In Search of the Castaways [84]
"but it is only human to make a mistake, while to persist in it, a man must be a fool." "Stop, Paganel, don't excite yourself; I don't mean to say that we should prolong our search in America." "What is it, then, that you want?" asked Glenarvan. "A confession, nothing more. A confession that Australia now as evidently appears to be the theater of the shipwreck of the BRITANNIA as America did before." "We confess it willingly," replied Paganel. "Very well, then, since that is the case, my advice is not to let your imagination rely on successive and contradictory evidence. Who knows whether after Australia some other country may not appear with equal certainty to be the place, and we may have to recommence our search?" Glenarvan and Paganel looked at each other silently, struck by the justice of these remarks. "I should like you, therefore," continued the Major, "before we actually start for Australia, to make one more examination of the documents. Here they are, and here are the charts. Let us take up each point in succession through which the 37th parallel passes, and see if we come across any other country which would agree with the precise indications of the document." "Nothing can be more easily and quickly done," replied Paganel; "for countries are not very numerous in this latitude, happily." "Well, look," said the Major, displaying an English planisphere on the plan of Mercator's Chart, and presenting the appearance of a terrestrial globe. He placed it before Lady Helena, and then they all stood round, so as to be able to follow the argument of Paganel. "As I have said already," resumed the learned geographer, "after having crossed South America, the 37th degree of latitude cuts the islands of Tristan d'Acunha. Now I maintain that none of the words of the document could relate to these islands." The documents were examined with the most minute care, and the conclusion unanimously reached was that these islands were entirely out of the question. "Let us go on then," resumed Paganel. "After leaving the Atlantic, we pass two degrees below the Cape of Good Hope, and into the Indian Ocean. Only one group of islands is found on this route, the Amsterdam Isles. Now, then, we must examine these as we did the Tristan d'Acunha group." After a close survey, the Amsterdam Isles were rejected in their turn. Not a single word, or part of a word, French, English or German, could apply to this group in the Indian Ocean. "Now we come to Australia," continued Paganel. "The 37th parallel touches this continent at Cape Bernouilli, and leaves it at Twofold Bay. You will agree with me that, without straining the text, the English word STRA and the French one AUSTRAL may relate to Australia. The thing is too plain to need proof." The conclusion of Paganel met with unanimous approval; every probability was in his favor. "And where is the next point?" asked McNabbs. "That is easily answered. After leaving Twofold Bay, we cross an arm of the sea which extends to New Zealand. Here I must call your attention to the fact that the French word CONTIN means a continent, irrefragably. Captain Grant could not, then, have found refuge in New Zealand, which is only an island. However that may be though, examine and compare, and go over and over each word, and see if, by any possibility, they can be made to fit this new country." "In no way whatever," replied John Mangles, after a minute investigation of the documents and the planisphere. "No," chimed in all the rest, and even the Major himself, "it cannot apply to New Zealand." "Now," went on Paganel, "in all this immense space between this large island and the American coast, there is only one solitary barren little island crossed by the 37th parallel." "And what is its name," asked the Major. "Here it is, marked in the map. It is Maria Theresa--a name of which there is not a single trace in either of the three documents." "Not the slightest," said Glenarvan. "I leave you, then, my friends, to decide whether all these probabilities, not to say certainties, are not in favor of the Australian