it was some time before he became convinced that his
senses were not deceiving him.

Though endowed with only a very limited knowledge of nautical geography,
the negro knew a good deal about the lower latitudes of the Atlantic.
More than once had he made that dreaded middle passage,--once in
fetters, and often afterwards assisting to carry others across in the
same unfeeling fashion. He knew of no land anywhere near where they
were now supposed to be; had never seen or heard of any,--neither
island, rock, nor reef. He knew of the Isle of Ascension, and the lone
islet of Saint Paul's. But neither of these could be near the track on
which the _Catamaran_ was holding her course. It could not be either.

And yet what was it he saw? for, sure as eyes were eyes, there was an
island outlined upon the retina, so plainly perceptible, that his senses
could _not be deceiving him_!

It was after this conviction became fully established in his mind, that
he at length broke silence; and in a voice that woke his slumbering
companions with a simultaneous start.

"Land 'o!" vociferated Snowball.

"Land ho!" echoed Ben Brace, springing to his feet, and rubbing the
sleep out of his eyes, "Land, you say, Snowy? Impossible! You must be
mistaken, nigger."

"Land?" interrogated little William. "Whereaway, Snowball?"

"Land?" cried the Portuguese girl, comprehending that word of joyful
signification, though spoken in a language not her own.

"Whar away?" inquired the sailor, as he scrambled over the planks of the
raft, to get on the forward side of the sail, which hindered his field
of view.

"Hya!" replied Snowball. "Hya, Massa Brace, jess to la'bord, ober de
la'bord bow."

"It do look like land," assented the sailor, directing his glance upon
something of a strange appearance, low down upon the surface of the sea,
and still but dimly discernible through the fog. "Shiver my timbers if
it don't! An island it be,--not a very big 'un, but for all that, it
seem a island."

"My gollies! dar am people on it! D'you see um, Massa Brace? movin'
'bout all ober it I see 'um plain as de sun in de hebbens! Scores o'
people a'gwine about back'ard an' forrads. See yonner!"

"Plain as the sun in the heavens," was not a very appropriate simile for
Snowball to make use of at that moment; for the orb of day was still
darkly obscured by the fog; and for the same reason, the outlines of the
island,--or whatever they were taking for one