"Let me see the chart," he said at
last, and, scrutinising it carefully, added: "Yes, yes, 'tis right
enough. I've been in the port and up the river. But neither we nor the
Eng lish'll get a handful of gold or silver thereabouts. 'Tis throwing
good money after none at all."
"The money is mine, my captain," said Iberville good-humouredly. "There
will be sport, and I ask but that you give me every chance you can."
"Look then, monsieur," replied the smileless man, "I'll run your ship for
all she holds from here to hell, if you twist your finger. She's as good
a craft as ever I spoke, and I'll swear her for any weather. The
fighting and the gold as you and the devil agree!"
Iberville wished nothing better--a captain concerned only with his own
duties. Berigord gathered the crew and the divers on deck, and in half a
dozen words told them the object of the expedition, and was followed by
Iberville. Some of the men had been with him to Hudson's Bay, and they
wished nothing better than fighting the English, and all were keen with
the lust of gold even though it were for another. As it was, Iberville
promised them all a share of what was got.
On the twentieth day after leaving Quebec they sighted islands, and
simultaneously they saw five ships bearing away towards them. Iberville
was apprehensive that a fleet of the kind could only be hostile, for
merchant-ships would hardly sail together so, and it was not possible
that they were French.
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