Weeks must have passed since it began to sprout upon my chin
and as we had been but three days in this place when I woke up, those
weeks without doubt were spent upon the sea.
Whither, then, had we come? Driving all the while before a great gale,
that for most of our voyage had blown from the east, as, if Kari were
right, we had done, this country must be very far away from England.
That it was so, indeed there could be no doubt, since here everything
was different. For example, having been a mariner from my childhood, I
had been taught and observed something of the stars, and noted that the
constellations had changed their places in the heavens, also that
some with which I was familiar were missing, while other new ones had
appeared. Further, the heat was great and constant, even at night
being more than that of our hottest summer day, and the air was full of
stinging insects, which at first troubled me much, though afterwards
I grew hardened to them. In short, everything was changed, and I was
indeed in a new world that was not told of in Europe, but what world?
What world? At least the sea joined it to the old, for beneath me was
still the _Blanche_, which timber by timber I had seen built up upon the
shores of Thames from oaks cut in my own woods.
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