I laughed, for a drop of the spray had reached my mouth.
"Cadaraqui, and all this wonderful land we have traversed, could be dropped into the bosom of this sea, and still fail to span it," I answered. "'Tis the South Sea, the Pacific Ocean, which, the geographers tell us, stretches from this western verge of our continent to the shores of the farther Indies."
"How can Otetiani know that?" exclaimed Tawannears.
"Taste it. 'Tis salt, the water of the open sea."
Both he and Peter stooped and scooped handfuls of it from pools in the rocks—and quickly spat it out again.
"Ja," agreed Corlaer. "Sea water. We hafe gone to der endt of der landt."
Tawannears nodded dispiritedly.
"We have traveled as far as men may go," he admitted. "And we have failed. Hawenneyu has veiled his face from us, after all."
"We have not seen all the land," I reminded him.
"Ja," spoke up the Dutchman. "We go sout' along der shore, eh?"