Despotism, As Is Usually
The Case, I Found Had Here Cramped The Industry Of Man.
The pilots
being paid by the king, and scantily, they will not run into any
danger, or even quit their hovels, if they can possibly avoid it,
only to fulfil what is termed their duty.
How different is it on
the English coast, where, in the most stormy weather, boats
immediately hail you, brought out by the expectation of
extraordinary profit.
Disliking to sail for Elsineur, and still more to lie at anchor or
cruise about the coast for several days, I exerted all my rhetoric
to prevail on the captain to let me have the ship's boat, and though
I added the most forcible of arguments, I for a long the addressed
him in vain.
It is a kind of rule at sea not to send out a boat. The captain was
a good-natured man; but men with common minds seldom break through
general rules. Prudence is ever the resort of weakness, and they
rarely go as far as they may in any undertaking who are determined
not to go beyond it on any account. If, however, I had some trouble
with the captain, I did not lose much time with the sailors, for
they, all alacrity, hoisted out the boat the moment I obtained
permission, and promised to row me to the lighthouse.
I did not once allow myself to doubt of obtaining a conveyance from
thence round the rocks - and then away for Gothenburg - confinement is
so unpleasant.
The day was fine, and I enjoyed the water till, approaching the
little island, poor Marguerite, whose timidity always acts as a
feeler before her adventuring spirit, began to wonder at our not
seeing any inhabitants. I did not listen to her. But when, on
landing, the same silence prevailed, I caught the alarm, which was
not lessened by the sight of two old men whom we forced out of their
wretched hut. Scarcely human in their appearance, we with
difficulty obtained an intelligible reply to our questions, the
result of which was that they had no boat, and were not allowed to
quit their post on any pretence. But they informed us that there
was at the other side, eight or ten miles over, a pilot's dwelling.
Two guineas tempted the sailors to risk the captain's displeasure,
and once more embark to row me over.
The weather was pleasant, and the appearance of the shore so grand
that I should have enjoyed the two hours it took to reach it, but
for the fatigue which was too visible in the countenances of the
sailors, who, instead of uttering a complaint, were, with the
thoughtless hilarity peculiar to them, joking about the possibility
of the captain's taking advantage of a slight westerly breeze, which
was springing up, to sail without them. Yet, in spite of their good
humour, I could not help growing uneasy when the shore, receding, as
it were, as we advanced, seemed to promise no end to their toil.
This anxiety increased when, turning into the most picturesque bay I
ever saw, my eyes sought in vain for the vestige of a human
habitation.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 6 of 98
Words from 2620 to 3153
of 50703
