Suspicions Laid, And Something About The Calmuc Though abounding in details full of the savor of reality, Samoa's narrative did not at first appear altogether satisfactory.

Not that it was so strange; for stranger recitals I had heard.
But one reason, perhaps, was that I had anticipated a narrative quite different; something agreeing with my previous surmises.
Not a little puzzling, also, was his account of having seen islands the day preceding; though, upon reflection, that might have been the case, and yet, from his immediately altering the Parki's course, the Chamois, unknowingly might have sailed by their vicinity.

Still, those islands could form no part of the chain we were seeking.

They must have been some region hitherto undiscovered.
But seems it likely, thought I, that one, who, according to his own account, has conducted himself so heroically in rescuing the brigantine, should be the victim of such childish terror at the mere glimpse of a couple of sailors in an open boat, so well supplied, too, with arms, as he was, to resist their capturing his craft, if such proved their intention?
On the contrary, would it not have been more natural, in his dreary situation, to have hailed our approach with the utmost delight?
But then again, we were taken for phantoms, not flesh and blood.

Upon the whole, I regarded the narrator of these things somewhat distrustfully.