Chapter 20 — Martin at sea

Martin sets sail with Candide for Bordeaux. They have both seen and suffered a great deal. Candide, however, has one advantage: he still hopes to see Cunégonde, whereas Martin has nothing to hope for at all. He has money and jewels; and although he has lost a hundred large red sheep loaded with the greatest treasure on earth, when he thinks about what he has left, especially toward the end of a meal, he leans toward Pangloss's doctrine.

He asks Martin: what do you make of all this? Martin replies the priests called him a Socinian but the truth is he is a Manichean. Candide protests there are no Manicheans left in the world. There is one, says Martin; he cannot help it. He delivers his reading: he can scarcely cast his eye on this little ball without thinking God has abandoned it to some malevolent being. He excepts El Dorado. He has hardly known a city that did not wish to see its neighbor destroyed. A million regimented assassins, from one end of Europe to the other, earn their bread by disciplined robbery and murder for want of a more honest living.

In the middle of this they hear cannon. Two ships in close combat about three miles off. The wind brings both near enough that Candide and Martin watch the fight at their leisure. One ship lets off a broadside so true that the other sinks straight to the bottom. They see a hundred men on the deck of the sinking ship raise their hands to heaven and let out terrible cries; the next moment the sea swallows them. Martin says: this is how men treat each other. As Candide replies that there is something diabolical in this business, he sees something red swimming close to the ship. It is one of his lost El Dorado sheep. He is more overjoyed at finding the one than he had been grieved at losing the hundred. The captain of the victorious ship was Spanish; the sunk one was Vanderdendur, the swindler. Candide strokes his sheep. Since I have found you again, perhaps I will yet find Cunégonde.