"Shall we make this translation in French, English, or German?" asked the major.
"In English," answered Glenarvan, "since that is our own language."
"Your lordship is right," said Captain Mangles, "besides, it was also theirs."
"It is agreed, then. I will write this document, uniting these parts of words and fragments of phrases, leaving the gaps that separate them, and filling up those the meaning of which is not ambiguous. Then we will compare them and form an opinion."
Glenarvan at once took a pen, and, in a few moments, presented to his friends a paper on which were written the following lines:
At this moment a sailor informed the captain that the Duncan was entering the Frith of Clyde, and asked his orders.
"What are your lordship's wishes?" said the captain, addressing Lord Glenarvan.
"Reach Dumbarton as quickly as possible, captain. Then, while Lady Helena returns to Malcolm Castle, I will go to London and submit this document to the authorities."
The captain gave his orders in pursuance of this, and the mate executed them.
"Now, my friends," said Glenarvan, "we will continue our investigations. We are on the track of a great catastrophe. The lives of several men depend upon our sagacity. Let us use therefore all our ingenuity to divine the secret of this enigma."
"We are ready, my dear Edward," replied Lady Helena.
"First of all," continued Glenarvan, "we must consider three distinct points in this document. First, what is known; second, what can be conjectured; and third, what is unknown. What do we know? That on the 7th of June, 1862, a brig, the Britannia, of Glasgow, was wrecked; that two sailors and the captain threw this document into the sea in latitude 37° 11', and in it ask for assistance."
"What can we conjecture?" resumed Glenarvan. "First, that the shipwreck took place in the South Seas; and now I call your attention to the word _gonia_. Does it not indicate the name of the country which they reached?"
"But is Patagonia crossed by the thirty-seventh parallel?" asked the major.
"That is easily seen," said the captain, taking out a map of South America. "It is so: Patagonia is bisected by the thirty-seventh parallel, which crosses Araucania, over the Pampas, north of Patagonia, and is lost in the Atlantic."