There were differences of opinion about the precise distance between
Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca, in which it seemed the authority of the
steward was not accepted. Travelling light, however, the _Bonadventure_
seemed little concerned about fifty miles either way. A current assisted
in this turn of speed.
It was enjoyable to be out of sight of land once more, in a morning
coolness, with seagulls piping in our wake; although they were yellowish
waters that were rolling by. The second pilot went down to the motor boat
due to take him home; the blue peter was hauled down when he had gone;
and we hurried south. A dove came by, alighted; presumably our course
lay at no great distance from the coast: a sail, a smoke-trail here and
there dappled the circling scene. The sailors and apprentices set to,
cleaning the holds in preparation for a cargo of grain--a black job.
Bucketful after bucketful was flung over the side, the wind playfully
carrying off the murky clouds. I washed clothes at a safe distance.
It was at this time or near it that an addition to my daily course was
made. So long as the _Bonadventure_ was at sea, the ship's officers
received cocoa and sandwiches by way of supper. To this edible privilege I
could not imagine that I had the slightest claim, nor in fact was I
anxious to be elected; but when the steward out of his magnanimity
conferred it upon me I naturally received it with thanks.
The cocoa indeed was not to be lightly considered when ten o'clock
found me, as it mostly did, with Mead on his night watch. The first night
after we had left the mouth of the Plate, his mind was full of one matter.
Before we had been released from Wilson's Wharf, acting on the advice
of the vendor, he had bought a fifth share in a lottery ticket. With
this qualification, he began to paint his future in all the colours of
L1,166--his possible, or as he wished to be assured, his probable,
harvest. A small schooner, in the enchanted atmosphere of his pipe,
seemed already to own him master; she would trade for long years of
prosperity in South Sea islands, where uncultivated fruits and beauties
abound. While we agreed on the plan, the moon went down; multitudes of
stars shone out, and meteors at moments ran down the sky. A broad glow
to starboard revealed the nearness of the coast. Everything was most
still, except perhaps Mead's spirit. There might be some hitch. But no, he
felt his luck was in; he was sure, something told him that he carried the
winning number.
The day's entries in my diary now began thus, or nearly: "Need I say
it again--One mosquito, etc., but I killed him; then, one mosquito, etc."
The persistence of these self-satisfied hovering devils was puzzling,
for the mornings dawned almost bitterly fresh, and the breeze was
always awake. Its direction had now laid, during the night, a carpet of
glittering coal-dust along the passage outside the door; and the day
being Sunday, which should by all precedent be marked by an increased
radiance in the outward as well as in the inward man, it was impossible
to keep clean. For the inward man, I once again took refuge in Young's
_Night Thoughts_, which, despite the disapproval of Mr. Masefield's
Dauber, I will maintain to give room and verge enough to annotate,
parody, wilfully miscomprehend, skip, doze, and indulge what trains of
thought whether ethical, fanciful, or reminiscent.
A gentler air, a bluer sea, a sandy coast in view. There was something
lyrical about the "dirty ship" as with the buoyancy of her cargoless
holds she fleeted to the south. Mead, his future resplendent with L1,166
and its South Sea bubble, seemed to feel this rhythmical impulse. Every
now and then, in his consultations, he would break forth into singing,
but seldom more than a fragment at a time; now it was "Farewell and adieu
to you, bright Spanish Ladies"--a grand old tune--now "Six men dancing
on the dead man's chest." But most, he gave in honour of his native
Australia a ballad of a monitory sort with a wild yet sweet refrain.
It began
I was born in the city of Sydney,
And I was an apprentice bound,
And many's the good old time I've had
In that dear old Southern town.
The apprentice fell in with a dark lady--indeed "she came tripping right
into his way." It was an unfortunate encounter. He became her "darling
flash boy." He could readily put the case against her when, as receiver
of stolen goods, he had served some years in jail; and then, like the
author of _George Barnwell_, he addressed apprentices on the subject:
So all young men take a warning and
Beware of that black velvet tie.
But yet, and here was the charm of the ballad, and the token of his
entanglement by Neaera's hair, ever and anon came the burden
For her eyes they shone like the diamonds,
I thought her a Queen of the land,
And the hair that hung over her shoulders was
Tied up with a black velvet band.
When Mead later on gave me a copy of this song, which I shall not forget,
duly set out in "cantos," he was good enough to ornament it with a little
picture of the black bow as tailpiece.
The heat became very strong, and as the day declined, a great cloud-bank
rose up out to sea, and the air settled to that stillness in which the
fall of the ripples from the side sounds most insistent. Dark came
on, and from two arches or caverns of smouldering twilight under the
extremities of that mighty cloud the lightnings burst; lightnings in
whose general wide waft of brightness intense white wreaths suddenly
lived and withered, branches of fire stretched forth and were gone; while
in the opposite heaven "like a dying lady," went the horned moon.
Meanwhile the _Bonadventure_ not slacking her unusual speed came to a
lightship; then (for this was a pilot station) the engines thrashed up
the water as she manoeuvred for the pilot's most comfortable approach.
The boatmen came rowing him lustily out to us; our rope ladder was
lowered--at these moments I was sensible of a sort of proud anxiety on
the part of all aboard, that such a detail should be carried out with
all despatch--and up he came. And after him, a rope was asked for, and
sent down; up came a great stringful of fish, gleaming like the sea
under the moon; and once more the rope went down, and a collection of
jars which were at once thought to contain wine was hauled on board.
Then, from the boat "Finish!" but she did not depart, making fast to the
_Bonadventure_. She circling about the lightship, at length brought
her companion within a stone's throw. Then the boat was cut adrift,
and we went on our way towards a line of buoys whose flashes lit up the
expanse ahead.
We came now close by the misty lights of a town named Puerto Militar and
further on those of Ingeniero White, the little port of Bahia Blanca to
which the _Bonadventure_ was actually bound, began to beckon. About eleven
the anchors were let go, and the pilot retired to sleep; but I still
stayed with Mead, regarding dully the dull lights of our surroundings,
and consuming cocoa, and blessing the exhalation of the continent which
had first met me at sea some weeks ago. Already fishing, the steward
leaned over the rail close by; he had often painted the angling at Bahia
Blanca in enthusiastic colours. However, he seemed to catch nothing.
By this the moon, that had grown almost a giantess as she stooped down
the horizon, and had reddened like a glowing coal to the last almost, was
dwindling. The orb became a beacon dying on a hill; then dropped below
the sky. The lightnings over the quiet sea had almost ceased.