"This is the reason the yacht at this time lay off the coast of Australia. Six months before, a bottle, enclosing a document written in English, German, and French, had been found in the Irish sea, and picked up by the _Duncan_. This document stated in substance that there still existed three survivors from the wreck of the _Britannia_, that these survivors were Captain Grant and two of his men, and that they had found refuge on some land, of which the document gave the latitude, but of which the longitude, effaced by the sea, was no longer legible. [Illustration: THE STRANGER'S STORY] "This latitude was 37° 11´ south, therefore, the longitude being unknown, if they followed the thirty-seventh parallel over continents and seas, they would be certain to reach the spot inhabited by Captain Grant and his two companions. The English Admiralty having hesitated to undertake this search, Lord Glenarvan resolved to attempt everything to find the captain. He communicated with Mary and Robert Grant, who joined him. The _Duncan_ yacht was equipped for the distant voyage, in which the nobleman's family and the captain's children wished to take part; and the _Duncan_, leaving Glasgow, proceeded towards the Atlantic, passed through the Straits of Magellan, and ascended the Pacific as far as Patagonia, where, according to a previous interpretation of the document, they supposed that Captain Grant was a prisoner among the Indians. "The _Duncan_ disembarked her passengers on the western coast of Patagonia, and sailed to pick them up again on the eastern coast at Cape Corrientes. Lord Glenarvan traversed Patagonia, following the thirty-seventh parallel, and having found no trace of the captain, he re-embarked on the 13th of November, so as to pursue his search through the Ocean. "After having unsuccessfully visited the islands of Tristan d'Acunha and Amsterdam, situated in her course, the _Duncan_, as I have said, arrived at Cape Bermouilli, on the Australian coast, on the 20th of December, 1854. "It was Lord Glenarvan's intention to traverse Australia as he had traversed America, and he disembarked. A few miles from the coast was established a farm, belonging to an Irishman, who offered hospitality to the travellers. Lord Glenarvan made known to the Irishman the cause which had brought him to these parts, and asked if he knew whether a three-masted English vessel, the _Britannia_, had been lost less than two years before on the west coast of Australia. "The Irishman had never heard of this wreck; but, to the great surprise of the bystanders, one of his servants came forward and said,-- "'My lord, praise and thank God! If Captain Grant is still living, he is living on the Australian shores.' "'Who are you?' asked Lord Glenarvan. "'A Scotchman like yourself, my lord,' replied the man; 'I am one of Captain Grant's crew--one of the castaways of the _Britannia_.'