And at last they sighted their topsails right ahead, and still Shard
went on. It was a close thing, but night was coming on, and the Union
Jack which he hoisted helped Shard with the Spaniards for the last few
anxious minutes, though it seemed to anger the English, but as Shard
said, "There's no pleasing everyone," and then the twilight shivered
into darkness.

"Hard to starboard," said Captain Shard.

The North wind which had risen all day was now blowing a gale. I do
not know what part of the coast Shard steered for, but Shard knew, for
the coasts of the world were to him what Margate is to some of us.

At a place where the desert rolling up from mystery and from death,
yea, from the heart of Africa, emerges upon the sea, no less grand
than her, no less terrible, even there they sighted the land quite
close, almost in darkness. Shard ordered every man to the hinder part
of the ship and all the ballast too; and soon the Desperate Lark, her
prow a little high out of the water, doing her eighteen knots before
the wind, struck a sandy beach and shuddered, she heeled over a
little, then righted herself, and slowly headed into the interior of
Africa.

The men would have given three cheers, but after the first Shard
silenced them and, steering the ship himself, he made them a short
speech while the broad wheels pounded slowly over the African sand,
doing barely five knots in a gale. The perils of the sea he said had
been greatly exaggerated. Ships had been sailing the sea for hundreds
of years and at sea you knew what to do, but on land this was