The man
who steered, shipped his oar and stood up in the stern, and those
that pulled the after oars sat upon their benches, with their oars
shipped, ready to strike out as soon as she was afloat.
The two
men at the bows kept their places; and when, at length, a large
sea came in and floated her, seized hold of the gunwale, and ran
out with her till they were up to their armpits, and then tumbled
over the gunwale into the bows, dripping with water. The men at
the oars struck out, but it wouldn't do; the sea swept back and
left them nearly high and dry. The two fellows jumped out again;
and the next time they succeeded better, and, with the help of
a deal of outlandish hallooing and bawling, got her well off.
We watched them till they were out of the breakers, and saw them
steering for their vessel, which was now hidden in the darkness.
The sand of the beach began to be cold to our bare feet; the frogs
set up their croaking in the marshes, and one solitary owl, from the
end of the distant point, gave out his melancholy note, mellowed by
the distance, and we began to think that it was high time for
"the old man," as the captain is generally called, to come down.
In a few minutes we heard something coming towards us. It was a
man on horseback. He came up on the full gallop, reined up near us,
addressed a few words to us, and receiving no answer, wheeled around
and galloped off again. He was nearly as dark as an Indian, with a
large Spanish hat, blanket cloak or surreppa, and leather leggins,
with a long knife stuck in them. "This is the seventh city that
ever I was in, and no Christian one neither," said Bill Brown.
"Stand by!" said Tom, "you haven't seen the worst of it yet."
In the midst of this conversation the captain appeared; and we
winded the boat round, shoved her down, and prepared to go off.
The captain, who had been on the coast before and "knew the ropes,"
took the steering oar, and we went off in the same way as the other
boat. I, being the youngest, had the pleasure of standing at the bow,
and getting wet through. We went off well, though the seas were high.
Some of them lifted us up, and sliding from under us, seemed to let
us drop through the air like a flat plank upon the body of the water.
In a few minutes we were in the low, regular swell, and pulled for a
light, which, as we came up, we found had been run up to our trysail gaff.
Coming aboard, we hoisted up all the boats, and diving down into
the forecastle, changed our wet clothes, and got our supper.
After supper the sailors lighted their pipes, (cigars, those
of us who had them,) and we had to tell all we had seen ashore.
Then followed conjectures about the people ashore, the length of
the voyage, carrying hides, etc., until eight bells, when all hands
were called aft, and the "anchor watch" set.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 49 of 324
Words from 25056 to 25603
of 170236
