I made signs that I would go with him, and he laughed at
first, but then, being short of men, took me to help work the
ship. So I came to talk after their manner, and to heave on
ropes, and to reef the stiff sails in sudden squalls, and to take
my turn at the wheel. But it was not strange, for the blood of my
fathers was the blood of the men of the sea.
'I had thought it an easy task to find him I sought, once I got
among his own people; and when we raised the land one day, and
passed between a gateway of the sea to a port, I looked for
perhaps as many schooners as there were fingers to my hands. But
the ships lay against the wharves for miles, packed like so many
little fish; and when I went among them to ask for a man with the
mane of a sea lion, they laughed, and answered me in the tongues
of many peoples. And I found that they hailed from the uttermost
parts of the earth.
'And I went into the city to look upon the face of every man. But
they were like the cod when they run thick on the banks, and I
could not count them. And the noise smote upon me till I could
not hear, and my head was dizzy with much movement. So I went on
and on, through the lands which sang in the warm sunshine; where
the harvests lay rich on the plains; and where great cities were
fat with men that lived like women, with false words in their
mouths and their hearts black with the lust of gold.
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