when the famous Captain Smith visited these coasts, had seen it blazing
far at sea, and had felt no rest in all the intervening years till
now that he took up the search. A third, being camped on a hunting
expedition full forty miles south of the White Mountains, awoke at
midnight, and beheld the Great Carbuncle gleaming like a meteor, so
that the shadows of the trees fell backward from it. They spoke of the
innumerable attempts which had been made to reach the spot, and of
the singular fatality which had hitherto withheld success from all
adventurers, though it might seem so easy to follow to its source a
light that overpowered the moon, and almost matched the sun. It was
observable that each smiled scornfully at the madness of every other
in anticipating better fortune than the past, yet nourished a scarcely
hidden conviction that he would himself be the favored one. As if to
allay their too sanguine hopes, they recurred to the Indian traditions
that a spirit kept watch about the gem, and bewildered those who sought
it either by removing it from peak to peak of the higher hills, or by
calling up a mist from the enchanted lake over which it hung. But these
tales were deemed unworthy of credit, all professing to believe that
the search had been baffled by want of sagacity or perseverance in
the adventurers, or such other causes as might naturally obstruct the
passage to any given point among the intricacies of forest, valley, and
mountain.

In a pause of the conversation the wearer of the prodigious spectacles
looked round upon the party, making each individual, in turn, the object
of the sneer which invariably dwelt upon his countenance.

'So, fellow-pilgrims,' said he, 'here we are, seven wise men, and one
fair damsel--who, doubtless, is as wise as any graybeard of the company:
here we are, I say, all bound on the same goodly enterprise. Methinks,