"Will you tell me that you two seamen did not know that yonder lies Ireland?
Why, that hill is--" I cannot mind the names, but he pointed to two or three peaks which he knew well, and I had to believe him.

He said that we were some way to the westward of a terrible place which he called the Giant's Causeway, too far off for us to see.
"Why did you not tell us this before ?" I asked, as we took the mail from the courtmen's chest where we had laid it.
"You never asked me, and therefore I supposed you knew," he answered gaily.

"Now, where you suppose you are going to find a haven I cannot say, but I hope there is one of which I never heard." Then I told him of our case, and he listened, unmoved, arming himself the while.

Only, he said that it would be hard to be drowned with the luck of the O'Neills round his neck, and therefore did not believe that we should be so.

But he knew nothing of the island, nor whether it was inhabited.