In those waters, at that time, the keels of ships were rare.

I might well have lived out my days there, in peace and fatness, under the sun where frost was not, had it not been for the _Sparwehr_.

The _Sparwehr_ was a Dutch merchantman daring the uncharted seas for Indies beyond the Indies.

And she found me instead, and I was all she found.
Have I not said that I was a gay-hearted, golden, bearded giant of an irresponsible boy that had never grown up?
With scarce a pang, when the _Sparwehrs_' water-casks were filled, I left Raa Kook and his pleasant land, left Lei-Lei and all her flower-garlanded sisters, and with laughter on my lips and familiar ship-smells sweet in my nostrils, sailed away, sea-cuny once more, under Captain Johannes Maartens.
A marvellous wandering, that which followed on the old _Sparwehr_.

We were in quest of new lands of silk and spices.