with the aid of his modern instruments, had made his landfall with
most marvellous skill and nearness, there still remained some ten
days' more journey in which we had to retrace our course, till we
came to that arm of the sea up which lies the great city of
Atlantis, the capital.

The sight of the land, and the breath of earth and herbage
which came off from it with the breezes, were, I believe, under the
Gods, the means of saving the lives of all of us. For, as is
necessary with long cross-ocean voyages, many of our ships'
companies had died, and still more were sick with scurvy through
the unnatural tossing, or (as some have it) through the salt,
unnatural food inseparable from shipboard. But these last, the
sight and the smells of land heartened up in extraordinary fashion,
and from being helpless logs, unable to move even under blows of
the scourge, they became active again, able to help in the
shipwork, and lusty (when the time came) to fight for their lives
and their vessels.

From the moment that I was deposed in Yucatan, despite Tatho's
assurances, there had been doubts in my mind as to what nature
would be my reception in Atlantis. But I had faced this event of
the future without concern: it was in the hands of the Gods. The
Empress Phorenice might be supreme on earth; she might cause my
head to be lopped from its proper shoulders the moment I set foot
ashore; but my Lord the Sun was above Phorenice, and if my head
fell, it would be because He saw best that it should be so. On
which account, therefore, I had not troubled myself about the
matter during the voyage, but had followed out my calm study of the
higher mysteries with an unloaded mind.