Willis thought this ceremony, under existing circumstances, would have been better observed in the breach than the observance, for, said he, if a British cruiser picked up that bottle within twenty-four hours, she stood a chance of picking up the _Boudeuse_ as well.
On the 15th July the peak of Teneriffe hove in sight This remarkable basaltic rock rises to the extraordinary height of three thousand eight hundred yards above the level of the sea; it is consequently seen at a considerable distance, and constitutes a valuable landmark for navigators in these seas.

Six weeks later the _Boudeuse_ dropped anchor in the Havre roads.
Here the three adventurers had to encounter by far the greatest misfortune that had as yet befallen them.

The continental system of Napoleon was then in force.

The importation of everything English or Indian was strictly prohibited.

The cargo the young men had brought with them from New Switzerland, which already had escaped so many perils, was, therefore, declared contraband, and seized by the French _fisc_--an institution that rarely permitted such a prize to quit its rapacious grasp.
Behold now our poor friends, Fritz and Jack, in a strange land, deprived at once of their fortune and their chance of returning home--the two beacons that had cheered them on their way! All their bright hopes of the future were thus annihilated at one fell swoop.
Their fortitude almost gave way under the severity of this blow; the excess of their distress alone saved them.