To combat it, reckoning would be insufficient; astronomical observations alone would enable one to render an exact calculation from it.

Now, those observations the young novice was still unable to make.
For an instant Dick Sand had thought of bringing the "Pilgrim" back to New Zealand.

The passage would be shorter, and he would certainly have done it if the wind, which, till then, had been contrary, had not become favorable.

Better worth while then to steer for America.
In fact, the wind had changed almost to the contrary direction, and now it blew from the northwest with a tendency to freshen.

It was then necessary to profit by it and make all the headway possible.
So Dick Sand prepared to put the "Pilgrim" under full sail.
In a schooner brig-rigged, the foremast carries four square sails; the foresail, on the lower mast; above, the top-sail, on the topmast; then, on the top-gallant mast, a top-sail and a royal.
The mainmast, on the contrary, has fewer sails.