The Voyage of the "Balaklava"--Something of a Fog--A Novel
Sensation--Picton bursts out--"Nothing to do"--Breakfast under Way--A
Phantom Boat--Mackerel--Gone, Hook and Line--The Colonists--Sectionalism
and Prejudices--Cod-fishing and an Unexpected Banquet--Past the Old French
Town--A Pretty Respectable Breeze--We get past the Rocks--Louisburgh.
"Picton!"
"Hallo!" replied the traveller, sitting up on his locker; "what is the
matter now?"
"Nothing, only it is morning; let us get up, I want to see the sun rise
out of the ocean."
"Pooh!" replied Picton, "what do you want to be bothering with the sun
for?" And again Picton rolled himself up in his sheet-rubber
travelling-blanket, and stretched his long body out on the locker. I got
up, or rather got down, from my berth, and casting a bucket over the
schooner's side soon made a sea-water toilet. I forgot to mention the
sleeping arrangements of the "Balaklava." There were two lower berths on
one side the cabin, either of which was large enough for two persons; and
two single upper berths on the other side, neither of which was large
enough for one person. At the proper hour for retiring, the captain's lady
shut the cabin-door to keep out intruders, deliberately arrayed herself in
dimity, turned in with baby in one of the large berths, and reoepened the
door. There she lay, wide awake, with her bright eyes twinkling within the
folds of her night cap, unaffected, chatty, and agreeable; then the
captain divested himself of boots and pea-jacket and turned in beside his
lady (the mate slept, when off his watch, in the other double berth).
Picton rolled himself up in his blanket and stretched out on his locker; I
climbed into the narrow coop, over the salt beef and hard biscuit
department; and so we dozed and talked until sleep reigned over all. In
the morning the ceremonies were reversed, with the exception of the
Captain, who was up first. "I never see a man sleep so little as the
captain," said Bruce; "about two hoors, an' that's aw."
The sun was already risen when I came out on the deck of the "Balaklava;"
but where _was_ the sun? Indeed, where was the ocean, or anything? The
schooner was barely making steerage-way, with a light head-wind, over a
small patch of water, not much larger apparently than the schooner
herself. The air was filled with a luminous haze that appeared to be
penetrable by the eye, and yet was not; that seemed at once open and
dense; near yet afar off; close yet diffuse; contracted yet boundless.
There was no light nor shade, no outline, distance, aerial perspective.
There was no east and west, nor blushing Aurora, rising from old Tithonus'
bed; nor blue sky, nor green sea, nor ship, nor shore, nor color, tint,
hue, ray, or reflection. There was nothing visible except the sides of the
vessel, a maze of dripping rigging, two sailors bristling with drops, and
the captain in a shiny sou-wester. The feeling of seclusion and security
was complete, although we might have been run down by another vessel at
any moment; the air was deliciously bland, invigorating, and pregnant with
life; to breathe it was a transport; you felt it in every globule of
blood, in every pore of the lungs. I could have hugged that fog, I was so
happy!
Up and down the rolling deck I marched, and with every inspiration of the
moist air, felt the old, tiresome, lingering sickness floating away. Then
I was startled with a new sensation, I began to get hungry!
It was between four and five o'clock in the morning, and the "Balaklava"
did not breakfast until eight. Reader, were you ever hungry _at sea_?
Were you ever on deck, upon the measureless ocean, four hours earlier than
the ring of the breakfast-bell? Were you ever awake on the briny deep, in
advance, when the cook had yet two hours to sleep; when the stove in the
galley was cold, and the kindling-wood unsplit; the coffee still in its
tender, green, unroasted innocence? Were you ever upon "the blue, the
fresh, the ever free," under these circumstances? If so, I need not say to
_you_ that the sentiment, then and there awakened, is stronger than
avarice, pride, ambition or, love.
Presently Picton burst out like a flower on deck, in a mass of over-coats,
with an India-rubber mackintosh by way of calyx. These were his
night-clothes. Picton could do nothing except in full costume; he could
not fish, in ever so small a stream, without being booted to the hips; nor
shoot, in ever so good a cover, without being jacketed above the hips. He
shaved himself in front of a silver-mounted dressing-case, wrote his
letters on a portable secretary, drew off his boots with a patent
boot-jack, brewed his punch with a peripatetic kettle, and in fact carried
a little London with him in every quarter of the globe. "Well," said
Picton, looking around at the fog with a low and expressive whistle, "this
_is_ serene!"
Although Picton used the word "serene" ironically, just as a man riding in
an omnibus and suddenly discovering that he was destitute of the needful
sixpence might exclaim, "This is pleasant," yet the phrase was not out of
place. The "Balaklava" was gliding lazily over the water, at the rate of
three knots an hour, sometimes giving a little lurch by way of shaking the
wet out of her invisible sails, for the fog obscured all her upper canvas,
and the mind and body easily yielded to the lullaby movement of the
vessel. Talk of lotus-eating; of Castles of Indolence; of the dreamy ether
inhaled from amber-tubed narghile; of poppy and mandragora, and all the
drowsy syrups of the world; of rain upon the midnight roof; the cooing of
doves, the hush of falling snow, the murmur of brooks, the long summer
song of grasshoppers in the field, the tinkling of fountains, and
everything else that can soothe, lull, or tranquillize; and what are these
to the serenity of this sail-swinging, ripple-stirring, gently-creaking
craft, in her veil of luminous vapor? "How delightful this is!" said I.
The traveller eyed me with surprise, but at last comprehending the idea,
admitted, that with the exception of the fog and the calm, the scarcity of
news, the damp state of the decks, and the want of the morning papers, it
was very charming indeed. Then the traveller got a little restive, and
began to peer closely into the fog, and look aloft to see if he could make
out the stay-sails, and then he entered into a long confidential talk with
the captain, in relation to the chances of "getting on," of a fresh breeze
springing up, and the fog lifting; whether we should make Louisburgh by
to-morrow night, and if not, when; with various other salt-water
speculations and problems. Then Picton climbed up on the patent-windlass
to get a full view of the fog at the end of the bow-sprit, and took
another survey of the buried stay-sails, and the flying-jib. Then he and
the Newfoundland sailor on the look-out, had a long consultation of great
gravity and importance; and finally he turned around and came up to the
place where I was standing, and broke out: "I say, what the devil are we
to do with ourselves this morning?"
"What are we to do?" That eternal question. It instantly seemed to double
the thickness of the fog, to arrest the slow movement of the vessel.
Picton had nothing to do for a fortnight, and I had left home with the
sole object of going somewhere where soul and body could rest. "Nothing to
do," was precisely the one thing needful. "Nothing to do," is exquisite
happiness, for real happiness is but a negation. "Nothing to do," is
repose for the body, respite for the mind. It is an ideal hammock
swinging in drowsy tropical groves, apart from the roar of the busy,
relentless world; away from the strife of faction, the toils of business,
the restless stretch of ambition, wealth's tinsel pride, poverty's galling
harness. "Nothing to do," is the phantom of young Imagination, the
evanescent hope that promises to crown
"A youth of labor with an age of ease."
"Nothing to do," was the charm that lured us on board the "Balaklava," and
now "nothing to do," was with us like the Bottle-Imp, an incubus, still
crying out: "You may yet exchange me for a smaller coin, if such there
be!" "Nothing to do," is an imposture. Something to do is the very life of
life, the beginning and end of being. "Picton," said I, "one thing we must
do, at least, this morning."
"What is that?" replied the traveller, eagerly opening his mackintosh, and
drawing it off so as to be ready to do it.
"Taking into consideration the slow and sleepy nature of this climate, the
thickness of the fog, the faint, thin air that impels the vessel, the
early time of day, and the regulations of the 'Balaklava,' it seems to me
we shall have to be steadily occupied, for at least three hours, in
waiting for breakfast."
Then Picton got hungry! He was a large, stout man, wrapped up by a
multitude of garments to the thickness of a polar bear, and when he got
hungry, it was on a scale of corresponding dimensions. First he alluded to
the fact that we had gone supperless to bed the night before; then he
buttoned up his mackintosh, had a brief interview with the captain,
shouted down the gang-way for the cook, and finally disappeared in the
forecastle. Then he came up again with that officer, rummaged in the
galley for the ship's hatchet, and split up all the kindling-wood on deck;
then he shed his petals (mackintosh and over-coats) and instructed Cookey
in the mystery of building a fire. Then he emerged from the intolerable
smoke he had raised in the galley, and devoted himself to the stove-pipe
outside, Cookey, meanwhile, within the caboose, getting the benefit of all
the experiments.
At last a faint smell of coffee issued forth from the caboose, a little
Arabia breathed through the humid atmosphere, and a sound, as if Cookey
were stirring the berries in a pan, was heard in the midst of the smoke.
Meanwhile Picton descends in the hold with a bucket of salt-water to enjoy
the luxury of a bath, and reappears in full toilet just as Cookey is
grinding the berries, burnt and green, with a hand-mill between his knees.
The pan by this time is put to a new use; it is now lined with bacon in
full frizzle; presently it will be turned to account as a bake-pan, for
pearl-ash cakes of chrome-yellow complexion: everything must take its
turn; the pan is the actor of all work; it accepts coffee, cakes, pork,
fish, pudding, besides being general dish-washer and soup-warmer, as we
found out before long.
During the preparation of these successive courses, Picton and I sat on
deck in hungry silence. Now and then an anxious glance at the galley, or a
tormenting whiff of the savory viands, would give new life to the demon
that raged within us. I believe if Cookey had accidentally upset the
coffee tea-kettle, and put out the fire, his sanctuary would have been
sacked instantly. Eight o'clock came, and yet we had not broken bread. We
walked up and down the deck to relieve our appetites. At last we saw the
three cracked mugs, our tea-cups, which had been our ale-glasses of the
night before, brought up for a rinse, and then we knew that breakfast was
not far off. The cloth was spread, the saffron cakes, ship's butter,
yellow mugs, coffee, pork, and pismires temptingly arrayed. We did not
wait to hear the cook ring the bell. We watched him as he came up with it
in his hand, and squeezed past him before he shook out a single vibration.
Then we made a MEAL!
Breakfast being over, the fog lightened a little. Our tiny horizon widened
its boundaries a few hundred feet, or so; we could see once more the
top-mast of the schooner. So we lazily swung along, with nothing to do
again. Sometimes a distant fog-bell; sometimes a distant sound across the
face of the deep, like the falling of cataract waters.
"What is that sound, Bruce?"
"It's the surf breakin' on the rocks," responds Bruce; "I hae been
listenen to it for hoors."
"Are we then so near shore?"
"About three miles aff," replies the mate.
Presently we heard the sound of human voices; a laugh; the stroke of oars
in the row-locks, plainly distinguishable in the mysterious vapor. The
captain hailed: "Hallo!" "Halloo!" echoes in answer. The strokes of the
oars are louder and quicker; they are approaching us, but where? "Halloo!"
comes again out of the mist. And again the captain shouts in reply. Then a
white phantom boat, thin, vapory, unsubstantial, now seen, now lost again,
appears on the skirts of our horizon.
"Where are we?" asks the captain.
"Off St. Esprit," answer the boatmen.
"What are you after?" asks the captain.
"Looking for our nets," is the reply; and once more boat and boatmen
disappear in the luminous vapor. These are _mackerel fishermen_; their
nets are adrift from their stone-anchors: the fish are used for bait in
the cod-fisheries, as well as for salting down. If we could but come
across the nets, what a rare treat we might have at dinner!
Lazily on we glide--nothing to do. Picton is reading a stunning book; the
captain, his lady, the baby, and I making a small family circle around the
wheel; the mate is on the look-out over the bows; all at once, he shouts
out: "_There they are! the nets!_" Down goes Picton's book on the deck;
Bruce catches up a rope and fastens it to a large iron hook; the sailors
run to the side of the vessel; captain releases his forefinger from baby's
hand, and catches the wheel; all is excitement in a moment. "_Starboard!_"
shouts the mate, as the nets come sweeping on, directly in front of the
cut-water. The schooner obeys the wheel, sheers off, and now, as the
floats come along sidewise, Bruce has dropped his hook in the mesh--_it
takes hold!_ and the heavy mass is partially raised up in the water.
"Thousands of them," says Picton; sure enough, the whole net is alive with
mackerel, splashing, quivering, glistening. "Catch hold here, I canna
hold them; O the beauties!" says the mate. Some grasp at the rope, others
look around for another hook. "Hauld 'em! hauld 'em!" shouts Bruce; but
the weighty piscatorial mass is too much for us, it will drag us
desperately along the deck to the stern of the vessel. The schooner is
going slowly, but still she is going. Another hook is rigged and thrown at
the struggling mesh; but it breaks loose, the mackerel are dragging behind
the rudder; we are at our rope's end. At last, rope, hook, and nets are
abandoned, and again we have nothing to do.
High noon, and a red spot visible overhead; the captain brings out his
sextant to take an observation. This proceeding we viewed with no little
interest, and, for the humor of the thing, I borrowed the sextant of the
captain and took a satirical view of a great luminary in obscurity. As I
had the instrument upside down, the sailors were in convulsions of
laughter; but why should we not make everybody happy when we have it in
our power?
High noon, and again hunger overtook us. Picton, by this time, had brought
out the cans of preserved meats, the curried tin chicken, the portable
soup, the ale and pickles. The cook was put upon duty; pot and pan were
scoured for more delicate viands; Picton was _chef de cuisine_; we had a
magnificent banquet that day on the "Balaklava."
To give a zest to the entertainment, the captain's lady dined with us; the
mate kindly undertaking the charge of the baby.
When we came on deck, after a repast that would have been perfect but for
the absence of potatoes, Bruce was marching up and down, dangling the baby
in a way that made it appear all legs; "I doan't see," said he, "hoo a
wummun can lug a baby all day aboot in her airms! I hae only carried this
one half an 'our, and boath airms is sore. But I suppose it's naturely,
it's naturely--everything to its nature."
The dinner having been a success, Picton was in great spirits for the rest
of the day. The fog spread its munificent halo around us, and before
nightfall broke into myriads of white rainbows--sea-dogs the sailors call
them--and finally lifted so high that we could see the spectral moon
shining through the thin rack. Once more we sang "Annie Laurie;" the
traveller brought out his travelling blanket for a dewy slumber on deck;
the lady of the "Balaklava" put on her night-cap and retired with baby to
the double berth: Bruce took the helm. As I was passing the light in the
binnacle, I looked in at the compass for a moment. "She's nailed there,"
said the old mate. Nailed there, true to her course, as steadfast to the
guiding rudder as truth is to religion. We were but a few miles from a
dangerous coast, in a vessel of the frailest kind, but she was "nailed
there," obedient to man's intelligence, and that was security and safety.
What a text to say one's prayers upon!
"Picton," said I, the next morning, after the schooner-breakfast, "it
seems to me the strangest thing that Mrs. Capstan should have the pure
Irish pronunciation and the mate the thorough Scotch brogue, although both
were born in Newfoundland, and of Newfoundland parents. I must confess to
no small amount of surprise at the complete isolation of the people of
these colonies; the divisions among them; the separate pursuits,
prejudices, languages; they seem to have nothing in common; no aggregation
of interests; it is existence without nationality; sectionalism without
emulation; a mere exotic life with not a fibre rooted firmly in the soil.
The colonists are English, Irish, Scotch, French, for generation after
generation. Why is this, O Picton? Why is it that the captain's lady has
high cheek-bones, and speaks the pure Hibernise? why is the only railroad
in the colony but nine and three-quarter miles long, and the great
Shubenacadie Canal yet unfinished, although it was begun in the year
1826; a canal fifty-three mortal miles in length, already engineered and
laid out by nature in a chain of lakes, most conveniently arranged with
the foot of each little lake at the head of the next one--like 'orient
pearls at random strung'--requiring but a few locks to be complete: the
head of the first lake lying only twelve hundred and ten yards from
Halifax harbor, and the Shubenacadie River itself at the other end,
emptying in the place of destination, namely, the Basin of Minas; a work
that, if completed, would cut off more than three hundred miles of outside
voyaging around a stormy, foggy, dangerous coast; a work that was
estimated to cost but seventy-five thousand pounds, and for which fifteen
thousand pounds had already been subscribed by the government; a work that
would be the saving of so many vessels, crews, and cargoes of so much
value; a work that would traverse one of the most fertile countries in
America; a work that would bring the inland produce within a few hours of
the seaboard; a work so necessary, so obvious, so easily completed, that
no Yankee could see it undone, if it were within the limits of his county,
and have one single night's rest until the waters were leaping from lock
to lock, from lake to lake in one continuous flood of prosperity from
Minas to Chebucto? Why is this, O traveller of the 'Balaklava?'"
"The reason of it all," replied Picton, with great equanimity of manner,
"is entirely owing to the stupidity of the people here; the British
government is the best government, sir, in the world; it fosters,
protects, and supports the colonies, with a sort of parental care, sir;
the colonies, sir, afford no recompense to the British government for its
care and protection, sir; each colony is only a bill of expense, sir, to
the mother country, and if, with all these advantages, the people of these
colonies will persist, sir, in being behind the age, sir, what can we do
to prevent it, I would like to know, sir?"
"It does seem to me, Picton, this fostering, protecting, and paying the
governmental expenses of the colonies, is very like pampering and amusing
a child with sweetmeats and nick-nacks, and at the same time keeping it in
leading-strings. It is very certain that these colonists would not be the
same people if their ancestors had been transplanted, a century or so ago,
to our side of the Bay of Fundy; no, not even if they had pitched their
tents at the 'jumping-off place,' as it is called--Eastport, for even
there they would have produced a crop of pure Yankees, although grown from
divers nations, religions, and tongues."
Here Picton turned up his lip, and smiled out of a little battery of
sarcasm: "And you think," said he, after a pause, "that these colonists
would no longer revel in those little prejudices and sectionalisms so dear
to every American heart, if they were transplanted to your own favored
coasts? Why, sir, there is more sectionalism in the country you would
transport these people to, than in any one nation I ever heard of; every
one of your States is a petty principality; it has its own separate
interests; its own bigoted boundaries; its conventionalisms; its pet laws;
and as for its prejudices, I will just ask you, as a candid man, not as a
Yankee, but as a traveller like myself, a cosmopolite, if you please, what
you think of the two great eternal States of Massachusetts and South
Carolina, and whether prejudices and sectionalisms are to be fairly
charged upon these colonies, and upon them only?"
"Picton, I will be frank with you. The States you name are looked upon as
the great game-cocks of the Union, and we give them a tolerably large
arena to fight their battles in. Either champion has flapped its wings and
crowed its loudest, and drawn in its local backers, but the great States
of my country are not these two. I feel at this moment an almost
irrepressible desire to instance a single one as an example; but insomuch
as nobody has ever flapped wing or crowed because of it, I will not be the
first to break the silence. This much I will say, there are some States,
and those the very greatest in the Union, that neither claim to be, nor
make a merit of being _provincial_."
"But, even in your State, you have your stately prejudices," said Picton,
with a marked emphasis upon the "stately."
"No, sir, we have no stately prejudices, at least among those entitled to
have them, the native-born citizens; nor do I believe such prejudices
exist in many of the States with us at home, sir."
"But as you admit there is a sectional barrier between your people," said
Picton, "I do not see why our form of government is not as wise as your
form of government."
"The difference, Picton, is simply this: your government is foreign, and
almost unchangeable; ours is local, and mutable as the flux and reflux of
the tide. As a consequence, sectionalism is active with us, and apathetic
with you. Your colonists have nothing to care for, and we have everything
to care for."
"Then," said Picton, "we can sleep while you struggle?"
"Yes, Picton, that is the question----
'Whether 'tis best to roam or rest.
The land's lap, or the water's breast?'
We think it is best to choose the active instead of the stagnant; if a man
cannot take part in the great mechanism of humanity, better to die than to
sleep. And Picton, so far as this is concerned, so far as the general
interests of humanity are concerned, your colonists are only _dead men_,
while our "stately" men are individually responsible, not only to their
own kind, but to all human kind, and herein each form of government tells
its own story."
"I think you are rather severe upon poor Nova Scotia this morning," said
Picton, drily.
"You mistake me, Picton; I do not intend to cast any reflections upon the
people; I am only contrasting the effects produced by two different forms
of government upon neighboring bodies of men that would have been alike
had either a republican or monarchical rule obtained over both."
"Likely," said Picton, sententiously.
Meantime the schooner was lazily holding her course through the fog, which
was now dense as ever. What an odd little bit of ocean this is to be on!
"The sea, the sea, the open sea," all your own, with a diameter of perhaps
forty yards. Picton, who is full of activity, begins to unroll the log
line; the captain turns the glass, away goes the log. "Stop," "not three
knots!" and then comes the question again: "What shall we do?--we are
getting becalmed!"
"By Jove!" said Picton, slapping his thigh, "I have it--_cod-fish_!"
There are plenty of hooks on board the "Balaklava," and unfortunately only
one cod-line; but what with the deep-sea lead-and-line, and a roll of blue
cord, with a spike for a sinker, and the hooks, we are soon in the midst
of excitement. Now we almost pray for a calm; the schooner _will_ heave
ahead, and leave the lines astern; but nevertheless, up come the fine
fish, and plenty of them, too; the deck is all flop and glister with cod,
haddock, pollock; and Cookey, with a short knife, is at work with the
largest, preparing them for the banquet, according to the code
Newfoundland. Certainly the art of "cooking a cod-fish" is not quite
understood, except in this part of the world. The white flakes do not
exhibit the true conchoidal fracture in such perfection elsewhere; nor
break off in such delicious morsels, edged with delicate brown. "Another
bottle of ale, please, and a granitic biscuit, and a pickle, by way of
dessert."
Lazily along swings the "Balaklava." Picton brings up his travelling
blanket, and we stretch out upon it on deck, basking in the warm, humid
light, and leisurely puffing away at our segars, for we have nothing else
to do. Towards evening it grows colder, very much colder; over-coats are
in requisition; the captain says we are nearing some icebergs; the fog
folds itself up and hangs above us in strips of cloud, or rolls away in
voluminous masses to the edges of the horizon. The stars peep out between
the strips overhead, the moon sends forth her silver vapors and finally
emerges from the "crudded clouds;" the wake of the schooner is one long
phosphoric trail of flame; the masts are creaking, sails stretching, the
waters pouring against the bows; out on the deep, white crests lift and
break, the winds are loosened, and now good speed to the "Balaklava."
Meanwhile, the hitherto listless Newfoundland men are now wide awake, and
busy; the man at the wheel is on the alert; the captain is looking at his
charts; Picton and I walking the deck briskly, but unsteadily, to keep off
the cold; Mrs. Capstan has turned in with the baby. Blacker and larger
waves are rising, with whiter crests; on and on goes the schooner with dip
and rise--tossing her yards as a stag tosses his antlers. On and on goes
the brave "Balaklava," the captain at the bows on the look-out; the sky is
mottled with clouds, but fortunately there is no fog; nine, ten o'clock,
and at last a light begins to lift in the distance. "Is it Louisburgh
light, captain?" "I don't make it out yet," replies Captain Capstan, "but
I think it is not." After a pause, he adds: "Now I see what it is; it is
Scattarie light--we have passed Louisburgh."
This was not pleasant; we had undertaken the voyage for the sake of
visiting the old French town. To be sure, it was a great disappointment.
But then we were rapidly nearing Scattarie light; and after we doubled the
island, the wind would be right astern of us, and by breakfast time we
would be in the harbor of Sydney.
"Captain," said we, after a brief consultation, "we will leave the matter
entirely to you; although we had hoped to see Louisburgh this night, yet
we can visit it overland to-morrow; and as the wind is so favorable for
you, why, crack on to Sydney, if you like."
With that we resumed our walk to keep up the circulation.
"It is strange," said Picton, "the captain should have passed the light
without seeing it."
"Ever since we left Richmond," said the man at the wheel, "his eyes has
been weak, so as he couldn't see as good as common."
"Did you see the light?" we asked.
"Oh, yes; I can see it now, right astern of us."
We looked, and at last made it out: a faint, nebulous star, upon the very
edge of the gloomy waters.
"There is the light, captain."
"Where?"
"Right astern."
The captain walked aft to the steersman and peered anxiously in the
distance. Then he came forward again, and shouted down the forecastle:
"Hallo, hallo, turn out there! all hands on deck! turn out, men! turn
out!"
"What now, captain?"
"Nothing," said he, "only I am going to _about-ship_."
And sure enough, the little schooner came up to the wind; the men hauled
away at the sheets, the sails fluttered--filled upon the new tack, and in
a few minutes our bows were pointed for Louisburgh.
The "Balaklava" had barely broadened out her sails to the fair wind, after
she had been put about, when we were conscious of an increased straining
and chirping of the masts and sails, an uneasy, laborious motion of the
vessel; of blacker and larger waves, of whiter and higher crests, that
sometimes broke over the bows, even, and made the deck wet and slippery.
The moon was now rising high, but the clouds were rapidly thickening, and
her majesty seemed to be reeling from side to side, as we bore on, with
plunge and shudder, for the light ahead of us. Bruce had taken the wheel;
all hands were on deck, and all busy, hauling upon this rope or that,
taking in the stay-sails and flying-jib, as the captain shouted out from
time to time; and looking ahead, with no little appearance of anxiety.
"Ah! she's a pretty creature," said the mate; "look there," nodding with
his head at the compass, "did'na I tell you? She's nailed there." Then he
broke out again: "Ay, she's a flyin' noo; see hoo she's _raisin' the
light_!"
It was, indeed, surprising to see the great beacon rising higher and
higher out of the water.
"Is it a good harbor, Bruce?"
"_When ye get in_," answered the mate; "but it's narrar, it's narrar; ye
can pitch a biscuit ashore as ye go through; and inside o't is the 'Nag's
Head,' a sunken bit o' rock, with about five feet water; if ye _miss_
that, ye're aw right!" We were now rapidly approaching the beacon, and
could fairly see the rocks and beach in the track of its light. On the
other side there were great masses of savage surf, whirling high up in the
night, the indications of the three islands on the west of the harbor. The
captain had climbed up in the rigging to keep a good look-out ahead; the
light of the beacon broadened on the deck; we were within the very jaws
of the crags and surf; the wild ocean beating against the doors of the
harbor; the churning, whirling, whistling danger on either side, lighted
up by the glare of the beacon! past we go, and, with a sweep, the
"Balaklava" evades the "Nag's Head," and rounding too, drops sail and
anchor beside the walls of Louisburgh.
Then the thick fog, which had been pursuing us, came, and enveloped all in
obscurity.
"It is lucky," said Captain Capstan, "that it didn't come ten minutes
sooner."