his country implanted in the heart of
man, that if a ship had unexpectedly come in sight of the island, the
colonists would have made signals, would have attracted her attention,
and would have departed!

It was the 1st of April, a Sunday, Easter Day, which Harding and his
companions sanctified by rest and prayer. The day was fine, such as an
October day in the Northern Hemisphere might be.

All, towards the evening after dinner, were seated under the veranda
on the edge of Prospect Heights, and they were watching the
darkness creeping up from the horizon. Some cups of the infusion of
elder-berries, which took the place of coffee, had been served by Neb.
They were speaking of the island and of its isolated situation in the
Pacific, which led Gideon Spilett to say,--

"My dear Cyrus, have you ever, since you possessed the sextant found in
the case, again taken the position of our island?"

"No," replied the engineer.

"But it would perhaps be a good thing to do it with this instrument,
which is more perfect than that which you before used."

"What is the good?" said Pencroft. "The island is quite comfortable
where it is!"

"Well, who knows," returned the reporter, "who knows but that we may be
much nearer inhabited land than we think?"

"We shall know to-morrow," replied Cyrus Harding, "and if it had not
been for the occupations which left me no leisure, we should have known
it already."

"Good!" said Pencroft. "The captain is too good an observer to be
mistaken, and, if it has not moved from its place, the island is just
where he put it."

"We shall see."

On the next day, therefore, by means of the sextant, the engineer made
the necessary observations to verify the position which he had
already obtained, and this was the result of his operation. His first
observation had given him the situation of Lincoln Island,--

In west longitude: from 1500 to 1550;

In south latitude: from 300 to 350

The second gave exactly:

In longitude: 1500 30'

In south latitude: 340 57'

So then, notwithstanding the imperfection of his apparatus, Cyrus
Harding had operated with so much skill that his error did not exceed
five degrees.

"Now," said Gideon Spilett, "since we possess an atlas as well as a
sextant, let us see, my dear Cyrus, the exact position which Lincoln
Island occupies in the Pacific."

Herbert fetched the atlas, and the map of the Pacific was opened, and
the engineer, compass in hand, pre