whose masts, ropes, and sails had been broken and rent by a tempest, and
cast from the clouds to the bottom of the sea,--a ship on which the
tempest had hurled waves and spat foam, but which still wound its way to
the harbor. The pictures of that storm passed quickly through his mind
as he compared it with the calm future now beginning. A part of his
wonderful adventures he had related to Falconbridge; he had not
mentioned, however, thousands of other incidents. It had been his
misfortune that as often as he pitched his tent and fixed his fireplace
to settle down permanently, some wind tore out the stakes of his tent,
whirled away the fire, and bore him on toward destruction. Looking now
from the balcony of the tower at the illuminated waves, he remembered
everything through which he had passed. He had campaigned in the four
parts of the world, and in wandering had tried almost every occupation.
Labor-loving and honest, more than once had he earned money, and had
always lost it in spite of every prevision and the utmost caution. He
had been a gold-miner in Australia, a diamond-digger in Africa, a
rifleman in public service in the East Indies. He established a ranch in
California,--the drought ruined him; he tried trading with wild tribes
in the interior of Brazil,--his raft was wrecked on the Amazon; he
himself alone, weaponless, and nearly naked, wandered in the forest for
many weeks living on wild fruits, exposed every moment to death from the
jaws of wild beasts. He established a forge in Helena, Arkansas, and
that was burned in a great fire which consumed the whole town. Next he
fell into the hands of Indians in the Rocky Mountains, and only through
a miracle was he saved by Canadian trappers. Then he served as a sailor
on a vessel running between Bahia and Bordeaux, and as harpooner on a
whaling-ship; both vessels were wrecked. He had a cigar factory in
Havana, and was robbed by his partner while he himself was lying sick
with the vomito. At last he came to Aspinwall, and there was to be the
end of his failures,--for what could reach him on that rocky island?