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VI . Islands and Wrecks The Nautilus now travelled south - east across the Pacific . Nearly every day the panels of the saloon were opened , and we were never tired of watching the life of the sea . On the eleventh of December Conseil called me to the window in a strange voice . In the electric light a ship was hanging in the water . She had sunk only a few hours before , and her masts were broken . On her deck four sailors were still tied to the ropes , and a young woman was standing by the stern , holding a baby above her head . The man at the wheel looked calm and serious , as if he were still steering his ship through the depths . Already the sharks were coming . As we passed the stern , I read her name : the Florida , of Sunderland . None of us could speak . We passed many islands built by tiny coral animals over thousands of years . When I told Captain Nemo that these islands might one day become a new continent , he answered coldly , “ The earth does not need new continents , but new men . ” Two days after Christmas the captain came into the saloon , put his finger on the map and said one word : “ Vanikoro . ” This was the island where the famous French explorer La Pérouse and his two ships had been lost long ago . For many years nobody had known what had happened to them . “ Do you know where the last boat of La Pérouse sank ? ” the captain asked me . “ Nobody knows , ” I answered . He opened the panels , and below us I saw anchors , guns and parts of ships , all covered with living coral . Then he showed me a tin box with the French royal arms on it . Inside were the orders that the French navy had given to La Pérouse , with notes in the margin in the hand of King Louis the Sixteenth himself . He had found it at the place of the last wreck . “ Ah , it is a fine death for a sailor , ” he said . “ A coral tomb is a quiet grave , and I hope that my companions and I will never have another . ” On New Year’s Day 1868 , Conseil wished me a happy New Year . “ And what do you mean by a happy year , Conseil ? ” I asked . “ The year that will set us free , or the year that will continue this voyage ? ” “ I think that a happy year , sir , would be one in which we see everything . ” On the fourth of January we entered the Torres Strait , between Australia and New Guinea . This narrow strait is full of rocks and reefs . The Nautilus moved carefully between them , but at three o’clock there was a shock , and the ship stopped . We had run onto a reef near the island of Gilboa . “ An accident ? ” I asked the captain . “ No , an incident , ” he answered calmly . “ In five days the moon will be full , and the high tide will lift us off . ” Ned decided that the Nautilus was finished and that it was time to leave Captain Nemo . For the moment , however , he only wanted to walk on dry land and eat fresh meat , so I asked the captain if we could go hunting on the island , and to my surprise he agreed . For two days Ned , Conseil and I explored the forest . We found coconuts and breadfruit , which Ned roasted over a fire . Conseil caught a beautiful bird of paradise , but only because it was drunk on the nutmegs it had eaten . At last Ned shot a wild pig and some small kangaroos , and he was the happiest man in the world . That evening , as we sat on the beach eating our feast , Ned said , “ What if we never go back to the Nautilus ? ”
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