Godfrey Morgan | Page 2

of the
western coast!"
It was the 15th of May, and the weather was still cold. In California,
subject as it is to the direct action of the polar currents, the first weeks
of this month are somewhat similar to the last weeks of March in
Central Europe. But the cold was hardly noticeable in the thick of the
auction crowd. The bell with its incessant clangour had brought
together an enormous throng, and quite a summer temperature caused
the drops of perspiration to glisten on the foreheads of the spectators
which the cold outside would have soon solidified.
Do not imagine that all these folks had come to the auction-room with
the intention of buying. I might say that all of them had but come to see.
Who was going to be mad enough, even if he were rich enough, to
purchase an isle of the Pacific, which the government had in some
eccentric moment decided to sell? Would the reserve price ever be
reached? Could anybody be found to work up the bidding? If not, it
would scarcely be the fault of the public crier, who tried his best to
tempt buyers by his shoutings and gestures, and the flowery metaphors
of his harangue. People laughed at him, but they did not seem much
influenced by him.
"An island! an isle to sell!" repeated Gingrass.
"But not to buy!" answered an Irishman, whose pocket did not hold
enough to pay for a single pebble.
"An island which at the valuation will not fetch six dollars an acre!"
said the auctioneer.

"And which won't pay an eighth per cent.!" replied a big farmer, who
was well acquainted with agricultural speculations.
"An isle which measures quite sixty-four miles round and has an area
of two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres!"
"Is it solid on its foundation?" asked a Mexican, an old customer at the
liquor-bars, whose personal solidity seemed rather doubtful at the
moment.
"An isle with forests still virgin!" repeated the crier, "with prairies, hills,
watercourses--"
"Warranted?" asked a Frenchman, who seemed rather inclined to
nibble.
"Yes! warranted!" added Felporg, much too old at his trade to be
moved by the chaff of the public.
"For two years?"
"To the end of the world!"
"Beyond that?"
"A freehold island!" repeated the crier, "an island without a single
noxious animal, no wild beasts, no reptiles!--"
"No birds?" added a wag.
"No insects?" inquired another.
"An island for the highest bidder!" said Dean Felporg, beginning again.
"Come, gentlemen, come! Have a little courage in your pockets! Who
wants an island in perfect state of repair, never been used, an island in
the Pacific, that ocean of oceans? The valuation is a mere nothing! It is
put at eleven hundred thousand dollars, is there any one will bid? Who
speaks first? You, sir?--you, over there nodding your head like a
porcelain mandarin? Here is an island! a really good island! Who says

an island?"
"Pass it round!" said a voice as if they were dealing with a picture or a
vase.
And the room shouted with laughter, but not a half-dollar was bid.
However, if the lot could not be passed round, the map of the island
was at the public disposal. The whereabouts of the portion of the globe
under consideration could be accurately ascertained. There was neither
surprise nor disappointment to be feared in that respect. Situation,
orientation, outline, altitudes, levels, hydrography, climatology, lines of
communication, all these were easily to be verified in advance. People
were not buying a pig in a poke, and most undoubtedly there could be
no mistake as to the nature of the goods on sale. Moreover, the
innumerable journals of the United States, especially those of
California, with their dailies, bi-weeklies, weeklies, bi-monthlies,
monthlies, their reviews, magazines, bulletins, &c., had been for
several months directing constant attention to the island whose sale by
auction had been authorized by Act of Congress.
The island was Spencer Island, which lies in the west-south-west of the
Bay of San Francisco, about 460 miles from the Californian coast, in
32° 15' north latitude, and 145° 18' west longitude, reckoning from
Greenwich. It would be impossible to imagine a more isolated position,
quite out of the way of all maritime or commercial traffic, although
Spencer Island was relatively, not very far off, and situated practically
in American waters. But thereabouts the regular currents diverging to
the north and south have formed a kind of lake of calms, which is
sometimes known as the "Whirlpool of Fleurieu."
It is in the centre of this enormous eddy, which has hardly an
appreciable movement, that Spencer Island is situated. And so it is
sighted by very few ships. The main routes of the Pacific, which join
the new to the old continent, and lead