The wrecking of the "Pilgrim" had not been the end of their cruel trials, and others, still more terrible, threatened them should they fall into the hands of these natives.
And how to avoid this danger, the worst of all, during their return to the coast.

Harris and Negoro had not led them a hundred miles into the interior of Angola without a secret design to gain possession of them.
But what did this miserable Portuguese intend?
Who had merited his hatred?
The young novice repeated to himself, that he alone had incurred it.

Then he passed in review all the incidents that had taken place during the "Pilgrim's" voyage; the meeting with the wreck and the blacks; the pursuit of the whale; the disappearance of Captain Hull and his crew.
Dick Sand had found himself, at the age of fifteen, intrusted with the command of a vessel, the compass and log of which were soon injured by Negoro's criminal actions.

He again saw himself using his authority in the presence of this insolent cook, threatening to put him in irons, or to blow out his brains with a pistol shot.

Ah, why had he hesitated to do it?
Negoro's corpse would have been thrown overboard, and none of these catastrophes would have happened.
Such were the young man's various thoughts.