was by my will, my secret will, that that was
done. Your young friend, still much of a novice in navigation, could
only tell his position by means of the log and the compass. Well, one
day, the log went to the bottom. One night the compass was made false,
and the 'Pilgrim,' driven by a violent tempest, took the wrong route.
The length of the voyage, inexplicable to Dick Sand, would be the same
to the most experienced seaman. Without the novice knowing or even
suspecting it, Cape Horn was doubled, but I, Harris, I recognized
it in the midst of the fogs. Then, thanks to me, the needle in the
compass took its true direction again, and the ship, blown to the
northeast by that frightful hurricane, has just been cast on the coast
of Africa, just on this land of Angola which I wished to reach."

"And even at that moment, Negoro," replied Harris, "chance had led me
there to receive you, and guide those honest people to the interior.
They believed themselves--they could only believe themselves in
America. It was easy for me to make them take this province for lower
Bolivia, to which it has really some resemblance."

"Yes, they believed it, as your young friend believed they had made
the Isle of Paques, when they passed i