At the time when he was really out of sight of the coast, he was much further from the hilly land left behind than from the low country in front, and not in the mathematical centre, as he had supposed, of the Lake.

As it rose and came more into sight, he already began to wonder what reception he should meet with from the inhabitants, and whether he should find them as hard of heart as the people he had just escaped from.

Should he, indeed, venture among them at all?
Or should he remain in the woods till he had observed more of their ways and manners?
These questions were being debated in his mind, when he perceived that the wind was falling.
As the sun went past the meridian the breeze fell, till, in the hottest part of the afternoon, and when he judged that he was not more than eight miles from shore, it sank to the merest zephyr, and the waves by degrees diminished.

So faint became the breeze in half-an-hour's time, and so intermittent, that he found it patience wasted even to hold the rudder-paddle.

The sail hung and was no longer bellied out; as the idle waves rolled under, it flapped against the mast.