The Wind Had Hauled Ahead During The Squall, And We Were Standing
Directly In For The Point.
So, as soon as we had got all snug,
we wore round and stood off again, and had the pleasant prospect
of beating up to Monterey, a distance of an hundred miles, against
a violent head wind.
Before night it began to rain; and we had
five days of rainy, stormy weather, under close sail all the time,
and were blown several hundred miles off the coast. In the midst
of this, we discovered that our fore topmast was sprung, (which no
doubt happened in the squall,) and were obliged to send down the
fore top-gallant-mast and carry as little sail as possible forward.
Our four passengers were dreadfully sick, so that we saw little or
nothing of them during the five days. On the sixth day it cleared off,
and the sun came out bright, but the wind and sea were still very high.
It was quite like being at sea again: no land for hundreds of miles,
and the captain taking the sun every day at noon. Our passengers now
made their appearance, and I had for the first time the opportunity
of seeing what a miserable and forlorn creature a sea-sick passenger
is. Since I had got over my own sickness, the third day from Boston,
I had seen nothing but hale, hearty men, with their sea legs on,
and able to go anywhere, (for we had no passengers;) and I will own
there was a pleasant feeling of superiority in being able to walk the
deck, and eat, and go about, and comparing one's self with two poor,
miserable, pale creatures, staggering and shuffling about decks,
or holding on and looking up with giddy heads, to see us climbing
to the mast-heads, or sitting quietly at work on the ends of the
lofty yards.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 106 of 618
Words from 28942 to 29260
of 170236
