“I stayed here nigh on two years, I reckon; but at last I got a chance to steal a canoe and slip off to a small craft that was becalmed in the offing. She was luckier than the Dutchman, as we got a breeze off the land about an hour after I boarded her.
“She was bound to the Cape, and there I left her, shipping the very same day in the craft I now belong to, and sailing for home the same a’ternoon.”
“Well,” said I, as soon as the man had finished, “if your story is true—and I see no reason to doubt it—you at least are blameless as far as the wrong done to my father is concerned. The only question now is, whereabouts is the island on which he was left?”
“Ah, sir,” replied he, “that’s more’n I can tell. I did hear Johnson mention the latitude and longitude of it once; but I’m blest if I can remember ’em now.”
I was determined, however, to get some clue if possible, however faint it might be; and I took him into our little cabin, and spread a chart of the Pacific on the table. Then I got him to recall, as nearly as he could, the courses and distances steered by the Amazon until the time of her wreck.
We managed to trace her as far as the north-western extremity of New Guinea, the man happening to remember hearing Johnson point out some land in sight as the Cape of Good Hope.
This must manifestly have been the headland of that name on the north-west coast of New Guinea; but from this point he became bewildered. He remembered passing a great many islands after sighting this headland, however, and was of opinion that the average courses steered were about south-east, and he thought it was nearly a month afterwards when the ship was lost.
This placed the scene of the wreck on one of the islands in the large group in which we expected to find our treasure-island.
I questioned the fellow until I found I had extracted really every particle of information it was in his power to give, and then, after rewarding him for his information, I let him go.
As soon as he was gone, I wrote a hasty note to my sister, cautiously conveying to her the intelligence that we had obtained a faint trace of the Amazons fate; a trace which, I added, we intended to follow up as far as we could, and having sealed and addressed my missive, I hurried up over the barque’s side, and placed it in her captain’s hands, and then took leave of him with a hearty shake of the hand and many good wishes on his part that we might have a safe and pleasant voyage.