here was a channel, narrow, it is true, but nevertheless wide
enough and deep enough to allow the passage of an even bigger ship than
the _Nonsuch_. And if he wished for confirmation of such knowledge,
there it was before his eyes, in the shape of the upper spars of a ship
showing above the top of the coco palms, the distance apart of the spars
indicating that the craft to which they belonged was at least as big as
the English ship, if not a trifle bigger.

It was not, however, until the _Nonsuch_ arrived immediately opposite
the opening that Dyer was able, with the assistance of the perspective
glass, to pick up the little narrow streak of unbroken water in the
midst of the flashing surf which marked the channel through the reef,
and from his lofty perch he immediately shouted down the necessary
orders to George, who stood aft upon the poop, and who in his turn
repeated them to the mariners, whereupon the ship was brought to the
wind and, under the pilot's directions, headed straight for the passage.
Then Dyer communicated the further information that there was a large
ship lying at anchor in the harbour; upon hearing which Saint Leger,
after demanding and receiving certain further information, gave orders
for the ordnance, great and small, to be loaded, and for the crew to arm
themselves and stand ready for any emergency.

The _Nonsuch_, when brought to the wind, was within two miles of the
shore; a quarter of an hour later, therefore, found her sliding in
through the short, narrow passage of clear water, with the surf pounding
and thundering and churning in great spaces of white froth on either
hand. Then, suddenly, the commotion receded on the quarters and the
adventurers found themselves in a gulf some eight miles long, running
due east and west, and so narrow that there was only barely width enough
in it for a ship of size like the _Nonsuch_ to turn to windward in it--
as she must do in order to reach the settlement, some three miles to the
eastward, off which the strange ship rode at anchor. The water inside
this gulf was almost glass-smooth, being to a considerable extent
sheltered from the trade-wind by the high land to the eastward, and
Dyer, still occupying his coign of vantage in the foretop, perceived to
his amazement, that while the spit on the south side of the gulf
gradually widened out as the land trended eastward, the island, at this
particular part of it, was so narrow that the gulf was only separa