Keeping Hold Of
The Rope With One Hand, I Scrambled In, And By The Other Hand
And Feet Succeeded In Dislodging All The Hides, And Continued On
My Way.
Just below this place, the precipice projected again,
and going over the projection, I could see nothing below me but
the sea and the rocks upon which it broke, and a few gulls flying
in mid-air.
I got down in safety, pretty well covered with dirt;
and for my pains was told, "What a d - d fool you were to risk your
life for a half a dozen hides!"
While we were carrying the hides to the boat, I perceived, what I
had been too busy to observe before, that heavy black clouds were
rolling up from seaward, a strong swell heaving in, and every sign
of a south-easter. The captain hurried everything. The hides were
pitched into the boats; and, with some difficulty, and by wading
nearly up to our armpits, we got the boats through the surf, and began
pulling aboard. Our gig's crew towed the pinnace astern of the gig,
and the launch was towed by six men in the jolly-boat. The ship was
lying three miles off, pitching at her anchor, and the farther we
pulled, the heavier grew the swell. Our boat stood nearly up and
down several times; the pinnace parted her towline, and we expected
every moment to see the launch swamped. We at length got alongside,
our boats half full of water; and now came the greatest difficulty
of all, - unloading the boats, in a heavy sea, which pitched them
about so that it was almost impossible to stand in them; raising
them sometimes even with the rail, and again dropping them below
the bends.
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