been learning Spanish before now did so with redoubled energy, and some
of us even marked out on a pocket atlas our railway route from Bilbao or
Cadiz--for the Spanish Captain thought it most likely we should be
landed at one of those ports--through Spain and France. We even got
information from the Spaniards as to hotels, and railways, and sights to
see in Spain. It seemed as if the end of our cruise, with our freedom,
were really in sight, especially as the Captain had told some of us on
December 16th that in six weeks our captivity would be over. Some of us,
however, still inclined to the belief that the Germans would release the
ship and order her back to Java or Colombo or Calcutta; while others
believed we should ultimately be landed in Dutch Guiana or Mexico, two
of the few neutral countries left.

On the last day of the year a rumour went round the ship that we should
be taken far north--about 60° N.--to a point from which the _Wolf_ could
get to Germany before we could reach Spain. That, in the opinion of most
of us, put an end to the prospect of landing in Spain. The Germans would
run no risks of our giving information about the _Wolf_. But this scheme
would have left uneliminated one very important risk. After the ships
would have separated, there was still a chance of the prize being
intercepted by an Allied cruiser before the _Wolf_ got home, and if that
had happened the _Wolf's_ goose would have been cooked indeed. So that
Spain looked very improbable. I approached the Captain on the last day
of the year and spoke to him on the point. He confirmed the rumour, and
said we should be sent back and landed at a Spanish island, most
probably Las Palmas. I made a vigorous, though I knew it would be quite
a useless, protest against this scheme. I pointed out that the ship,
which by then would be almost empty, was not a suitable one in which to
carry women and children into the North Atlantic in mid-winter gales,
and that people who had spent many years in the tropics would not be