"ALL THE WAY ROUND."
The skipper was right in his prognostication about the weather; for,
during the next few days, we experienced a terrible gale from the south-
west, snow falling without intermission all the time, and making huge
drifts to the windward of the island, while even in sheltered places it
was over four feet deep, with the pile continually increasing as the
flakes drove down in one steady stream.
Of course, it was bitterly cold, but, knowing what sort of climate the
vicinity of Cape Horn rejoiced in, Captain Billings, before abandoning
the ship, had ordered the men to bring all their warm clothes with them,
he himself adding to the stock with all the spare blankets he could find
in the cabin; and now, although these things were amongst the stores of
the long-boat when she capsized, they fortunately escaped being thrown
into the sea and lost on her "turning the turtle," for they were
securely fastened below the thwarts, so when the boat was recovered they
were still to the good all right--with the exception of their being
thoroughly soaked in sea water, which an exposure before Pat Doolan's
fire, and a hang-out in the fresh breezy air, soon remedied.
It was now the month of August, about the coldest time of the year on
the coast of Tierra del Fuego, or "The Land of Fire," as this portion of
the South American Continent was somewhat inappropriately christened by
its original discoverer, the veteran navigator Magalhaens. He called it
so, when he sailed round it in 1520, from the fact of the natives
lighting watch-fires in every direction as soon as his ship was
perceived nearing any of the channels transecting the archipelago, as if
to give warning of his approach, a practice still pursued by the Tierra
del Fuegans up to the time present, as all voyagers round Cape Horn well
know.
However, in spite of the inclemency of the season, we made ourselves
pretty comfortable. We had lost the greater portion of the three
months' stock of provisions we had taken with us; but still we had
enough to last for three or four weeks, and Captain Billings hoped to
spin out our store by the aid of the different species of wild fowl
which frequented the islands, in addition to the abundant supply of fish
that the southern waters contain--that is, until, as we hoped, some
passing ship should pick us up and convey our little party to more
civilised regions.
But, while the snowstorm lasted, we all suffered more or less from the
severity of the weather, many of the men having their feet and hands
frostbitten, and poor Mr Macdougall almost losing his nose!
"I say," said Sails to Pat Doolan, on seeing that worthy shivering while
trying to re-light the fire--which an avalanche of snow, descending from
a precipitous rise above the site of our tent, had suddenly buried,
along with the cook's pots and pans, just as he was preparing our
morning meal, on the fourth day of the storm--"how about that Manilla
guernsey o' yourn now, old flick? Guess it would come in handy, eh!"
"Be jabers, an' it would that," replied the Irishman, with much
heartiness; "I only wish I had it across me back now, and I was aboard
that schooner ag'in; an' faix, I'd die happy!"
Pat's fire was soon lighted again; but the fall of snow from above,
without any previous warning, might have caused serious injury to some
of us if it had come down in the night. It quite broke down our tent,
and it took us some hours' hard work, using broken oar-blades for
shovels, to dig away the immense heap of frozen debris that the
unexpected slip of the accumulation on the top of the cliff had caused.
Really, if the avalanche had fallen when we were all inside and asleep,
perhaps not one of us would have escaped alive, as it must have been
many tons in weight!
We thought, from the continuation of the snowstorm, that we would have
to endure all the miseries of an antarctic winter; but, towards the
evening of the fourth day, the south-westerly gale gradually lost its
force, shifting round a bit more to the northwards. Strange to say,
although the wind now came from what, in our northern latitudes, we
esteem a colder quarter, it was ever so much warmer here, on account of
its passing over the warm pampas of the Plate before reaching us, the
effect of which soon became apparent in the melting of the snow on the
ground as rapidly as when a thaw takes place at home. Properly
speaking, however, the snow rather may be said to have dried up than
melted, for it was absorbed by the air, which was dry and bracing.
The flakes, that had up to now continued coming down without cessation,
also ceased to fall--much to our satisfaction, as I need hardly add;
for, albeit it is very nice to look out from a warm, well-furnished room
at the beautiful winter garb of Nature, and highly enjoyable to go out
snowballing, when you can leave it off and go indoors to a jolly fire
when you like, it was a very different matter to us now to experience
all the discomforts of those dreadful, icy, spongy, little feathery
nuisances penetrating beneath every loophole they could find entrance
to, in the apology for a tent that we had, and to have our clothing
sodden by it, our fire put out, and our blood congealed. Perhaps even
the most ardent snow-lover would lose his taste for the soft molecules
under such circumstances!
On the fifth day, the sun appeared again, when Captain Billings took
advantage of the opportunity for getting an observation as to our
position, using Mr Macdougall's sextant, his own and mine having gone
to the bottom when the long-boat was upset. The skipper, I may add, had
also to make use of the mate's watch--the chronometer that had been
brought from the ship having shared the fate of the other instruments,
standard compass and all having passed into the safe keeping of old
Neptune and his Tritons, who, if they cared about the study of
meteorology, had a rare haul on this occasion!
The observation he now obtained only confirmed the skipper's previous
impression that we were on Herschel Island, one of the Hermite, or Cape
Horn group, the mountainous peaks of which are mainly composed of green
stone, in which hornblende and feldspar are more or less conspicuous,
and the presence of iron very apparent, some of the rocks being
intensely magnetic, causing the needle of a little pocket compass I had
to execute all sorts of strange freaks.
When the weather got fine, we took a walk round the island as far as the
ridge that bisected it would allow, finding the elevated ground clothed
with thickly growing trees, principally a species of spruce fir called
the antarctic beech, which runs to a height of some thirty or forty
feet, with a girth of five or six feet. It is a magnificent evergreen,
and would look well on an English lawn, for it has a splendid spreading
head.
Beside this beech, there was a pretty little laurel tree, and the
arbutus, which one of the sailors, who was from Devonshire, would
persist in calling a myrtle bush, although the skipper showed him the
berries to convince him to the contrary. There was also a sort of wild
strawberry plant plentiful enough about, running like a vine over the
rocks under the cliff; but there was nothing like what we call grass to
be seen anywhere, only clumps or tussocks of a fibrous material like
hemp, with long, ragged, straggling ends.
So much for the botany of the island; as for the living creatures,
"barring ourselves," as Pat Doolan would have expressed it, there were
"race horses," "steamer" ducks, and penguins, besides a species of wild
goose that we had seen off the Falkland Islands, and which Sails
described to me as being so tough that a shipmate of his, who was once
trying to gnaw through the drumstick of one when in Stanley Harbour, had
his eye knocked out by the bone "fetching back" sharply through the
elasticity of the tendon which his teeth missed hold of--a tough morsel
to chew away at, if the yarn be true, eh?
But, amongst all these specimens of animated nature, we did not see a
trace of any of the natives--a fact which I took care to point out to
the skipper, expressing my belief that he had only been romancing about
the "cannibals," as he termed them.
He, however, denied this.
"No, my lad," he said. "The natives of this coast are a small,
barbarous race of beings, whom one can hardly call men. They go about
in the inclement climate without a rag of covering on, save a bit of raw
sealskin which they shift from shoulder to shoulder as a protection
against the wind, just as we get a vessel's sails round on the port or
starboard tack.
"The inhabitants of one island are hostile to those of the next, killing
them, and eating them too, whenever they have the chance! They have no
sort of government, as most other islanders, even the most savage, have,
and, of course, no laws--in which perhaps they are all the better off.
They never cultivate the soil, or do anything for a living, as we would
say at home; and they mainly occupy the sea-shore, living on whatever
mussels they can manage to pick up, and the blubber of any occasional
fish they come across. I'm told they also eat that toad-stool we see
growing on the beech trees; and if they'd do that, they'd eat anything!
Sometimes they venture out long distances to sea in their rude canoes,
like catamarans, which they contrive out of a couple of branches of a
tree and sealskins sewn together with fish-gut, but they never go
without their blessed fire, though--always carrying it along with them
wherever they go, up the mountains, on the beach, in their frail boats,
the live embers resting always in the latter on a bed of leaves--the
reason for this solicitude being, not that they are followers of
Zoroaster and worship the god of fire, but because they know the
difficulty they would have in rekindling it again if they once allowed
it to go out, as Pat Doolan suffered ours to do the other day, when you
know the consequences, eh?"
"Yes, I remember well," I said, laughing. "We hadn't another match
left, none of us having thought of bringing a supply from the ship, save
a box which one of the men in the jolly-boat fortunately had in his
pocket that first evening of our landing. Then we wanted a fire badly,
and couldn't build one until he got ashore, and this box was expended up
to the last match; so, on the second occasion, Mr Macdougall had to
snap off nearly all the caps he had for his gun before he could get a
light, the snow having damped them. Oh, yes, I remember Pat's fire
going out very well!"
A day or two after this conversation I had the chance of corroborating
the skipper's statement about the natives.
We had now been on the island nearly a fortnight, and our stores were
becoming rapidly diminished; for we were now only twenty-five in all,
since Mr Ohlsen and the seaman Harmer had died, but still this was a
large number to provide for out of the scanty stock we had left us
through the loss of nearly two-thirds of our provisions by the upsetting
of the long-boat--the few perishable articles saved when we righted her
again being uneatable from the effects of the salt water, which turned
the meat putrid and converted our flour and biscuit into the most
unpalatable paste.
Captain Billings had hoped that some of the sealing schooners that
rendezvous about the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, in search of the
blubber and skins of the marine animals frequenting the shoals there,
would have put in ere this and taken us off the inhospitable shore on
which we had been forced to take refuge, or else that some passing ship
homeward bound or sailing west into the Pacific would have picked us up;
but, never a sail hove in sight, and, as our provisions daily grew less,
although the men had been rationed down to a couple of biscuits and an
ounce of salt pork per day, something had to be done, or else starvation
would quickly stare us in the face!
The skipper therefore summoned Mr Macdougall to a consultation, at
which I also was allowed to be present, for our sad plight had united us
all together on the most brotherly terms, if I may so speak of the
relations both the mate and Captain Billings bore towards me--although
the skipper had always remembered Sam Pengelly's exhortation on parting
with me when he left me in his charge, to "remember the b'y!"
I think, too, I have already mentioned that since I had helped to save
his life, Mr Macdougall had not only completely changed in his
treatment towards me, but was an altogether different man in every
respect. The men used to say, "That bath of salt water washed all the
confounded bumptiousness out of him!"
"I have determined--that is, if you agree with me, Macdougall," said the
skipper, when we had assembled in the tent, pointing with his ringer to
a spot on a chart of the coast that he had brought with him from the
_Esmeralda_, and which the wetting it had received in our spill among
the breakers had not damaged very materially, for it looked right enough
now, spread out on top of Mr Macdougall's chest, he being lucky enough
to get his safe on shore--"I have determined," repeated Captain
Billings--"that is, if you agree with me--to make a tour of inspection
of the neighbouring islands, to see if we can get any help or some
provisions to keep us going until a ship passes."
"That's weel, vara weel," said Mr Macdougall, with an approving cough.
"And if our quest should be unsuccessful, why, we must proceed to Good
Success Bay--that point to the south-east of the mainland, opposite
Staten Island--where there'll be more chance of our intercepting a
vessel."
"Hech, mon, but it's a gude long deestance, I reecken?" replied the
mate, in a questioning way.
"About a hundred miles I make it," said the skipper, measuring the space
on his chart with his fingers, for lack of a pair of callipers. "But,
with the southerly and westerly wind that we nearly always have here,
the boats ought to fetch the place in a couple of days at most."
"Vara weel, Cap'en, I'm ae weelin' to agree to eenything; but I misdoubt
tak'ing to the sea since more in yon open boat. 'Twas only the grace o'
Proveedence that saved us in landin' here, and we didna get clear off
then!"
"No, we didn't," said the skipper, with a chuckle. "But we won't essay
that long trip yet awhile--at all events, not until we are forced to.
We will try the islands near us first; and then, if we meet with no luck
there, why, we'll shape a course for Good Success Bay."
"All richt, I'm agree'ble," answered Mr Macdougall, quite satisfied
that we were not going to put to sea again in a hurry in our frail
craft, which were indeed not very staunch to brave the perils of the
open sea; so it was decided, accordingly, that the jolly-boat, with a
picked party, should proceed the next day on a surveying tour amongst
the neighbouring islands.
The following morning, therefore, Captain Billings, Jorrocks, and I,
with three of the sailors--Mr Macdougall being left behind at his own
request in charge of the remainder of the crew--started on the
investigating expedition, directing the boat first towards a small
island lying-to the westwards, and the closest to us of all that we
could distinguish from the beach where our camp was.
This island, however, we found to be uninhabited, and even more bare and
sterile than the one we had landed on; so, hoisting the small lugsail
which the jolly-boat carried, we made over more to the north-west,
towards Wollaston Island, the largest in the archipelago, and about the
same distance away from us that the Isle of Wight is from Selsea Bill.
On reaching this we found a couple of native families living on the
shore in rude huts, composed of the branches of trees, and with mud and
stones heaped over them. The people were the ugliest I had ever seen,
being more like baboons than men and women. They were dwarfish in
stature, the tallest of the party not exceeding five feet in height, and
the majority of the others quite a foot shorter. I noticed also, as the
skipper had told me, that their apparel was of the very scantiest
possible, consisting only of a piece of sealskin, which was movable, so
that it could be placed on the most convenient side for protecting them
against the weather.
They were not able to help us much, looking miserably off; but they were
hospitable enough, offering us some mussels and fish, and berries
similar to those we had seen on the arbutus trees on our own island.
If they could not assist us materially, they put us up to one thing, and
that was how to catch fish; for, although we had seen many of them
jumping in the water, and swimming about the beach in front of our
encampment, we had been unable to capture any, owing to there not being
a single hook brought in the boats; and, sailors not being accustomed to
use pins about their garments, we could not make use of these for a
substitute.
The Tierra del Fuegans had a rare dodge to supply the deficiency. They
fastened a limpet to the end of their lines, and, heaving it into deep
water, the fish readily gorges it; when, before he can bring it up
again, they pull him out, and thus they get their fish without losing
their mussel.
"They're just like Turks!" cried Captain Billings, with a broad grin on
his face.
"Why?" asked I, knowing that something funny was coming.
"Because they're regular musselmen!" said the skipper, laughing out
loudly at the old joke, Jorrocks and I, of course, joining in.
The natives spoke some sort of gibberish of a language which we could
not understand; nor could we make them comprehend what we wished to
learn with reference to the sealing schooners, although the skipper
shouted out the word "ship" to them as loudly as he could bawl, thinking
thereby to make himself more intelligible.
Seeing, therefore, that we could do no good by remaining here, we
started back for Herschel Island to rejoin our companions, getting there
before it was dark--much to our own relief and to that of Mr
Macdougall, who was anxiously looking out for us.
For another fortnight we remained here, experiencing the utmost
privation, for our stock of provisions gradually dwindled down, our two-
biscuit ration being reduced to one, then to half-a-one a day, and then
to none at all, when all of us had to eat berries with the little piece
of salt pork served out to us, and an occasional fish that we sometimes
succeeded in catching in the native fashion.
At last, at the beginning of September, the skipper determined that all
hands should put to sea again in the two boats, in order to make our way
across the intervening gulf of water to Good Success Bay, at the extreme
south-east point of Tierra del Fuego, opposite to Staten Island, on the
other side of the Strait of Le Maire.
This plan was adopted, and we launched the boats, now much lighter than
when they originally had left the poor _Esmeralda_, for they had nothing
now to carry but ourselves, save water, our provisions being all
exhausted.
For three days and nights we suffered terribly from hunger, besides
being buffeted about by adverse winds; but, happily, the fourth morning
brought us relief, although we had not yet got in sight of Staten
Island.
Far away on the horizon, on our starboard hand, Jorrocks saw a ship
standing to the westward; so, rigging up the long-boat's sails again--
for the wind was contrary to the course we had been trying to fetch, and
we had hauled them down in despair, allowing the boats to drift about on
the ocean without heart or energy--we made a board to the south, so as
to cut off the vessel as she steered towards Cape Horn, taking the
jolly-boat in tow behind us, for she spread such little canvas that she
could not keep up with the larger boat.
Fortunately, the wind held, and the ship did not change her course; so,
about mid-day, we came up with her.
She was a London vessel, the _Iolanthe_, bound to Valparaiso; so her
captain, seeing that we were shipwrecked mariners in distress, took us
on board at once, and treated us like brothers, without waiting even to
hear our story about the loss of the _Esmeralda_.
In thirty days more we were landed at Valparaiso.
Here, by rights, I ought to finish my yarn, for I said when I began that
I was only going to give a full, fair, and truthful statement as to how
I came to go to sea, and of my escape, just by "the skin of my teeth,"
as the saying goes, from the perils of the ocean off Cape Horn on this
first voyage; and now, as the _Esmeralda_ got burnt and her keel and
bottom timbers are lying beneath the waves--the catastrophe terminating,
of course, my voyage in her, to which this story only refers--what
relates to myself further on is of no concern to any one!
However, not to leave you in suspense, I'll tell you how I got back home
again to old England, although it was by a terribly roundabout route.
When we arrived at the _Iolanthe's_ port, Captain Billings took passage
home in the mail-steamer for Mr Macdougall and himself, as well as for
three of the hands who wished to return to their native country; but the
rest preferred to run the risk of picking up a ship and working their
way back in that way, so as to have some little money on the landing,
the wages due to them from the _Esmeralda_ ceasing from the day of her
loss.
The men of the mercantile marine have to put up with some hardship in
this respect, for, when a vessel in which they may have shipped comes to
an untimely end, like our unfortunate barque, they not only lose all
their traps and personal belongings, but their wages as well--that is,
beyond the period at which they actually assisted in working the ship,
although they may have signed articles for a three years' voyage.
The skipper offered to take me home, too, but I was of the same opinion
as the majority of my late shipmates. I did not desire to go back on
Sam Pengelly's hands, like a bad penny, especially as I liked what I had
seen of the sea in spite of its perils; so, when I mentioned this to
Captain Billings, he said that although he would prefer my coming back
to England with him and waiting till he got a fresh ship, he would not
interfere with my wishes as to finding another berth at once. Indeed,
he added, he already knew of one, as an old friend of his who commanded
a ship just leaving Valparaiso for Australia had told him that he wanted
a third mate.
"And if you like," said the skipper, "I'll recommend you to Captain
Giles for the post."
"I shall be only too glad," I replied. The skipper did so; and the
whole thing was settled off-hand, I signing articles with my new captain
the same day, shortly before my late one left in the mail-steamer, which
was just on the point of starting.
I took a cordial farewell of Captain Billings, promising that as soon as
I got back to England, from the voyage I was just starting on, I would
look him up. He promised, likewise, to give me a berth on board any
ship he commanded--should the Board of Trade not withhold his
certificate after the inquiry that would be held on the loss of the
_Esmeralda_ on his arrival home; and I may as well state here, that the
officials entirely exonerated him from any blame in the destruction of
the ship and cargo, putting the matter down to one of the ordinary risks
of commercial life.
The skipper also promised to see Sam Pengelly for me, and to tell him
how I was getting on. These mutual engagements being gone into, I and
Jorrocks, having shaken hands with Captain Billings and Mr Macdougall,
the latter of whom said he would "never forget me as long as he lived,"
were both making our way along the front of the one long street that
Valparaiso consists of, thinking of taking off a boat soon to our new
ship, the _Jackmal_, lying out in the offing--for Jorrocks, learning
that Captain Giles wanted a boatswain, and knowing that I was going with
him, agreed to go to sea with him in a moment--when, all at once, who
should we come full butt on but the very last person in the world I
expected to see here. I thought he was still at Dr Hellyer's, at
Beachampton, cramming for an Oxford scholarship, as far as I knew to the
contrary--who but--