Part 6 (1/2)

Another gale had then sprung up, but the as still fair, and I had only twenty-six h place, where, however, I would find a safe harbor in which to refit and stow cargo I carried on sail to , all covered with snohich fell thick and fast, till she looked like a white winter bird Between the stor for it when a flaind caught the mainsail by the lee, jibed it over, and dear! dear! how nearly was this the cause of disaster; for the sheet parted and the booht I worked till the perspiration poured fro order before dark, and, above all, to get it done before the sloop drove to leeward of the port of refuge Even then I did not get the boom shi+pped in its saddle I was at the entrance of the harbor before I could get this done, and it was time to haul her to or lose the port; but in that condition, like a bird with a broken wing, she made the haven The accident which so jeopardized o came of a defective sheet-rope, one made fro language a sailors

I did not run the _Spray_ into the inner harbor of Port Angosto, but came to inside a bed of kelp under a steep bluff on the port hand going in It was an exceedingly snug nook, and to ainst all s I moored her with two anchors and secured her besides, by cables to trees However, no wind ever reached there except back flaws from the mountains on the opposite side of the harbor There, as elsewhere in that region, the country was made up of mountains This was the place where I was to refit and whence I was to sail direct, once more, for Cape Pillar and the Pacific

I reosto some days, busily employed about the sloop

I stowed the tallow froed ood supply of wood and water I also er, which changed the rig to a yawl, though I called the boat a sloop just the sa ot, even at the busiest time of my work there, to have my rifle by e of savages, and I had seen Fuegian canoes at this place when I anchored in the port, farther down the reach, on the first trip through the strait I think it was on the second day, while I was busily e through the air close by my ear, and heard a ”zip”-like sound in the water, but saw nothing Presently, however, I suspected that it was an arrow of so not far fro froe was somewhere near, there could be no doubt about that I did not know but heo; and so I threw up , and the first shot uncovered three Fuegians, who scampered from a clump of bushes where they had been concealed, and es, ai

My dear old gun woke up the hills, and at every report all three of the savages juo real estate between thes could carry them I took care then, more than ever before, that all my firearms should be in order and that a supply of aes did not return, and although I put tacks on deck every night, I never discovered that any more visitors came, and I had only to sweep the deck of tacks carefully everyafter

[Illustration: ”The first shot uncovered three Fuegians”]

As the days went by, the season became more favorable for a chance to clear the strait with a fair wind, and so Idriven back each, time, to be in no further haste to sail The bad weather on ht the Chilean gunboat _Condor_ and the Argentine cruiser _Azopardo_ into port As soon as the latter came to anchor, Captain Mascarella, the coe that he would take e and return--the thing farthest fro up the strait after the _Spray_ on her first passage through, they saw Black Pedro and learned that he had visited ht to arrest the Fuegian outlaw, but her captain bla the rascal when he cae and other small supplies from these vessels, and the officers of each of them mustered a supply of warm flannels, of which I was most in need With these additions to h somewhat deeply laden, I ell prepared for another bout with the Southern, misnamed Pacific, Ocean

In the first week in April southeast winds, such as appear about Cape Horn in the fall and winter seasons, bringing better weather than that experienced in the suan to disturb the upper clouds; a littlewith a fair wind

At Port Angosto I met Professor Dusen of the Swedish scientific expedition to South America and the Pacific Islands The professor was camped by the side of a brook at the head of the harbor, where there were many varieties of moss, in which he was interested, and where the water was, as his Argentine cook said, ” in his causted when I filled water at a so farther up to the greater brook, where it was ”h it was a wonder that they did not all die of rheuround

Of all the little haps and osto, of the many attempts to put to sea, and of each return for shelter, it is not my purpose to speak Of hindrances there were many to keep her back, but on the thirteenth day of April, and for the seventh and last tihed anchor from that port Difficulties, however, iven to superstitious fears I should not have persisted in sailing on a thirteenth day, notwithstanding that a fair wind blew in the offing

Many of the incidents were ludicrous When I foundthe sloop's mast from the branches of a tree after she had drifted three tiainst my will, it seemed more than one's nerves could bear, and I had to speak about it, so I thought, or die of lockjaw, and I apostrophized the _Spray_ as an iht his horse or his ox ”Didn't you know,” cried I--”didn't you know that you couldn't climb a tree!” But the poor old _Spray_ had essayed, and successfully too, nearly everything else in the Strait of Magellan, and one through Moreover, she had discovered an island On the charts this one that she had sailed around was traced as a point of land I named it Alan Erric Island, after a worthy literary friend whon, ”Keep off the grass,” which, as discoverer, ithin hts

Now at last the _Spray_ carried o If by a close shave only, still she carried h her booed on sail to clear the point The thing was done on the 13th of April, 1896 But a close shave and a narrow escape were nothing new to the _Spray_

The waves doffed their white caps beautifully to her in the strait that day before the southeast wind, the first true winter breeze of the season from that quarter, and here she was out on the first of it, with every prospect of clearing Cape Pillar before it should shi+ft So it turned out; the wind blew hard, as it always blows about Cape Horn, but she had cleared the great tide-race off Cape Pillar and the Evangelistas, the outere ca h, and I did not dare to let her take a straight course It was necessary to change her course in the co seas, to meet them hat skill I could when they rolled up ahead, and to keep off when they ca, April 14, only the tops of the highest ood headway on a northwest course, soon sank these out of sight ”Hurrah for the _Spray_!” I shouted to seals, sea-gulls, and penguins; for there were no other living creatures about, and she had weathered all the dangers of Cape Horn Moreover, she had on her voyage round the Horn salved a cargo of which she had not jettisoned a pound And why should not one rejoice also in theso of itself?

I shook out a reef, and set the whole jib, for, having sea-rooht the sea more on her quarter, and she was the wholesomer under a press of sail

Occasionally an old southwest sea, rolling up, combed athwart her, but did no harm The wind freshened as the sun rose half-, softened later in the day; but I gave little thought to such things as these

One wave, in the evening, larger than others that had threatened all day,--one such as sailors call ”fine-weather seas,”-broke over the sloop fore and aft It washed over me at the helm, the last that swept over the _Spray_ off Cape Horn It seerets

All my troubles were now astern; suain before me The as even literally fair My ”trick” at the wheel was now up, and it was 5 p before, or thirty hours

Then was the time to uncover ain around me, and the horizon was unbroken by land

A few days later the _Spray_ was under full sail, and I saw her for the first tier spread, This was indeed a s a triumph The as still southwest, but it hadwaves that rippled and pattered against her sides as she rolled aes went on, those days, in things all about while she headed for the tropics New species of birds came around; albatrosses fell back and becaulls came in their stead, and pecked for crumbs in the sloop's wake

On the tenth day fro, the first of its kind on this part of the voyage to get into trouble I harpooned hily jaws I had not till then felt inclined to take the life of any aniht ellan I let pass ood stew, for I had nothing

From Cape Pillar I steered for Juan Fernandez, and on the 26th of April, fifteen days out, ht ahead

The blue hills of Juan Fernandez, high a the clouds, could be seen about thirty miles off A thousand emotions thrilled me when I saw the island, and I bowed my head to the deck We may mock the Oriental salaa h the day, the _Spray_ did not reach the island till night With ind there was to fill her sails she stood close in to shore on the northeast side, where it fell cal of a sot no answer, and soon the light disappeared altogether I heard the sea booht, and realized that the ocean sas still great, although from the deck of my little shi+p it was apparently small From the cry of anih the night, I judged that a light current was drifting the sloop froerously near the shore, for, the land being very high, appearances were deceptive

[Illustration: The _Spray_ approaching Juan Fernandez, Robinson Crusoe's Island]

Soon after daylight I saw a boat putting out toward un, which was on the deck,only to put it below; but the people in the boat, seeing the piece in my hands, quickly turned and pulled back for shore, which was about four miles distant There were six rowers in her, and I observed that they pulled with oars in oar-locks, after the ed to a civilized race; but their opinion ofwhen they un and pulled aith all their ns, but not without difficulty, that I did not intend to shoot, that I was si the piece in the cabin, and that I wished the they came back and were soon on board