Part 5 (1/2)
The Fuegians, being cruel, are naturally cowards; they regard a rifle with superstitious fear The only real danger one could see thatthee where they ht, even had I not put tacks about, I could have cleared them off by shots from the cabin and hold
I always kept a quantity of ammunition within reach in the hold and in the cabin and in the forepeak, so that retreating to any of these places I could ”hold the fort” sih the deck
[Illustration: ”They howled like a pack of hounds”]
Perhaps the greatest danger to be apprehended was froht of that, for it is their custonals The har in the bottoht be ablaze in one's cabin if he were not on the alert The port captain of Sandy Point warned er Only a short ti brands in through the stern s of the cabin The _Spray_ had no openings in the cabin or deck, except two scuttles, and these were guarded by fastenings which could not be undone without wakingof the 9th, after a refreshi+ng rest and a warot out what spare canvas there was on board, and began to sew the pieces together in the shape of a peak for my square-mainsail, the tarpaulin The day to all appearances proht winds, but appearances in Tierra del Fuego do not always count While I ondering why no trees grew on the slope abreast of the anchorage, half un for soame and to inspect a white boulder on the beach, near the brook, acame doith such terrific force as to carry the _Spray_, with two anchors down, like a feather out of the cove and away into deep water No wonder trees did not grow on the side of that hill!
Great Boreas! a tree would need to be all roots to hold on against such a furious wind
Fro drift, however, and I had ah both anchors before the sloop caer, and so no hares that day or the next; they probably had so s; at least, they ise in not being afloat even on the second day, for I had no sooner gotten to work at sail-ain, after the anchor was down, than the wind, as on the day before, picked the sloop up and flung her seaith a vengeance, anchor and all, as before This fierce wind, usual to the Magellan country, continued on through the day, and swept the sloop by severala bold shore of wild and uninviting appearance I was not sorry to get away fro so it was no Elysian shore to which I shapedin hope, since I had no choice but to go on, heading across for St Nicholas Bay, where I had cast anchor February 19 It was now the 10th of March! Upon reaching the bay the second tiated the wildest part of desolate Tierra del Fuego But the _Spray_ had not yet arrived at St Nicholas, and by thethere when she did arrive The parting of a staysail-sheet in a hen the sea was turbulent and she was plunging into the storht me forward to see instantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close under the bows that I felt surely lost, and in ainstain, unheeding the flapping sail, and threw the wheel over, expecting, as the sloop came down into the hollow of a wave, to feel her timbers smash underclear of the danger, and in the next moment she was in the lee of the land
[Illustration: A gliellan]
It was the small island in the , and which sheai in the bay was the anchorage, which I et the anchor down another squall caught the sloop and whirled her round like a top and carried her away, altogether to leeward of the bay Still farther to leeas a great headland, and I bore off for that This was retracing ale was froood control, however, and in a short time rounded to under the lee of a mountain, where the sea was as s liht I would anchor and rest till ht fatho to see, as I let go the anchor, that it did not reach the bottom before anotherstruck down from this mountain and carried the sloop off faster than I could pay out cable Therefore, instead of resting, I had to ”man the windlass” and heave up the anchor with fifty fatho up and down in deep water
This was in that part of the strait called Famine Reach Dismal Famine Reach! On the sloop's crab-windlass I worked the rest of the night, thinking howor the other,” than now doing allwhen I was a sailor Within the last few days I had passed through much and was now thankful that my state was no worse
It was daybreak when the anchor was at the hawse By this tione down, and cat's-paws took the place of s, while the sloop drifted slowly toward Sandy Point She caht of shi+ps at anchor in the roads, and I was more than halfout from the northeast, which was fair for the other direction, I turned the prow of the _Spray_ ard once more for the Pacific, to traverse a second tih the strait
CHAPTER IX
Repairing the _Spray's_ sails--Savages and an obstreperous anchor-A spider-fight--An encounter with Black Pedro--A visit to the steaainst a fleet of canoes--A record of voyages through the strait--A chance cargo of tallow
I was deteres of the great gale which drove me southward toward the Horn, after I had passed froellan out into the Pacific
So when I had got back into the strait, by way of cockburn Channel, I did not proceed eastward for help at the Sandy Point settleain into the northard reach of the strait, set to ith my palm and needle at every opportunity, when at anchor and when sailing It was sloork; but little by little the squaresail on the boom expanded to the dimensions of a serviceable mainsail with a peak to it and a leech besides If it was not the best-setting sail afloat, it was at least very stronglythe _Spray_ long afterward, reported her as wearing a n and patent reefer, but that was not the case
The _Spray_ for a few days after the storh the strait for the distance of twenty miles, which, in these days ofrun The weather, I say, was fine for a few days; but it brought little rest
Care for the safety of my vessel, and even for my own life, was in no wise lessened by the absence of heavy weather Indeed, the peril was even greater, inases on co excursions, and in boisterous weather disappeared fro the naales of wind as never before, and the _Spray_ was never long without theles about Cape Horn I becaan to think that one h the strait, if perchance the sloop should be blown off again, would ians entirely on the defensive This feeling was forcibly borne in onafter passing Cape Froward, to find, when broad day appeared, that two canoes which I had eluded by sailing all night were now entering the sah headland They ell es ell armed with spears and bows At a shot from my rifle across the bows, both turned aside into a s flanked by the savages in the bush close aboard, I was obliged to hoist the sails, which I had barely lowered, and make across to the opposite side of the strait, a distance of six miles But noas put to h an accident to the windlass right here I could not budge it However, I set all sail and filled away, first hauling short by hand The sloop carried her anchor away, as though it was meant to be always towed in this way underfoot, and with it she towed a ton ora wholesale breeze
Meanwhile I worked till blood started froes, I watched at the sa whenever I saw a liun always at hand, and an Indian appearing then within range would have been taken as a declaration of war As it was, however,accident of soainst a cleat or a pin which came in the hen I was in haste Sea-cuts inon hard, wet ropes were sometimes painful and often bled freely; but these healed when I finally got away fro Bay I hauled the sloop to the wind, repaired the windlass, and hove the anchor to the hawse, catted it, and then stretched across to a port of refuge under a high mountain about six miles away, and came to in nine fathoms close under the face of a perpendicular cliff Here my own voice answered back, and I na where the shore was broken, I , besides my ax, a rifle, which on these days I never left far fro here, except a s that I boated to the sloop The conduct of this insect interestedelse around the wild place In h, a spider of its own size and species that had come all the way frohty spry
Well, the Fuegian threw up its antennae for a fight; but s, and pulled them off, one by one, so dexterously that in less than three ian spider didn't know itself fro to be under way after a night of wakefulness on the weird shore Before weighing anchor, however, I prepared a cup of warreat Montevideo stove In the saian spider, slain the day before by the little warrior fro after na of its prowess at Echo Mountain The _Spray_ now reached away for Coffee Island, which I sighted on my birthday, February 20,1896
[Illustration: ”Yaale, that brought her in the lee of great Charles Island for shelter On a bluff point on Charles were signal-fires, and a tribe of savages, h the strait, manned their canoes to put off for the sloop
It was not prudent to co within bow-shot of the shore, which was thickly wooded; but I side, while the sloop ranged about under sail in the lee of the land The others I motioned to keep off, and incidentally laid a sht, close at hand, on the top of the cabin In the canoe that ca word ”yammerschooner,” were two squaws and one Indian, the hardest specimens of humanity I had ever seen in any of my travels ”Yammerschooner” was their plaint when they pushed off froot alongside The squaws beckoned for food, while the Indian, a black-visaged savage, stood sulkily as if he took no interest at all in themy back for so on deck and confronted ht I recognized the tone of his ”yammerschooner,” and his full beard identified him as the Black Pedro whom, it was true, I had met before ”Where are the rest of the crew?”
he asked, as he looked uneasily around, expecting hands, maybe, to come out of the fore-scuttle and deal hio,” said he, ”when you passed up here, I saw three men on board Where are the other two?” I answered him briefly that the same creas still on board ”But,” said he, ”I see you are doing all the work,” and with a leer he added, as he glanced at the mainsail, ”hombre valiente” I explained that I did all the work in the day, while the rest of the crew slept, so that they would be fresh to watch for Indians at night I was interested in the subtle cunning of this savage, knowing him, as I did, better perhaps than he are Even had I not been advised before I sailed from Sandy Point, I should have measured him for an arch-villain now Moreover, one of the squaith that spark of kindliness which is soe, warned uard, or Black Pedro would do , however, for I was on uard from the first, and at that moment held a smart revolver in my hand ready for instant service