He had guessed that I knew more than himself about the handling of a boat in wind, and since we were in an open sea, where his guidance was not needed, he preferred to trust the thing to me.

I liked the trait in him, for I take it to be a mark of a wise man that he knows what he can do, and is not ashamed to admit what he cannot.
That evening we had a cold bed; but the storm blew out in the night, and the next day the sun was as hot as summer, and the wind a point to the east.

Shalah once again was steersman, for we were inside some very ugly reefs, which I took to be the beginning of the Carolina keys.

On shore forests straggled down to the sea, so that sometimes they almost had their feet in the surf; but now and then would come an open, grassy space running far inland.

These were, the great savannahs where herds of wild cattle and deer roamed, and where the Free Companions came to fill their larders.