The night passed without incident of any sort; and when I awoke at dawn
there was still no sign of wind, for which I was thankful; for, while I
was naturally anxious to be making some progress, it was vitally
necessary to get more sail upon the brig; and this little spell of calm
weather happened most opportunely for my purpose.
A bath, an early breakfast, and I went to work once more, the bending
and setting, of the fore-topsail being my first job. I finished this
about noon, and considered that I had done very well when at dusk I had
added to my spread of canvas the standing jib and spanker.
It was a whim of Miss Onslow's that our midday meal should be tiffin;
dinner being reserved until the work of the day was over, when--as the
young lady sagely remarked--we could both spare time to do due justice
to the meal. Thus it happened, upon the day in question, that it was
quite dark when at length, having washed and polished myself up after
the labours of the day, I took my place at the table in the brig's
little cabin. It was then still flat calm; but we had scarcely finished
the meal when a little draught of air came down through the open
skylight, cool and refreshing, and at the same moment the sound of a
faint rustling of the canvas reached our ears. I at once sprang up on
deck, and found that a light air from about east-south-east had sprung
up, taking us aback and giving the brig sternway. The pressure of water
upon the rudder had forced the helm hard down, however, causing the brig
to box off; I had nothing to do, therefore, but to trim sail and steady
the helm at the proper moment, when the vessel gathered headway and
began to move quietly through the water on a southerly course,
close-hauled on the larboard tack.
I was now obliged to take the wheel; but it was not long before I made
the discovery that, under the sail now set, the brig was practically
steering herself, and by the time that I had been at the wheel half an
hour I had contrived to hit off so accurately the exact amount of
weather-helm required to keep the craft going "full-and-by," that I was
able to lash the wheel, and attend to other matters.
And there was still plenty awaiting my attention. Among other immediate
demands upon my energies there was the boat to be secured; thus far she
had been hanging on astern by her painter, but she was far too valuable
a possession to be any longer neglected; and now that a breeze had
sprung up I determined to secure her forthwith and while it was still
possible to do so. The brig carried a pair, of davits on each quarter,
so I hauled the boat up on the starboard side, made her fast, slipped
down into her and hooked on the tackles, and then, climbing inboard once
more, hauled them both hand-taut. Then, going forward, I brought aft a
snatch-block that I had previously been using, led the falls, one after
the other, through this to the winch, and, with Miss Onslow hanging on
to the rope to prevent it slipping on the barrel of the winch, managed
to hoist the boat and secure her.
The weather continued fine, and the wind light, all through the night,
the ship's speed being barely three knots; and once more I turned in on
the wheel grating and slept soundly, the ship steering herself so
perfectly that I found it quite unnecessary to interfere with the wheel;
and when I awoke at sunrise she was still stealing along as steadily as
ever.
The sky looked so beautifully fine and clear when I went below to
breakfast, in response to Miss Onslow's summons, that it came upon me
quite as a shock to discover--as I did by a casual glance--that the
mercury was falling; not much, but just enough to indicate that the
breeze was going to freshen. Now, I had no objection whatever to the
wind freshening--within certain limits; up to the point, say, where the
brig could just comfortably carry the canvas that was now set--I was in
a hurry to arrive somewhere, and, within the limits above named, I
should have heartily welcomed an increase of wind. But the mischief was
that when once the strength of the wind began to increase, there was no
knowing how far it might go; it might go on increasing to the strength
of a whole gale, in which case it would become necessary for me to
shorten sail, unless I chose to accept the alternative of letting my
canvas blow away. And even in so small a vessel as the brig, to shorten
sail was a serious matter, when there happened to be only one person to
undertake the work; yet, if it came on to blow, it would have to be
done, since it would never do to let the sails blow away, so long, that
is to say, as they could be saved by hard work. There was, however,
time enough to think about that; there was a still more serious matter
demanding my attention, namely, the getting rid of the water in the
hold. To this task, accordingly, I addressed myself immediately after
breakfast, first taking the precaution to most carefully sound the well.
The result of this preliminary operation was so far reassuring that I
found a depth of just three feet six inches of water, the merest trifle
more than the rod had showed forty-eight hours before, thus
demonstrating that the hull was once more practically as tight as a
bottle. Thus encouraged, I got to work at the pump, working steadily
and systematically, exerting my strength to the best advantage, and
sparing my hands as far as possible by enwrapping the handle first in
canvas and then in a strip of a blanket taken from one of the forecastle
bunks. It was terribly back-breaking work--this steady toil at the
pumps, and when midday arrived and I knocked off to get a meridian
altitude of the sun, wherefrom to compute our latitude, I was pretty
well exhausted; but I had my reward in the discovery that I had reduced
the depth of water in the hold by nearly eight inches--thus showing
that, after all, the quantity of water was not nearly so formidable as
it had at first seemed, existing indeed only in the more or less
inconsiderable spaces not occupied by the cargo. After tiffin I again
went to work, and toiled steadily on until sunset, by which time I had
reduced the depth by a further six inches, at the same time fatiguing
myself to the point of exhaustion.
And all through this day of toil I had been maintaining a most anxious
watch upon the weather, without detecting any disquieting sign whatever;
it is true that the wind strengthened somewhat--sufficiently, in fact,
to bring the brig's speed up to close upon five knots, but this was the
reverse of alarming, especially as the sky remained clear. But when at
length we sat down to dinner that evening, I found that the mercury
still manifested a disposition to sink. Apart, however, from this
behaviour on the part of the barometer, every omen was so reassuring
that when Miss Onslow bade me goodnight, and retired to her cabin, I
unhesitatingly settled myself again upon the wheel grating for the
night, and soon fell into the deep sleep of healthy fatigue.
I was awakened some time during the night--I had no idea whatever of the
hour--by the loud rustling of canvas; and upon starting to my feet I
found that the wind had strengthened so considerably that the slight
amount of weather-helm afforded by the lashed wheel had at length proved
insufficient, with the result that the brig had shot into the wind,
throwing both topsails aback and her fore and aft canvas a-shiver.
Instinctively I sprang to the wheel and put it well over, just in time
to pay the vessel off again; but it was fully half an hour before I had
again hit off the exact position of the wheel with sufficient nicety to
allow of its being again lashed, and the brig once more left to take
care of herself.
During this operation I had been anxiously scanning the sky, but beyond
a few small: and scattered fleeces of cloud here and there, it remained
as clear as it had been at sunset; and, having at length adjusted the
wheel to my satisfaction, I came to the conclusion that I might safely
leave matters as they were until the morning, and secure a little more
rest while the opportunity remained to me. I therefore resumed my
recumbent position upon the wheel grating, and was soon once more
asleep.
This time, however, I slept less soundly than before. The curious
instinct of watchfulness even in slumber that is so quickly developed in
sailors and others who are constantly exposed to danger was now fully
aroused, and although I slept, my senses and faculties were so far on
the alert that when, somewhat later, the wind suddenly breezed up in a
spiteful squall, I heard the moan of it before it reached the brig, and
was broad awake and on my feet in time to put the helm up and keep broad
away before it. The wind came away strong enough to make me anxious for
the topmasts for a few minutes; but as the yards were braced sharp up,
while the brig was running away dead before it, the wind struck the
sails very obliquely, and the spars were thus relieved of a great deal
of the strain that would otherwise have come upon them.
Of course there was no more sleep for me that night, for when at length
the squall had blown itself out it left behind it a strong northerly
breeze that very soon knocked up a sea, heavy enough to make me ardently
wish for daylight and the opportunity to shorten sail.
And when the dawn at length appeared, I grew more anxious than ever, for
the new day showed as a long, ragged gash of fierce, copper-yellow light
glaring through a gap in an otherwise unbroken expanse of dirty grey
cloud, struck here and there with dashes of dull crimson colour. The
air was unnaturally clear, the heads of the surges showing up against
the wild yellow of the eastern horizon jet black, and as sharp and
clean-cut as those that brimmed to the brig's rail. The aspect of the
sky meant wind in plenty, and before long; and I realised that unless I
could contrive to shorten sail in double-quick time the task would pass
beyond my power, and the canvas would have to remain set until it should
blow away.
At length Miss Onslow made her appearance on deck, bright, fresh, and
rosy from her night's sleep; and a cry of dismay broke from her lips as
she took in the state of affairs at a single comprehensive glance.
"Oh, Mr Conyers!" she exclaimed, "how long has it been like this? Are
we in any danger?"
"Only in so far that we stand to lose some of our sails, unless I can
contrive to get them clewed up before it comes on to blow any harder,"
answered I. "I have been waiting for you to come on deck and relieve me
at the wheel," I continued, "in order that I may get about the job at
once."
"But why did you not call me?" she demanded, as she stepped up on the
wheel grating beside me and took the spokes from my hands.
"Oh," said I, "it has not been bad enough to justify me in disturbing
you, thus far; nevertheless I am very glad to have your help now, as I
believe there is no time to lose. Kindly keep her as she now is, dead
before the wind, and I will get about the work of shortening sail
without further delay."
So saying, I hurried away forward, letting go the trysail outhaul and
the main-topsail halliards on my way; passing next to the fore-topsail
halliards, which I also let run. I then squared the yards, hauled in,
brailed up and furled the trysail, and next took the reef-tackles, one
after the other, to the winch, heaving them as taut as I could get them;
after which I jumped aloft, passed the reef earrings, and tied the
knittles. We were now tolerably safe--the brig being under close-reefed
topsails--so I hove-to while we took breakfast, after which I hauled
down and stowed the jib, got the brig away before the wind again, with
Miss Onslow at the wheel, and resumed pumping operations.
I toiled all through the day, reducing the amount of water in the hold
to a depth of eighteen inches only, and then hove-to the brig on the
port tack for the night, both of us being by this time so completely
exhausted that rest was even more important to us than food, although I
took care that we should not be obliged to go without the latter.
About two hours after sunset the wind freshened up still more, and by
midnight it was blowing so heavily, and so mountainous a sea was
running, that I dared not any longer leave the brig to herself; it
became necessary to constantly tend the helm, although the craft was
hove-to; and in consequence I had no alternative but to pass the latter
half of this night also at the wheel, exposed to a pelting rain that
quickly drenched me to the skin. It was now blowing a whole gale from
the northward; and so it continued for the next thirty hours, during
nearly the whole of which time I remained at the wheel, wet, cold, and
nearly crazy at the last for want of rest; indeed, but for the
attention--almost amounting to devotion--of my companion I believe I
should never have weathered that terrible time of fatigue and exposure.
An end to it came at last, however; the gale broke, the wind softened
down somewhat, and at length the sea went down sufficiently to permit of
the wheel being once more lashed; when, leaving the brig in Miss
Onslow's charge, with strict injunctions that I was at once to be called
in the event of a change for the worse in the weather, I went below,
rolled into the mate's bunk, and instantly lost all consciousness for
the ensuing ten hours. It was somewhere about midnight when I awoke;
yet when I turned out I found Miss Onslow still up, and not only so but
with a hot and thoroughly appetising meal ready for me. We sat down and
partook of it together; and when we had finished I went on deck, had a
look round, found that the weather had greatly improved during my long
sleep, and so turned in again until morning.
When I next went on deck the weather had cleared, the wind had dwindled
to a five-knot breeze--hauling out from the eastward again at the same
time--and the sea had gone down to such an extent as to be scarcely
perceptible; I therefore shook out my reefs, and once more made sail
upon the ship--a task that kept me busy right up to noon. The weather
being fine, I was able to secure a meridian altitude of the sun, and
thus ascertain the latitude of the brig, with the resulting discovery
that we were already to the southward of the Cape parallels. This was
disconcerting in the extreme, the more so from the fact that the
easterly wind was forcing us still farther to the southward; but there
was no help for it, we could do nothing but keep all on as we were and
hope for a shift of wind. The fact of our being so far to the southward
accounted, too, for the circumstance that we were not falling in with
any other vessels.
Hitherto I had been so fully employed that I had found no time to search
for the ship's papers, or do more than ascertain the bare fact that she
was of American nationality, that she was named the _Governor Smeaton_,
and that she hailed from Portland, Maine; but now that the weather had
come fine once more, I determined to devote a few hours to the work of
overhauling the vessel and discovering what I could about her. So I
went to work and instituted a thoroughly systematic search, beginning in
the skipper's cabin--having of course first obtained Miss Onslow's
permission--and there, stowed carefully away in a lock-up desk--which,
after some hesitation, I decided to break open--I found the ship's
papers intact, enclosed in a small tin case. And from these I learned,
first, that her late master was named Josiah Hobson, and second, that
she was bound on a trading voyage to the Pacific, with a cargo of
"notions." Then, in another drawer, also in the skipper's cabin,
carefully stowed away under some clothes, I found the log-book, and a
chart of the Atlantic Ocean, with the brig's course, up to a certain
point, pricked off upon it; and from these two documents I learned that
the brig had sailed, on such and such a date, from New York, with what,
in the way of weather, progress, and so on, had befallen her, up to a
date some five weeks later, whereon entries had been made in the
log-book up to noon. The remarks respecting the weather at that hour
gave no indication of any warning of the catastrophe that must have
occurred only a few hours later. This last entry in the log-book
enabled me to determine that the brig had been drifting about derelict
for nearly three weeks when we two ocean waifs fell in with and took
possession of her. The "notions" of which her cargo consisted seemed,
according to the manifest, to comprise more or less of nearly everything
that could possibly captivate a savage's fancy; but in addition to these
multitudinous articles there were--somewhere in the ship--a few bales of
goods--mostly linen, fine muslins, silks, and ready-made clothing--
consigned to a firm in Valparaiso, which I believed would be of the
utmost value to Miss Onslow and myself, if I could but find them, and
which, under the circumstances, I felt I could unhesitatingly
appropriate to our use. I therefore determined that my next task should
be to search for these bales; which, being composed of rather valuable
goods, and destined moreover to be discharged at the brig's first port
of call, I thought would probably be found on top of the rest of the
cargo and near to one of the hatches.
The next day proved even finer than its predecessor, the wind holding in
the same direction but of perhaps a shade less strength than on the day
before, while the sea had gone down until the water was smooth as the
surface of a pond excepting for the low swell that scarcely ever quite
disappears in mid-ocean; it was an ideal day for taking off the hatches,
and I therefore determined to commence my examination of the cargo at
once, beginning with the main hatch. To knock out the wedges, remove
the battens, and roll back the tarpaulin was not a difficult job, and
when I had got thus far, the removal of a couple of the hatches was soon
effected. Luck was with me that day, for no sooner had I got the
hatches off than my eyes fell upon a bale bearing marks which, according
to the testimony of the vessel's manifest, showed it to be one of those
of which I was in search. It was too large, and was too tightly wedged
in among others to admit of my moving it unaided, but with the
assistance of a strop on the mainstay, and the watch tackle, I soon
broke it out and triumphantly landed it on deck. The manifest gave the
contents as ready-made clothing--men's and women's; which was exactly
what Miss Onslow at least needed more than anything else; so I opened it
forthwith, and then called the young lady to overhaul the contents and
select what she would, while I gave her a spell at the wheel. In ten
minutes she came aft, with her arms full of neatly-folded white
material, and disappeared below. Then she came on deck again, had a
further search, and this time carried off a load of coloured fabric;
after which she remained invisible for nearly three-quarters of an hour.
Finally she reappeared clad in an entirely new rig-out from top to toe;
and very sweet and charming she looked, although I regret being unable
to inform my female readers of the details of her costume. Then I had
my innings, and after a considerable amount of rummaging succeeded in
finding a couple of suits of light tweed that I thought would fit me,
together with a generous supply of underclothing. This done, and our
more pressing needs in the matter of clothing met, I returned the
despoiled bale to its place in the hatchway, replaced the hatches, and
battened everything securely down once more. The remainder of the day I
devoted to the task of pumping the ship dry.
The two succeeding days were quite devoid of incident; the weather held
fine, and the wind so light that the brig made barely three knots in the
hour, on a taut bowline; there was nothing particular to do, for the
small air of wind that continued to blow hung obstinately at east, and
we were still driving slowly south, the vessel steering herself. Under
these circumstances, as I was daily growing increasingly anxious to fall
in with a sail of some sort that would take us off, and convey us to a
civilised port, or even lend me a few hands to help in carrying the brig
to Cape Town, I spent pretty nearly the whole of the day in the
main-topmast crosstrees, from whence I could obtain the most extended
view possible, and perhaps be thus able to intercept some craft that
would otherwise slip past us unseen.
On the third day after my raid upon the cargo I was aloft as usual--the
hour being about ten a.m.,--while Miss Onslow was busy in and out of the
galley. The ship was creeping along at a speed of about two and a half
knots, when, slowly and carefully sweeping the horizon afresh with the
telescope, after a rather long spell of meditation upon how this
adventure was likely to end, a small, hazy-looking, ill-defined object
swam into the field of the instrument. The object was about one point
before the weather beam, and was so far away that the rarefaction of the
air imparted to it a wavering indistinctness of aspect that rendered it
quite unrecognisable. The fact, however, that it was visible at all in
the slightly hazy atmosphere led me to estimate its distance from the
brig as about ten miles, while, from its apparent size, it might be
either a boat, a raft, or a piece of floating wreckage. But whatever it
might be, I determined to examine it, since it would be nothing out of
my way, and would merely involve the labour of getting the ship round
upon the other tack; so I continued to watch it until it had drifted to
a couple of points abaft the beam--which occurred just two and a half
hours after I had first sighted it, thus confirming my estimate as to
its distance--when I put the helm hard down, lashed it, and then tended
the braces as the brig sluggishly came up into the wind and as
sluggishly paid off on the starboard tack. When the brig was fairly
round, and the helm steadied I found that the object bore a full point
on the lee bow, and that we should probably fetch it with ease. It was
now distant about ten and a half miles, so there was plenty of time for
us to go below and get tiffin ere closing it.
It was within about two hours of sunset when we at length came up with
the object; but long ere then I had, with the assistance of the
telescope, made it out to be a large boat, apparently a ship's longboat,
unrigged, and drifting idly before the wind. Yet her trim, sitting low,
as she was, on the water, showed that she was not empty; and at length,
when we were within some two miles of her, I suddenly observed a
movement of some sort aboard her, and a couple of oars were laid out--
with some difficulty, I thought. I was at the wheel when this
occurred--for I had discovered, some time earlier in the afternoon, that
although, with the wheel lashed, the brig could be made to steer herself
fairly well upon a wind, she was just a trifle too erratic in her course
to hit off and fetch such a comparatively small object as we were now
aiming for, and consequently I had been steering all through the
afternoon--but I at once called Miss Onslow to relieve me while I ran
the ensign--the stars and stripes--up to the peak, as an encouragement
to the occupants of the boat, and an intimation that they had been seen.
It was tedious work, our snail-like closing with the boat, and it was
rendered all the more so by the fact that those in her, after vainly
attempting for some five minutes to use the oars, had given up the
effort, and were once more invisible in the bottom of the boat, while
the oars, left to take care of themselves, had gradually slid through
the rowlocks and gone adrift. This simple circumstance, apparently so
trivial, was to me very significant, pointing, as I considered it did,
to a condition of such absolute exhaustion on the part of the strangers
that even the loss of their oars had become a matter of indifference to
them. Who could tell what eternities of suffering these men had endured
ere being brought into this condition? It was quite likely that that
lonely, drifting boat had been the scene of some ghastly tragedy! Who
could tell what sight of horror might be passively awaiting us between
the gunwales of the craft? I once more resigned the wheel to Miss
Onslow's hand, with strict injunctions to her not to leave it or attempt
to get a peep at the interior of the boat, on any account, and then went
forward to prepare a rope's-end to drop into her as we drew up
alongside. I conned the brig in such a manner as to bring the boat
alongside under the lee fore chains, and then, when the proper moment
had arrived, let go the weather main braces and swung the topsail aback.
My intention was to have jumped into the boat with a rope's-end, as she
came alongside, taking a turn anywhere for the moment; but as, with
main-topsail aback, we crept slowly down upon the poor, forlorn-looking
waif, a gaunt, unkempt scarecrow suddenly upreared itself in the
stern-sheets and, uttering queer, gibbering sounds the while, scrambled
forward into the eyes of the boat, with movements that somehow were
equally suggestive of the very opposite qualities of agility and
exhaustion, and held out its lean, talon-like hands for the rope which I
was waiting to heave. As we drifted alongside the boat I hove the
rope's-end; the man caught it, and _collapsing_, rather than stooping,
with it, he made it fast to the ring-bolt in the stem. Then, uprearing
himself once more, stiffly, and as though fighting against a deadly
lethargy, he made a staggering spring for the brig's rail, missed it,
and would have fallen headlong backward into the boat had I not caught
him by the collar. Heavens! what a skeleton the man was! He was fully
as tall as myself, and had all the appearance of having once been a big,
brawny Hercules of a fellow, but so wasted was he now that, with
scarcely an effort, I with one hand lifted him in over the bulwarks and
deposited him on deck, where he again limply doubled up and sank in a
heap, groaning. But he kept his eyes fixed upon my face and, stiffly
opening his jaws, pointed to his black and shrivelled tongue; and I, at
once recognising his condition, ran aft and, taking a tumbler from the
pantry, quickly mixed about a wineglassful of weak brandy and water,
with which I sped back to him. I shall never forget the horrible
expression of mad, wolfish craving that leapt into the unfortunate
creature's bloodshot eyes as I approached and bent over him. He glared
at the tumbler, and howled like a wild beast; then suddenly snatched at
my hand as I held the liquid to his lips, and clung so tightly to me
that before I could withdraw the tumbler he had drained it of every drop
of its contents. Even then he would not release me, but continued to
pull and suck at the empty tumbler for several seconds. At length,
however, he let go, groaning "More, more!" This time I mixed a
considerable quantity of weak grog in a jug, and took it on deck with
me, remembering that there were others in the boat alongside who were
also probably perishing of thirst. I administered a further small
quantity of the mixture to my patient, and it was marvellous to see the
effect of it upon him, his strength seemed to return to him as though by
magic, and as he sat up on the deck he muttered, thickly:
"More drink; more drink, for the love of God! I'd sell my soul for a
tumbler of the stuff!"
Powerful though the fellow's adjuration was, I refused his request,
considering that, after his evidently long abstention, it would do him
more harm than good--perhaps kill him, even--to let him drink too freely
at first; so, putting the jug and tumbler out of his sight and reach, I
turned my attention to the longboat alongside. She was a fine, big,
powerful boat, and evidently, from her appearance, had belonged to a
large ship. Now that I had time to look at her attentively I saw that
her masts and sails were in her, laid fore and aft the thwarts, together
with six long oars, or sweeps; she bore, deeply cut in her transom, the
words "_Black Prince_ Liverpool"; there were six water breakers in her
bottom; and, huddled up in all sorts of attitudes eloquent of extremest
suffering, there lay, stretched upon and doubled over the thwarts, and
in the bottom of the boat, no less than fifteen men--whether living or
dead it was difficult for the moment to say. At all events it was
evident that there was no time to be lost, for if the men were not
actually dead their lives were hanging by a thread; so, recovering
possession of the jug of weak grog and the tumbler, I slid down into the
boat and, taking them as they came, wetted the lips of each with a
little of the liquid. Some of them were able to swallow it at once,
while others had their teeth so tightly clenched that it was impossible
to get their jaws apart; but eventually--not to dwell at unnecessary
length upon a scene so fraught with lingering, long-drawn-out
suffering--I contrived to restore every one of them to consciousness,
and to get them aboard the brig, where I spent several hours in
attending to them and, with Miss Onslow's assistance, administering food
and drink in small quantities until their strength had so far returned
to them that there was no longer any danger of their perishing, when I
got them below into the forecastle, and left them to rest undisturbed.
The next day they were all so far recovered as to be able to move about
and even to climb on deck out of the forecastle, unaided; and on the
second day seven of them reported themselves fit for such light duty as
taking a trick at the wheel, and so on. Among the first to recover were
the cook and steward, who at once assumed their proper duties, much to
my satisfaction; for necessary as it had hitherto been for me to avail
myself of Miss Onslow's assistance, it went sorely against the grain for
me to see her day after day performing such mean duties as that of
cooking, and it was a great relief to me when I was able to inform her
that henceforward she would be relieved of such work.
The unexpected acquisition of these sixteen men, constituting, as they
did, a really strong crew for such a small craft as the brig, relieved
me of a very heavy load of anxiety; for now I felt that, with a tight
and seaworthy vessel under my feet, and a crew that would enable me to
handle and take care of her in any weather, there was no reason whatever
why my companion and I should not speedily reach Cape Town and the end
of our troubles. There was but one thing remaining to occasion me any
uneasiness, and that was the fact that the chronometer had run down and
stopped during the time that the brig had been drifting about, derelict,
and consequently I had no means of ascertaining my longitude--a most
awkward predicament to be in, especially when approaching a coast. But,
as though Fate were satisfied with what she had already inflicted upon
us, and had now relented so completely as to be eager to hasten our
deliverance, it happened that on the very day when my new crew reported
themselves--as fit for duty, we fell in with a homeward-bound China
clipper, from the skipper of whom I obtained our longitude, and was thus
enabled to start the chronometer again. The information thus afforded
me showed that we were within two hundred and forty miles of the South
African capital, or little more than twenty-four hours' run if the wind
would but chop round and come fair for us.