At all events, he was neither an Indian nor a Spaniard.
And that appeared certain, when in answer to Dick Sand, who said to him in English, "Welcome!" he replied in the same language and without any accent.
"Welcome yourself, my young friend," said the unknown, advancing toward the novice, whose hand he pressed.
As to the blacks, he contented himself with making a gesture to them without speaking to them.
"You are English ?" he asked the novice.
"Americans," replied Dick Sand.
"From the South ?" "From the North." This reply seemed to please the unknown, who shook the novice's hand more vigorously and this time in very a American manner.
"And may I know, my young friend," he asked, "how you find yourself on this coast ?" But, at that moment, without waiting till the novice had replied to his question, the unknown took off his hat and bowed.
Mrs.Weldon had advanced as far as the steep bank, and she then found herself facing him.
It was she who replied to this question.
"Sir," said she, "we are shipwrecked ones whose ship was broken to pieces yesterday on these reefs." An expression of pity spread over the unknown's face, whose eyes sought the vessel which had been stranded.
"There is nothing left of our ship," added the novice.

"The surf has finished the work of demolishing it during the night." "And our first question," continued Mrs.Weldon, "will be to ask you where we are." "But you are on the sea-coast of South America," replied the unknown, who appeared surprised at the question.

"Can you have any doubt about that ?" "Yes, sir, for the tempest had been able to make us deviate from our route," replied Dick Sand.

"But I shall ask where we are more exactly.
On the coast of Peru, I think." "No, my young friend, no! A little more to the south! You are wrecked on the Bolivian coast." "Ah!" exclaimed Dick Sand.
"And you are even on that southern part of Bolivia which borders on Chili." "Then what is that cape ?" asked Dick Sand, pointing to the promontory on the north.
"I cannot tell you the name," replied the unknown, "for if I know the country in the interior pretty well from having often traversed it, it is my first visit to this shore." Dick Sand reflected on what he had just learned.

That only half astonished him, for his calculation might have, and indeed must have, deceived him, concerning the currents; but the error was not considerable.