had not been under way an hour before the Vrow
Katerina was left a mile or two astern. Mynheer Barentz found fault
with the setting and trimming of the sails, and with the man at the
helm, who was repeatedly changed; in short, with everything but his dear
Vrow Katerina: but all would not do; she still dropped astern, and
proved to be the worst-sailing vessel in the fleet.

"Mynheer Vanderdecken," said he, at last, "the Vrow, as my father used
to say, is not so very _fast before_ the wind. Vessels that are good on
a wind seldom are; but this I will say, that, in every other point of
sailing, there is no other vessel in the fleet equal to the Vrow
Katerina."

"Besides," observed Philip, who perceived how anxious how captain was on
the subject, "we are heavily laden, and have so many troops on deck."

The fleet cleared the sands and were then close-hauled, when the Vrow
Katerina proved to sail even more slowly than before. "When we are so
_very_ close-hauled," observed Mynheer Barentz, "the Vrow does not do so
well; but a point free, and then you will see how she will show her
stern to the whole fleet. She is a fine vessel, Mynheer Vanderdecken,
is she not?"

"A very fine, roomy vessel," replied Philip, which was all that in
conscience, he could say.

The fleet sailed on, sometimes on a wind, sometimes free, but let the
point of sailing be what it might, the Vrow Katerina was invariably
astern, and the fleet had to heave-to at sunset to enable her to keep
company; still, the captain continued to declare that the point of
sailing on which they happened to be, was the only point in which the
Vrow Katerina was deficient. Unfortunately, the vessel had other points
quite as bad as her sailing; she was crank, leaky, and did not answer
the helm well, but Mynheer Barentz was not to be convinced. He adored
his ship and like all men desperately in love he could see no fault in
his mistress. But others were not so blind, and the admiral, finding
the voyage so much delayed by the bad sailing of one vessel, determined
to leave her to find her way by herself so soon as they had passed the
Cape. He was, however, spared the cruelty of deserting her, for a heavy
gale came on which dispersed the whole fleet, and on the second day the
good ship Vrow Katerina found herself alone, labouring heavily in the
trough of the sea, leaking so much as to require hands constantly at the
pumps, and drifting before the gale as fast to leewar