"What a distance we are anchored from the shore!" Hubert said, when they had recovered a little from their first feeling. "It must be three or four miles off."
"Not so much as that, Hubert," Maud, who was just a little fond of contradicting, said; "not more than two miles, I should think."
Hubert stuck to his opinion; and as the captain came on deck they referred the matter to him.
"The distance of objects across water is very deceiving," he said.
"It is from eight to nine miles to those buildings you see."
Maud looked rather crestfallen, and Charley asked, "Why do we anchor such a long way off, captain?"
"Because the shore is so flat that there is no water for us to get in any closer. In a couple of hours you will see boats coming out to fetch you in; and unless it happens to be high tide, even these cannot get to the beach, and you will have to land in carts."
"In carts, Captain Trevor?" they all repeated; "that will be a strange way of landing."
"Yes, it is," the captain answered. "I think that we can safely say that the Argentine Republic is the only country in the world where the only way to land at its chief city is in a cart."
The captain's boat was by this time lowered, and he at once started for shore with his papers. Soon after ten o'clock he returned, followed by a number of boats. He brought also a letter to Mr. Hardy from an old friend who had been settled for some years near Buenos Ayres, and whose advice had decided him to fix upon that country as the scene of his labors. It contained a warm welcome, and a hearty congratulation upon their safe arrival. This letter had been written two or three days previously, and had been left at the office of the steamship company. It said, however, that the writer would hear of the arrival of the steamer, and would have everything in readiness to take them out to his place upon their landing.
Mr. Hardy had been in frequent communication with his friend from the time that he had determined to emigrate, and Mr. Thompson's letters had contained the warmest assurance of a welcome, and an invitation to make his house their home until they had one of their own to go into; and now this kind letter, coming off so instantly after their arrival, cheered them all much, and made them feel less strange and to some extent at home in the new country at once.