I Have Often Known A Man's Life To Be Saved
By An Instant Of Time, Or By The Merest Chance, - The Swinging Of
A Rope, - And No Notice Taken Of It.
One of our boys, when off
Cape Horn, reefing topsails of a dark night, and when there were
no
Boats to be lowered away, and where, if a man fell overboard he
must be left behind, - lost his hold of the reef-point, slipped from
the foot-rope, and would have been in the water in a moment, when
the man who was next to him on the yard caught him by the collar
of his jacket, and hauled him up upon the yard, with - "Hold on,
another time, you young monkey, and be d - - d to you!" - and that
was all that was heard about it.
Sunday, August 7th. Lat. 25° 59' S., long. 27° 0' W. Spoke the
English bark Mary-Catherine, from Bahia, bound to Calcutta.
This was the first sail we had fallen in with, and the first
time we had seen a human form or heard the human voice, except of
our own number, for nearly a hundred days. The very yo-ho-ing of
the sailors at the ropes sounded sociably upon the ear. She was
an old, damaged-looking craft, with a high poop and top-gallant
forecastle, and sawed off square, stem and stern, like a true
English "tea-wagon," and with a run like a sugar-box. She had
studding-sails out alow and aloft, with a light but steady breeze,
and her captain said he could not get more than four knots out of
her and thought he should have a long passage.
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