Page 298 - erewhon

Milord, and Arowhena a Russian Countess; that all the oth-
ers had been drowned, and that the despatches which we
had carried were lost. I came afterwards to learn that this
story would not have been credible, had not the captain
been for some weeks at sea, for I found that when we were
picked up, the Germans had already long been masters of
Paris. As it was, the captain settled the whole story for me,
and I was well content.
In a few days we sighted an English vessel bound from
Melbourne to London with wool. At my earnest request, in
spite of stormy weather which rendered it dangerous for a
boat to take us from one ship to the other, the captain con-
sented to signal the English vessel, and we were received
on board, but we were transferred with such difficulty that
no communication took place as to the manner of our be-
ing found. I did indeed hear the Italian mate who was in
charge of the boat shout out something in French to the
effect that we had been picked up from a balloon, but the
noise of the wind was so great, and the captain understood
so little French that he caught nothing of the truth, and it
was assumed that we were two persons who had been saved
from shipwreck. When the captain asked me in what ship
I had been wrecked, I said that a party of us had been car-
ried out to sea in a pleasure-boat by a strong current, and
that Arowhena (whom I described as a Peruvian lady) and
I were alone saved.
There were several passengers, whose goodness towards
us we can never repay. I grieve to think that they cannot
fail to discover that we did not take them fully into our