I fully realized now, if I had not before, that the voyage ahead would call for exertions ardent and lasting.

On August 27 nothing could be seen of the Moor, or his country either, except two peaks, away in the east through the clear atmosphere of morning.

Soon after the sun rose even these were obscured by haze, much to my satisfaction.
[Illustration: Chased by pirates.] The wind, for a few days following my escape from the pirates, blew a steady but moderate gale, and the sea, though agitated into long rollers, was not uncomfortably rough or dangerous, and while sitting in my cabin I could hardly realize that any sea was running at all, so easy was the long, swinging motion of the sloop over the waves.

All distracting uneasiness and excitement being now over, I was once more alone with myself in the realization that I was on the mighty sea and in the hands of the elements.

But I was happy, and was becoming more and more interested in the voyage.
Columbus, in the _Santa Maria_, sailing these seas more than four hundred years before, was not so happy as I, nor so sure of success in what he had undertaken.