Yet farther they will go, hewing a path with their swords through woods of wild plantain, and rhododendron thickets, over (so it seems, however incredible) the very saddle of the Silla,* down upon the astonished "Mantuanos" of St.Jago, driving all before them; and having burnt the city in default of ransom, will return triumphant by the right road, and pass along the coast, the masters of the deep.
* Humboldt says that there is a path from Caravellada to St.
Jago, between the peaks, used by smugglers.

This is probably the "unknowen way of the Indians," which Preston used.
I know not whether any men still live who count their descent from those two valiant captains; but if such there be, let them be sure that the history of the English navy tells no more Titanic victory over nature and man than that now forgotten raid of Amyas Preston and his comrade, in the year of grace 1595.
But though a venture on the town was impossible, yet there was another venture which Frank was unwilling to let slip.

A light which now shone brightly in one of the windows of the governor's house was the lodestar to which all his thoughts were turned; and as he sat in the cabin with Amyas, Cary, and Jack, he opened his heart to them.
"And are we, then," asked he, mournfully, "to go without doing the very thing for which we came ?" All were silent awhile.

At last John Brimblecombe spoke.
"Show me the way to do it, Mr.Frank, and I will go." "My dearest man," said Amyas, "what would you have?
Any attempt to see her, even if she be here, would be all but certain death." "And what if it were?
What if it were, my brother Amyas?
Listen to me.

I have long ceased to shrink from Death; but till I came into these magic climes, I never knew the beauty of his face." "Of death ?" said Cary.