Or another cause might be found in the warm ocean currents.

Whatever the true one might be, I was utterly unable to form a conjecture.
But I had no time for such speculations as these.

After the first emotions of wonder and admiration had somewhat subsided, I began to experience other sensations.

I began to remember that I had eaten nothing for a length of time that I had no means of calculating, and to look around to see if there was any way of satisfying my hunger.
The question arose now, What was to be done?
After my recent terrible experience I naturally shrank from again committing myself to the tender mercies of strange tribes; yet further thought and examination showed me that the people of this strange land must be very different from those frightful savages on the other side of the mountains.
Everywhere I beheld the manifest signs of cultivation and civilization.

Still, I knew that even civilized people would not necessarily be any kinder than savages, and that I might be seized and flung into hopeless imprisonment or slavery.
So I hesitated, yet what could I do?
My hunger was beginning to be insupportable.