When the wind served we hoisted sail , and lay all up along the windward rail , our shields on our backs to break the spray . When it failed , they rowed with long oars ; the Yellow Man sat by the Wise Iron , and Witta steered . At first I feared the great white-flowering waves , but as I saw how wisely Witta led his ship among them I grew bolder . Hugh liked it well from the first . My skill is not upon the water ; and rocks and whirlpools such as we saw by the West Isles of France , where an oar caught on a rock and broke , are much against my stomach . We sailed South across a stormy sea , where by moonlight , between clouds , we saw a Flanders ship roll clean over and sink . Again , though Hugh laboured with Witta all night , I lay under the deck with the Talking Bird , and cared not whether I lived or died . There is a sickness of the sea which for three days is pure death ! When we next saw land Witta said it was Spain , and we stood out to sea . That coast was full of ships busy in the Duke 's war against the Moors , and we feared to be hanged by the Duke 's men or sold into slavery by the Moors . So we put into a small harbour which Witta knew . At night men came down with loaded mules , and Witta exchanged amber out of the North against little wedges of iron and packets of beads in earthen pots . The pots he put under the decks , and the wedges of iron he laid on the bottom of the ship after he had cast out the stones and shingle which till then had been our ballast . Wine , too , he bought for lumps of sweet-smelling grey amber -- a little morsel no bigger than a thumbnail purchased a cask of wine . But I speak like a merchant . ' ` No , no ! Tell us what you had to eat , ' cried Dan . ` Meat dried in the sun , and dried fish and ground beans , Witta took in ; and corded frails of a certain sweet , soft fruit , which the Moors use , which is like paste of figs , but with thin , long stones . Aha ! Dates is the name . '
`` Now , '' said XXXXX , when the ship was loaded , `` I counsel you strangers to pray to your Gods , for from here on , our road is No Man 's road . ''
Dan Man Moors Witta frails harbour night oar shingle wedges