He anchored near to the terrible breakers of the western coast of Africa under a sun which scorched the deck, in order to take on board india-rubber, ostrich feathers, and elephants' tusks, brought out in long pirogues by negro oarsmen, from a river filled with crocodiles and hippopotamuses, and bordered by groups of huts with straw cones for roofs.
When there were no more of these extraordinary voyages, the _Mare Nostrum_ turned its course towards South America, resigning itself to competition in rates with the English and Scandinavians who are the muleteers of the ocean.

His tonnage and draught permitted him to sail up the great rivers of North America, even reaching the cities of the remote interior where rows of factory chimneys smoked on the border of a fresh-water lake converted into a port.
He sailed up the ruddy Parana to Rosario and Colastine, in order to load Argentine wheat; he anchored in the amber waters of Uruguay opposite Paysandu and Fray Ventos, taking on board hides destined to Europe and salt for the Antilles.

From the Pacific he sailed up the Guayas bordered with an equatorial vegetation, in search of cocoa from Guayaquil.

His prow cut the infinite sheet of the Amazon,--dislodging gigantic tree-trunks dragged down by the inundations of the virgin forest--in order to anchor opposite Para or Manaos, taking on cargoes of tobacco and coffee.

He even carried from Germany implements of war for the revolutionists of a little republic.
These trips that in other times would have awakened Ferragut's enthusiasm now resulted disastrously.