Jules Verne Read Free Page A

against those
New Zealand scoundrels.
    One man on board, alone among all, was not of American origin.
Portuguese by birth, but speaking English fluently, he was called
Negoro, and filled the humble position of cook on the schooner.
    The "Pilgrim's" cook having deserted at Auckland, this Negoro, then out
of employment, offered himself for the place. He was a taciturn man,
not at all communicative, who kept to himself, but did his work
satisfactorily. In engaging him, Captain Hull seemed to be rather
fortunate, and since embarking, the master cook had merited no reproach.
    Meanwhile, Captain Hull regretted not having had the time to inform
himself sufficiently about Negoro's antecedents. His face, or rather
his look, was only half in his favor, and when it is necessary to bring
an unknown into the life on board, so confined, so intimate, his
antecedents should be carefully inquired into.
    Negoro might be forty years old. Thin, nervous, of medium height, with
very brown hair, skin somewhat swarthy, he ought to be strong. Had he
received any instruction? Yes; that appeared in certain observations
which escaped him sometimes. Besides, he never spoke of his past life,
he said not a word about his family. Whence he came, where he had
lived, no one could tell. What would his future be? No one knew any
more about that. He only announced his intention of going on shore at
Valparaiso. He was certainly a singular man. At all events, he did not
seem to be a sailor. He seemed to be even more strange to marine things
than is usual with a master cook, part of whose existence is passed at
sea.
    Meanwhile, as to being incommoded by the rolling and pitching of the
ship, like men who have never navigated, he was not in the least, and
that is something for a cook on board a vessel.
    Finally, he was little seen. During the day, he most generally remained
confined in his narrow kitchen, before the stove for melting, which
occupied the greater part of it. When night came and the fire in the
stove was out, Negoro went to the cabin which was assigned to him at
the end of the crew's quarters. Then he went to bed at once and went to
sleep.
    It has been already said that the "Pilgrim's" crew was composed of five
sailors and a novice.
    This young novice, aged fifteen, was the child of an unknown father and
mother. This poor being, abandoned from his birth, had been received
and brought up by public charity.
    Dick Sand—that was his name—must have been originally from the State
of New York, and doubtless from the capital of that State.
    If the name of Dick—an abbreviation of Richard—had been given to the
little orphan, it was because it was the name of the charitable
passer-by who had picked him up two or three hours after his birth. As
to the name of Sand, it was attributed to him in remembrance of the
place where he had been found; that is to say, on that point of land
called Sandy-Hook, which forms the entrance of the port of New York, at
the mouth of the Hudson.
    Dick Sand, when he should reach his full growth, would not exceed
middle height, but he was well built. One could not doubt that he was
of Anglo-Saxon origin. He was brown, however, with blue eyes, in which
the crystalline sparkled with ardent fire. His seaman's craft had
already prepared him well for the conflicts of life. His intelligent
physiognomy breathed forth energy. It was not that of an audacious
person, it was that of a darer. These three words from an unfinished
verse of Virgil are often cited:
    "Audaces fortuna juvat"....
    but they are quoted incorrectly. The poet said:
    "Audentes fortuna juvat"....
    It is on the darers, not on the audacious, that Fortune almost always
smiled. The audacious may be unguarded. The darer thinks first, acts
afterwards. There is the difference!
    Dick Sand was
audens
.
    At fifteen he already knew how to take a part, and to carry out to the
end whatever his resolute spirit had decided upon. His manner, at once
spirited and serious, attracted