Willis thought
this ceremony, under existing circumstances, would have been better
observed in the breach than the observance, for, said he, if a British
cruiser picked up that bottle within twenty-four hours, she stood a
chance of picking up the _Boudeuse_ as well.
On the 15th July the peak of Teneriffe hove in sight This remarkable
basaltic rock rises to the extraordinary height of three thousand
eight hundred yards above the level of the sea; it is consequently
seen at a considerable distance, and constitutes a valuable landmark
for navigators in these seas. Six weeks later the _Boudeuse_ dropped
anchor in the Havre roads.
Here the three adventurers had to encounter by far the greatest
misfortune that had as yet befallen them. The continental system of
Napoleon was then in force. The importation of everything English or
Indian was strictly prohibited. The cargo the young men had brought
with them from New Switzerland, which already had escaped so many
perils, was, therefore, declared contraband, and seized by the French
_fisc_--an institution that rarely permitted such a prize to quit its
rapacious grasp.
Behold now our poor friends, Fritz and Jack, in a strange land,
deprived at once of their fortune and their chance of returning
home--the two beacons that had cheered them on their way! All their
bright hopes of the future were thus annihilated at one fell swoop.
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