"Ay; they are rackers at a sleep! I say, Miles, such a discovery as
this will make a man's fortune! The world generalizes in discoveries,
altogether, making no great matter of distinction between your
Columbuses, Cooks, or Marbles. An island is an island and he who
first discovers it, has the credit. Poor Captain Williams! He would
have sailed this ship for a whole generation, and never found anything
in the way of novelty."
"Except the Straits--" I muttered very indistinctly, breathing deep
and hard.
"Ay, that _was_ an affair! Hadn't you and I been aboard, the ship
never would have done that. We are the very offspring of luck! There
was the affair of the wreck off Madagascar--there are bloody currents
in the Pacific, too, I find, Miles."
"Yes, sir--hard-a-weather--"
"The fellow's dreaming. One word, boy, before you cut loose from all
reason and reflection. Don't you think it would be a capital idea to
poke in a little patriotism among the names; patriotism goes so far in
our part of the world. Congress Rocks would be a good title for the
highest part of the reef, and Washington Sands would do for the
landing you told me of. Washington should have a finger in the pie."
"Crust isn't down, sir."
"The fellow's off, and I may as well follow, though it is not easy to
sleep on the honour of a discovery like this.
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