through the Straits of Magellan, and
ascended the Pacific as far as Patagonia, where, according to a
previous interpretation of the document, they supposed that Captain
Grant was a prisoner among the Indians.

"The _Duncan_ disembarked her passengers on the western coast of
Patagonia, and sailed to pick them up again on the eastern coast at
Cape Corrientes. Lord Glenarvan traversed Patagonia, following the
thirty-seventh parallel, and having found no trace of the captain, he
re-embarked on the 13th of November, so as to pursue his search
through the Ocean.

"After having unsuccessfully visited the islands of Tristan d'Acunha
and Amsterdam, situated in her course, the _Duncan_, as I have said,
arrived at Cape Bermouilli, on the Australian coast, on the 20th of
December, 1854.

"It was Lord Glenarvan's intention to traverse Australia as he had
traversed America, and he disembarked. A few miles from the coast was
established a farm, belonging to an Irishman, who offered hospitality
to the travellers. Lord Glenarvan made known to the Irishman the cause
which had brought him to these parts, and asked if he knew whether a
three-masted English vessel, the _Britannia_, had been lost less than
two years before on the west coast of Australia.

"The Irishman had never heard of this wreck; but, to the great
surprise of the bystanders, one of his servants came forward and
said,--

"'My lord, praise and thank God! If Captain Grant is still living, he
is living on the Australian shores.'

"'Who are you?' asked Lord Glenarvan.

"'A Scotchman like yourself, my lord,' replied the man; 'I am one of
Captain Grant's crew--one of the castaways of the _Britannia_.'

"This man was called Ayrton. He was, in fact, the boatswain's mate of
the _Britannia_, as his papers showed. But, separated from Captain
Grant at the moment when the ship struck upon the rocks, he had till
then believed that the captain with all his crew had perished, and
that he, Ayrton, was the sole survivor of the _Britannia_.

"'Only,' added he, 'it was not on the west coast, but on the east
coast of Australia that the vessel was lost; and if Captain Grant is
still living, as his document indicates, he is a prisoner among the
natives, and it is on the other coast that he must be looked for.'

"This man spoke in a frank voice and with a confident look; his words
could not be doubted. The Irishman, in whose service he had been for
more than a year, answered for his