“I have an idea that I have seen you before,” observed one of the settlers. “Did you come on shore when the fleet anchored?”
“I did not,” replied Philip; “but I have been here.”
“I recollect now,” replied the man; “you were the only survivor of the Ter Schilling, which was lost in False Bay.”
“Not the only survivor,” replied Philip; “I thought so myself; but I afterwards met the pilot, a one-eyed man, of the name of Schriften, who was my shipmate: he must have arrived here after me. You saw him, of course?”
“No, I did not. No one belonging to the Ter Schilling ever came here after you; for I have been a settler here ever since, and it is not likely that I should forget such a circumstance.”
“He must, then, have returned to Holland by some other means.”
“I know not how. Our ships never go near the coast after they leave the bay; it is too dangerous.”
“Nevertheless, I saw him,” replied Philip, musing.
“If you saw him, that is sufficient; perhaps some vessel had been blown down to the eastern side, and picked him up; but the natives in that part are not likely to have spared the life of a European. The Caffres are a cruel people.”
The information that Schriften had not been seen at the Cape was a subject of meditation to Philip. He had always had an idea as the reader knows, that there was something supernatural about the man; and this opinion was corroborated by the report of the settler.