thee for fifty ducats and a gold jewel--to be paid from the first
ship we take!"

On sailed the ships through tranquil seas, until many days had fallen
into their wake, slipping by them like painted clouds of floating
seaweed or silver-finned vagrants of the deep. Great calms brooded upon
the water, and the sails fell idle, flag and pennant drooped; then the
trade-wind blew, and the white ships drove on. They drove into the blue
distance, towards unknown ports--known only in that they would surely
prove themselves Ports of All Peril. At night the sea burned; a field of
gold it ran to horizons jewelled with richer stars than shone at home.
Above them, in the vault of heaven, hung the Great Ship, blazed the
Southern Cross. Every hour saw the flight of meteors, and their trains,
golden argosies of the sky, faded slowly from the dark-blue depths. When
the moon arose she was ringed with colors, but the men who gazed upon
her said not, "Every hue of the rainbow is there." They said, "See the
red gold, the pearls and the emeralds!" The night died suddenly and the
day was upon them, an aureate god, lavish of splendor. They hailed him
with music; as they pulled and hauled, the seamen sang. Other winds than
those of heaven drove them on. High purpose, love of country, religious
ecstasy, chivalrous devotion, greed of gain, lust of aggrandizement,
lust of power, mad ambitions, ruthless intents--by how strong a current,
here crystal clear, there thick and denied, were they swept towards
their appointed haven! In cruelty and lust, in the faith of little
children and the courage of old demi-gods, they went like homing
pigeons; and not a soul, from him who gave command to him who, far
aloft, looked out upon the deep, recked or cared that another age would
call him pirate or corsair, raising brow and shoulder over the morality
of his deeds.