Part 4 (2/2)

On the next day the as again blowing a gale, and although she was in the lee of the land, the sloop dragged her anchors, so that I had to get her under way and beat farther into the cove, where I came to in a landlocked pool At another ti to do, and it was safe now only froale which drovethe strait Seeing this was the case, I went ashore with gun and ax on an island, where I could not in any event be surprised, and there felled trees and split about a cord of fire-wood, which loaded my sh I was es near, I never once went to or froun

While I had that and a clear field of over eighty yards about , were a sort of beech and a stunted cedar, both of which reen limbs of the beech, which seereat dru up in detail, that the reader who has kindly borne with me so far e, I took great care against all kinds of surprises, whether by anireatest vigilance was necessary In this instance I reasoned that I had all about e--the treachery of cunning savages, for which I must be particularly on the alert

The _Spray_ sailed froale went down, but was glad to return for shelter fro day, she fetched Borgia Bay, a few miles on her course, where vessels had anchored from time to time and had nailed boards on the trees ashore with na else could I see to indicate that civilized loo unboat _Hue on board, advisedthat required little eloquence to persuade me to do I accepted the captain's kind offer of a tow to the next anchorage, at the place called Notch Cove, eight , where I should be clear of the worst of the Fuegians

[Illustration: A bit of friendly assistance (After a sketch by Midshi+pe at the cove about dark that night, while the wind came down in fierce s froellan weather was afforded when the _Huereat power, after attee, was obliged by sheer force of the wind to return and take up anchorage again and reet back!

Meeting this vessel was a little Godsend She was coentleotten up on her, impromptu, at the Notch would be hard to beat anywhere One of her s in French, German, and Spanish, and one (so he said) in Russian If the audience did not know the lingo of one song from another, it was no drawback to the merriment

I was left alone the next day, for then the _Hue abated I spent a day taking in wood and water; by the end of that time the weather was fine Then I sailed from the desolate place

There is little e through the strait that would differ frohed ainst the current, with now and then a ”slant” for a few e and shelter for the night at Port Taht to the west Here I felt the throb of the great ocean that lay before me I kne that I had put a world behindout another world ahead I had passed the haunts of savages Great piles of granite mountains of bleak and lifeless aspect were now astern; on sorown There was an unfinished newness all about the land On the hill back of Port Ta that some man had been there But how could one tell but that he had died of loneliness and grief? In a bleak land is not the place to enjoy solitude

Throughout the whole of the strait west of Cape Froward I saw no anih, and heard theht and day Birds were not plentiful The scream of a wild fohich I took for a loon, so cry The steamboat duck, so called because it propels itself over the sea with its wings, and resembles a miniature side-wheel steaer It never flies, but, hitting the water instead of the air with its wings, it moves faster than a rowboat or a canoe The few fur-seals I saere very shy; and of fishes I saw next to none at all I did not catch one; indeed, I seldoe Here in the strait I found great abundance of mussels of an excellent quality I fared sumptuously on them There was a sort of swan, sht doith the gun, but in the loneliness of life about the dreary country I found myself in no mood to make one life less, except in self-defense

CHAPTER VIII

From Cape Pillar into the Pacific--Driven by a tereatest sea adventure--Beaching the strait again by way of cockburn Channel--Soer fro ard

It was the 3d of March when the _Spray_ sailed from Port Tamar direct for Cape Pillar, with the wind froht hold till she cleared the land; but there was no such good luck in store It soon began to rain and thicken in the northwest, boding no good The _Spray_ reared Cape Pillar rapidly, and, nothing loath, plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath of it in the gathering stor back even had I wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of night The wind freshened, and I took in a third reef The sea was confused and treacherous In such a time as this the old fisherman prayed, ”Remember, Lord, my shi+p is s crests of the waves They shohite teeth while the sloop balanced over the,” I cried, and to this end I carried on all the sail she would bear She ran all night with a free sheet, but on theof March 4 the wind shi+fted to southwest, then back suddenly to northwest, and bleith terrific force The _Spray_, stripped of her sails, then bore off under bare poles No shi+p in the world could have stood up against so violent a gale Knowing that this storht continue for many days, and that it would be i the coast outside of Tierra del Fuego, there seeo east about, after all Anyhow, forher before the wind And so she drove southeast, as though about to round the Horn, while the waves rose and fell and bellowed their never-ending story of the sea; but the Hand that held these held also the _Spray_ She was running noith a reefed forestaysail, the sheets flat a ropes to steady her course and to break co seas astern, and I lashed the hel never a sea Even while the stored at its worst, my shi+p holesome and noble My mind as to her seaworthiness was put at ease for aye

[Illustration: Cape Pillar]

When all had been done that I could do for the safety of the vessel, I got to the fore-scuttle, between seas, and prepared a pot of coffee over a wood fire, and ood Irish stew Then, as before and afterward on the _Spray_, I insisted on warm meals In the tide-race off Cape Pillar, however, where the sea was h, uneven, and crooked,

(Confidentially, I was seasick!)

The first day of the storave the _Spray_ her actual test in the worst sea that Cape Horn or its wild regions could afford, and in no part of the world could a rougher sea be found than at this particular point, narim sentinel of the Horn

Farther offshore, while the sea was er There the _Spray_ rode, now like a bird on the crest of a wave, and now like a waif deep down in the holloeen seas; and so she drove on Whole days passed, counted as other days, but with always a thrill--yes, of delight

On the fourth day of the gale, rapidly nearing the pitch of Cape Horn, I inspected my chart and pricked off the course and distance to Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, where I h a rift in the clouds a high ues away on the port beaale by this time had blown off, and I had already bent a square-sail on the boos I hauled in the trailing ropes, hoisted this aard sail reefed, the forestaysail being already set, and under this sail brought her at once on the wind heading for the land, which appeared as an island in the sea So it turned out to be, though not the one I had supposed

I was exultant over the prospect of once ain into the Pacific, for it was o It was indeed a mountainous sea When the sloop was in the fiercest squalls, with only the reefed forestaysail set, even that small sail shook her from keelson to truck when it shi+vered by the leech Had I harbored the shadow of a doubt for her safety, it would have been that she arboard at the heel of the mast; but she never called me once to the pump Under pressure of the smallest sail I could set sheher over the crests of the waves so that she ht not trip was nice work

I stood at the helht closed in before the sloop reached the land, leaving her feeling the way in pitchy darkness I saw breakers ahead before long At this I wore shi+p and stood offshore, but was iain ahead and on the lee bow This puzzled me, for there should have been no broken water where I supposed ood bit, then wore round, but finding broken water also there, threw her head again offshore In this way, aht Hail and sleet in the fierce squalls cut my flesh till the blood trickled over ht, and the sloop was in the midst of the Milky Way of the sea, which is northwest of Cape Horn, and it was the white breakers of a huge sea over sunken rocks which had threatened to engulf her through the night It was Fury Island I had sighted and steered for, and what a panorama was before me now and all around! It was not the time to co the breakers and find a channel between theh the night, surely she would find her way by daylight This was the greatest sea adventure of my life God kno my vessel escaped

The sloop at last reached inside of small islands that sheltered her in smooth water Then I clireat naturalist Darwin looked over this seascape frole,_ and wrote in his journal, ”Any landshtht have added, ”or seaood luck followed fast I discovered, as she sailed along through a labyrinth of islands, that she was in the cockburn Channel, which leads into the Strait of Magellan at a point opposite Cape Froward, and that she was already passing Thieves' Bay, suggestively naht, March 8, behold, she was at anchor in a snug cove at the Turn! Every heart-beat on the _Spray_ now counted thanks

Here I pondered on the events of the last few days, and, strangely enough, instead of feeling rested froan to feel jaded and worn; but a hot ht, so that I could sleep As drowsiness came on I sprinkled the deck with tacks, and then I turned in, bearing in mind the advice of my old friend Samblich that I was not to step on them myself I saw to it that not a few of them stood ”business end” up; for when the _Spray_ passed Thieves' Bay two canoes had put out and followed in her wake, and there was no disguising the fact any longer that I was alone

Now, it is well known that one cannot step on a tack without saying soood Christian histle when he steps on the ”coe will howl and claw the air, and that was just what happened that night about twelve o'clock, while I was asleep in the cabin, where the savages thought they ”had ed their ht that I or so; they howled like a pack of hounds I had hardly use for a gun They jumped pell-mell, some into their canoes and some into the sea, to cool off, I suppose, and there was a deal of free language over it as they went I fired several guns when I came on deck, to let the rascals know that I was ho sure I should not be disturbed any reat a hurry