Page:Aurora Australis.djvu/155

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

AN ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT.

the sea, and the beasts and creeping things which do abound therein;

And the other was also a healer of the sick and a mender of sundered bones.

And Shackleton and the rest of the company did abide yet a few days more with their own people, and then departed in large and swift ships to the land of New Zealand.

¶ Now it is well known of all men that many thousands of miles south of the rising of the Sun, there lieth a vast continent which is also part of the dominions of the Great King, and is called Australia.

And it is also known that ships which go to the country of New Zealand, do often call at the ports of this land on their journey thither.

And it came to pass that the ship in which was Shackleton did stop at some of these ports and there abide a space.

And when the people of the country did learn he was there, even in their own cities, then were they rejoiced and made exceeding glad, for the knowledge of the work he would perform had spread unto every country.

¶ Then did the great men of the land and the wise men, gather together and commune amongst