But when the
breeze freshened from the right quarter, and we felt our vessel moving
toward the open sea, we were too thankful for our escape from a
horrible death to think of the lesser evils from which we suffered,
though the destruction of such a considerable quantity of our stores
was a serious loss, and set Hartog thinking as to whether our immediate
return to Amsterdam was not imperative.
"I had made up my mind for another year in these latitudes, Peter," he
said, "and I am loath to go back without setting foot upon the Island
of Gems, but man is but a straw in the hands of Destiny, and who am I
to set myself against the decrees of Fate?" So with mixed feelings of
disappointment and pleasure we once more found ourselves homeward
bound.
I had hoped that from this voyage I might return a rich man, able to
make honourable proposals to Count Holstein for his daughter's hand,
but it seemed now that fortune was not to be won so easily. My share of
the treasure found on Cortes' island might enrich me sufficiently to
buy a small interest in my master's business, but this was all I could
hope for, and the bright dreams which Hartog and I had formed of the
Island of Gems seemed about to dissolve, as is the way with phantoms,
into thin air.
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