CAPE FAREWELL.
For three days our course was encumbered by masses of broken ice,
which seemed to crowd upon and follow us; thus the brig was
constantly being put about or thrown in the wind, backing and filling
to avoid the large floes and calves, as those treacherous pieces of
sunken or detached ice which suddenly rush to the surface are named.
To avoid the lesser floes, we had often to carry a warp to a large
one, and track along its side. The cheerful voice of Hartly might
always be heard encouraging the faint and weary on these occasions.
"Now, my lads--tally on! bowse away upon the guess-warp!"
"Hurrah!" the men would answer, as they pulled together vigorously.
"Once more we are afloat, Jack," said he to me, on the third morning.
"I began to fear we should berth all our ship's company in the ice
that lay on the starboard bow; but now we may sit cosily in the
cabin, as of yore, and learn how her head lies by the _tell-tale_
compass that swings in the skylight."
Again at sea, our sick recovered as if by a miracle; but still many
antidotes against scurvy were requisite before we could haul up for
the long voyage that lay between us and St. John. I caught a few
fish, and they formed a delicious change for Cuffy's fricasees of
odious blubber, served up half cold in a greasy mess-kid.
Once more there was a reckoning to keep. For a few cloudy days we
had merely kept a dead one, by log and compass; but on making a solar
observation, Hartly and Reeves found that they were many hundred
miles eastward of where they expected to be; and this was a
circumstance over which they had no control.
It is well-known that a current which comes down Davis' Straits
eddies round the east coast of Greenland. By this we had been borne
towards its western shore with great rapidity.
In 1818, the _Anne_, of Poole, when beset by an ice-field, was thus
drifted at the rate of two hundred and twenty miles per day!
Early on the morning of the fourth day, the sea was pretty clear of
floes; but a dense and dusky fog-bank came down like a curtain, and
seemed to float upon the water, about twenty miles from us. We had
suffered considerably in our besetting, and by concussions among the
floes; so, as the morning was calm and sunny, Hartly had all hands at
work, tarring, painting, and repairing our various damages. A spare
jib-boom was shipped, and it was soon taut with its heel-rope and
jib-guys; our rudder was finally repaired, and two new staysails were
being bent, when there was a cry of "land" from aloft.
"Land in sight!" shouted Hans Peterkin, who was out on the arm of the
fore-topgallant yard, repairing something.
"Lad!--where?" asked Hartly, snatching his telescope from the
companion.
"On the lee quarter, sir."
"You must have deuced good eyes, Hans," said the captain, sweeping
along the fog-bank with his glass; "for nothing like land can I see!"
"The bank is rising, sir," replied the Orcadian, as he sat jauntily
astride his lofty perch, and pointed to the east. "I see either an
island or headland."
Even while he spoke, the dense mountain of vapour, behind which the
morning sun was shining, rose slowly from the surface of the sea, and
with the naked eye we could see, at the far horizon, a low dark
streak, that ended in a bluff or promontory Hartly sharply closed his
telescope.
"Luff, Paul--keep your luff," said he; "lie closer to the wind, while
I prick off our place on the chart." He hurried below; but soon
returned, saying, "That is either Cape Farewell, or I am bewitched."
"Off the coast of Greenland?" said I.
"No, _on_ the coast of Greenland," he replied, laughing. "And now,
as the ice and current have driven us so near it in spite of our
teeth, we may as well stand in for the shore, and get some fresh
provisions, before bearing up for Newfoundland."
A careful examination of the chart proved that we had drifted, or
been driven (in our endeavours to avoid the floes) to latitude 59°
48' North, and were in longitude 43° 54' West of Greenwich,
consequently, the land we saw was undoubtedly Cape Farewell, a lofty
promontory which forms the most southern extremity of Greenland.
With considerable satisfaction we stood in towards the shore, in the
hope of obtaining supplies from some of the Moravian settlements.
About four hours after, some of the natives who were fishing came
about us in their strange boats, which are made of whalebone covered
with seal-skin, and shaped like a weaver's shuttle, so that they may
be rowed any way.
By sunset we were close upon the land, and came to anchor several
miles north of the cape in a little cove of Nennortalik, or the Isle
of Bears, where, as Reeves said jestingly, we had no _groundage_ to
pay for letting go our cable; and there the wondering population of
the little Moravian colony received us with acclamation. The canvas
was handed and most of the crew were allowed to go on shore, with
instructions to return with as much scurvy-grass as they could
collect; for with this herb, like Baffin, the voyager of old, Hartly
proposed to brew scurvy-beer for his patients.