Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/480

454 that in the deep water, and at the distance, our floating edifice must have seemed to them a black point, and that they had hurried toward it as to a welcome piece of booty and consumption. However that may be, the sailors did not treat them as kind guides, but rather as enemies: one was hit with a harpoon, but not hauled on deck.

The wind continued unfavourable; and, by continually tacking and manœuvring, we only just managed not to lose way. Our impatience at this only increased when some experienced persons among the passengers declared that neither the captain nor the steersman understood their business. The one might do very well as captain, and the other as a mariner: they were, however, not fit to be trusted with the lives of so many passengers and such a valuable freight.

I begged these otherwise most doughty personages to keep their fears to themselves. The number of passengers was very great, and among them were several women and children of all ages; for every one had crowded on board the French merchantman, without a thought of anything but of the protection from the pirates which the white flag assured to them. I therefore represented to these parties that the expression of their distrust and anxiety would plunge in the greatest alarm those poor folks who had hitherto placed all their hopes of safety in the piece of uncoloured and unemblazoned linen.

And in reality, between sky and sea this white streamer, as a decided talisman, is singular enough. As parting friends greet each other with their white waving handkerchiefs, and so excite in their bosoms a mutual feeling — which nothing else could call forth — of love and affection divided for awhile, so here in this simple flag the custom is consecrated. It is even as if one had fixed a handkerchief on the mast to proclaim to all the world, "Here comes a friend from across the sea."