And how can you tell the sloop's rate of sailing?
The wind is fair and constant--it always is in the trades--but how do you know as there is not a strong current dead against us?
I don't think there's the least use looking for land before to-morrow." This rather reassured me.

It was quite true that the sloop might not be going so fast as I reckoned, and the coast be farther off than I thought--although I did not much believe in the current.
But the morrow came and went, and still no sign of land, and again, on the fifth day, the sun rose on an unbroken expanse of water.

In clear weather--and no weather could be clearer--the Andes, as I had heard, were visible to mariners a hundred and fifty miles out at sea.

Yet not a peak could be seen.

Then I knew beyond a doubt that something was wrong.