This article demonstrates the place of the poet, novelist-cum-philosopher and playwright, Pedro Montengón (1745-1824), in travel literature through his bestseller Eusebio (1786), a didactic novel that updates the classical ideas of shipwreck as a symbol of human destiny in the image of Quevedo’s poetry (1580-1645) via navigation. The latter shows the life of man in the world whose only salvation lies in modesty, moderation and humility, and this is reflected in the lives of the peaceful, quiet and heavenly rescuers of Henrique Myden’s coastal barn in Montengón’s novel. Victims of ambition and greed, the parents of the young Eusebio took the risk of crossing the dangerous sea to go to America to increase their fortune before being shipwrecked off the coast of Maryland. Saved and deprived of all the family wealth on board the boat, the Spanish Emile is destined to learn the natural virtue that is at the base of the Christian faith embodied in a new man (Eusebio). Trained in manual trades and steeped in virtue, the latter emerged unharmed from the sea during his sea voyages.