human
You, Paganel! he exclaimed;
gpt
As well as can be known,
human
And how do you know?
gpt
By that everlasting document.
human
Ah!
gpt
Listen first, MacNabb, and shrug your shoulders afterwards. I did not speak before, because you would not have believed me. Besides, it was useless. But if I speak to-day, it is because Ayrton's opinion corroborates mine.
human
Then New Zealand----?
gpt
Hear and judge, replied Paganel.
human
I did not commit the blunder that saved us, without reason. Just as I was writing that letter at Glenarvan's dictation, the word Zealand was troubling my brain. You remember that we were in the cart. MacNabb had just told Lady Helena the story of the convicts, and had handed her the copy of the _Australian and New Zealand Gazette_ that gave an account of the accident at Camden Bridge. As I was writing, the paper lay on the ground, folded so that only two syllables of its title could be seen, and these were _aland_. What a light broke in upon my mind! 'Aland' was one of the very words in the English document,--a word that we had hitherto translated _ashore_, but which was the termination of the proper name Zealand.
gpt
Ha!
human
Yes, continued Paganel, with profound conviction,
gpt
Ho! ho! laughed the major,
human
Well, major, I am ready to answer you.
gpt
Then what becomes of your word _austral_?
human
It is what it was at first. It simply means the southern (_australes_) countries.
gpt
Very well. But that word _indi_, that was first the root of Indians (_indiens_), and then of natives (_indigènes_)?
human
The third and last time, it shall be the first two syllables of the word _indigence_ (destitution).
gpt
And _contin_! cried MacNabb;
human
No, since New Zealand is only an island.
gpt
Then?
human
My dear lord, replied Paganel,
gpt
I will translate the document for you, according to my third interpretation, and you shall judge. I only make two suggestions. First, forget as far as possible the previous interpretations; and next, although certain passages will seem to you forced, and I may translate them wrongly, still, remember that they have no special importance. Moreover, the French document serves as the basis of my interpretation, and you must consider that it was written by an Englishman who could not have been perfectly familiar with the idioms of our language.
human
On the 27th of June, 1862, the brig Britannia, of Glasgow, foundered, after a long struggle (_agonie_), in the South (_australes_) Seas, on the coasts of New Ze_aland_. Two sailors and Captain Grant succeeded in landing (_abor_der). Here, continually (_contin_uellement) a prey (_pr_oie) to a cruel (_cruel_le) destitution (_indi_gence), they cast this document into the sea, at longitude ---- and latitude 37° 11'. Come to their assistance, or they are lost.