The Men
Also Were Exposed To Wet, Cold, And High Winds, Which Kept Them
Continually Uncomfortable, And Always At Work.
The seamen now began to
murmur, alleging there would not be enough of biscuit for their return
to Holland, if they remained here any longer.
Having notice of this, de
Weert went into the bread-room, as if to examine their store; and, on
coming out, he declared, with a cheerful countenance, there was enough
of biscuit and other provisions for eight months, though in fact there
was not more than sufficient for four.
At length, on the 2d December, the wind changed to the N.E. and they
immediately weighed anchor, but could not get out into the South Sea,
owing to whirlwinds rising from between the high hills and the bottom of
the bay. The Faith was driven at one time so near the shore that a
person might have stepped ashore from her gallery, and had certainly
been lost if the wind had not abated. Next day, the storm being over,
the two ships got out of Close bay, as they called it, with the ebb, but
they never afterwards anchored together, and that day they cast anchor
at the distance of a league from each other. The 8th of December they
had a more violent storm than ever, which lasted two days, and during
which the waves rose sometimes higher than the masts. The storm abating
on the 10th, de Weert went in his boat, intending to go aboard the
Fidelity; but on doubling the point which lay between them, was
overwhelmed with grief to see no ship, nor any signs of shipwreck, so
that he thought she had foundered.
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