new, around which all the wonder, all the pity, and all the
greed of the age had concentrated itself. It was an awful
thought, and yet inspiriting, that they were entering regions all
but unknown to Englishmen, where the penalty of failure would
be worse than death--the torments of the Inquisition. Not
more than five times before, perhaps, had those mysterious seas
been visited by English keels; but there were those on board
who knew them well, and too well; who, first of all British
mariners, had attempted under Captain John Hawkins to trade
along those very coasts, and, interdicted from the necessaries of
life by Spanish jealousy, had, in true English fashion, won their
markets at the sword's point, and then bought and sold honestly
and peaceably therein. The old mariners of the Pelican and
the Minion were questioned all day long for the names of every
isle and cape, every fish and bird; while Frank stood by,
listening serious and silent.

A great awe seemed to have possessed his soul: yet not a
sad one: for his face seemed daily to drink in glory from the
glory round him; and murmuring to himself at whiles, "This
is the gate of heaven," he stood watching all day long, careless
of food and rest, as every forward plunge of the ship displayed
some fresh wonder. Islands and capes hung high in air, with
their inverted images below them; long sand-hills rolled and wel-
tered in the mirage; and the yellow flower-beds, and huge thorny
cacti like giant candelabra, which clothed the glaring slopes,
twisted, tossed, and flickered, till the whole scene seemed one
blazing phantom-world, in which everything was as unstable as
it was fantastic, even to the sun itself, distorted into strange
oval and pear-shaped figures by the beds of crimson mist through
which he sank to rest. But while Frank wondered, Yeo re-
joiced; for to the southward of that setting sun a cluster of
tall peaks rose from the sea; and they, unless his reckonings
were wrong, were the mountains of Macanao, at the western
end of Margarita, the Isle of Pearls, then famous in all the cities
of the Mediterranean, and at the great German fairs, and second
only in richness to that pearl island in the gulf of Panama,
which fifteen years before had cost John Oxenham his life.

The next day saw them running along the north side of the
island, having passed undiscovered (as far as they could see) the
castle which the Spaniards had built at the eastern end for the
protection of the pearl fisheries.

At last they opened a deep and still bight, wooded to the
water's edge; and lying in the roadstead a caravel, and three

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