Part 13 (1/2)
The hter than we had found the weather for several days, and we even experienced soan to back round to the eastward again, as we approached the dawn; and we got the three top-sails, close-reefed, the fore-course, and a new fore-top-th day appeared, and the sun was actually seen struggling a clouds For the first tiood look around us The land could be seen in all directions
The passage in which we found the Crisis, at sunrise on theof the second of these adventurous days, was of several leagues in width; and bounded, especially on the north, by high, precipitous mountains, many of which were covered with snow The channel was unobstructed; and not an island, islet, or rock, was visible No i offered, and ere stillwas about south-south-west, and the captain predicted we should come out into the ocean to the _ard_ of the Straits of Le Maire, and somewhere near the Cape itself We should unquestionably reat discovery! The wind continued to back round, and soon got to be abaft the beam We now shook our reefs out, one after another, and we had whole topsails on the vessel by nine o'clock This was carrying hard, it must be owned; but the skipper was determined to make hay while the sun shone There were a few hours, when I think the shi+p went fifteen knots by the land, being so much favoured by the current Little did we know the difficulties towards which ere rushi+ng!
Quite early in the day, land appeared ahead, and Marble began to predict that our rope was nearly run out We were coht differently; and when he discovered a narrow passage between two promontories, he triumphantly predicted our near approach to the Cape He had seen so the Horn, and the hill-tops looked like old acquaintances Unfortunately we could not see the sun at ot no observation For several hours we ran south-westerly, in a passage of no great width, e came to a sudden bend in our course, which led us away to the north-west Here we still had the tide with us, and we then all felt certain that we had reached a point where the ebb must flow in a direction contrary to that in which we had found it, in the other parts of the passage It followed, that ere now halfway through to the ocean, though the course ere steering predicted a sinuous channel We were certainly not going noards Cape Horn
Notwithstanding the difficulties and doubts which beset us, Captain Williaet ahead as fast as he could, while there was light It no longer blew a gale, and the as hauling ht aft, and before sunset it had a little westing in it Fortunately, it allant-sails We had carried a lower and top--sails nearly all day The worst feature in our situation, noas the vast number of islands, or islets, we met The shore on each side was mountainous and rude, and deep indentations were constantly te that the set of the tide was a lair index to the true course, the captain stood on
The night that folloas one of the most anxious I ever passed We were tempted to anchor a dozen times, in some of the different bays, of which we passed twenty; but could not make up our minds to risk another cable We ot rid of it before ht us fairly on a taut bow-line; under top-gallant-sails, however We had come too far to recede, or noould have been the time to turn round, and retrace our steps But we hoped every ain, that would carry us into the open sea We ran a vast htfully near several reefs; but the saood Providence which had so far protected us, carried us clear Never was I so rejoiced as when I saw day returning
We had the young ebb, and a scant wind, when the sun rose next day It was a brilliant , however, and everybody predicted an observation at noon The channel was full of islands, still, and other dangers were not wanting; but, as we could see our e got through theth our course becaes between the on different sides One headland, however, lay before us; and, the shi+p pro to weather it, we held on our way It was just ten o'clock as we approached this cape, and we found a passage ard that actually led into the ocean! All hands gave three cheers as we beca as soon as far enough ahead, and setting seaward faet our quadrants, for the heavens were cloudless, and we should have a horizon in tiet the latitude of our discovery Sure enough, it so fell out, and we prepared to observe; so one parallel, soht ere still to the eastward of the Cape; but he felt confident that we had come out to the ard of Le Maire Marble was silent; but he had observed, and made his calculations, before either of the others had coo to the chart which lay on the companionway Then I heard him shout--
”In the Pacific, by St Kennebunk!”--he always swore by this pious individual when excited--”We have co it!”
CHAPTER XII
”Sound tru banners chide delay; As if't were heaven that breathes this kindly gale, Our life-like bark beneath it speeds away--”
PINKNEY
The stout shi+p Crisis had, like certain persons, done a good thing purely by chance, Had her exploit happened in the year 1519, instead of that of 1800, the renowned passage we had just escaped from would have been called the Crisis Straits, a better narel appellation it now bears; which is neither English, nor Portuguese The shi+p had been lost, like a man in the woods, and came out nearer home, than those in her could have at all expected The ”bloody currents”
had been at the bottoood, instead of harhly lost on a heath, or in a forest, or, even in a town, can coets turned on such occasions, and will understand the manner in which we had s of delight hich I looked around me, as the shi+p passed out into the open ocean, to ular waves rolling in towards the coast, in es, it is true, but under a radiant sun, and in a bright atmosphere Everybody was cheered by the view, and never did orders sound more pleasant in my ears, than when the captain called out, in a cheerful voice, ”to iven the instant it was prudent; and the shi+p went foa-sails were then set, and, when the sun was dipping, we had a good offing, were driving to the northward under everything we could carry, and had a fair prospect of an excellent run froo, and its store along the western coast of South A in the year 1800, however, from what it is to-day The power of Spain was then completely in the ascendant, intercourse with any nation but thestrictly prohibited It is true, a species of commerce, that was called the ”forced trade on the Spanish Main” existed under that code of elastic morals, which adapts the maxim of ”your purse or your life” to hway to diversourselves, more especially in the atmosphere of the journals of the commercial communities, the people that ”_can_ trade and _won't_ trade, _must be made to trade_” At the commencement of the century, your mercantile moralists were far less h their practices were in no degree wanting in the spirit of our more ated, on this just principle, quite as confidently and successfully as if the tongue had declared all that the head had conceived
Guarda-Costas were the arguments used, on the other side of this knotty question, by the authorities of Spain; and a very insufficient argu, that vice is twice as active as virtue; the last sleeping, while the foreneral, it is thrice true as regards s to this circulish and A the inhabitants of South A recourse to the no longer reputable violence of Daers, or Drake As I feel bound to deal honestly with the reader, whatever I may have done by the Spanish laws, I shall own that weashore certain articles purchased in London, and taking on board dollars, in return for our civility I do not knohether I aular transactions--regular, would be quite as apposite a word--for, had I been disposed to ling any harm Captain Williams was a silent ht_ on the subject of s; but, in the way of _practice_, I never saw any reason to doubt that he was a firm believer in the doctrine of Free Trade As for Marble, he put me in mind of a certain renowned editor of a well-kno York journal, who evidently thinks that all things in heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, the void above and the caverns beneath us, the universe, in short, was created to furnish raphs; the worthythat coasts, bays, inlets, roadsteads and havens, were all intended by nature, as oods ashore wherever the duties, or prohibitions, rendered it inconvenient to land the, in his view of the ular coreater cleverness
I shall not dwell on the movements of the Crisis, for the five ellan Suffice it to say, that she anchored at as many different points on the coast; that all which came up the main-hatch, went ashore; and all that came over the bulwarks, was passed down into the run We were chased by _guarda-costas_ seven tih we had three little running fights I observed that Captain Willia these e us to fire altogether at their spars I have since thought that this moderation proceeded froh--a certain half-way code of right and wrong--which encouraged hi huues are the bane of honesty
After quitting the Spanish coast, altogether, we proceeded north, with the laudable intention of converting certain quantities of glass-beads, inferior jack-knives, frying-pans, and other homely articles of the same nature, into valuable furs In a word, we shaped our course for that district which bids fair to set the hter by the ears, one of these days, unless it shall happen to be disposed of _a la Texas_, or, what is al At that time the whole north-west coast was unoccupied by whitewith the natives who presented themselves with their skins as soon as we had anchored, believing that they had the best right to the country and its products We passed , at every point where we stopped, so to pay us for our trouble
We went as far north as 53, and that is pretty much all I ever knew of our last position At the tiht we had anchored in a bay on the main land, but I have since been inclined to think it was in one of the ot a very secure berth, having been led to it by a native pilot who boarded us several leagues at sea, and who knew enough English to persuade our captain that he could take us to a point where sea-otter skins h aChristians He carried us into a very sround, and a basin as smooth as a dock But one wind--that which blew from the north-west--could make any impression on it, and the effects of even that were much broken by a sood passages, on each side of it, out to sea The basin itself was rather sle shi+p Its diameter may have been three hundred yards, and I never saw a sheet of natural water that was so near a circle Into a place like this, the reader will i the proper precautions Marble was sent in first, to reconnoitre and sound, and it was on his report that Captain Williams ventured to take the shi+p in
At that tireatest precautions against the treachery and violence of the natives This rendered the size of our haven the subject of distrust; for, lying in the ht from the shore, in every direction but that which led to the narrow entrance
It was a ers of the sea, but a es This we all felt, as soon as our anchors were down; but, intending to remain only while we bartered for the skins which we had been told were ready for the first shi+p that should offer, we trusted to vigilance as our safeguard in the interval
I never could es of that distant region The felloho carried us in had a name of his own, doubtless, but it was not to be pronounced by a Christian tongue, and he got the _sobriquet_ of the Dipper fro to the manner in which he ducked at the report of our ed by Marble es
We had hardly got into the little basin, before the Dipper left us, returning in an hour, however, with a canoe loaded to the water's edge, with beautiful skins, and accoly as fierce, and certainly as avaricious as he was hih various little circu us that sae, Tin-pot, and Slit-nose These were not heroic names, of a certainty, but their owners had as little of the heroic in their appearance, as usually falls to the lot of nation of the tribes to which these four worthies belonged, nor do I know any more of their history and pursuits than the few facts which came under my own immediate observation I did ask some questions of the captain, with a view to obtain a few ideas on this subject, but all he kneas, that these people put a high value on blankets, beads, gun-powder, frying-pans, and old hoops, and that they set a remarkably low price on sea-otter skins, as well as on the external coverings of sundry other animals An application to Mr Marble was still less successful, being met by the pithy answer that he was ”no naturalist, and knew nothing about these critturs, or any wild beasts, in general”