The next morning, February 19th, I saw the Canadian enter my room. I had expected him.
His face showed obvious disappointment.
“Well, sir?” Ned asked.
“Well, Ned, luck was not on our side yesterday.”
“Yes,” he replied bitterly. “That Captain had to stop at exactly the moment we planned to leave his ship.”
“Yes, Ned. He had some business with his bankers.”
“His bankers?”
“Or rather, his bank. By that, I mean the ocean itself. His wealth is safer there than inside the vaults of any government.”
I then told Ned everything that had happened during the previous night. I hoped that after hearing the story, he might change his mind about abandoning Captain Nemo.
But my words had only one effect.
The Canadian strongly regretted that he had not been able to walk freely across the battlefield of Vigo and search for treasure himself.
“Still,” Ned said, “this is not the end.”
“It is only one lost chance.”
“Another opportunity will come. Next time, we will succeed.”
“And tonight, if necessary…”
I interrupted him.
“Where is the Nautilus heading?”
“I have no idea,” Ned answered.
“Then at noon we will know.”
The Canadian returned to Conseil.
After dressing, I went into the saloon. The compass gave me an unpleasant surprise.
The Nautilus was moving southwest.
We were turning our backs on Europe.
I waited impatiently until the ship’s position could be marked on the chart.
At about half past eleven, the water tanks were emptied, and the submarine rose toward the surface.
I hurried onto the platform.
Ned Land was already there.
There was no land anywhere.
Only an endless ocean stretched around us.
Far away on the horizon, I could see several sails. They were probably ships heading toward San Roque, hoping to find favorable winds before rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
The sky was covered with clouds.
A storm seemed to be approaching.
Ned searched desperately through the misty horizon.
He still hoped that somewhere beyond the fog was the land he dreamed of reaching.
At noon, the sun appeared for only a brief moment.
The officer used that instant to measure its height.
Then the sea became rougher, and we returned below.
The hatch closed above us.
An hour later, I checked the chart.
The Nautilus was located at 16°17′ longitude and 33°22′ latitude, about 150 leagues from the nearest coast.
There was no possible escape.
When I told Ned our situation, his anger was impossible to describe.
As for myself, I was not especially unhappy.
A heavy weight seemed to have been lifted from my shoulders.
I could finally return calmly to my usual scientific studies.
That night, around eleven o’clock, Captain Nemo unexpectedly came to see me.
He politely asked:
“Have you recovered from your journey last night, M. Aronnax?”
“Yes, Captain. I feel perfectly well.”
“Then I would like to invite you on another unusual expedition.”
“An expedition?”
“Yes. Until now, you have only explored the underwater world during the day, when sunlight reaches the depths.”
“Would you like to see the ocean floor at night?”
“With great pleasure.”
“I should warn you, however, that this journey will be tiring.”
“We must travel a long distance, and we will have to climb a mountain.”
“The paths are difficult and poorly maintained.”
“Captain, everything you have said only increases my curiosity.”
“I am ready to follow you.”
“Then come. We shall put on our diving suits.”
When we arrived at the dressing room, I noticed something strange.
Neither Ned nor Conseil would accompany us.
In fact, Captain Nemo had not even suggested that I bring either of them.
Soon we were wearing our diving suits.
The crew placed air tanks on our backs, filling them completely.
But I noticed that no electric lamps had been prepared.
I pointed this out to Captain Nemo.
“They will not be needed,” he replied.
I thought I had misunderstood him.
But before I could ask again, his head had already disappeared inside the metal helmet.
I finished putting on my equipment.
A heavy iron-tipped walking stick was placed in my hand.
A few minutes later, after the usual preparations, we stepped onto the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
We were 150 fathoms below the surface.
Midnight was approaching.
The water around us was completely dark.
Then Captain Nemo pointed into the distance.
There, about two miles away, a reddish glow appeared.
It looked like a great fire burning beneath the sea.
What could create such a light?
What fuel could keep it alive?
How could it shine through this enormous mass of water?
I could not answer these questions.
Yet the strange glow gave us enough light to move forward.
It was weak and uncertain, but soon I became accustomed to this unusual darkness.
I understood why Captain Nemo had said the electric lamps were unnecessary.
As we continued walking, I heard a strange tapping sound above my head.
The noise became louder.
Soon it sounded like a continuous shower.
Then I understood.
Rain was falling heavily on the surface of the ocean above us.
For a moment, I had a ridiculous thought.
“Am I going to get soaked?”
I almost laughed.
After all, I was already standing in the middle of the sea.
But inside the thick diving suit, the water could no longer be felt.
It was like standing in an atmosphere slightly heavier than the air on land.
Nothing more.
After half an hour of walking, the ground beneath us became rocky.
Jellyfish, tiny crustaceans, and sea plants gave off faint flashes of phosphorescent light.
I saw stones covered with millions of tiny creatures and enormous masses of seaweed.
My feet often slipped on the slippery carpet of plants covering the ground.
Without my iron-tipped stick, I would have fallen many times.
When I looked back, I could still see the pale light of the Nautilus slowly fading in the distance.
But the reddish glow ahead grew stronger.
It spread across the darkness and illuminated the ocean around us.
The existence of this underwater fire fascinated me.
Was I approaching some natural wonder unknown to scientists on land?
Or was this something created by human hands?
Had someone maintained this mysterious flame?
Was Captain Nemo taking me to meet other people who lived like him beneath the sea?
Could there be an entire colony of exiles who had escaped the suffering of the surface world and found freedom in the depths of the ocean?
These thoughts were strange and unreasonable.
But after seeing so many impossible wonders, I would not have been surprised to discover an underwater city built by Captain Nemo’s followers.
The path became brighter and brighter.
The white light seemed to come from the top of a mountain about 800 feet high.
But when I looked carefully, I realized it was only a reflection created by the extraordinary clarity of the water.
The real source of the light came from the other side of the mountain.
Captain Nemo moved forward confidently through this rocky landscape.
He clearly knew the way.
He had probably traveled this path many times before.
I followed him without hesitation.
As he walked ahead of me, his dark figure stood out against the glowing background.
He seemed less like an ordinary man and more like a spirit of the ocean.
At one o’clock in the morning, we reached the first slopes of the mountain.
But to climb higher, we had to pass through a strange forest.
It was not a living forest.
The trees were dead, without leaves or sap.
They had been turned into stone by the ocean.
Here and there, enormous trunks rose above them like giant ancient trees.
It looked like a forest buried alive beneath the sea.
Imagine a forest from the Hartz Mountains, hanging on the side of a mountain, but swallowed completely by water.
The paths were covered with seaweed and marine plants.
A whole world of tiny creatures crawled among them.
I climbed over rocks, stepped across fallen trunks, and broke through long strands of sea plants hanging between the trees.
Fish scattered from branch to branch as we approached.
Yet I felt no tiredness.
I simply followed Captain Nemo.
What an unbelievable sight!
How could I possibly describe those underwater woods and mountains?
The lower parts were dark and mysterious.
The upper sections were painted red by the strange light, which was doubled by the reflection of the water.
We climbed cliffs that suddenly dropped away beneath us.
The sound of falling rocks echoed like distant avalanches.
Dark tunnels opened on both sides.
Huge empty spaces appeared before us, places that seemed almost shaped by human hands.
I wondered whether some unknown inhabitants of the ocean might suddenly appear.
But Captain Nemo continued climbing.
I followed him bravely.
My walking stick helped me greatly.
One wrong step on those narrow paths could have sent me into deep ravines.
Yet I moved forward steadily.
I jumped across cracks that would have frightened me on land.
I crossed fallen trees stretched above enormous gaps.
I never looked down.
My eyes were too busy admiring this strange world.
The rocks around us seemed impossible.
Huge stone towers stood at impossible angles.
Trees grew from cracks in the cliffs and supported other trees above them.
Natural walls rose vertically like enormous curtains.
Two hours after leaving the Nautilus, we had passed beyond the forest.
About one hundred feet above us stood the mountain peak, casting a shadow over the bright slope opposite.
Strange stone plants grew everywhere.
Fish moved beneath our feet like birds flying through grass.
The massive rocks were filled with cracks, caves, and deep holes.
From inside them came the movements of enormous creatures.
My blood ran cold when I saw giant antennae blocking our path.
Sometimes a terrifying claw suddenly closed in the darkness with a sharp clicking sound.
Millions of glowing points shone around us.
They were the eyes of enormous crustaceans hiding inside their caves.
There were giant lobsters standing like soldiers, moving their claws like weapons.
There were huge crabs as large as machines.
There were frightening octopuses twisting their tentacles together like a nest of living snakes.
Finally, we reached the first level of the mountain.
There, another incredible sight waited for me.
Before us were ruins.
But these were not natural formations.
They were clearly created by human hands.
Huge piles of stone lay everywhere.
Among them, I could recognize the vague shapes of castles and temples.
They were covered with countless glowing sea creatures.
Instead of ivy, thick layers of seaweed covered their walls.
I stared in amazement.
What part of the world had been destroyed by such a disaster?
Who had arranged these stones like the ancient monuments of prehistoric times?
Where was I?
Where had Captain Nemo brought me?
I wanted to ask him.
I grabbed his arm.
But he only shook his head.
Then he pointed toward the highest point of the mountain.
His gesture seemed to say:
“Come. Higher.”
I followed him.
A few minutes later, we reached the summit.
A small circular area about ten yards wide allowed us to see the entire landscape below.
I looked back at the mountain we had climbed.
It rose only seven or eight hundred feet above the plain.
But on the opposite side, it towered above the depths of the Atlantic.
My eyes traveled across a vast area illuminated by a powerful glow.
Then I understood.
The mountain was a volcano.
Fifty feet below the summit, a crater was releasing streams of lava.
Rocks and volcanic ash fell through the water.
The lava flowed downward like a river of fire into the ocean.
The volcano illuminated the entire underwater plain like a gigantic torch.
There were no flames.
Flames require oxygen and cannot exist beneath the sea.
But lava carries its own heat.
It could remain white-hot, fight against the surrounding water, and turn that water into clouds of steam.
Currents carried the gases away.
Streams of lava rushed down the mountain like an underwater version of Mount Vesuvius.
And there, beneath my eyes, lay a ruined city.
Its roofs had collapsed.
Its temples had fallen.
Its arches were broken.
Its columns lay scattered across the ground.
Yet the massive style of its architecture could still be recognized.
Farther away stood the remains of a gigantic aqueduct.
Here was the foundation of an Acropolis.
There were the outlines of a Parthenon.
Beyond that were the remains of an ancient harbor, as if ships and war vessels had once rested there before disappearing forever.
Long walls crossed the plain.
Wide streets stretched empty.
It was like a Pompeii preserved beneath the ocean.
This was the sight Captain Nemo had brought me to see.
Where was I?
Where was I?
I had to know.
I tried to speak, but Captain Nemo stopped me.
He picked up a piece of limestone.
Then he walked to a black basalt rock.
Slowly, he wrote one word:
ATLANTIS.
A sudden shock passed through my mind.
Atlantis!
The legendary continent described by Plato.
The land that some scholars had considered only a myth.
And now it was before my eyes.
Here was undeniable evidence of an ancient catastrophe.
This sunken land had existed beyond Europe, Asia, and Libya, beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
It was the homeland of the powerful Atlanteans, the people who, according to ancient stories, had fought against the first Greeks.
By the strangest fate, I was now walking across the mountains of that lost continent.
My hands touched ruins thousands of generations old.
I stood where people from forgotten ages had once walked.
While I tried to memorize every detail of this magnificent scene, Captain Nemo remained completely still.
He leaned against a moss-covered stone, lost in silence.
Was he thinking about those vanished civilizations?
Was he searching for answers about human destiny?
Was this why he came here—to escape the modern world and live among the memories of the ancient past?
How I wished I could know his thoughts.
How I wished I could understand him.
For an hour we remained there, watching the vast plain beneath the volcanic glow.
Sometimes the light became unbelievably bright.
Deep vibrations passed through the mountain.
The underwater explosions echoed with majestic power.
At that moment, the moon appeared above us through the layers of water.
Its pale rays touched the buried continent.
It was only a faint light, but the effect was unforgettable.
Captain Nemo finally stood up.
He gave one last look at the enormous plain.
Then he motioned for me to follow.
We quickly descended the mountain.
After passing through the stone forest, I saw the lantern of the Nautilus shining in the distance like a star.
Captain Nemo walked directly toward it.
We reached the submarine just as the first rays of sunlight began to brighten the surface of the ocean.