"Land ho!" shouted a sailor aloft, one morning.
"Where away?" called the mate.
"Broad on the lee bow."
The cry produced an intense excitement on board, and all hands were on the lookout for the land. I could distinctly see it—a lofty promontory. The announcement was immediately followed by an order to keep the bark one point more to the southward, so that we obtained no nearer view of the land.
"You are a scholar, Phil. What land was that?" asked old Jack Sanderson, when we happened to be together.
"I don't know; but I have an idea what it is."
"Well what's your idea, my lad?"
"I think it is one of the Cape Verde Islands."
"On the coast of Africa?"
"Yes."