` We were troubled for fear that the Wise Iron should fail us now that its Yellow Man had gone , and when we saw the Spirit still served us we grew afraid of too strong winds , and of shoals , and of careless leaping fish , and of all the people on all the shores where we landed . ' ` Why ? ' said Dan . ` Because of the gold -- because of our gold . Gold changes men altogether . Thorkild of Borkum did not change . He laughed at Witta for his fears , and at us for our counselling Witta to furl sail when the ship pitched at all . ' `` Better be drowned out of hand , '' said Thorkild of Borkum , `` than go tied to a deck-load of yellow dust . '' ` He was a landless man , and had been slave to some King in the East . He would have beaten out the gold into deep bands to put round the oars , and round the prow . ` Yet , though he vexed himself for the gold , Witta waited upon Hugh like a woman , lending him his shoulder when the ship rolled , and tying of ropes from side to side that Hugh might hold by them . But for Hugh , he said -- and so did all his men -- they would never have won the gold . I remember Witta made a little , thin gold ring for our Bird to swing in . ` Three months we rowed and sailed and went ashore for fruits or to clean the ship . When we saw wild horsemen , riding among sand-dunes , flourishing spears , we knew we were on the Moors ' coast , and stood over north to Spain ; and a strong south-west wind bore us in ten days to a coast of high red rocks , where we heard a hunting-horn blow among the yellow gorse and knew it was England . ' `` Now find ye Pevensey yourselves , '' said Witta . `` I love not these narrow ship-filled seas . '' ` He set the dried , salted head of the Devil , which Hugh had killed , high on our prow , and all boats fled from us . Yet , for our gold 's sake , we were more afraid than they . We crept along the coast by night till we came to the chalk cliffs , and so east to Pevensey .
XXXXX would not come ashore with us , though Hugh promised him wine at Dallington enough to swim in .
King Pevensey Spain Witta days deck-load gorse months night spears