“And in the forests of the island of Crespo!” added Conseil.
“Oh! then the gentleman is going on terra firma?” replied Ned Land.
“That seems to me to be clearly indicated,” said I, reading the letter once more.
“Well, we must accept,” said the Canadian. “But once more on dry ground, we shall know what to do. Indeed, I shall not be sorry to eat a piece of fresh venison.”
Without seeking to reconcile what was contradictory between Captain Nemo’s manifest aversion to islands and continents, and his invitation to hunt in a forest, I contented myself with replying—
“Let us first see where the island of Crespo is.”
I consulted the planisphere, and in 32° 40′ north lat. and 157° 50′ west long., I found a small island, recognised in 1801 by Captain Crespo, and marked in the ancient Spanish maps as Rocca de la Plata, the meaning of which is “The Silver Rock.” We were then about eighteen hundred miles from our starting-point, and the course of the Nautilus, a little changed, was bringing it back towards the south-east.
I showed this little rock lost in the midst of the North Pacific to my companions.
“If Captain Nemo does sometimes go on dry ground,” said I, “he at least chooses desert islands.”
Ned Land shrugged his shoulders without speaking, and Conseil and he left me.