Likewise we changed its name from the Cape of Storms, as Diaz had dubbed it, to the Bona Esperanza, for indeed it seemed to us the hope of the world." "And beyond it ?" "Beyond it we found a pleasant country, and would doubtless have made the Indies, if our ships had not grown foul and our crews mutinous from fear of the unknown.

It is clear to me that we must establish a port of victualling in that southern Africa before we can sail the last stage to Cathay." The man spoke modestly and simply as if he were talking of a little journey from one village to another.

Something in his serious calm powerfully caught Philip's fancy.

In all his days he had never met such a one.
"I have not your name, Signor," he said.
"They call me Battista de Cosca, a citizen of Genoa, but these many years a wanderer.

And yours ?" Philip gave it and the stranger bowed.