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+Project Gutenberg's Sailing Alone Around The World, by Joshua Slocum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sailing Alone Around The World
+
+Author: Joshua Slocum
+
+Illustrator: Thomas Fogarty
+             George Varian
+
+Posting Date: October 12, 2010
+Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6317]
+[This file was first posted on November 25, 2002]
+[Last updated: January 20, 2018]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD
+
+[Illustration: The "Spray" from a photograph taken in Australian
+waters.]
+
+
+
+
+
+SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD
+
+By Captain Joshua Slocum
+
+Illustrated by THOMAS FOGARTY AND GEORGE VARIAN
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+TO THE ONE WHO SAID: "THE 'SPRAY' WILL COME BACK."
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities--Youthful fondness for
+the sea--Master of the ship _Northern Light_--Loss of the
+_Aquidneck_--Return home from Brazil in the canoe _Liberdade_--The
+gift of a "ship"--The rebuilding of the _Spray_--Conundrums in regard
+to finance and calking--The launching of the _Spray_.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Failure as a fisherman--A voyage around the world projected--From
+Boston to Gloucester--Fitting out for the ocean voyage--Half of a dory
+for a ship's boat--The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia--A shaking
+up in home waters--Among old friends.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Good-by to the American coast--Off Sable Island in a fog--In the open
+sea--The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage--The first
+fit of loneliness--The _Spray_ encounters _La Vaguisa_--A bottle of
+wine from the Spaniard--A bout of words with the captain of the
+_Java_--The steamship _Olympia_ spoken--Arrival at the Azores.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Squally weather in the Azores--High living--Delirious from cheese and
+plums--The pilot of the _Pinta_--At Gibraltar--Compliments exchanged
+with the British navy--A picnic on the Morocco shore.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug--The
+_Spray's_ course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn--Chased by a
+Moorish pirate--A comparison with Columbus--The Canary Islands--The
+Cape Verde Islands--Sea life--Arrival at Pernambuco--A bill against
+the Brazilian government--Preparing for the stormy weather of the cape.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Departure from Rio de Janeiro--The _Spray_ ashore on the sands of
+Uruguay--A narrow escape from shipwreck--The boy who found a
+sloop--The _Spray_ floated but somewhat damaged--Courtesies from the
+British consul at Maldonado--A warm greeting at Montevideo--An
+excursion to Buenos Aires--Shortening the mast and bowsprit.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires--An outburst of emotion at the mouth
+of the Plate--Submerged by a great wave--A stormy entrance to the
+strait--Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks--Off
+Cape Froward--Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay--A miss-shot for
+"Black Pedro"--Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island
+Cove--Animal life.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+From Cape Pillar into the Pacific--Driven by a tempest toward Cape
+Horn--Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure--Reaching the strait
+again by way of Cockburn Channel--Some savages find the
+carpet-tacks--Danger from firebrands--A series of fierce
+williwaws--Again sailing westward.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Repairing the _Spray's_ sails--Savages and an obstreperous anchor--A
+spider-fight--An encounter with Black Pedro--A visit to the steamship
+_Colombia_--On the defensive against a fleet of canoes--A record of
+voyages through the strait--A chance cargo of tallow.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm--A defective sheet-rope places
+the _Spray_ in peril--The _Spray_ as a target for a Fuegian arrow--The
+island of Alan Erric--Again in the open Pacific--The run to the island
+of Juan Fernandez--An absentee king--At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The islanders of Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts--The
+beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm--The mountain monument to
+Alexander Selkirk--Robinson Crusoe's cave--A stroll with the children
+of the island--Westward ho! with a friendly gale--A month's free
+sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides--Sighting the
+Marquesas--Experience in reckoning.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Seventy-two days without a port--Whales and birds--A peep into the
+_Spray's_ galley--Flying-fish for breakfast--A welcome at Apia--A
+visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson--At Vailima--Samoan
+hospitality--Arrested for fast riding--An amusing
+merry-go-round--Teachers and pupils of Papauta College--At the mercy
+of sea-nymphs.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Samoan royalty--King Malietoa--Good-by to friends at Vailima--Leaving
+Fiji to the south--Arrival at Newcastle, Australia--The yachts of
+Sydney--A ducking on the _Spray_--Commodore Foy presents the sloop
+with a new suit of sails--On to Melbourne--A shark that proved to be
+valuable--A change of course-The "Rain of Blood"--In Tasmania.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A testimonial from a lady--Cruising round Tasmania--The skipper
+delivers his first lecture on the voyage--Abundant provisions--An
+inspection of the _Spray_ for safety at Devonport--Again at
+Sydney--Northward bound for Torres Strait--An amateur
+shipwreck--Friends on the Australian coast--Perils of a coral sea.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland--A lecture--Reminiscences of
+Captain Cook--Lecturing for charity at Cooktown--A happy escape from a
+coral reef--Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island--An American
+pearl-fisherman--Jubilee at Thursday Island--A new ensign for the
+_Spray_--Booby Island--Across the Indian Ocean--Christmas Island.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A call for careful navigation--Three hours' steering in twenty-three
+days--Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands--A curious chapter of
+social history--A welcome from the children of the islands--Cleaning
+and painting the _Spray_ on the beach--A Mohammedan blessing for a pot
+of jam--Keeling as a paradise--A risky adventure in a small boat--Away
+to Rodriguez--Taken for Antichrist--The governor calms the fears of
+the people--A lecture--A convent in the hills.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A clean bill of health at Mauritius--Sailing the voyage over again in
+the opera-house--A newly discovered plant named in honor of the
+_Spray's_ skipper--A party of young ladies out for a sail--A bivouac
+on deck--A warm reception at Durban--A friendly cross-examination by
+Henry M. Stanley--Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the
+earth--Leaving South Africa.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Bounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time--A rough Christmas--The
+_Spray_ ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town--A railway trip
+to the Transvaal--President Krüger's odd definition of the _Spray's_
+voyage--His terse sayings--Distinguished guests on the
+_Spray_--Cocoanut fiber as a padlock--Courtesies from the admiral of
+the Queen's navy--Off for St. Helena--Land in sight.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+In the isle of Napoleon's exile--Two lectures--A guest in the
+ghost-room at Plantation House--An excursion to historic
+Longwood--Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it--The _Spray's_
+ill luck with animals--A prejudice against small dogs--A rat, the
+Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket--Ascension Island.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil--All at sea
+regarding the Spanish-American war--An exchange of signals with the
+battle-ship _Oregon_--Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
+Island--Reappearance to the _Spray_ of the north star--The light on
+Trinidad--A charming introduction to Grenada--Talks to friendly
+auditors.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Clearing for home--In the calm belt--A sea covered with sargasso--The
+jibstay parts in a gale--Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island--A
+change of plan--Arrival at Newport--End of a cruise of over forty-six
+thousand miles--The _Spray_ again at Fairhaven.
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+Her pedigree so far as known--The lines of the _Spray_--Her
+self-steering qualities--Sail-plan and steering-gear--An unprecedented
+feat--A final word of cheer to would-be navigators.
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+THE "Spray" Frontispiece FROM a photograph taken in Australian waters.
+
+THE "Northern Light," CAPTAIN JOSHUA SLOCUM, BOUND FOR LIVERPOOL, 1885
+
+CROSS-SECTION OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+"IT'LL CRAWL"
+
+"NO DORG NOR NO CAT"
+
+THE DEACON'S DREAM
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM'S CHRONOMETER
+
+"GOOD EVENING, SIR"
+
+HE ALSO SENT HIS CARD
+
+CHART OF THE "SPRAY'S" COURSE AROUND THE WORLD--APRIL 24, 1895, TO
+JULY 3, 1898
+
+THE ISLAND OF PICO
+
+CHART OF THE "SPRAY'S" ATLANTIC VOYAGES FROM BOSTON TO GIBRALTAR,
+THENCE TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN, IN 1895, AND FINALLY HOMEWARD BOUND
+FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN 1898
+
+THE APPARITION AT THE WHEEL
+
+COMING TO ANCHOR AT GIBRALTAR
+
+THE "SPRAY" AT ANCHOR OFF GIBRALTAR
+
+CHASED BY PIRATES
+
+I SUDDENLY REMEMBERED THAT I COULD NOT SWIM
+
+A DOUBLE SURPRISE
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE COMET
+
+A GREAT WAVE OFF THE PATAGONIAN COAST
+
+ENTRANCE TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
+
+THE COURSE OF THE "SPRAY" THROUGH THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
+
+THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T SHIP WITHOUT ANOTHER "MON AND A DOOG"
+
+A FUEGIAN GIRL
+
+LOOKING WEST FROM FORTESCUE BAY, WHERE THE "SPRAY" WAS CHASED BY
+INDIANS
+
+A BRUSH WITH FUEGIANS
+
+A BIT OF FRIENDLY ASSISTANCE
+
+CAPE PILLAR
+
+THEY HOWLED LIKE A PACK OF HOUNDS
+
+A GLIMPSE OF SANDY POINT (PUNTA ARENAS) IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
+
+"YAMMERSCHOONER!"
+
+A CONTRAST IN LIGHTING--THE ELECTRIC LIGHTS OF THE "COLOMBIA" AND THE
+CANOE FIRES OF THE FORTESCUE INDIANS
+
+RECORDS OF PASSAGES THROUGH THE STRAIT AT THE HEAD OF BORGIA BAY
+
+SALVING WRECKAGE
+
+THE FIRST SHOT UNCOVERED THREE FUEGIANS
+
+THE "SPRAY" APPROACHING JUAN FERNANDEZ, ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
+
+THE HOUSE OF THE KING
+
+ROBINSON CRUSOE'S CAVE
+
+THE MAN WHO CALLED A CABRA A GOAT
+
+MEETING WITH THE WHALE
+
+FIRST EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES IN SAMOA
+
+VAILIMA, THE HOME OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+THE "SPRAY'S" COURSE FROM AUSTRALIA TO SOUTH AFRICA
+
+THE ACCIDENT AT SYDNEY
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM WORKING THE "SPRAY" OUT OF THE YARROW RIVER, A PART OF
+MELBOURNE HARBOR
+
+THE SHARK ON THE DECK OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+ON BOARD AT ST. KILDA. RETRACING ON THE CHART THE COURSE OF THE
+"SPRAY" FROM BOSTON
+
+THE "SPRAY" IN HER PORT DUSTER AT DEVONPORT, TASMANIA, FEBRUARY 22,
+1897
+
+"IS IT A-GOIN' TO BLOW?"
+
+THE "SPRAY" LEAVING SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, IN THE NEW SUIT OF SAILS GIVEN
+BY COMMODORE FOY OF AUSTRALIA
+
+THE "SPRAY" ASHORE FOR "BOOT-TOPPING" AT THE KEELING ISLANDS
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM DRIFTING OUT TO SEA
+
+THE "SPRAY" AT MAURITIUS
+
+CAPTAIN JOSHUA SLOCUM
+
+CARTOON PRINTED IN THE CAPE TOWN "OWL" OF MARCH 5, 1898, IN CONNECTION
+WITH AN ITEM ABOUT CAPTAIN SLOCUM'S TRIP TO PRETORIA
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM, SIR ALFRED MILNER (WITH THE TALL HAT), AND COLONEL
+SAUNDERSON, M. P., ON THE BOW OF THE "SPRAY" AT CAPE TOWN
+
+THE SPRAY IN THE STORM OF NEW YORK.
+
+READING DAY AND NIGHT THE "SPRAY"
+
+PASSED BY THE "OREGON"
+
+AGAIN TIED TO THE OLD STAKE AT FAIRHAVEN
+
+PLAN OF THE AFTER CABIN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+DECK-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+STEERING-GEAR OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+BODY-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+LINES OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities--Youthful fondness for
+the sea--Master of the ship _Northern Light_--Loss of the
+_Aquidneck_--Return home from Brazil in the canoe _Liberdade_--The
+gift of a "ship"--The rebuilding of the _Spray_-Conundrums in regard
+to finance and calking--The launching of the _Spray_.
+
+In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge
+called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and
+the fertile Annapolis valley on the other. On the northern slope of
+the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-timbers,
+of which many vessels of all classes have been built. The people of
+this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the
+world's commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the
+birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia. I was born in
+a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though
+I am a citizen of the United States--a naturalized Yankee, if it may
+be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the
+word. On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should
+be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to
+whittle models of boats and contemplate voyages. My father was the
+sort of man who, if wrecked on a desolate island, would find his way
+home, if he had a jack-knife and could find a tree. He was a good
+judge of a boat, but the old clay farm which some calamity made his
+was an anchor to him. He was not afraid of a capful of wind, and he
+never took a back seat at a camp-meeting or a good, old-fashioned
+revival.
+
+As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first. At the age
+of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay,
+with chances greatly in favor of being drowned. When a lad I filled
+the important post of cook on a fishing-schooner; but I was not long in
+the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff,
+and "chucked me out" before I had a chance to shine as a culinary
+artist. The next step toward the goal of happiness found me before the
+mast in a full-rigged ship bound on a foreign voyage. Thus I came
+"over the bows," and not in through the cabin windows, to the command
+of a ship.
+
+My best command was that of the magnificent ship _Northern Light_, of
+which I was part-owner. I had a right to be proud of her, for at that
+time--in the eighties--she was the finest American sailing-vessel
+afloat. Afterward I owned and sailed the _Aquidneck_, a little bark
+which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of
+beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of
+steamers, I had been nearly twenty years a shipmaster when I quit her
+deck on the coast of Brazil, where she was wrecked. My home voyage to
+New York with my family was made in the canoe _Liberdade_, without
+accident.
+
+[Illustration: Drawn by W. Taber. The _Northern Light_, Captain Joshua
+Slocum, bound for Liverpool, 1885.]
+
+My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as freighter and trader
+principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice
+Islands. Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to coil up
+one's ropes on land, the customs and ways of which I had finally
+almost forgotten. And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last
+they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old
+sailor to do? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as
+perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else. Next in
+attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building. I longed to be
+master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I
+accomplished my desire. From the decks of stout ships in the worst
+gales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of ship safest
+for all weather and all seas. Thus the voyage which I am now to
+narrate was a natural outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of
+my lifelong experience.
+
+One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, where I had been cast up from
+old ocean, so to speak, a year or two before, I was cogitating whether
+I should apply for a command, and again eat my bread and butter on the
+sea, or go to work at the shipyard, when I met an old acquaintance, a
+whaling-captain, who said: "Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a
+ship. But," he added, "she wants some repairs." The captain's terms,
+when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me. They included
+all the assistance I would require to fit the craft for sea. I was
+only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not
+obtain work in the shipyard without first paying fifty dollars to a
+society, and as for a ship to command--there were not enough ships to
+go round. Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for
+coal-barges, and were being ignominiously towed by the nose from port
+to port, while many worthy captains addressed themselves to Sailors'
+Snug Harbor.
+
+The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found
+that my friend had something of a joke on me. For seven years the joke
+had been on him. The "ship" proved to be a very antiquated sloop
+called the _Spray,_ which the neighbors declared had been built in the
+year 1. She was affectionately propped up in a field, some distance
+from salt water, and was covered with canvas. The people of Fairhaven,
+I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant. For seven years they had
+asked, "I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old
+_Spray?"_ The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange:
+at last some one had come and was actually at work on the old _Spray._
+"Breaking her up, I s'pose?" "No; going to rebuild her." Great was the
+amazement. "Will it pay?" was the question which for a year or more I
+answered by declaring that I would make it pay.
+
+My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard,
+for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for the
+frame of the new vessel. I rigged a steam-box and a pot for a boiler.
+The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and
+steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured
+till set. Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor,
+and the neighbors made the work sociable. It was a great day in the
+_Spray_ shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new
+keel. Whaling-captains came from far to survey it. With one voice they
+pronounced it "A 1," and in their opinion "fit to smash ice." The
+oldest captain shook my hand warmly when the breast-hooks were put in,
+declaring that he could see no reason why the _Spray_ should not "cut
+in bow-head" yet off the coast of Greenland. The much-esteemed
+stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak. It
+afterward split a coral patch in two at the Keeling Islands, and did
+not receive a blemish. Better timber for a ship than pasture white oak
+never grew. The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this
+wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required. It was hard
+upon March when I began work in earnest; the weather was cold; still,
+there were plenty of inspectors to back me with advice. When a
+whaling-captain hove in sight I just rested on my adz awhile and
+"gammed" with him.
+
+New Bedford, the home of whaling-captains, is connected with Fairhaven
+by a bridge, and the walking is good. They never "worked along up" to
+the shipyard too often for me. It was the charming tales about arctic
+whaling that inspired me to put a double set of breast-hooks in the
+_Spray_, that she might shunt ice.
+
+The seasons came quickly while I worked. Hardly were the ribs of the
+sloop up before apple-trees were in bloom. Then the daisies and the
+cherries came soon after. Close by the place where the old _Spray_ had
+now dissolved rested the ashes of John Cook, a revered Pilgrim father.
+So the new _Spray_ rose from hallowed ground. From the deck of the new
+craft I could put out my hand and pick cherries that grew over the
+little grave. The planks for the new vessel, which I soon came to put
+on, were of Georgia pine an inch and a half thick. The operation of
+putting them on was tedious, but, when on, the calking was easy. The
+outward edges stood slightly open to receive the calking, but the
+inner edges were so close that I could not see daylight between them.
+All the butts were fastened by through bolts, with screw-nuts
+tightening them to the timbers, so that there would be no complaint
+from them. Many bolts with screw-nuts were used in other parts of the
+construction, in all about a thousand. It was my purpose to make my
+vessel stout and strong.
+
+[Illustration: Cross-section of the _Spray_.]
+
+Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the _Jane_ repaired all out of the
+old until she is entirely new is still the _Jane_. The _Spray_ changed
+her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old
+died or the new took birth, and it was no matter. The bulwarks I built
+up of white-oak stanchions fourteen inches high, and covered with
+seven-eighth-inch white pine. These stanchions, mortised through a
+two-inch covering-board, I calked with thin cedar wedges. They have
+remained perfectly tight ever since. The deck I made of
+one-and-a-half-inch by three-inch white pine spiked to beams, six by
+six inches, of yellow or Georgia pine, placed three feet apart. The
+deck-inclosures were one over the aperture of the main hatch, six feet
+by six, for a cooking-galley, and a trunk farther aft, about ten feet
+by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these rose about three feet above the
+deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head-room. In
+the spaces along the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a
+berth to sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not forgetting a
+place for the medicine-chest. In the midship hold, that is, the space
+between cabin and galley, under the deck, was room for provision of
+water, salt beef, etc., ample for many months.
+
+The hull of my vessel being now put together as strongly as wood and
+iron could make her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I set
+about "calking ship." Grave fears were entertained by some that at
+this point I should fail. I myself gave some thought to the
+advisability of a "professional calker." The very first blow I struck
+on the cotton with the calking-iron, which I thought was right, many
+others thought wrong. "It'll crawl!" cried a man from Marion, passing
+with a basket of clams on his back. "It'll crawl!" cried another from
+West Island, when he saw me driving cotton into the seams. Bruno
+simply wagged his tail. Even Mr. Ben J----, a noted authority on
+whaling-ships, whose mind, however, was said to totter, asked rather
+confidently if I did not think "it would crawl." "How fast will it
+crawl?" cried my old captain friend, who had been towed by many a
+lively sperm-whale. "Tell us how fast," cried he, "that we may get
+into port in time."
+
+[Illustration: "'It'll crawl'"]
+
+However, I drove a thread of oakum on top of the cotton, as from the
+first I had intended to do. And Bruno again wagged his tail. The
+cotton never "crawled." When the calking was finished, two coats of
+copper paint were slapped on the bottom, two of white lead on the
+topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then shipped and painted, and on
+the following day the _Spray_ was launched. As she rode at her
+ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan.
+
+The _Spray's_ dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine
+inches long, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet
+two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and
+twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross.
+
+Then the mast, a smart New Hampshire spruce, was fitted, and likewise
+all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise. Sails were
+bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce and me, across
+Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip--all right. The only thing that now
+worried my friends along the beach was, "Will she pay?" The cost of my
+new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thirteen months of my own
+labor. I was several months more than that at Fairhaven, for I got
+work now and then on an occasional whale-ship fitting farther down the
+harbor, and that kept me the overtime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Failure as a fisherman--A voyage around the world projected--From
+Boston to Gloucester--Fitting out for the ocean voyage--Half of a dory
+for a ship's boat--The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia--A shaking
+up in home waters--Among old friends.
+
+I spent a season in my new craft fishing on the coast, only to find
+that I had not the cunning properly to bait a hook. But at last the
+time arrived to weigh anchor and get to sea in earnest. I had resolved
+on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April
+24,1895, was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away
+from Boston, where the _Spray_ had been moored snugly all winter. The
+twelve-o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead
+under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port
+tack, then coming about she stood seaward, with her boom well off to
+port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on
+the outer pier at East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by,
+her flag at the peak throwing its folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat
+high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt that
+there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an
+adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood. I had taken
+little advice from any one, for I had a right to my own opinions in
+matters pertaining to the sea. That the best of sailors might do worse
+than even I alone was borne in upon me not a league from Boston docks,
+where a great steamship, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay
+stranded and broken. This was the _Venetian._ She was broken
+completely in two over a ledge. So in the first hour of my lone voyage
+I had proof that the _Spray_ could at least do better than this
+full-handed steamship, for I was already farther on my voyage than
+she. "Take warning, _Spray,_ and have a care," I uttered aloud to my
+bark, passing fairylike silently down the bay.
+
+The wind freshened, and the _Spray_ rounded Deer Island light at the
+rate of seven knots.
+
+Passing it, she squared away direct for Gloucester to procure there
+some fishermen's stores. Waves dancing joyously across Massachusetts
+Bay met her coming out of the harbor to dash them into myriads of
+sparkling gems that hung about her at every surge. The day was
+perfect, the sunlight clear and strong. Every particle of water thrown
+into the air became a gem, and the _Spray,_ bounding ahead, snatched
+necklace after necklace from the sea, and as often threw them away. We
+have all seen miniature rainbows about a ship's prow, but the _Spray_
+flung out a bow of her own that day, such as I had never seen before.
+Her good angel had embarked on the voyage; I so read it in the sea.
+
+Bold Nahant was soon abeam, then Marblehead was put astern. Other
+vessels were outward bound, but none of them passed the _Spray_ flying
+along on her course. I heard the clanking of the dismal bell on
+Norman's Woe as we went by; and the reef where the schooner _Hesperus_
+struck I passed close aboard. The "bones" of a wreck tossed up lay
+bleaching on the shore abreast. The wind still freshening, I settled
+the throat of the mainsail to ease the sloop's helm, for I could
+hardly hold her before it with the whole mainsail set. A schooner
+ahead of me lowered all sail and ran into port under bare poles, the
+wind being fair. As the _Spray_ brushed by the stranger, I saw that
+some of his sails were gone, and much broken canvas hung in his
+rigging, from the effects of a squall.
+
+I made for the cove, a lovely branch of Gloucester's fine harbor,
+again to look the _Spray_ over and again to weigh the voyage, and my
+feelings, and all that. The bay was feather-white as my little vessel
+tore in, smothered in foam. It was my first experience of coming into
+port alone, with a craft of any size, and in among shipping. Old
+fishermen ran down to the wharf for which the _Spray_ was heading,
+apparently intent upon braining herself there. I hardly know how a
+calamity was averted, but with my heart in my mouth, almost, I let go
+the wheel, stepped quickly forward, and downed the jib. The sloop
+naturally rounded in the wind, and just ranging ahead, laid her cheek
+against a mooring-pile at the windward corner of the wharf, so
+quietly, after all, that she would not have broken an egg. Very
+leisurely I passed a rope around the post, and she was moored. Then a
+cheer went up from the little crowd on the wharf. "You couldn't 'a'
+done it better," cried an old skipper, "if you weighed a ton!" Now, my
+weight was rather less than the fifteenth part of a ton, but I said
+nothing, only putting on a look of careless indifference to say for
+me, "Oh, that's nothing"; for some of the ablest sailors in the world
+were looking at me, and my wish was not to appear green, for I had a
+mind to stay in Gloucester several days. Had I uttered a word it
+surely would have betrayed me, for I was still quite nervous and short
+of breath.
+
+I remained in Gloucester about two weeks, fitting out with the various
+articles for the voyage most readily obtained there. The owners of the
+wharf where I lay, and of many fishing-vessels, put on board dry cod
+galore, also a barrel of oil to calm the waves. They were old skippers
+themselves, and took a great interest in the voyage. They also made
+the _Spray_ a present of a "fisherman's own" lantern, which I found
+would throw a light a great distance round. Indeed, a ship that would
+run another down having such a good light aboard would be capable of
+running into a light-ship. A gaff, a pugh, and a dip-net, all of which
+an old fisherman declared I could not sail without, were also put
+aboard. Then, top, from across the cove came a case of copper paint, a
+famous antifouling article, which stood me in good stead long after. I
+slapped two coats of this paint on the bottom of the _Spray_ while she
+lay a tide or so on the hard beach.
+
+For a boat to take along, I made shift to cut a castaway dory in two
+athwartships, boarding up the end where it was cut. This half-dory I
+could hoist in and out by the nose easily enough, by hooking the
+throat-halyards into a strop fitted for the purpose. A whole dory
+would be heavy and awkward to handle alone. Manifestly there was not
+room on deck for more than the half of a boat, which, after all, was
+better than no boat at all, and was large enough for one man. I
+perceived, moreover, that the newly arranged craft would answer for a
+washing-machine when placed athwartships, and also for a bath-tub.
+Indeed, for the former office my razeed dory gained such a reputation
+on the voyage that my washerwoman at Samoa would not take no for an
+answer. She could see with one eye that it was a new invention which
+beat any Yankee notion ever brought by missionaries to the islands,
+and she had to have it.
+
+The want of a chronometer for the voyage was all that now worried me.
+In our newfangled notions of navigation it is supposed that a mariner
+cannot find his way without one; and I had myself drifted into this
+way of thinking. My old chronometer, a good one, had been long in
+disuse. It would cost fifteen dollars to clean and rate it. Fifteen
+dollars! For sufficient reasons I left that timepiece at home, where
+the Dutchman left his anchor. I had the great lantern, and a lady in
+Boston sent me the price of a large two-burner cabin lamp, which
+lighted the cabin at night, and by some small contriving served for a
+stove through the day.
+
+Being thus refitted I was once more ready for sea, and on May 7 again
+made sail. With little room in which to turn, the _Spray_, in
+gathering headway, scratched the paint off an old, fine-weather craft
+in the fairway, being puttied and painted for a summer voyage. "Who'll
+pay for that?" growled the painters. "I will," said I. "With the
+main-sheet," echoed the captain of the _Bluebird_, close by, which was
+his way of saying that I was off. There was nothing to pay for above
+five cents' worth of paint, maybe, but such a din was raised between
+the old "hooker" and the _Bluebird_, which now took up my case, that
+the first cause of it was forgotten altogether. Anyhow, no bill was
+sent after me.
+
+The weather was mild on the day of my departure from Gloucester. On
+the point ahead, as the _Spray_ stood out of the cove, was a lively
+picture, for the front of a tall factory was a flutter of
+handkerchiefs and caps. Pretty faces peered out of the windows from
+the top to the bottom of the building, all smiling _bon voyage_. Some
+hailed me to know where away and why alone. Why? When I made as if to
+stand in, a hundred pairs of arms reached out, and said come, but the
+shore was dangerous! The sloop worked out of the bay against a light
+southwest wind, and about noon squared away off Eastern Point,
+receiving at the same time a hearty salute--the last of many
+kindnesses to her at Gloucester. The wind freshened off the point, and
+skipping along smoothly, the _Spray_ was soon off Thatcher's Island
+lights. Thence shaping her course east, by compass, to go north of
+Cashes Ledge and the Amen Rocks, I sat and considered the matter all
+over again, and asked myself once more whether it were best to sail
+beyond the ledge and rocks at all. I had only said that I would sail
+round the world in the _Spray_, "dangers of the sea excepted," but I
+must have said it very much in earnest. The "charter-party" with
+myself seemed to bind me, and so I sailed on. Toward night I hauled
+the sloop to the wind, and baiting a hook, sounded for bottom-fish, in
+thirty fathoms of water, on the edge of Cashes Ledge. With fair
+success I hauled till dark, landing on deck three cod and two
+haddocks, one hake, and, best of all, a small halibut, all plump and
+spry. This, I thought, would be the place to take in a good stock of
+provisions above what I already had; so I put out a sea-anchor that
+would hold her head to windward. The current being southwest, against
+the wind, I felt quite sure I would find the _Spray_ still on the bank
+or near it in the morning. Then "stradding" the cable and putting my
+great lantern in the rigging, I lay down, for the first time at sea
+alone, not to sleep, but to doze and to dream.
+
+I had read somewhere of a fishing-schooner hooking her anchor into a
+whale, and being towed a long way and at great speed. This was exactly
+what happened to the _Spray_--in my dream! I could not shake it off
+entirely when I awoke and found that it was the wind blowing and the
+heavy sea now running that had disturbed my short rest. A scud was
+flying across the moon. A storm was brewing; indeed, it was already
+stormy. I reefed the sails, then hauled in my sea-anchor, and setting
+what canvas the sloop could carry, headed her away for Monhegan light,
+which she made before daylight on the morning of the 8th. The wind
+being free, I ran on into Round Pond harbor, which is a little port
+east from Pemaquid. Here I rested a day, while the wind rattled among
+the pine-trees on shore. But the following day was fine enough, and I
+put to sea, first writing up my log from Cape Ann, not omitting a full
+account of my adventure with the whale.
+
+[Illustration: "'No dorg nor no cat.'"]
+
+The _Spray_, heading east, stretched along the coast among many
+islands and over a tranquil sea. At evening of this day, May 10, she
+came up with a considerable island, which I shall always think of as
+the Island of Frogs, for the _Spray_ was charmed by a million voices.
+From the Island of Frogs we made for the Island of Birds, called
+Gannet Island, and sometimes Gannet Rock, whereon is a bright,
+intermittent light, which flashed fitfully across the _Spray's_ deck
+as she coasted along under its light and shade. Thence shaping a
+course for Briar's Island, I came among vessels the following
+afternoon on the western fishing-grounds, and after speaking a
+fisherman at anchor, who gave me a wrong course, the _Spray_ sailed
+directly over the southwest ledge through the worst tide-race in the
+Bay of Fundy, and got into Westport harbor in Nova Scotia, where I had
+spent eight years of my life as a lad.
+
+The fisherman may have said "east-southeast," the course I was
+steering when I hailed him; but I thought he said "east-northeast,"
+and I accordingly changed it to that. Before he made up his mind to
+answer me at all, he improved the occasion of his own curiosity to
+know where I was from, and if I was alone, and if I didn't have "no
+dorg nor no cat." It was the first time in all my life at sea that I
+had heard a hail for information answered by a question. I think the
+chap belonged to the Foreign Islands. There was one thing I was sure
+of, and that was that he did not belong to Briar's Island, because he
+dodged a sea that slopped over the rail, and stopping to brush the
+water from his face, lost a fine cod which he was about to ship. My
+islander would not have done that. It is known that a Briar Islander,
+fish or no fish on his hook, never flinches from a sea. He just tends
+to his lines and hauls or "saws." Nay, have I not seen my old friend
+Deacon W. D---, a good man of the island, while listening to a sermon
+in the little church on the hill, reach out his hand over the door of
+his pew and "jig" imaginary squid in the aisle, to the intense delight
+of the young people, who did not realize that to catch good fish one
+must have good bait, the thing most on the deacon's mind.
+
+[Illustration: The deacon's dream.]
+
+I was delighted to reach Westport. Any port at all would have been
+delightful after the terrible thrashing I got in the fierce sou'west
+rip, and to find myself among old schoolmates now was charming. It was
+the 13th of the month, and 13 is my lucky number--a fact registered
+long before Dr. Nansen sailed in search of the north pole with his
+crew of thirteen. Perhaps he had heard of my success in taking a most
+extraordinary ship successfully to Brazil with that number of crew.
+The very stones on Briar's Island I was glad to see again, and I knew
+them all. The little shop round the corner, which for thirty-five
+years I had not seen, was the same, except that it looked a deal
+smaller. It wore the same shingles--I was sure of it; for did not I
+know the roof where we boys, night after night, hunted for the skin of
+a black cat, to be taken on a dark night, to make a plaster for a poor
+lame man? Lowry the tailor lived there when boys were boys. In his day
+he was fond of the gun. He always carried his powder loose in the tail
+pocket of his coat. He usually had in his mouth a short dudeen; but in
+an evil moment he put the dudeen, lighted, in the pocket among the
+powder. Mr. Lowry was an eccentric man.
+
+At Briar's Island I overhauled the _Spray_ once more and tried her
+seams, but found that even the test of the sou'west rip had started
+nothing. Bad weather and much head wind prevailing outside, I was in
+no hurry to round Cape Sable. I made a short excursion with some
+friends to St. Mary's Bay, an old cruising-ground, and back to the
+island. Then I sailed, putting into Yarmouth the following day on
+account of fog and head wind. I spent some days pleasantly enough in
+Yarmouth, took in some butter for the voyage, also a barrel of
+potatoes, filled six barrels of water, and stowed all under deck. At
+Yarmouth, too, I got my famous tin clock, the only timepiece I carried
+on the whole voyage. The price of it was a dollar and a half, but on
+account of the face being smashed the merchant let me have it for a
+dollar.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum's chronometer.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Good-by to the American coast--Off Sable Island in a fog--In the open
+sea--The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage--The first
+fit of loneliness--The _Spray_ encounters _La Vaguisa_--A bottle of
+wine from the Spaniard--A bout of words with the captain of the
+_Java_--The steamship _Olympia_ spoken--Arrival at the Azores.
+
+I now stowed all my goods securely, for the boisterous Atlantic was
+before me, and I sent the topmast down, knowing that the _Spray_ would
+be the wholesomer with it on deck. Then I gave the lanyards a pull and
+hitched them afresh, and saw that the gammon was secure, also that the
+boat was lashed, for even in summer one may meet with bad weather in
+the crossing.
+
+In fact, many weeks of bad weather had prevailed. On July 1, however,
+after a rude gale, the wind came out nor'west and clear, propitious
+for a good run. On the following day, the head sea having gone down, I
+sailed from Yarmouth, and let go my last hold on America. The log of
+my first day on the Atlantic in the _Spray_ reads briefly: "9:30 A.M.
+sailed from Yarmouth. 4:30 P.M. passed Cape Sable; distance, three
+cables from the land. The sloop making eight knots. Fresh breeze N.W."
+Before the sun went down I was taking my supper of strawberries and
+tea in smooth water under the lee of the east-coast land, along which
+the _Spray_ was now leisurely skirting.
+
+At noon on July 3 Ironbound Island was abeam. The _Spray_ was again at
+her best. A large schooner came out of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, this
+morning, steering eastward. The _Spray_ put her hull down astern in
+five hours. At 6:45 P.M. I was in close under Chebucto Head light,
+near Halifax harbor. I set my flag and squared away, taking my
+departure from George's Island before dark to sail east of Sable
+Island. There are many beacon lights along the coast. Sambro, the Rock
+of Lamentations, carries a noble light, which, however, the liner
+_Atlantic_, on the night of her terrible disaster, did not see. I
+watched light after light sink astern as I sailed into the unbounded
+sea, till Sambro, the last of them all, was below the horizon. The
+_Spray_ was then alone, and sailing on, she held her course. July 4,
+at 6 A.M., I put in double reefs, and at 8:30 A.M. turned out all
+reefs. At 9:40 P.M. I raised the sheen only of the light on the west
+end of Sable Island, which may also be called the Island of Tragedies.
+The fog, which till this moment had held off, now lowered over the sea
+like a pall. I was in a world of fog, shut off from the universe. I
+did not see any more of the light. By the lead, which I cast often, I
+found that a little after midnight I was passing the east point of the
+island, and should soon be clear of dangers of land and shoals. The
+wind was holding free, though it was from the foggy point,
+south-southwest. It is said that within a few years Sable Island has
+been reduced from forty miles in length to twenty, and that of three
+lighthouses built on it since 1880, two have been washed away and the
+third will soon be engulfed.
+
+[Illustration: "'Good evening, sir.'"]
+
+On the evening of July 5 the _Spray_, after having steered all day
+over a lumpy sea, took it into her head to go without the helmsman's
+aid. I had been steering southeast by south, but the wind hauling
+forward a bit, she dropped into a smooth lane, heading southeast, and
+making about eight knots, her very best work. I crowded on sail to
+cross the track of the liners without loss of time, and to reach as
+soon as possible the friendly Gulf Stream. The fog lifting before
+night, I was afforded a look at the sun just as it was touching the
+sea. I watched it go down and out of sight. Then I turned my face
+eastward, and there, apparently at the very end of the bowsprit, was
+the smiling full moon rising out of the sea. Neptune himself coming
+over the bows could not have startled me more. "Good evening, sir," I
+cried; "I'm glad to see you." Many a long talk since then I have had
+with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage.
+
+About midnight the fog shut down again denser than ever before. One
+could almost "stand on it." It continued so for a number of days, the
+wind increasing to a gale. The waves rose high, but I had a good ship.
+Still, in the dismal fog I felt myself drifting into loneliness, an
+insect on a straw in the midst of the elements. I lashed the helm, and
+my vessel held her course, and while she sailed I slept.
+
+During these days a feeling of awe crept over me. My memory worked
+with startling power. The ominous, the insignificant, the great, the
+small, the wonderful, the commonplace--all appeared before my mental
+vision in magical succession. Pages of my history were recalled which
+had been so long forgotten that they seemed to belong to a previous
+existence. I heard all the voices of the past laughing, crying,
+telling what I had heard them tell in many corners of the earth.
+
+The loneliness of my state wore off when the gale was high and I found
+much work to do. When fine weather returned, then came the sense of
+solitude, which I could not shake off. I used my voice often, at first
+giving some order about the affairs of a ship, for I had been told
+that from disuse I should lose my speech. At the meridian altitude of
+the sun I called aloud, "Eight bells," after the custom on a ship at
+sea. Again from my cabin I cried to an imaginary man at the helm, "How
+does she head, there?" and again, "Is she on her course?" But getting
+no reply, I was reminded the more palpably of my condition. My voice
+sounded hollow on the empty air, and I dropped the practice. However,
+it was not long before the thought came to me that when I was a lad I
+used to sing; why not try that now, where it would disturb no one? My
+musical talent had never bred envy in others, but out on the Atlantic,
+to realize what it meant, you should have heard me sing. You should
+have seen the porpoises leap when I pitched my voice for the waves and
+the sea and all that was in it. Old turtles, with large eyes, poked
+their heads up out of the sea as I sang "Johnny Boker," and "We'll Pay
+Darby Doyl for his Boots," and the like. But the porpoises were, on
+the whole, vastly more appreciative than the turtles; they jumped a
+deal higher. One day when I was humming a favorite chant, I think it
+was "Babylon's a-Fallin'," a porpoise jumped higher than the bowsprit.
+Had the _Spray_ been going a little faster she would have scooped
+him in. The sea-birds sailed around rather shy.
+
+July 10, eight days at sea, the _Spray_ was twelve hundred miles east
+of Cape Sable. One hundred and fifty miles a day for so small a vessel
+must be considered good sailing. It was the greatest run the _Spray_
+ever made before or since in so few days. On the evening of July 14,
+in better humor than ever before, all hands cried, "Sail ho!" The sail
+was a barkantine, three points on the weather bow, hull down. Then
+came the night. My ship was sailing along now without attention to the
+helm. The wind was south; she was heading east. Her sails were trimmed
+like the sails of the nautilus. They drew steadily all night. I went
+frequently on deck, but found all well. A merry breeze kept on from
+the south. Early in the morning of the 15th the _Spray_ was close
+aboard the stranger, which proved to be _La Vaguisa_ of Vigo,
+twenty-three days from Philadelphia, bound for Vigo. A lookout from
+his masthead had spied the _Spray_ the evening before. The captain,
+when I came near enough, threw a line to me and sent a bottle of wine
+across slung by the neck, and very good wine it was. He also sent his
+card, which bore the name of Juan Gantes. I think he was a good man,
+as Spaniards go. But when I asked him to report me "all well" (the
+_Spray_ passing him in a lively manner), he hauled his shoulders much
+above his head; and when his mate, who knew of my expedition, told him
+that I was alone, he crossed himself and made for his cabin. I did not
+see him again. By sundown he was as far astern as he had been ahead
+the evening before.
+
+[Illustration: "He also sent his card."]
+
+There was now less and less monotony. On July 16 the wind was
+northwest and clear, the sea smooth, and a large bark, hull down, came
+in sight on the lee bow, and at 2:30 P.M. I spoke the stranger. She
+was the bark _Java_ of Glasgow, from Peru for Queenstown for orders.
+Her old captain was bearish, but I met a bear once in Alaska that
+looked pleasanter. At least, the bear seemed pleased to meet me, but
+this grizzly old man! Well, I suppose my hail disturbed his siesta,
+and my little sloop passing his great ship had somewhat the effect on
+him that a red rag has upon a bull. I had the advantage over heavy
+ships, by long odds, in the light winds of this and the two previous
+days. The wind was light; his ship was heavy and foul, making poor
+headway, while the _Spray_, with a great mainsail bellying even to
+light winds, was just skipping along as nimbly as one could wish. "How
+long has it been calm about here?" roared the captain of the _Java_,
+as I came within hail of him. "Dunno, cap'n," I shouted back as loud
+as I could bawl. "I haven't been here long." At this the mate on the
+forecastle wore a broad grin. "I left Cape Sable fourteen days ago," I
+added. (I was now well across toward the Azores.) "Mate," he roared to
+his chief officer--"mate, come here and listen to the Yankee's yarn.
+Haul down the flag, mate, haul down the flag!" In the best of humor,
+after all, the _Java_ surrendered to the _Spray_.
+
+[Illustration: Chart of the _Spray's_ course around the world--April
+24, 1895, to July 3, 1898]
+
+The acute pain of solitude experienced at first never returned. I had
+penetrated a mystery, and, by the way, I had sailed through a fog. I
+had met Neptune in his wrath, but he found that I had not treated him
+with contempt, and so he suffered me to go on and explore.
+
+In the log for July 18 there is this entry: "Fine weather, wind
+south-southwest. Porpoises gamboling all about. The S.S. _Olympia_
+passed at 11:30 A.M., long. W. 34 degrees 50'."
+
+"It lacks now three minutes of the half-hour," shouted the captain, as
+he gave me the longitude and the time. I admired the businesslike air
+of the _Olympia_; but I have the feeling still that the captain was
+just a little too precise in his reckoning. That may be all well
+enough, however, where there is plenty of sea-room. But
+over-confidence, I believe, was the cause of the disaster to the liner
+_Atlantic_, and many more like her. The captain knew too well where he
+was. There were no porpoises at all skipping along with the _Olympia_!
+Porpoises always prefer sailing-ships. The captain was a young man, I
+observed, and had before him, I hope, a good record.
+
+Land ho! On the morning of July 19 a mystic dome like a mountain of
+silver stood alone in the sea ahead. Although the land was completely
+hidden by the white, glistening haze that shone in the sun like
+polished silver, I felt quite sure that it was Flores Island. At
+half-past four P.M. it was abeam. The haze in the meantime had
+disappeared. Flores is one hundred and seventy-four miles from Fayal,
+and although it is a high island, it remained many years undiscovered
+after the principal group of the islands had been colonized.
+
+Early on the morning of July 20 I saw Pico looming above the clouds on
+the starboard bow. Lower lands burst forth as the sun burned away the
+morning fog, and island after island came into view. As I approached
+nearer, cultivated fields appeared, "and oh, how green the corn!" Only
+those who have seen the Azores from the deck of a vessel realize the
+beauty of the mid-ocean picture.
+
+[Illustration: The island of Pico.]
+
+At 4:30 P.M. I cast anchor at Fayal, exactly eighteen days from Cape
+Sable. The American consul, in a smart boat, came alongside before the
+_Spray_ reached the breakwater, and a young naval officer, who feared
+for the safety of my vessel, boarded, and offered his services as
+pilot. The youngster, I have no good reason to doubt, could have
+handled a man-of-war, but the _Spray_ was too small for the amount of
+uniform he wore. However, after fouling all the craft in port and
+sinking a lighter, she was moored without much damage to herself. This
+wonderful pilot expected a "gratification," I understood, but whether
+for the reason that his government, and not I, would have to pay the
+cost of raising the lighter, or because he did not sink the _Spray_, I
+could never make out. But I forgive him.
+
+It was the season for fruit when I arrived at the Azores, and there
+was soon more of all kinds of it put on board than I knew what to do
+with. Islanders are always the kindest people in the world, and I met
+none anywhere kinder than the good hearts of this place. The people of
+the Azores are not a very rich community. The burden of taxes is
+heavy, with scant privileges in return, the air they breathe being
+about the only thing that is not taxed. The mother-country does not
+even allow them a port of entry for a foreign mail service. A packet
+passing never so close with mails for Horta must deliver them first in
+Lisbon, ostensibly to be fumigated, but really for the tariff from the
+packet. My own letters posted at Horta reached the United States six
+days behind my letter from Gibraltar, mailed thirteen days later.
+
+The day after my arrival at Horta was the feast of a great saint.
+Boats loaded with people came from other islands to celebrate at
+Horta, the capital, or Jerusalem, of the Azores. The deck of the
+_Spray_ was crowded from morning till night with men, women, and
+children. On the day after the feast a kind-hearted native harnessed a
+team and drove me a day over the beautiful roads all about Fayal,
+"because," said he, in broken English, "when I was in America and
+couldn't speak a word of English, I found it hard till I met some one
+who seemed to have time to listen to my story, and I promised my good
+saint then that if ever a stranger came to my country I would try to
+make him happy." Unfortunately, this gentleman brought along an
+interpreter, that I might "learn more of the country." The fellow was
+nearly the death of me, talking of ships and voyages, and of the boats
+he had steered, the last thing in the world I wished to hear. He had
+sailed out of New Bedford, so he said, for "that Joe Wing they call
+'John.'" My friend and host found hardly a chance to edge in a word.
+Before we parted my host dined me with a cheer that would have
+gladdened the heart of a prince, but he was quite alone in his house.
+"My wife and children all rest there," said he, pointing to the
+churchyard across the way. "I moved to this house from far off," he
+added, "to be near the spot, where I pray every morning."
+
+I remained four days at Fayal, and that was two days more than I had
+intended to stay. It was the kindness of the islanders and their
+touching simplicity which detained me. A damsel, as innocent as an
+angel, came alongside one day, and said she would embark on the
+_Spray_ if I would land her at Lisbon. She could cook flying-fish, she
+thought, but her forte was dressing _bacalhao_. Her brother Antonio,
+who served as interpreter, hinted that, anyhow, he would like to make
+the trip. Antonio's heart went out to one John Wilson, and he was
+ready to sail for America by way of the two capes to meet his friend.
+"Do you know John Wilson of Boston?" he cried. "I knew a John Wilson,"
+I said, "but not of Boston." "He had one daughter and one son," said
+Antonio, by way of identifying his friend. If this reaches the right
+John Wilson, I am told to say that "Antonio of Pico remembers him."
+
+[Illustration: Chart of the _Spray's_ Atlantic voyages from Boston to
+Gibraltar, thence to the Strait of Magellan, in 1895, and finally
+homeward bound from the Cape of Good Hope in 1898.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Squally weather in the Azores--High living--Delirious from cheese and
+plums--The pilot of the _Pinta_--At Gibraltar--Compliments exchanged
+with the British navy--A picnic on the Morocco shore.
+
+I set sail from Horta early on July 24. The southwest wind at the time
+was light, but squalls came up with the sun, and I was glad enough to
+get reefs in my sails before I had gone a mile. I had hardly set the
+mainsail, double-reefed, when a squall of wind down the mountains
+struck the sloop with such violence that I thought her mast would go.
+However, a quick helm brought her to the wind. As it was, one of the
+weather lanyards was carried away and the other was stranded. My tin
+basin, caught up by the wind, went flying across a French school-ship
+to leeward. It was more or less squally all day, sailing along under
+high land; but rounding close under a bluff, I found an opportunity to
+mend the lanyards broken in the squall. No sooner had I lowered my
+sails when a four-oared boat shot out from some gully in the rocks,
+with a customs officer on board, who thought he had come upon a
+smuggler. I had some difficulty in making him comprehend the true
+case. However, one of his crew, a sailorly chap, who understood how
+matters were, while we palavered jumped on board and rove off the new
+lanyards I had already prepared, and with a friendly hand helped me
+"set up the rigging." This incident gave the turn in my favor. My
+story was then clear to all. I have found this the way of the world.
+Let one be without a friend, and see what will happen!
+
+Passing the island of Pico, after the rigging was mended, the _Spray_
+stretched across to leeward of the island of St. Michael's, which she
+was up with early on the morning of July 26, the wind blowing hard.
+Later in the day she passed the Prince of Monaco's fine steam-yacht
+bound to Fayal, where, on a previous voyage, the prince had slipped
+his cables to "escape a reception" which the padres of the island
+wished to give him. Why he so dreaded the "ovation" I could not make
+out. At Horta they did not know. Since reaching the islands I had
+lived most luxuriously on fresh bread, butter, vegetables, and fruits
+of all kinds. Plums seemed the most plentiful on the _Spray_, and
+these I ate without stint. I had also a Pico white cheese that General
+Manning, the American consul-general, had given me, which I supposed
+was to be eaten, and of this I partook with the plums. Alas! by
+night-time I was doubled up with cramps. The wind, which was already a
+smart breeze, was increasing somewhat, with a heavy sky to the
+sou'west. Reefs had been turned out, and I must turn them in again
+somehow. Between cramps I got the mainsail down, hauled out the
+earings as best I could, and tied away point by point, in the double
+reef. There being sea-room, I should, in strict prudence, have made
+all snug and gone down at once to my cabin. I am a careful man at sea,
+but this night, in the coming storm, I swayed up my sails, which,
+reefed though they were, were still too much in such heavy weather;
+and I saw to it that the sheets were securely belayed. In a word, I
+should have laid to, but did not. I gave her the double-reefed
+mainsail and whole jib instead, and set her on her course. Then I went
+below, and threw myself upon the cabin floor in great pain. How long I
+lay there I could not tell, for I became delirious. When I came to, as
+I thought, from my swoon, I realized that the sloop was plunging into
+a heavy sea, and looking out of the companionway, to my amazement I
+saw a tall man at the helm. His rigid hand, grasping the spokes of the
+wheel, held them as in a vise. One may imagine my astonishment. His
+rig was that of a foreign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was
+cockbilled over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy black
+whiskers. He would have been taken for a pirate in any part of the
+world. While I gazed upon his threatening aspect I forgot the storm,
+and wondered if he had come to cut my throat. This he seemed to
+divine. "Senor," said he, doffing his cap, "I have come to do you no
+harm." And a smile, the faintest in the world, but still a smile,
+played on his face, which seemed not unkind when he spoke. "I have
+come to do you no harm. I have sailed free," he said, "but was never
+worse than a _contrabandista_. I am one of Columbus's crew," he
+continued. "I am the pilot of the Pinta come to aid you. Lie quiet,
+senor captain," he added, "and I will guide your ship to-night. You
+have a _calentura_, but you will be all right tomorrow." I thought
+what a very devil he was to carry sail. Again, as if he read my mind,
+he exclaimed: "Yonder is the _Pinta_ ahead; we must overtake her. Give
+her sail; give her sail! _Vale, vale, muy vale!_" Biting off a large
+quid of black twist, he said: "You did wrong, captain, to mix cheese
+with plums. White cheese is never safe unless you know whence it
+comes. _Quien sabe_, it may have been from _leche de Capra_ and
+becoming capricious--"
+
+[Illustration: The apparition at the wheel.]
+
+"Avast, there!" I cried. "I have no mind for moralizing."
+
+I made shift to spread a mattress and lie on that instead of the hard
+floor, my eyes all the while fastened on my strange guest, who,
+remarking again that I would have "only pains and calentura," chuckled
+as he chanted a wild song:
+
+  High are the waves, fierce, gleaming,
+    High is the tempest roar!
+  High the sea-bird screaming!
+    High the Azore!
+
+I suppose I was now on the mend, for I was peevish, and complained: "I
+detest your jingle. Your Azore should be at roost, and would have been
+were it a respectable bird!" I begged he would tie a rope-yarn on the
+rest of the song, if there was any more of it. I was still in agony.
+Great seas were boarding the _Spray_, but in my fevered brain I
+thought they were boats falling on deck, that careless draymen were
+throwing from wagons on the pier to which I imagined the _Spray_ was
+now moored, and without fenders to breast her off. "You'll smash your
+boats!" I called out again and again, as the seas crashed on the cabin
+over my head. "You'll smash your boats, but you can't hurt the
+_Spray_. She is strong!" I cried.
+
+I found, when my pains and calentura had gone, that the deck, now as
+white as a shark's tooth from seas washing over it, had been swept of
+everything movable. To my astonishment, I saw now at broad day that
+the _Spray_ was still heading as I had left her, and was going like a
+racehorse. Columbus himself could not have held her more exactly on
+her course. The sloop had made ninety miles in the night through a
+rough sea. I felt grateful to the old pilot, but I marveled some that
+he had not taken in the jib. The gale was moderating, and by noon the
+sun was shining. A meridian altitude and the distance on the patent
+log, which I always kept towing, told me that she had made a true
+course throughout the twenty-four hours. I was getting much better
+now, but was very weak, and did not turn out reefs that day or the
+night following, although the wind fell light; but I just put my wet
+clothes out in the sun when it was shining, and lying down there
+myself, fell asleep. Then who should visit me again but my old friend
+of the night before, this time, of course, in a dream. "You did well
+last night to take my advice," said he, "and if you would, I should
+like to be with you often on the voyage, for the love of adventure
+alone." Finishing what he had to say, he again doffed his cap and
+disappeared as mysteriously as he came, returning, I suppose, to the
+phantom _Pinta_. I awoke much refreshed, and with the feeling that I
+had been in the presence of a friend and a seaman of vast experience.
+I gathered up my clothes, which by this time were dry, then, by
+inspiration, I threw overboard all the plums in the vessel.
+
+July 28 was exceptionally fine. The wind from the northwest was light
+and the air balmy. I overhauled my wardrobe, and bent on a white shirt
+against nearing some coasting-packet with genteel folk on board. I
+also did some washing to get the salt out of my clothes. After it all
+I was hungry, so I made a fire and very cautiously stewed a dish of
+pears and set them carefully aside till I had made a pot of delicious
+coffee, for both of which I could afford sugar and cream. But the
+crowning dish of all was a fish-hash, and there was enough of it for
+two. I was in good health again, and my appetite was simply ravenous.
+While I was dining I had a large onion over the double lamp stewing
+for a luncheon later in the day. High living to-day!
+
+In the afternoon the _Spray_ came upon a large turtle asleep on the
+sea. He awoke with my harpoon through his neck, if he awoke at all. I
+had much difficulty in landing him on deck, which I finally
+accomplished by hooking the throat-halyards to one of his flippers,
+for he was about as heavy as my boat. I saw more turtles, and I rigged
+a burton ready with which to hoist them in; for I was obliged to lower
+the mainsail whenever the halyards were used for such purposes, and it
+was no small matter to hoist the large sail again. But the
+turtle-steak was good. I found no fault with the cook, and it was the
+rule of the voyage that the cook found no fault with me. There was
+never a ship's crew so well agreed. The bill of fare that evening was
+turtle-steak, tea and toast, fried potatoes, stewed onions; with
+dessert of stewed pears and cream.
+
+Sometime in the afternoon I passed a barrel-buoy adrift, floating
+light on the water. It was painted red, and rigged with a signal-staff
+about six feet high. A sudden change in the weather coming on, I got
+no more turtle or fish of any sort before reaching port. July 31 a
+gale sprang up suddenly from the north, with heavy seas, and I
+shortened sail. The _Spray_ made only fifty-one miles on her course
+that day. August 1 the gale continued, with heavy seas. Through the
+night the sloop was reaching, under close-reefed mainsail and bobbed
+jib. At 3 P.M. the jib was washed off the bowsprit and blown to rags
+and ribbons. I bent the "jumbo" on a stay at the night-heads. As for
+the jib, let it go; I saved pieces of it, and, after all, I was in
+want of pot-rags.
+
+On August 3 the gale broke, and I saw many signs of land. Bad weather
+having made itself felt in the galley, I was minded to try my hand at
+a loaf of bread, and so rigging a pot of fire on deck by which to bake
+it, a loaf soon became an accomplished fact. One great feature about
+ship's cooking is that one's appetite on the sea is always good--a
+fact that I realized when I cooked for the crew of fishermen in the
+before-mentioned boyhood days. Dinner being over, I sat for hours
+reading the life of Columbus, and as the day wore on I watched the
+birds all flying in one direction, and said, "Land lies there."
+
+Early the next morning, August 4, I discovered Spain. I saw fires on
+shore, and knew that the country was inhabited. The _Spray_ continued
+on her course till well in with the land, which was that about
+Trafalgar. Then keeping away a point, she passed through the Strait of
+Gibraltar, where she cast anchor at 3 P. M. of the same day, less than
+twenty-nine days from Cape Sable. At the finish of this preliminary
+trip I found myself in excellent health, not overworked or cramped,
+but as well as ever in my life, though I was as thin as a reef-point.
+
+[Illustration: Coming to anchor at Gibraltar.]
+
+Two Italian barks, which had been close alongside at daylight, I saw
+long after I had anchored, passing up the African side of the strait.
+The _Spray_ had sailed them both hull down before she reached Tarifa.
+So far as I know, the _Spray_ beat everything going across the
+Atlantic except the steamers.
+
+All was well, but I had forgotten to bring a bill of health from
+Horta, and so when the fierce old port doctor came to inspect there
+was a row. That, however, was the very thing needed. If you want to
+get on well with a true Britisher you must first have a deuce of a row
+with him. I knew that well enough, and so I fired away, shot for shot,
+as best I could. "Well, yes," the doctor admitted at last, "your crew
+are healthy enough, no doubt, but who knows the diseases of your last
+port?"--a reasonable enough remark. "We ought to put you in the fort,
+sir!" he blustered; "but never mind. Free pratique, sir! Shove off,
+cockswain!" And that was the last I saw of the port doctor.
+
+But on the following morning a steam-launch, much longer than the
+_Spray_, came alongside,--or as much of her as could get
+alongside,--with compliments from the senior naval officer, Admiral
+Bruce, saying there was a berth for the _Spray_ at the arsenal. This
+was around at the new mole. I had anchored at the old mole, among the
+native craft, where it was rough and uncomfortable. Of course I was
+glad to shift, and did so as soon as possible, thinking of the great
+company the _Spray_ would be in among battle-ships such as the
+_Collingwood_, _Balfleur_, and _Cormorant_, which were at that time
+stationed there, and on board all of which I was entertained, later,
+most royally.
+
+"'Put it thar!' as the Americans say," was the salute I got from
+Admiral Bruce, when I called at the admiralty to thank him for his
+courtesy of the berth, and for the use of the steam-launch which towed
+me into dock. "About the berth, it is all right if it suits, and we'll
+tow you out when you are ready to go. But, say, what repairs do you
+want? Ahoy the _Hebe_, can you spare your sailmaker? The _Spray_ wants
+a new jib. Construction and repair, there! will you see to the
+_Spray_? Say, old man, you must have knocked the devil out of her
+coming over alone in twenty-nine days! But we'll make it smooth for
+you here!" Not even her Majesty's ship the _Collingwood_ was better
+looked after than the _Spray_ at Gibraltar.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ at anchor off Gibraltar.]
+
+Later in the day came the hail: "_Spray_ ahoy! Mrs. Bruce would like
+to come on board and shake hands with the _Spray_. Will it be
+convenient to-day!" "Very!" I joyfully shouted.
+
+On the following day Sir F. Carrington, at the time governor of
+Gibraltar, with other high officers of the garrison, and all the
+commanders of the battle-ships, came on board and signed their names
+in the _Spray's_ log-book. Again there was a hail, "_Spray_ ahoy!"
+"Hello!" "Commander Reynolds's compliments. You are invited on board
+H.M.S. _Collingwood_, 'at home' at 4:30 P.M. Not later than 5:30 P.M."
+I had already hinted at the limited amount of my wardrobe, and that I
+could never succeed as a dude. "You are expected, sir, in a stovepipe
+hat and a claw-hammer coat!" "Then I can't come." "Dash it! come in
+what you have on; that is what we mean." "Aye, aye, sir!" The
+_Collingwood's_ cheer was good, and had I worn a silk hat as high as
+the moon I could not have had a better time or been made more at home.
+An Englishman, even on his great battle-ship, unbends when the
+stranger passes his gangway, and when he says "at home" he means it.
+
+That one should like Gibraltar would go without saying. How could one
+help loving so hospitable a place? Vegetables twice a week and milk
+every morning came from the palatial grounds of the admiralty.
+"_Spray_ ahoy!" would hail the admiral. "_Spray_ ahoy!" "Hello!"
+"To-morrow is your vegetable day, sir." "Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+I rambled much about the old city, and a gunner piloted me through the
+galleries of the rock as far as a stranger is permitted to go. There
+is no excavation in the world, for military purposes, at all
+approaching these of Gibraltar in conception or execution. Viewing the
+stupendous works, it became hard to realize that one was within the
+Gibraltar of his little old Morse geography.
+
+Before sailing I was invited on a picnic with the governor, the
+officers of the garrison, and the commanders of the war-ships at the
+station; and a royal affair it was. Torpedo-boat No. 91, going
+twenty-two knots, carried our party to the Morocco shore and back. The
+day was perfect--too fine, in fact, for comfort on shore, and so no
+one landed at Morocco. No. 91 trembled like an aspen-leaf as she raced
+through the sea at top speed. Sublieutenant Boucher, apparently a mere
+lad, was in command, and handled his ship with the skill of an older
+sailor. On the following day I lunched with General Carrington, the
+governor, at Line Wall House, which was once the Franciscan convent.
+In this interesting edifice are preserved relics of the fourteen
+sieges which Gibraltar has seen. On the next day I supped with the
+admiral at his residence, the palace, which was once the convent of
+the Mercenaries. At each place, and all about, I felt the friendly
+grasp of a manly hand, that lent me vital strength to pass the coming
+long days at sea. I must confess that the perfect discipline, order,
+and cheerfulness at Gibraltar were only a second wonder in the great
+stronghold. The vast amount of business going forward caused no more
+excitement than the quiet sailing of a well-appointed ship in a smooth
+sea. No one spoke above his natural voice, save a boatswain's mate now
+and then. The Hon. Horatio J. Sprague, the venerable United States
+consul at Gibraltar, honored the _Spray_ with a visit on Sunday,
+August 24, and was much pleased to find that our British cousins had
+been so kind to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug--The
+_Spray's_ course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn--Chased by a
+Moorish pirate--A comparison with Columbus--The Canary Islands-The
+Cape Verde Islands--Sea life--Arrival at Pernambuco--A bill against
+the Brazilian government--Preparing for the stormy weather of the
+cape.
+
+Monday, August 25, the _Spray_ sailed from Gibraltar, well repaid for
+whatever deviation she had made from a direct course to reach the
+place. A tug belonging to her Majesty towed the sloop into the steady
+breeze clear of the mount, where her sails caught a volant wind, which
+carried her once more to the Atlantic, where it rose rapidly to a
+furious gale. My plan was, in going down this coast, to haul offshore,
+well clear of the land, which hereabouts is the home of pirates; but I
+had hardly accomplished this when I perceived a felucca making out of
+the nearest port, and finally following in the wake of the _Spray_.
+Now, my course to Gibraltar had been taken with a view to proceed up
+the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and
+east about, instead of a western route, which I finally adopted. By
+officers of vast experience in navigating these seas, I was influenced
+to make the change. Longshore pirates on both coasts being numerous, I
+could not afford to make light of the advice. But here I was, after
+all, evidently in the midst of pirates and thieves! I changed my
+course; the felucca did the same, both vessels sailing very fast, but
+the distance growing less and less between us. The _Spray_ was doing
+nobly; she was even more than at her best; but, in spite of all I
+could do, she would broach now and then. She was carrying too much
+sail for safety. I must reef or be dismasted and lose all, pirate or
+no pirate. I must reef, even if I had to grapple with him for my life.
+
+I was not long in reefing the mainsail and sweating it up--probably
+not more than fifteen minutes; but the felucca had in the meantime so
+shortened the distance between us that I now saw the tuft of hair on
+the heads of the crew,--by which, it is said, Mohammed will pull the
+villains up into heaven,--and they were coming on like the wind. From
+what I could clearly make out now, I felt them to be the sons of
+generations of pirates, and I saw by their movements that they were
+now preparing to strike a blow. The exultation on their faces,
+however, was changed in an instant to a look of fear and rage. Their
+craft, with too much sail on, broached to on the crest of a great
+wave. This one great sea changed the aspect of affairs suddenly as the
+flash of a gun. Three minutes later the same wave overtook the _Spray_
+and shook her in every timber. At the same moment the sheet-strop
+parted, and away went the main-boom, broken short at the rigging.
+Impulsively I sprang to the jib-halyards and down-haul, and instantly
+downed the jib. The head-sail being off, and the helm put hard down,
+the sloop came in the wind with a bound. While shivering there, but a
+moment though it was, I got the mainsail down and secured inboard,
+broken boom and all. How I got the boom in before the sail was torn I
+hardly know; but not a stitch of it was broken. The mainsail being
+secured, I hoisted away the jib, and, without looking round, stepped
+quickly to the cabin and snatched down my loaded rifle and cartridges
+at hand; for I made mental calculations that the pirate would by this
+time have recovered his course and be close aboard, and that when I
+saw him it would be better for me to be looking at him along the
+barrel of a gun. The piece was at my shoulder when I peered into the
+mist, but there was no pirate within a mile. The wave and squall that
+carried away my boom dismasted the felucca outright. I perceived his
+thieving crew, some dozen or more of them, struggling to recover their
+rigging from the sea. Allah blacken their faces!
+
+I sailed comfortably on under the jib and forestaysail, which I now
+set. I fished the boom and furled the sail snug for the night; then
+hauled the sloop's head two points offshore to allow for the set of
+current and heavy rollers toward the land. This gave me the wind three
+points on the starboard quarter and a steady pull in the headsails. By
+the time I had things in this order it was dark, and a flying-fish had
+already fallen on deck. I took him below for my supper, but found
+myself too tired to cook, or even to eat a thing already prepared. I
+do not remember to have been more tired before or since in all my life
+than I was at the finish of that day. Too fatigued to sleep, I rolled
+about with the motion of the vessel till near midnight, when I made
+shift to dress my fish and prepare a dish of tea. I fully realized
+now, if I had not before, that the voyage ahead would call for
+exertions ardent and lasting. On August 27 nothing could be seen of
+the Moor, or his country either, except two peaks, away in the east
+through the clear atmosphere of morning. Soon after the sun rose even
+these were obscured by haze, much to my satisfaction.
+
+[Illustration: Chased by pirates.]
+
+The wind, for a few days following my escape from the pirates, blew a
+steady but moderate gale, and the sea, though agitated into long
+rollers, was not uncomfortably rough or dangerous, and while sitting
+in my cabin I could hardly realize that any sea was running at all, so
+easy was the long, swinging motion of the sloop over the waves. All
+distracting uneasiness and excitement being now over, I was once more
+alone with myself in the realization that I was on the mighty sea and
+in the hands of the elements. But I was happy, and was becoming more
+and more interested in the voyage.
+
+Columbus, in the _Santa Maria_, sailing these seas more than four
+hundred years before, was not so happy as I, nor so sure of success in
+what he had undertaken. His first troubles at sea had already begun.
+His crew had managed, by foul play or otherwise, to break the ship's
+rudder while running before probably just such a gale as the _Spray_
+had passed through; and there was dissension on the _Santa Maria_,
+something that was unknown on the _Spray_.
+
+After three days of squalls and shifting winds I threw myself down to
+rest and sleep, while, with helm lashed, the sloop sailed steadily on
+her course.
+
+September 1, in the early morning, land-clouds rising ahead told of
+the Canary Islands not far away. A change in the weather came next
+day: storm-clouds stretched their arms across the sky; from the east,
+to all appearances, might come a fierce harmattan, or from the south
+might come the fierce hurricane. Every point of the compass threatened
+a wild storm. My attention was turned to reefing sails, and no time
+was to be lost over it, either, for the sea in a moment was confusion
+itself, and I was glad to head the sloop three points or more away
+from her true course that she might ride safely over the waves. I was
+now scudding her for the channel between Africa and the island of
+Fuerteventura, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, for which I was
+on the lookout. At 2 P.M., the weather becoming suddenly fine, the
+island stood in view, already abeam to starboard, and not more than
+seven miles off. Fuerteventura is twenty-seven hundred feet high, and
+in fine weather is visible many leagues away.
+
+The wind freshened in the night, and the _Spray_ had a fine run
+through the channel. By daylight, September 3, she was twenty-five
+miles clear of all the islands, when a calm ensued, which was the
+precursor of another gale of wind that soon came on, bringing with it
+dust from the African shore. It howled dismally while it lasted, and
+though it was not the season of the harmattan, the sea in the course
+of an hour was discolored with a reddish-brown dust. The air remained
+thick with flying dust all the afternoon, but the wind, veering
+northwest at night, swept it back to land, and afforded the _Spray_
+once more a clear sky. Her mast now bent under a strong, steady
+pressure, and her bellying sail swept the sea as she rolled scuppers
+under, courtesying to the waves. These rolling waves thrilled me as
+they tossed my ship, passing quickly under her keel. This was grand
+sailing.
+
+September 4, the wind, still fresh, blew from the north-northeast, and
+the sea surged along with the sloop. About noon a steamship, a
+bullock-droger, from the river Plate hove in sight, steering
+northeast, and making bad weather of it. I signaled her, but got no
+answer. She was plunging into the head sea and rolling in a most
+astonishing manner, and from the way she yawed one might have said
+that a wild steer was at the helm.
+
+On the morning of September 6 I found three flying-fish on deck, and a
+fourth one down the fore-scuttle as close as possible to the
+frying-pan. It was the best haul yet, and afforded me a sumptuous
+breakfast and dinner.
+
+The _Spray_ had now settled down to the tradewinds and to the business
+of her voyage. Later in the day another droger hove in sight, rolling
+as badly as her predecessor. I threw out no flag to this one, but got
+the worst of it for passing under her lee. She was, indeed, a stale
+one! And the poor cattle, how they bellowed! The time was when ships
+passing one another at sea backed their topsails and had a "gam," and
+on parting fired guns; but those good old days have gone. People have
+hardly time nowadays to speak even on the broad ocean, where news is
+news, and as for a salute of guns, they cannot afford the powder.
+There are no poetry-enshrined freighters on the sea now; it is a prosy
+life when we have no time to bid one another good morning.
+
+My ship, running now in the full swing of the trades, left me days to
+myself for rest and recuperation. I employed the time in reading and
+writing, or in whatever I found to do about the rigging and the sails
+to keep them all in order. The cooking was always done quickly, and
+was a small matter, as the bill of fare consisted mostly of
+flying-fish, hot biscuits and butter, potatoes, coffee and
+cream--dishes readily prepared.
+
+On September 10 the _Spray_ passed the island of St. Antonio, the
+northwesternmost of the Cape Verdes, close aboard. The landfall was
+wonderfully true, considering that no observations for longitude had
+been made. The wind, northeast, as the sloop drew by the island, was
+very squally, but I reefed her sails snug, and steered broad from the
+highland of blustering St. Antonio. Then leaving the Cape Verde
+Islands out of sight astern, I found myself once more sailing a lonely
+sea and in a solitude supreme all around. When I slept I dreamed that
+I was alone. This feeling never left me; but, sleeping or waking, I
+seemed always to know the position of the sloop, and I saw my vessel
+moving across the chart, which became a picture before me.
+
+One night while I sat in the cabin under this spell, the profound
+stillness all about was broken by human voices alongside! I sprang
+instantly to the deck, startled beyond my power to tell. Passing close
+under lee, like an apparition, was a white bark under full sail. The
+sailors on board of her were hauling on ropes to brace the yards,
+which just cleared the sloop's mast as she swept by. No one hailed
+from the white-winged flier, but I heard some one on board say that he
+saw lights on the sloop, and that he made her out to be a fisherman. I
+sat long on the starlit deck that night, thinking of ships, and
+watching the constellations on their voyage.
+
+On the following day, September 13, a large four-masted ship passed
+some distance to windward, heading north.
+
+The sloop was now rapidly drawing toward the region of doldrums, and
+the force of the trade-winds was lessening. I could see by the ripples
+that a counter-current had set in. This I estimated to be about
+sixteen miles a day. In the heart of the counter-stream the rate was
+more than that setting eastward.
+
+September 14 a lofty three-masted ship, heading north, was seen from
+the masthead. Neither this ship nor the one seen yesterday was within
+signal distance, yet it was good even to see them. On the following
+day heavy rain-clouds rose in the south, obscuring the sun; this was
+ominous of doldrums. On the 16th the _Spray_ entered this gloomy
+region, to battle with squalls and to be harassed by fitful calms; for
+this is the state of the elements between the northeast and the
+southeast trades, where each wind, struggling in turn for mastery,
+expends its force whirling about in all directions. Making this still
+more trying to one's nerve and patience, the sea was tossed into
+confused cross-lumps and fretted by eddying currents. As if something
+more were needed to complete a sailor's discomfort in this state, the
+rain poured down in torrents day and night. The _Spray_ struggled and
+tossed for ten days, making only three hundred miles on her course in
+all that time. I didn't say anything!
+
+On September 23 the fine schooner _Nantasket_ of Boston, from Bear
+River, for the river Plate, lumber-laden, and just through the
+doldrums, came up with the _Spray_, and her captain passing a few
+words, she sailed on. Being much fouled on the bottom by shell-fish,
+she drew along with her fishes which had been following the _Spray_,
+which was less provided with that sort of food. Fishes will always
+follow a foul ship. A barnacle-grown log adrift has the same
+attraction for deep-sea fishes. One of this little school of deserters
+was a dolphin that had followed the _Spray_ about a thousand miles,
+and had been content to eat scraps of food thrown overboard from my
+table; for, having been wounded, it could not dart through the sea to
+prey on other fishes. I had become accustomed to seeing the dolphin,
+which I knew by its scars, and missed it whenever it took occasional
+excursions away from the sloop. One day, after it had been off some
+hours, it returned in company with three yellowtails, a sort of cousin
+to the dolphin. This little school kept together, except when in
+danger and when foraging about the sea. Their lives were often
+threatened by hungry sharks that came round the vessel, and more than
+once they had narrow escapes. Their mode of escape interested me
+greatly, and I passed hours watching them. They would dart away, each
+in a different direction, so that the wolf of the sea, the shark,
+pursuing one, would be led away from the others; then after a while
+they would all return and rendezvous under one side or the other of
+the sloop. Twice their pursuers were diverted by a tin pan, which I
+towed astern of the sloop, and which was mistaken for a bright fish;
+and while turning, in the peculiar way that sharks have when about to
+devour their prey, I shot them through the head.
+
+Their precarious life seemed to concern the yellowtails very little,
+if at all. All living beings, without doubt, are afraid of death.
+Nevertheless, some of the species I saw huddle together as though they
+knew they were created for the larger fishes, and wished to give the
+least possible trouble to their captors. I have seen, on the other
+hand, whales swimming in a circle around a school of herrings, and
+with mighty exertion "bunching" them together in a whirlpool set in
+motion by their flukes, and when the small fry were all whirled nicely
+together, one or the other of the leviathans, lunging through the
+center with open jaws, take in a boat-load or so at a single mouthful.
+Off the Cape of Good Hope I saw schools of sardines or other small
+fish being treated in this way by great numbers of cavally-fish. There
+was not the slightest chance of escape for the sardines, while the
+cavally circled round and round, feeding from the edge of the mass. It
+was interesting to note how rapidly the small fry disappeared; and
+though it was repeated before my eyes over and over, I could hardly
+perceive the capture of a single sardine, so dexterously was it done.
+
+Along the equatorial limit of the southeast trade winds the air was
+heavily charged with electricity, and there was much thunder and
+lightning. It was hereabout I remembered that, a few years before, the
+American ship _Alert_ was destroyed by lightning. Her people, by
+wonderful good fortune, were rescued on the same day and brought to
+Pernambuco, where I then met them.
+
+On September 25, in the latitude of 5 degrees N., longitude 26 degrees
+30' W., I spoke the ship _North Star_ of London. The great ship was
+out forty-eight days from Norfolk, Virginia, and was bound for Rio,
+where we met again about two months later. The _Spray_ was now thirty
+days from Gibraltar.
+
+The _Spray's_ next companion of the voyage was a swordfish, that swam
+alongside, showing its tall fin out of the water, till I made a stir
+for my harpoon, when it hauled its black flag down and disappeared.
+September 30, at half-past eleven in the morning, the _Spray_ crossed
+the equator in longitude 29 degrees 30' W. At noon she was two miles
+south of the line. The southeast trade-winds, met, rather light, in
+about 4 degrees N., gave her sails now a stiff full sending her
+handsomely over the sea toward the coast of Brazil, where on October
+5, just north of Olinda Point, without further incident, she made the
+land, casting anchor in Pernambuco harbor about noon: forty days from
+Gibraltar, and all well on board. Did I tire of the voyage in all that
+time? Not a bit of it! I was never in better trim in all my life, and
+was eager for the more perilous experience of rounding the Horn.
+
+It was not at all strange in a life common to sailors that, having
+already crossed the Atlantic twice and being now half-way from Boston
+to the Horn, I should find myself still among friends. My
+determination to sail westward from Gibraltar not only enabled me to
+escape the pirates of the Red Sea, but, in bringing me to Pernambuco,
+landed me on familiar shores. I had made many voyages to this and
+other ports in Brazil. In 1893 I was employed as master to take the
+famous Ericsson ship _Destroyer_ from New York to Brazil to go against
+the rebel Mello and his party. The _Destroyer_, by the way, carried a
+submarine cannon of enormous length.
+
+In the same expedition went the _Nictheroy_, the ship purchased by the
+United States government during the Spanish war and renamed the
+_Buffalo_. The _Destroyer_ was in many ways the better ship of the
+two, but the Brazilians in their curious war sank her themselves at
+Bahia. With her sank my hope of recovering wages due me; still, I
+could but try to recover, for to me it meant a great deal. But now
+within two years the whirligig of time had brought the Mello party
+into power, and although it was the legal government which had
+employed me, the so-called "rebels" felt under less obligation to me
+than I could have wished.
+
+During these visits to Brazil I had made the acquaintance of Dr.
+Perera, owner and editor of "El Commercio Jornal," and soon after the
+_Spray_ was safely moored in Upper Topsail Reach, the doctor, who is a
+very enthusiastic yachtsman, came to pay me a visit and to carry me up
+the waterway of the lagoon to his country residence. The approach to
+his mansion by the waterside was guarded by his armada, a fleet of
+boats including a Chinese sampan, a Norwegian pram, and a Cape Ann
+dory, the last of which he obtained from the _Destroyer_. The doctor
+dined me often on good Brazilian fare, that I might, as he said,
+"salle gordo" for the voyage; but he found that even on the best I
+fattened slowly.
+
+Fruits and vegetables and all other provisions necessary for the
+voyage having been taken in, on the 23d of October I unmoored and made
+ready for sea. Here I encountered one of the unforgiving Mello faction
+in the person of the collector of customs, who charged the _Spray_
+tonnage dues when she cleared, notwithstanding that she sailed with a
+yacht license and should have been exempt from port charges. Our
+consul reminded the collector of this and of the fact--without much
+diplomacy, I thought--that it was I who brought the _Destroyer_ to
+Brazil. "Oh, yes," said the bland collector; "we remember it very
+well," for it was now in a small way his turn.
+
+Mr. Lungrin, a merchant, to help me out of the trifling difficulty,
+offered to freight the _Spray_ with a cargo of gunpowder for Bahia,
+which would have put me in funds; and when the insurance companies
+refused to take the risk on cargo shipped on a vessel manned by a crew
+of only one, he offered to ship it without insurance, taking all the
+risk himself. This was perhaps paying me a greater compliment than I
+deserved. The reason why I did not accept the business was that in so
+doing I found that I should vitiate my yacht license and run into more
+expense for harbor dues around the world than the freight would amount
+to. Instead of all this, another old merchant friend came to my
+assistance, advancing the cash direct.
+
+While at Pernambuco I shortened the boom, which had been broken when
+off the coast of Morocco, by removing the broken piece, which took
+about four feet off the inboard end; I also refitted the jaws. On
+October 24,1895, a fine day even as days go in Brazil, the _Spray_
+sailed, having had abundant good cheer. Making about one hundred miles
+a day along the coast, I arrived at Rio de Janeiro November 5, without
+any event worth mentioning, and about noon cast anchor near
+Villaganon, to await the official port visit. On the following day I
+bestirred myself to meet the highest lord of the admiralty and the
+ministers, to inquire concerning the matter of wages due me from the
+beloved _Destroyer_. The high official I met said: "Captain, so far as
+we are concerned, you may have the ship, and if you care to accept her
+we will send an officer to show you where she is." I knew well enough
+where she was at that moment. The top of her smoke-stack being awash
+in Bahia, it was more than likely that she rested on the bottom there.
+I thanked the kind officer, but declined his offer.
+
+The _Spray_, with a number of old shipmasters on board, sailed about
+the harbor of Rio the day before she put to sea. As I had decided to
+give the _Spray_ a yawl rig for the tempestuous waters of Patagonia, I
+here placed on the stern a semicircular brace to support a jigger
+mast. These old captains inspected the _Spray's_ rigging, and each one
+contributed something to her outfit. Captain Jones, who had acted as
+my interpreter at Rio, gave her an anchor, and one of the steamers
+gave her a cable to match it. She never dragged Jones's anchor once on
+the voyage, and the cable not only stood the strain on a lee shore,
+but when towed off Cape Horn helped break combing seas astern that
+threatened to board her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Departure from Rio de Janeiro--The _Spray_ ashore on the sands of
+Uruguay--A narrow escape from shipwreck--The boy who found a
+sloop--The _Spray_ floated but somewhat damaged--Courtesies from the
+British consul at Maldonado--A warm greeting at Montevideo--An
+excursion to Buenos Aires--Shortening the mast and bowsprit.
+
+On November 28 the _Spray_ sailed from Rio de Janeiro, and first of
+all ran into a gale of wind, which tore up things generally along the
+coast, doing considerable damage to shipping. It was well for her,
+perhaps, that she was clear of the land. Coasting along on this part
+of the voyage, I observed that while some of the small vessels I
+fell in with were able to outsail the _Spray_ by day, they fell astern
+of her by night. To the _Spray_ day and night were the same; to the
+others clearly there was a difference. On one of the very fine days
+experienced after leaving Rio, the steamship _South Wales_ spoke the
+_Spray_ and unsolicited gave the longitude by chronometer as 48
+degrees W., "as near as I can make it," the captain said. The _Spray_,
+with her tin clock, had exactly the same reckoning. I was feeling at
+ease in my primitive method of navigation, but it startled me not a
+little to find my position by account verified by the ship's
+chronometer. On December 5 a barkantine hove in sight, and for several
+days the two vessels sailed along the coast together. Right here a
+current was experienced setting north, making it necessary to hug the
+shore, with which the _Spray_ became rather familiar. Here I confess a
+weakness: I hugged the shore entirely too close. In a word, at
+daybreak on the morning of December 11 the _Spray_ ran hard and fast
+on the beach. This was annoying; but I soon found that the sloop was
+in no great danger. The false appearance of the sand-hills under a
+bright moon had deceived me, and I lamented now that I had trusted to
+appearances at all. The sea, though moderately smooth, still carried a
+swell which broke with some force on the shore. I managed to launch my
+small dory from the deck, and ran out a kedge-anchor and warp; but it
+was too late to kedge the sloop off, for the tide was falling and she
+had already sewed a foot. Then I went about "laying out" the larger
+anchor, which was no easy matter, for my only life-boat, the frail
+dory, when the anchor and cable were in it, was swamped at once in the
+surf, the load being too great for her. Then I cut the cable and made
+two loads of it instead of one. The anchor, with forty fathoms bent
+and already buoyed, I now took and succeeded in getting through the
+surf; but my dory was leaking fast, and by the time I had rowed far
+enough to drop the anchor she was full to the gunwale and sinking.
+There was not a moment to spare, and I saw clearly that if I failed
+now all might be lost. I sprang from the oars to my feet, and lifting
+the anchor above my head, threw it clear just as she was turning over.
+I grasped her gunwale and held on as she turned bottom up, for I
+suddenly remembered that I could not swim. Then I tried to right her,
+but with too much eagerness, for she rolled clean over, and left me as
+before, clinging to her gunwale, while my body was still in the water.
+Giving a moment to cool reflection, I found that although the wind was
+blowing moderately toward the land, the current was carrying me to
+sea, and that something would have to be done. Three times I had been
+under water, in trying to right the dory, and I was just saying, "Now
+I lay me," when I was seized by a determination to try yet once more,
+so that no one of the prophets of evil I had left behind me could say,
+"I told you so." Whatever the danger may have been, much or little, I
+can truly say that the moment was the most serene of my life.
+
+[Illustration: "I suddenly remembered that I could not swim."]
+
+After righting the dory for the fourth time, I finally succeeded by
+the utmost care in keeping her upright while I hauled myself into her
+and with one of the oars, which I had recovered, paddled to the shore,
+somewhat the worse for wear and pretty full of salt water. The
+position of my vessel, now high and dry, gave me anxiety. To get her
+afloat again was all I thought of or cared for. I had little
+difficulty in carrying the second part of my cable out and securing it
+to the first, which I had taken the precaution to buoy before I put it
+into the boat. To bring the end back to the sloop was a smaller matter
+still, and I believe I chuckled above my sorrows when I found that in
+all the haphazard my judgment or my good genius had faithfully stood
+by me. The cable reached from the anchor in deep water to the sloop's
+windlass by just enough to secure a turn and no more. The anchor had
+been dropped at the right distance from the vessel. To heave all taut
+now and wait for the coming tide was all I could do.
+
+I had already done enough work to tire a stouter man, and was only too
+glad to throw myself on the sand above the tide and rest; for the sun
+was already up, and pouring a generous warmth over the land. While my
+state could have been worse, I was on the wild coast of a foreign
+country, and not entirely secure in my property, as I soon found out.
+I had not been long on the shore when I heard the patter, patter of a
+horse's feet approaching along the hard beach, which ceased as it came
+abreast of the sand-ridge where I lay sheltered from the wind. Looking
+up cautiously, I saw mounted on a nag probably the most astonished boy
+on the whole coast. He had found a sloop! "It must be mine," he
+thought, "for am I not the first to see it on the beach?" Sure enough,
+there it was all high and dry and painted white. He trotted his horse
+around it, and finding no owner, hitched the nag to the sloop's
+bobstay and hauled as though he would take her home; but of course she
+was too heavy for one horse to move. With my skiff, however, it was
+different; this he hauled some distance, and concealed behind a dune
+in a bunch of tall grass. He had made up his mind, I dare say, to
+bring more horses and drag his bigger prize away, anyhow, and was
+starting off for the settlement a mile or so away for the
+reinforcement when I discovered myself to him, at which he seemed
+displeased and disappointed. "Buenos dias, muchacho," I said. He
+grunted a reply, and eyed me keenly from head to foot. Then bursting
+into a volley of questions,--more than six Yankees could ask,--he
+wanted to know, first, where my ship was from, and how many days she
+had been coming. Then he asked what I was doing here ashore so early
+in the morning. "Your questions are easily answered," I replied; "my
+ship is from the moon, it has taken her a month to come, and she is
+here for a cargo of boys." But the intimation of this enterprise, had
+I not been on the alert, might have cost me dearly; for while I spoke
+this child of the campo coiled his lariat ready to throw, and instead
+of being himself carried to the moon, he was apparently thinking of
+towing me home by the neck, astern of his wild cayuse, over the fields
+of Uruguay.
+
+The exact spot where I was stranded was at the Castillo Chicos, about
+seven miles south of the dividing-line of Uruguay and Brazil, and of
+course the natives there speak Spanish. To reconcile my early visitor,
+I told him that I had on my ship biscuits, and that I wished to trade
+them for butter and milk. On hearing this a broad grin lighted up his
+face, and showed that he was greatly interested, and that even in
+Uruguay a ship's biscuit will cheer the heart of a boy and make him
+your bosom friend. The lad almost flew home, and returned quickly with
+butter, milk, and eggs. I was, after all, in a land of plenty. With
+the boy came others, old and young, from neighboring ranches, among
+them a German settler, who was of great assistance to me in many ways.
+
+[Illustration: A double surprise.]
+
+A coast-guard from Fort Teresa, a few miles away, also came, "to
+protect your property from the natives of the plains," he said. I took
+occasion to tell him, however, that if he would look after the people
+of his own village, I would take care of those from the plains,
+pointing, as I spoke, to the nondescript "merchant" who had already
+stolen my revolver and several small articles from my cabin, which by
+a bold front I had recovered. The chap was not a native Uruguayan.
+Here, as in many other places that I visited, the natives themselves
+were not the ones discreditable to the country.
+
+Early in the day a despatch came from the port captain of Montevideo,
+commanding the coastguards to render the _Spray_ every assistance.
+This, however, was not necessary, for a guard was already on the
+alert, and making all the ado that would become the wreck of a steamer
+with a thousand emigrants aboard. The same messenger brought word from
+the port captain that he would despatch a steam-tug to tow the _Spray_
+to Montevideo. The officer was as good as his word; a powerful tug
+arrived on the following day; but, to make a long story short, with
+the help of the German and one soldier and one Italian, called "Angel
+of Milan," I had already floated the sloop and was sailing for port
+with the boom off before a fair wind. The adventure cost the _Spray_
+no small amount of pounding on the hard sand; she lost her shoe and
+part of her false keel, and received other damage, which, however, was
+readily mended afterward in dock.
+
+On the following day I anchored at Maldonado. The British consul, his
+daughter, and another young lady came on board, bringing with them a
+basket of fresh eggs, strawberries, bottles of milk, and a great loaf
+of sweet bread. This was a good landfall, and better cheer than I had
+found at Maldonado once upon a time when I entered the port with a
+stricken crew in my bark, the _Aquidneck_.
+
+In the waters of Maldonado Bay a variety of fishes abound, and
+fur-seals in their season haul out on the island abreast the bay to
+breed. Currents on this coast are greatly affected by the prevailing
+winds, and a tidal wave higher than that ordinarily produced by the
+moon is sent up the whole shore of Uruguay before a southwest gale, or
+lowered by a northeaster, as may happen. One of these waves having
+just receded before the northeast wind which brought the _Spray_ in
+left the tide now at low ebb, with oyster-rocks laid bare for some
+distance along the shore. Other shellfish of good flavor were also
+plentiful, though small in size. I gathered a mess of oysters and
+mussels here, while a native with hook and line, and with mussels for
+bait, fished from a point of detached rocks for bream, landing several
+good-sized ones.
+
+The fisherman's nephew, a lad about seven years old, deserves mention
+as the tallest blasphemer, for a short boy, that I met on the voyage.
+He called his old uncle all the vile names under the sun for not
+helping him across the gully. While he swore roundly in all the moods
+and tenses of the Spanish language, his uncle fished on, now and then
+congratulating his hopeful nephew on his accomplishment. At the end of
+his rich vocabulary the urchin sauntered off into the fields, and
+shortly returned with a bunch of flowers, and with all smiles handed
+them to me with the innocence of an angel. I remembered having seen
+the same flower on the banks of the river farther up, some years
+before. I asked the young pirate why he had brought them to me. Said
+he, "I don't know; I only wished to do so." Whatever the influence was
+that put so amiable a wish in this wild pampa boy, it must be
+far-reaching, thought I, and potent, seas over.
+
+Shortly after, the _Spray_ sailed for Montevideo, where she arrived on
+the following day and was greeted by steam-whistles till I felt
+embarrassed and wished that I had arrived unobserved. The voyage so
+far alone may have seemed to the Uruguayans a feat worthy of some
+recognition; but there was so much of it yet ahead, and of such an
+arduous nature, that any demonstration at this point seemed, somehow,
+like boasting prematurely.
+
+The _Spray_ had barely come to anchor at Montevideo when the agents of
+the Royal Mail Steamship Company, Messrs. Humphreys & Co., sent word
+that they would dock and repair her free of expense and give me twenty
+pounds sterling, which, they did to the letter, and more besides. The
+calkers at Montevideo paid very careful attention to the work of
+making the sloop tight. Carpenters mended the keel and also the
+life-boat (the dory), painting it till I hardly knew it from a
+butterfly.
+
+Christmas of 1895 found the _Spray_ refitted even to a wonderful
+makeshift stove which was contrived from a large iron drum of some
+sort punched full of holes to give it a draft; the pipe reached
+straight up through the top of the forecastle. Now, this was not a
+stove by mere courtesy. It was always hungry, even for green wood; and
+in cold, wet days off the coast of Tierra del Fuego it stood me in
+good stead. Its one door swung on copper hinges, which one of the yard
+apprentices, with laudable pride, polished till the whole thing
+blushed like the brass binnacle of a P. & O. steamer.
+
+The _Spray_ was now ready for sea. Instead of proceeding at once on
+her voyage, however, she made an excursion up the river, sailing
+December 29. An old friend of mine, Captain Howard of Cape Cod and of
+River Plate fame, took the trip in her to Buenos Aires, where she
+arrived early on the following day, with a gale of wind and a current
+so much in her favor that she outdid herself. I was glad to have a
+sailor of Howard's experience on board to witness her performance of
+sailing with no living being at the helm. Howard sat near the binnacle
+and watched the compass while the sloop held her course so steadily
+that one would have declared that the card was nailed fast. Not a
+quarter of a point did she deviate from her course. My old friend had
+owned and sailed a pilot-sloop on the river for many years, but this
+feat took the wind out of his sails at last, and he cried, "I'll be
+stranded on Chico Bank if ever I saw the like of it!" Perhaps he had
+never given his sloop a chance to show what she could do. The point I
+make for the _Spray_ here, above all other points, is that she sailed
+in shoal water and in a strong current, with other difficult and
+unusual conditions. Captain Howard took all this into account.
+
+In all the years away from his native home Howard had not forgotten
+the art of making fish chowders; and to prove this he brought along
+some fine rockfish and prepared a mess fit for kings. When the savory
+chowder was done, chocking the pot securely between two boxes on the
+cabin floor, so that it could not roll over, we helped ourselves and
+swapped yarns over it while the _Spray_ made her own way through the
+darkness on the river. Howard told me stories about the Fuegian
+cannibals as she reeled along, and I told him about the pilot of the
+_Pinta_ steering my vessel through the storm off the coast of the
+Azores, and that I looked for him at the helm in a gale such as this.
+I do not charge Howard with superstition,--we are none of us
+superstitious,--but when I spoke about his returning to Montevideo on
+the _Spray_ he shook his head and took a steam-packet instead.
+
+I had not been in Buenos Aires for a number of years. The place where
+I had once landed from packets, in a cart, was now built up with
+magnificent docks. Vast fortunes had been spent in remodeling the
+harbor; London bankers could tell you that. The port captain, after
+assigning the _Spray_ a safe berth, with his compliments, sent me word
+to call on him for anything I might want while in port, and I felt
+quite sure that his friendship was sincere. The sloop was well cared
+for at Buenos Aires; her dockage and tonnage dues were all free, and
+the yachting fraternity of the city welcomed her with a good will. In
+town I found things not so greatly changed as about the docks, and I
+soon felt myself more at home.
+
+From Montevideo I had forwarded a letter from Sir Edward Hairby to the
+owner of the "Standard," Mr. Mulhall, and in reply to it was assured
+of a warm welcome to the warmest heart, I think, outside of Ireland.
+Mr. Mulhall, with a prancing team, came down to the docks as soon as
+the _Spray_ was berthed, and would have me go to his house at once,
+where a room was waiting. And it was New Year's day, 1896. The course
+of the Spray had been followed in the columns of the "Standard."
+
+Mr. Mulhall kindly drove me to see many improvements about the city,
+and we went in search of some of the old landmarks. The man who sold
+"lemonade" on the plaza when first I visited this wonderful city I
+found selling lemonade still at two cents a glass; he had made a
+fortune by it. His stock in trade was a wash-tub and a neighboring
+hydrant, a moderate supply of brown sugar, and about six lemons that
+floated on the sweetened water. The water from time to time was
+renewed from the friendly pump, but the lemon "went on forever," and
+all at two cents a glass.
+
+[Illustration: At the sign of the comet.]
+
+But we looked in vain for the man who once sold whisky and coffins in
+Buenos Aires; the march of civilization had crushed him--memory only
+clung to his name. Enterprising man that he was, I fain would have
+looked him up. I remember the tiers of whisky-barrels, ranged on end,
+on one side of the store, while on the other side, and divided by a
+thin partition, were the coffins in the same order, of all sizes and
+in great numbers. The unique arrangement seemed in order, for as a
+cask was emptied a coffin might be filled. Besides cheap whisky and
+many other liquors, he sold "cider," which he manufactured from
+damaged Malaga raisins. Within the scope of his enterprise was also
+the sale of mineral waters, not entirely blameless of the germs of
+disease. This man surely catered to all the tastes, wants, and
+conditions of his customers.
+
+Farther along in the city, however, survived the good man who wrote on
+the side of his store, where thoughtful men might read and learn:
+"This wicked world will be destroyed by a comet! The owner of this
+store is therefore bound to sell out at any price and avoid the
+catastrophe." My friend Mr. Mulhall drove me round to view the fearful
+comet with streaming tail pictured large on the trembling merchant's
+walls.
+
+I unshipped the sloop's mast at Buenos Aires and shortened it by seven
+feet. I reduced the length of the bowsprit by about five feet, and
+even then I found it reaching far enough from home; and more than
+once, when on the end of it reefing the jib, I regretted that I had
+not shortened it another foot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires--An outburst of emotion at the mouth
+of the Plate--Submerged by a great wave--A stormy entrance to the
+strait--Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks--Off
+Cape Froward--Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay--A miss-shot for
+"Black Pedro"--Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island
+Cove--Animal life.
+
+On January 26, 1896, the _Spray_, being refitted and well provisioned
+in every way, sailed from Buenos Aires. There was little wind at the
+start; the surface of the great river was like a silver disk, and I
+was glad of a tow from a harbor tug to clear the port entrance. But a
+gale came up soon after, and caused an ugly sea, and instead of being
+all silver, as before, the river was now all mud. The Plate is a
+treacherous place for storms. One sailing there should always be on
+the alert for squalls. I cast anchor before dark in the best lee I
+could find near the land, but was tossed miserably all night,
+heartsore of choppy seas. On the following morning I got the sloop
+under way, and with reefed sails worked her down the river against a
+head wind. Standing in that night to the place where pilot Howard
+joined me for the up-river sail, I took a departure, shaping my course
+to clear Point Indio on the one hand, and the English Bank on the
+other.
+
+[Illustration: A great wave off the Patagonian coast]
+
+I had not for many years been south of these regions. I will not say
+that I expected all fine sailing on the course for Cape Horn direct,
+but while I worked at the sails and rigging I thought only of onward
+and forward. It was when I anchored in the lonely places that a
+feeling of awe crept over me. At the last anchorage on the monotonous
+and muddy river, weak as it may seem, I gave way to my feelings. I
+resolved then that I would anchor no more north of the Strait of
+Magellan.
+
+On the 28th of January the _Spray_ was clear of Point Indio, English
+Bank, and all the other dangers of the River Plate. With a fair wind
+she then bore away for the Strait of Magellan, under all sail,
+pressing farther and farther toward the wonderland of the South, till
+I forgot the blessings of our milder North.
+
+My ship passed in safety Bahia Blanca, also the Gulf of St. Matias and
+the mighty Gulf of St. George. Hoping that she might go clear of the
+destructive tide-races, the dread of big craft or little along this
+coast, I gave all the capes a berth of about fifty miles, for these
+dangers extend many miles from the land. But where the sloop avoided
+one danger she encountered another. For, one day, well off the
+Patagonian coast, while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a
+tremendous wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled
+down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to
+get all sail down and myself up on the peak halliards, out of danger,
+when I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me. The
+mountain of water submerged my vessel. She shook in every timber and
+reeled under the weight of the sea, but rose quickly out of it, and
+rode grandly over the rollers that followed. It may have been a minute
+that from my hold in the rigging I could see no part of the _Spray's_
+hull. Perhaps it was even less time than that, but it seemed a long
+while, for under great excitement one lives fast, and in a few seconds
+one may think a great deal of one's past life. Not only did the past,
+with electric speed, flash before me, but I had time while in my
+hazardous position for resolutions for the future that would take a
+long time to fulfil. The first one was, I remember, that if the
+_Spray_ came through this danger I would dedicate my best energies
+to building a larger ship on her lines, which I hope yet to do. Other
+promises, less easily kept, I should have made under protest. However,
+the incident, which filled me with fear, was only one more test of the
+_Spray's_ seaworthiness. It reassured me against rude Cape Horn.
+
+From the time the great wave swept over the _Spray_ until she reached
+Cape Virgins nothing occurred to move a pulse and set blood in motion.
+On the contrary, the weather became fine and the sea smooth and life
+tranquil. The phenomenon of mirage frequently occurred. An albatross
+sitting on the water one day loomed up like a large ship; two
+fur-seals asleep on the surface of the sea appeared like great whales,
+and a bank of haze I could have sworn was high land. The kaleidescope
+then changed, and on the following day I sailed in a world peopled by
+dwarfs.
+
+[Illustration: Entrance to the Strait of Magellan.]
+
+On February 11 the _Spray_ rounded Cape Virgins and entered the Strait
+of Magellan. The scene was again real and gloomy; the wind, northeast,
+and blowing a gale, sent feather-white spume along the coast; such a
+sea ran as would swamp an ill-appointed ship. As the sloop neared the
+entrance to the strait I observed that two great tide-races made
+ahead, one very close to the point of the land and one farther
+offshore. Between the two, in a sort of channel, through combers, went
+the _Spray_ with close-reefed sails. But a rolling sea followed her a
+long way in, and a fierce current swept around the cape against her;
+but this she stemmed, and was soon chirruping under the lee of Cape
+Virgins and running every minute into smoother water. However, long
+trailing kelp from sunken rocks waved forebodingly under her keel, and
+the wreck of a great steamship smashed on the beach abreast gave a
+gloomy aspect to the scene.
+
+I was not to be let off easy. The Virgins would collect tribute even
+from the _Spray_ passing their promontory. Fitful rain-squalls from
+the northwest followed the northeast gale. I reefed the sloop's sails,
+and sitting in the cabin to rest my eyes, I was so strongly impressed
+with what in all nature I might expect that as I dozed the very air I
+breathed seemed to warn me of danger. My senses heard "_Spray_ ahoy!"
+shouted in warning. I sprang to the deck, wondering who could be there
+that knew the _Spray_ so well as to call out her name passing in the
+dark; for it was now the blackest of nights all around, except away in
+the southwest, where the old familiar white arch, the terror of Cape
+Horn, rapidly pushed up by a southwest gale. I had only a moment to
+douse sail and lash all solid when it struck like a shot from a
+cannon, and for the first half-hour it was something to be remembered
+by way of a gale. For thirty hours it kept on blowing hard. The sloop
+could carry no more than a three-reefed mainsail and forestaysail;
+with these she held on stoutly and was not blown out of the strait. In
+the height of the squalls in this gale she doused all sail, and this
+occurred often enough.
+
+After this gale followed only a smart breeze, and the _Spray_, passing
+through the narrows without mishap, cast anchor at Sandy Point on
+February 14, 1896.
+
+[Illustration: The course of the _Spray_ through the Strait of
+Magellan.]
+
+Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) is a Chilean coaling-station, and boasts
+about two thousand inhabitants, of mixed nationality, but mostly
+Chileans. What with sheep-farming, gold-mining, and hunting, the
+settlers in this dreary land seemed not the worst off in the world.
+But the natives, Patagonian and Fuegian, on the other hand, were as
+squalid as contact with unscrupulous traders could make them. A large
+percentage of the business there was traffic in "fire-water." If there
+was a law against selling the poisonous stuff to the natives, it was
+not enforced. Fine specimens of the Patagonian race, looking smart in
+the morning when they came into town, had repented before night of
+ever having seen a white man, so beastly drunk were they, to say
+nothing about the peltry of which they had been robbed.
+
+The port at that time was free, but a customhouse was in course of
+construction, and when it is finished, port and tariff dues are to be
+collected. A soldier police guarded the place, and a sort of vigilante
+force besides took down its guns now and then; but as a general thing,
+to my mind, whenever an execution was made they killed the wrong man.
+Just previous to my arrival the governor, himself of a jovial turn of
+mind, had sent a party of young bloods to foray a Fuegian settlement
+and wipe out what they could of it on account of the recent massacre
+of a schooner's crew somewhere else. Altogether the place was quite
+newsy and supported two papers--dailies, I think. The port captain, a
+Chilean naval officer, advised me to ship hands to fight Indians in
+the strait farther west, and spoke of my stopping until a gunboat
+should be going through, which would give me a tow. After canvassing
+the place, however, I found only one man willing to embark, and he on
+condition that I should ship another "mon and a doog." But as no one
+else was willing to come along, and as I drew the line at dogs, I said
+no more about the matter, but simply loaded my guns. At this point in
+my dilemma Captain Pedro Samblich, a good Austrian of large
+experience, coming along, gave me a bag of carpet-tacks, worth more
+than all the fighting men and dogs of Tierra del Fuego. I protested
+that I had no use for carpet-tacks on board. Samblich smiled at my
+want of experience, and maintained stoutly that I would have use for
+them. "You must use them with discretion," he said; "that is to say,
+don't step on them yourself." With this remote hint about the use of
+the tacks I got on all right, and saw the way to maintain clear decks
+at night without the care of watching.
+
+[Illustration: The man who wouldn't ship without another "mon and a
+doog."]
+
+Samblich was greatly interested in my voyage, and after giving me the
+tacks he put on board bags of biscuits and a large quantity of smoked
+venison. He declared that my bread, which was ordinary sea-biscuits
+and easily broken, was not nutritious as his, which was so hard that I
+could break it only with a stout blow from a maul. Then he gave me,
+from his own sloop, a compass which was certainly better than mine,
+and offered to unbend her mainsail for me if I would accept it. Last of
+all, this large-hearted man brought out a bottle of Fuegian gold-dust
+from a place where it had been _cached_ and begged me to help myself
+from it, for use farther along on the voyage. But I felt sure of
+success without this draft on a friend, and I was right. Samblich's
+tacks, as it turned out, were of more value than gold.
+
+[Illustration: A Fuegian Girl.]
+
+The port captain finding that I was resolved to go, even alone, since
+there was no help for it, set up no further objections, but advised
+me, in case the savages tried to surround me with their canoes, to
+shoot straight, and begin to do it in time, but to avoid killing them
+if possible, which I heartily agreed to do. With these simple
+injunctions the officer gave me my port clearance free of charge, and
+I sailed on the same day, February 19, 1896. It was not without
+thoughts of strange and stirring adventure beyond all I had yet
+encountered that I now sailed into the country and very core of the
+savage Fuegians.
+
+A fair wind from Sandy Point brought me on the first day to St.
+Nicholas Bay, where, so I was told, I might expect to meet savages;
+but seeing no signs of life, I came to anchor in eight fathoms of
+water, where I lay all night under a high mountain. Here I had my
+first experience with the terrific squalls, called williwaws, which
+extended from this point on through the strait to the Pacific. They
+were compressed gales of wind that Boreas handed down over the hills
+in chunks. A full-blown williwaw will throw a ship, even without sail
+on, over on her beam ends; but, like other gales, they cease now and
+then, if only for a short time.
+
+February 20 was my birthday, and I found myself alone, with hardly so
+much as a bird in sight, off Cape Froward, the southernmost point of
+the continent of America. By daylight in the morning I was getting my
+ship under way for the bout ahead.
+
+The sloop held the wind fair while she ran thirty miles farther on her
+course, which brought her to Fortescue Bay, and at once among the
+natives' signal-fires, which blazed up now on all sides. Clouds flew
+over the mountain from the west all day; at night my good east wind
+failed, and in its stead a gale from the west soon came on. I gained
+anchorage at twelve o'clock that night, under the lee of a little
+island, and then prepared myself a cup of coffee, of which I was
+sorely in need; for, to tell the truth, hard beating in the heavy
+squalls and against the current had told on my strength. Finding that
+the anchor held, I drank my beverage, and named the place Coffee
+Island. It lies to the south of Charles Island, with only a narrow
+channel between.
+
+[Illustration: Looking west from Fortescue Bay, where the _Spray_ was
+chased by Indians. (From a photograph.)]
+
+By daylight the next morning the _Spray_ was again under way, beating
+hard; but she came to in a cove in Charles Island, two and a half
+miles along on her course. Here she remained undisturbed two days,
+with both anchors down in a bed of kelp. Indeed, she might have
+remained undisturbed indefinitely had not the wind moderated; for
+during these two days it blew so hard that no boat could venture out
+on the strait, and the natives being away to other hunting-grounds,
+the island anchorage was safe. But at the end of the fierce wind-storm
+fair weather came; then I got my anchors, and again sailed out upon
+the strait.
+
+Canoes manned by savages from Fortescue now came in pursuit. The wind
+falling light, they gained on me rapidly till coming within hail, when
+they ceased paddling, and a bow-legged savage stood up and called to
+me, "Yammerschooner! yammerschooner!" which is their begging term. I
+said, "No!" Now, I was not for letting on that I was alone, and so I
+stepped into the cabin, and, passing through the hold, came out at the
+fore-scuttle, changing my clothes as I went along. That made two men.
+Then the piece of bowsprit which I had sawed off at Buenos Aires, and
+which I had still on board, I arranged forward on the lookout, dressed
+as a seaman, attaching a line by which I could pull it into motion.
+That made three of us, and we didn't want to "yammerschooner"; but for
+all that the savages came on faster than before. I saw that besides
+four at the paddles in the canoe nearest to me, there were others in
+the bottom, and that they were shifting hands often. At eighty yards I
+fired a shot across the bows of the nearest canoe, at which they all
+stopped, but only for a moment. Seeing that they persisted in coming
+nearer, I fired the second shot so close to the chap who wanted to
+"yammerschooner" that he changed his mind quickly enough and bellowed
+with fear, "Bueno jo via Isla," and sitting down in his canoe, he
+rubbed his starboard cat-head for some time. I was thinking of the
+good port captain's advice when I pulled the trigger, and must have
+aimed pretty straight; however, a miss was as good as a mile for Mr.
+"Black Pedro," as he it was, and no other, a leader in several bloody
+massacres. He made for the island now, and the others followed him. I
+knew by his Spanish lingo and by his full beard that he was the
+villain I have named, a renegade mongrel, and the worst murderer in
+Tierra del Fuego. The authorities had been in search of him for two
+years. The Fuegians are not bearded.
+
+So much for the first day among the savages. I came to anchor at
+midnight in Three Island Cove, about twenty miles along from Fortescue
+Bay. I saw on the opposite side of the strait signal-fires, and heard
+the barking of dogs, but where I lay it was quite deserted by natives.
+I have always taken it as a sign that where I found birds sitting
+about, or seals on the rocks, I should not find savage Indians. Seals
+are never plentiful in these waters, but in Three Island Cove I saw
+one on the rocks, and other signs of the absence of savage men.
+
+[Illustration: A brush with Fuegians]
+
+On the next day the wind was again blowing a gale, and although she
+was in the lee of the land, the sloop dragged her anchors, so that I
+had to get her under way and beat farther into the cove, where I came
+to in a landlocked pool. At another time or place this would have been
+a rash thing to do, and it was safe now only from the fact that the
+gale which drove me to shelter would keep the Indians from crossing
+the strait. Seeing this was the case, I went ashore with gun and ax on
+an island, where I could not in any event be surprised, and there
+felled trees and split about a cord of fire-wood, which loaded my
+small boat several times.
+
+While I carried the wood, though I was morally sure there were no
+savages near, I never once went to or from the skiff without my gun.
+While I had that and a clear field of over eighty yards about me I
+felt safe.
+
+The trees on the island, very scattering, were a sort of beech and a
+stunted cedar, both of which made good fuel. Even the green limbs of
+the beech, which seemed to possess a resinous quality, burned readily
+in my great drum-stove. I have described my method of wooding up in
+detail, that the reader who has kindly borne with me so far may see
+that in this, as in all other particulars of my voyage, I took great
+care against all kinds of surprises, whether by animals or by the
+elements. In the Strait of Magellan the greatest vigilance was
+necessary. In this instance I reasoned that I had all about me the
+greatest danger of the whole voyage--the treachery of cunning savages,
+for which I must be particularly on the alert.
+
+The _Spray_ sailed from Three Island Cove in the morning after the
+gale went down, but was glad to return for shelter from another sudden
+gale. Sailing again on the following day, she fetched Borgia Bay, a
+few miles on her course, where vessels had anchored from time to time
+and had nailed boards on the trees ashore with name and date of
+harboring carved or painted. Nothing else could I see to indicate that
+civilized man had ever been there. I had taken a survey of the gloomy
+place with my spy-glass, and was getting my boat out to land and take
+notes, when the Chilean gunboat _Huemel_ came in, and officers, coming
+on board, advised me to leave the place at once, a thing that required
+little eloquence to persuade me to do. I accepted the captain's kind
+offer of a tow to the next anchorage, at the place called Notch Cove,
+eight miles farther along, where I should be clear of the worst of the
+Fuegians.
+
+[Illustration: A bit of friendly assistance. (After a sketch by
+Midshipman Miguel Arenas.)]
+
+We made anchorage at the cove about dark that night, while the wind
+came down in fierce williwaws from the mountains. An instance of
+Magellan weather was afforded when the _Huemel_, a well-appointed
+gunboat of great power, after attempting on the following day to
+proceed on her voyage, was obliged by sheer force of the wind to
+return and take up anchorage again and remain till the gale abated;
+and lucky she was to get back!
+
+Meeting this vessel was a little godsend. She was commanded and
+officered by high-class sailors and educated gentlemen. An
+entertainment that was gotten up on her, impromptu, at the Notch would
+be hard to beat anywhere. One of her midshipmen sang popular songs in
+French, German, and Spanish, and one (so he said) in Russian. If the
+audience did not know the lingo of one song from another, it was no
+drawback to the merriment.
+
+I was left alone the next day, for then the _Huemel_ put out on her
+voyage the gale having abated. I spent a day taking in wood and water;
+by the end of that time the weather was fine. Then I sailed from the
+desolate place.
+
+There is little more to be said concerning the _Spray's_ first passage
+through the strait that would differ from what I have already
+recorded. She anchored and weighed many times, and beat many days
+against the current, with now and then a "slant" for a few miles, till
+finally she gained anchorage and shelter for the night at Port Tamar,
+with Cape Pillar in sight to the west. Here I felt the throb of the
+great ocean that lay before me. I knew now that I had put a world
+behind me, and that I was opening out another world ahead. I had
+passed the haunts of savages. Great piles of granite mountains of
+bleak and lifeless aspect were now astern; on some of them not even a
+speck of moss had ever grown. There was an unfinished newness all
+about the land. On the hill back of Port Tamar a small beacon had been
+thrown up, showing that some man had been there. But how could one
+tell but that he had died of loneliness and grief? In a bleak land is
+not the place to enjoy solitude.
+
+Throughout the whole of the strait west of Cape Froward I saw no
+animals except dogs owned by savages. These I saw often enough, and
+heard them yelping night and day. Birds were not plentiful. The scream
+of a wild fowl, which I took for a loon, sometimes startled me with
+its piercing cry. The steamboat duck, so called because it propels
+itself over the sea with its wings, and resembles a miniature
+side-wheel steamer in its motion, was sometimes seen scurrying on out
+of danger. It never flies, but, hitting the water instead of the air
+with its wings, it moves faster than a rowboat or a canoe. The few
+fur-seals I saw were very shy; and of fishes I saw next to none at
+all. I did not catch one; indeed, I seldom or never put a hook over
+during the whole voyage. Here in the strait I found great abundance of
+mussels of an excellent quality. I fared sumptuously on them. There
+was a sort of swan, smaller than a Muscovy duck, which might have been
+brought down with the gun, but in the loneliness of life about the
+dreary country I found myself in no mood to make one life less, except
+in self-defense.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+From Cape Pillar into the Pacific--Driven by a tempest toward Cape
+Horn--Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure--Beaching the strait
+again by way of Cockburn Channel--Some savages find the
+carpet-tacks--Danger from firebrands--A series of fierce
+williwaws--Again sailing westward.
+
+It was the 3d of March when the _Spray_ sailed from Port Tamar direct
+for Cape Pillar, with the wind from the northeast, which I fervently
+hoped might hold till she cleared the land; but there was no such good
+luck in store. It soon began to rain and thicken in the northwest,
+boding no good. The _Spray_ reared Cape Pillar rapidly, and, nothing
+loath, plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath
+of it in the gathering storm. There was no turning back even had I
+wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of
+night. The wind freshened, and I took in a third reef. The sea was
+confused and treacherous. In such a time as this the old fisherman
+prayed, "Remember, Lord, my ship is small and thy sea is so wide!" I
+saw now only the gleaming crests of the waves. They showed white teeth
+while the sloop balanced over them. "Everything for an offing," I
+cried, and to this end I carried on all the sail she would bear. She
+ran all night with a free sheet, but on the morning of March 4 the
+wind shifted to southwest, then back suddenly to northwest, and blew
+with terrific force. The _Spray_, stripped of her sails, then bore off
+under bare poles. No ship in the world could have stood up against so
+violent a gale. Knowing that this storm might continue for many days,
+and that it would be impossible to work back to the westward along the
+coast outside of Tierra del Fuego, there seemed nothing to do but to
+keep on and go east about, after all. Anyhow, for my present safety
+the only course lay in keeping her before the wind. And so she drove
+southeast, as though about to round the Horn, while the waves rose and
+fell and bellowed their never-ending story of the sea; but the Hand
+that held these held also the _Spray_. She was running now with a
+reefed forestaysail, the sheets flat amidship. I paid out two long
+ropes to steady her course and to break combing seas astern, and I
+lashed the helm amidship. In this trim she ran before it, shipping
+never a sea. Even while the storm raged at its worst, my ship was
+wholesome and noble. My mind as to her seaworthiness was put at ease
+for aye.
+
+[Illustration: Cape Pillar.]
+
+When all had been done that I could do for the safety of the vessel, I
+got to the fore-scuttle, between seas, and prepared a pot of coffee
+over a wood fire, and made a good Irish stew. Then, as before and
+afterward on the _Spray_, I insisted on warm meals. In the tide-race
+off Cape Pillar, however, where the sea was marvelously high, uneven,
+and crooked, my appetite was slim, and for a time I postponed cooking.
+(Confidentially, I was seasick!)
+
+The first day of the storm gave the _Spray_ her actual test in the
+worst sea that Cape Horn or its wild regions could afford, and in no
+part of the world could a rougher sea be found than at this particular
+point, namely, off Cape Pillar, the grim sentinel of the Horn.
+
+Farther offshore, while the sea was majestic, there was less
+apprehension of danger. There the _Spray_ rode, now like a bird on the
+crest of a wave, and now like a waif deep down in the hollow between
+seas; and so she drove on. Whole days passed, counted as other days,
+but with always a thrill--yes, of delight.
+
+On the fourth day of the gale, rapidly nearing the pitch of Cape Horn,
+I inspected my chart and pricked off the course and distance to Port
+Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, where I might find my way and refit,
+when I saw through a rift in the clouds a high mountain, about seven
+leagues away on the port beam. The fierce edge of the gale by this
+time had blown off, and I had already bent a square-sail on the boom
+in place of the mainsail, which was torn to rags. I hauled in the
+trailing ropes, hoisted this awkward sail reefed, the forestaysail
+being already set, and under this sail brought her at once on the wind
+heading for the land, which appeared as an island in the sea. So it
+turned out to be, though not the one I had supposed.
+
+I was exultant over the prospect of once more entering the Strait of
+Magellan and beating through again into the Pacific, for it was more
+than rough on the outside coast of Tierra del Fuego. It was indeed a
+mountainous sea. When the sloop was in the fiercest squalls, with only
+the reefed forestaysail set, even that small sail shook her from
+keelson to truck when it shivered by the leech. Had I harbored the
+shadow of a doubt for her safety, it would have been that she might
+spring a leak in the garboard at the heel of the mast; but she never
+called me once to the pump. Under pressure of the smallest sail I
+could set she made for the land like a race-horse, and steering her
+over the crests of the waves so that she might not trip was nice work.
+I stood at the helm now and made the most of it.
+
+Night closed in before the sloop reached the land, leaving her feeling
+the way in pitchy darkness. I saw breakers ahead before long. At this
+I wore ship and stood offshore, but was immediately startled by the
+tremendous roaring of breakers again ahead and on the lee bow. This
+puzzled me, for there should have been no broken water where I
+supposed myself to be. I kept off a good bit, then wore round, but
+finding broken water also there, threw her head again offshore. In
+this way, among dangers, I spent the rest of the night. Hail and sleet
+in the fierce squalls cut my flesh till the blood trickled over my
+face; but what of that? It was daylight, and the sloop was in the
+midst of the Milky Way of the sea, which is northwest of Cape Horn,
+and it was the white breakers of a huge sea over sunken rocks which
+had threatened to engulf her through the night. It was Fury Island I
+had sighted and steered for, and what a panorama was before me now and
+all around! It was not the time to complain of a broken skin. What
+could I do but fill away among the breakers and find a channel between
+them, now that it was day? Since she had escaped the rocks through the
+night, surely she would find her way by daylight. This was the
+greatest sea adventure of my life. God knows how my vessel escaped.
+
+The sloop at last reached inside of small islands that sheltered her
+in smooth water. Then I climbed the mast to survey the wild scene
+astern. The great naturalist Darwin looked over this seascape from the
+deck of the _Beagle,_ and wrote in his journal, "Any landsman seeing
+the Milky Way would have nightmare for a week." He might have added,
+"or seaman" as well.
+
+The _Spray's_ good luck followed fast. I discovered, as she sailed
+along through a labyrinth of islands, that she was in the Cockburn
+Channel, which leads into the Strait of Magellan at a point opposite
+Cape Froward, and that she was already passing Thieves' Bay,
+suggestively named. And at night, March 8, behold, she was at anchor
+in a snug cove at the Turn! Every heart-beat on the _Spray_ now
+counted thanks.
+
+Here I pondered on the events of the last few days, and, strangely
+enough, instead of feeling rested from sitting or lying down, I now
+began to feel jaded and worn; but a hot meal of venison stew soon put
+me right, so that I could sleep. As drowsiness came on I sprinkled the
+deck with tacks, and then I turned in, bearing in mind the advice of
+my old friend Samblich that I was not to step on them myself. I saw to
+it that not a few of them stood "business end" up; for when the
+_Spray_ passed Thieves' Bay two canoes had put out and followed in her
+wake, and there was no disguising the fact any longer that I was
+alone.
+
+Now, it is well known that one cannot step on a tack without saying
+something about it. A pretty good Christian will whistle when he steps
+on the "commercial end" of a carpet-tack; a savage will howl and claw
+the air, and that was just what happened that night about twelve
+o'clock, while I was asleep in the cabin, where the savages thought
+they "had me," sloop and all, but changed their minds when they
+stepped on deck, for then they thought that I or somebody else had
+them. I had no need of a dog; they howled like a pack of hounds. I had
+hardly use for a gun. They jumped pell-mell, some into their canoes
+and some into the sea, to cool off, I suppose, and there was a deal of
+free language over it as they went. I fired several guns when I came
+on deck, to let the rascals know that I was home, and then I turned in
+again, feeling sure I should not be disturbed any more by people who
+left in so great a hurry.
+
+The Fuegians, being cruel, are naturally cowards; they regard a rifle
+with superstitious fear. The only real danger one could see that might
+come from their quarter would be from allowing them to surround one
+within bow-shot, or to anchor within range where they might lie in
+ambush. As for their coming on deck at night, even had I not put tacks
+about, I could have cleared them off by shots from the cabin and hold.
+I always kept a quantity of ammunition within reach in the hold and in
+the cabin and in the forepeak, so that retreating to any of these
+places I could "hold the fort" simply by shooting up through the deck.
+
+[Illustration: "They howled like a pack of hounds."]
+
+Perhaps the greatest danger to be apprehended was from the use of
+fire. Every canoe carries fire; nothing is thought of that, for it is
+their custom to communicate by smoke-signals. The harmless brand that
+lies smoldering in the bottom of one of their canoes might be ablaze
+in one's cabin if he were not on the alert. The port captain of Sandy
+Point warned me particularly of this danger. Only a short time before
+they had fired a Chilean gunboat by throwing brands in through the
+stern windows of the cabin. The _Spray_ had no openings in the cabin
+or deck, except two scuttles, and these were guarded by fastenings
+which could not be undone without waking me if I were asleep.
+
+On the morning of the 9th, after a refreshing rest and a warm
+breakfast, and after I had swept the deck of tacks, I got out what
+spare canvas there was on board, and began to sew the pieces together
+in the shape of a peak for my square-mainsail, the tarpaulin. The day
+to all appearances promised fine weather and light winds, but
+appearances in Tierra del Fuego do not always count. While I was
+wondering why no trees grew on the slope abreast of the anchorage,
+half minded to lay by the sail-making and land with my gun for some
+game and to inspect a white boulder on the beach, near the brook, a
+williwaw came down with such terrific force as to carry the _Spray_,
+with two anchors down, like a feather out of the cove and away into
+deep water. No wonder trees did not grow on the side of that hill!
+Great Boreas! a tree would need to be all roots to hold on against
+such a furious wind.
+
+From the cove to the nearest land to leeward was a long drift,
+however, and I had ample time to weigh both anchors before the sloop
+came near any danger, and so no harm came of it. I saw no more savages
+that day or the next; they probably had some sign by which they knew
+of the coming williwaws; at least, they were wise in not being afloat
+even on the second day, for I had no sooner gotten to work at
+sail-making again, after the anchor was down, than the wind, as on the
+day before, picked the sloop up and flung her seaward with a
+vengeance, anchor and all, as before. This fierce wind, usual to the
+Magellan country, continued on through the day, and swept the sloop by
+several miles of steep bluffs and precipices overhanging a bold shore
+of wild and uninviting appearance. I was not sorry to get away from
+it, though in doing so it was no Elysian shore to which I shaped my
+course. I kept on sailing in hope, since I had no choice but to go on,
+heading across for St. Nicholas Bay, where I had cast anchor February
+19. It was now the 10th of March! Upon reaching the bay the second
+time I had circumnavigated the wildest part of desolate Tierra del
+Fuego. But the _Spray_ had not yet arrived at St. Nicholas, and by the
+merest accident her bones were saved from resting there when she did
+arrive. The parting of a staysail-sheet in a williwaw, when the sea
+was turbulent and she was plunging into the storm, brought me forward
+to see instantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close under the
+bows that I felt surely lost, and in my thoughts cried, "Is the hand
+of fate against me, after all, leading me in the end to this dark
+spot?" I sprang aft again, unheeding the flapping sail, and threw the
+wheel over, expecting, as the sloop came down into the hollow of a
+wave, to feel her timbers smash under me on the rocks. But at the
+touch of her helm she swung clear of the danger, and in the next
+moment she was in the lee of the land.
+
+[Illustration: A glimpse of Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) in the Strait
+of Magellan.]
+
+It was the small island in the middle of the bay for which the sloop
+had been steering, and which she made with such unerring aim as nearly
+to run it down. Farther along in the bay was the anchorage, which I
+managed to reach, but before I could get the anchor down another
+squall caught the sloop and whirled her round like a top and carried
+her away, altogether to leeward of the bay. Still farther to leeward
+was a great headland, and I bore off for that. This was retracing my
+course toward Sandy Point, for the gale was from the southwest.
+
+I had the sloop soon under good control, however, and in a short time
+rounded to under the lee of a mountain, where the sea was as smooth as
+a mill-pond, and the sails flapped and hung limp while she carried her
+way close in. Here I thought I would anchor and rest till morning, the
+depth being eight fathoms very close to the shore. But it was
+interesting to see, as I let go the anchor, that it did not reach the
+bottom before another williwaw struck down from this mountain and
+carried the sloop off faster than I could pay out cable. Therefore,
+instead of resting, I had to "man the windlass" and heave up the
+anchor with fifty fathoms of cable hanging up and down in deep water.
+This was in that part of the strait called Famine Reach. Dismal Famine
+Reach! On the sloop's crab-windlass I worked the rest of the night,
+thinking how much easier it was for me when I could say, "Do that
+thing or the other," than now doing all myself. But I hove away and
+sang the old chants that I sang when I was a sailor. Within the last
+few days I had passed through much and was now thankful that my state
+was no worse.
+
+It was daybreak when the anchor was at the hawse. By this time the
+wind had gone down, and cat's-paws took the place of williwaws, while
+the sloop drifted slowly toward Sandy Point. She came within sight of
+ships at anchor in the roads, and I was more than half minded to put
+in for new sails, but the wind coming out from the northeast, which
+was fair for the other direction, I turned the prow of the _Spray_
+westward once more for the Pacific, to traverse a second time the
+second half of my first course through the strait.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Repairing the _Spray's_ sails--Savages and an obstreperous anchor-A
+spider-fight--An encounter with Black Pedro--A visit to the steamship
+_Colombia_,--On the defensive against a fleet of canoes--A record of
+voyages through the strait--A chance cargo of tallow.
+
+I was determined to rely on my own small resources to repair the
+damages of the great gale which drove me southward toward the Horn,
+after I had passed from the Strait of Magellan out into the Pacific.
+So when I had got back into the strait, by way of Cockburn Channel, I
+did not proceed eastward for help at the Sandy Point settlement, but
+turning again into the northwestward reach of the strait, set to work
+with my palm and needle at every opportunity, when at anchor and when
+sailing. It was slow work; but little by little the squaresail on the
+boom expanded to the dimensions of a serviceable mainsail with a peak
+to it and a leech besides. If it was not the best-setting sail afloat,
+it was at least very strongly made and would stand a hard blow. A
+ship, meeting the _Spray_ long afterward, reported her as wearing a
+mainsail of some improved design and patent reefer, but that was not
+the case.
+
+The _Spray_ for a few days after the storm enjoyed fine weather, and
+made fair time through the strait for the distance of twenty miles,
+which, in these days of many adversities, I called a long run. The
+weather, I say, was fine for a few days; but it brought little rest.
+Care for the safety of my vessel, and even for my own life, was in no
+wise lessened by the absence of heavy weather. Indeed, the peril was
+even greater, inasmuch as the savages on comparatively fine days
+ventured forth on their marauding excursions, and in boisterous
+weather disappeared from sight, their wretched canoes being frail and
+undeserving the name of craft at all. This being so, I now enjoyed
+gales of wind as never before, and the _Spray_ was never long without
+them during her struggles about Cape Horn. I became in a measure
+inured to the life, and began to think that one more trip through the
+strait, if perchance the sloop should be blown off again, would make me
+the aggressor, and put the Fuegians entirely on the defensive. This
+feeling was forcibly borne in on me at Snug Bay, where I anchored at
+gray morning after passing Cape Froward, to find, when broad day
+appeared, that two canoes which I had eluded by sailing all night were
+now entering the same bay stealthily under the shadow of the high
+headland. They were well manned, and the savages were well armed with
+spears and bows. At a shot from my rifle across the bows, both turned
+aside into a small creek out of range. In danger now of being flanked
+by the savages in the bush close aboard, I was obliged to hoist the
+sails, which I had barely lowered, and make across to the opposite
+side of the strait, a distance of six miles. But now I was put to my
+wit's end as to how I should weigh anchor, for through an accident to
+the windlass right here I could not budge it. However, I set all sail
+and filled away, first hauling short by hand. The sloop carried her
+anchor away, as though it was meant to be always towed in this way
+underfoot, and with it she towed a ton or more of kelp from a reef in
+the bay, the wind blowing a wholesale breeze.
+
+Meanwhile I worked till blood started from my fingers, and with one
+eye over my shoulder for savages, I watched at the same time, and sent
+a bullet whistling whenever I saw a limb or a twig move; for I kept a
+gun always at hand, and an Indian appearing then within range would
+have been taken as a declaration of war. As it was, however, my own
+blood was all that was spilt--and from the trifling accident of
+sometimes breaking the flesh against a cleat or a pin which came in
+the way when I was in haste. Sea-cuts in my hands from pulling on
+hard, wet ropes were sometimes painful and often bled freely; but
+these healed when I finally got away from the strait into fine
+weather.
+
+After clearing Snug Bay I hauled the sloop to the wind, repaired the
+windlass, and hove the anchor to the hawse, catted it, and then
+stretched across to a port of refuge under a high mountain about six
+miles away, and came to in nine fathoms close under the face of a
+perpendicular cliff. Here my own voice answered back, and I named the
+place "Echo Mountain." Seeing dead trees farther along where the shore
+was broken, I made a landing for fuel, taking, besides my ax, a rifle,
+which on these days I never left far from hand; but I saw no living
+thing here, except a small spider, which had nested in a dry log that
+I boated to the sloop. The conduct of this insect interested me now
+more than anything else around the wild place. In my cabin it met,
+oddly enough, a spider of its own size and species that had come all
+the way from Boston--a very civil little chap, too, but mighty spry.
+Well, the Fuegian threw up its antennae for a fight; but my little
+Bostonian downed it at once, then broke its legs, and pulled them off,
+one by one, so dexterously that in less than three minutes from the
+time the battle began the Fuegian spider didn't know itself from a
+fly.
+
+I made haste the following morning to be under way after a night of
+wakefulness on the weird shore. Before weighing anchor, however, I
+prepared a cup of warm coffee over a smart wood fire in my great
+Montevideo stove. In the same fire was cremated the Fuegian spider,
+slain the day before by the little warrior from Boston, which a Scots
+lady at Cape Town long after named "Bruce" upon hearing of its prowess
+at Echo Mountain. The _Spray_ now reached away for Coffee Island,
+which I sighted on my birthday, February 20,1896.
+
+[Illustration: "Yammerschooner"]
+
+There she encountered another gale, that brought her in the lee of
+great Charles Island for shelter. On a bluff point on Charles were
+signal-fires, and a tribe of savages, mustered here since my first
+trip through the strait, manned their canoes to put off for the sloop.
+It was not prudent to come to, the anchorage being within bow-shot of
+the shore, which was thickly wooded; but I made signs that one canoe
+might come alongside, while the sloop ranged about under sail in the
+lee of the land. The others I motioned to keep off, and incidentally
+laid a smart Martini-Henry rifle in sight, close at hand, on the top
+of the cabin. In the canoe that came alongside, crying their
+never-ending begging word "yammerschooner," were two squaws and one
+Indian, the hardest specimens of humanity I had ever seen in any of my
+travels. "Yammerschooner" was their plaint when they pushed off from
+the shore, and "yammerschooner" it was when they got alongside. The
+squaws beckoned for food, while the Indian, a black-visaged savage,
+stood sulkily as if he took no interest at all in the matter, but on
+my turning my back for some biscuits and jerked beef for the squaws,
+the "buck" sprang on deck and confronted me, saying in Spanish jargon
+that we had met before. I thought I recognized the tone of his
+"yammerschooner," and his full beard identified him as the Black Pedro
+whom, it was true, I had met before. "Where are the rest of the crew?"
+he asked, as he looked uneasily around, expecting hands, maybe, to
+come out of the fore-scuttle and deal him his just deserts for many
+murders. "About three weeks ago," said he, "when you passed up here, I
+saw three men on board. Where are the other two?" I answered him
+briefly that the same crew was still on board. "But," said he, "I see
+you are doing all the work," and with a leer he added, as he glanced
+at the mainsail, "hombre valiente." I explained that I did all the
+work in the day, while the rest of the crew slept, so that they would
+be fresh to watch for Indians at night. I was interested in the subtle
+cunning of this savage, knowing him, as I did, better perhaps than he
+was aware. Even had I not been advised before I sailed from Sandy
+Point, I should have measured him for an arch-villain now. Moreover,
+one of the squaws, with that spark of kindliness which is somehow
+found in the breast of even the lowest savage, warned me by a sign to
+be on my guard, or Black Pedro would do me harm. There was no need of
+the warning, however, for I was on my guard from the first, and at
+that moment held a smart revolver in my hand ready for instant
+service.
+
+"When you sailed through here before," he said, "you fired a shot at
+me," adding with some warmth that it was "muy malo." I affected not to
+understand, and said, "You have lived at Sandy Point, have you not I"
+He answered frankly, "Yes," and appeared delighted to meet one who had
+come from the dear old place. "At the mission?" I queried. "Why, yes,"
+he replied, stepping forward as if to embrace an old friend. I
+motioned him back, for I did not share his flattering humor. "And you
+know Captain Pedro Samblich?" continued I. "Yes," said the villain,
+who had killed a kinsman of Samblich--"yes, indeed; he is a great
+friend of mine." "I know it," said I. Samblich had told me to shoot
+him on sight. Pointing to my rifle on the cabin, he wanted to know how
+many times it fired. "Cuantos?" said he. When I explained to him that
+that gun kept right on shooting, his jaw fell, and he spoke of getting
+away. I did not hinder him from going. I gave the squaws biscuits and
+beef, and one of them gave me several lumps of tallow in exchange, and
+I think it worth mentioning that she did not offer me the smallest
+pieces, but with some extra trouble handed me the largest of all the
+pieces in the canoe. No Christian could have done more. Before pushing
+off from the sloop the cunning savage asked for matches, and made as
+if to reach with the end of his spear the box I was about to give him;
+but I held it toward him on the muzzle of my rifle, the one that "kept
+on shooting." The chap picked the box off the gun gingerly enough, to
+be sure, but he jumped when I said, "Quedao [Look out]," at which the
+squaws laughed and seemed not at all displeased. Perhaps the wretch
+had clubbed them that morning for not gathering mussels enough for his
+breakfast. There was a good understanding among us all.
+
+From Charles Island the _Spray_ crossed over to Fortescue Bay, where
+she anchored and spent a comfortable night under the lee of high land,
+while the wind howled outside. The bay was deserted now. They were
+Fortescue Indians whom I had seen at the island, and I felt quite sure
+they could not follow the _Spray_ in the present hard blow. Not to
+neglect a precaution, however, I sprinkled tacks on deck before I
+turned in.
+
+On the following day the loneliness of the place was broken by the
+appearance of a great steamship, making for the anchorage with a lofty
+bearing. She was no Diego craft. I knew the sheer, the model, and the
+poise. I threw out my flag, and directly saw the Stars and Stripes
+flung to the breeze from the great ship.
+
+The wind had then abated, and toward night the savages made their
+appearance from the island, going direct to the steamer to
+"yammerschooner." Then they came to the _Spray_ to beg more, or to
+steal all, declaring that they got nothing from the steamer. Black
+Pedro here came alongside again. My own brother could not have been
+more delighted to see me, and he begged me to lend him my rifle to
+shoot a guanaco for me in the morning. I assured the fellow that if I
+remained there another day I would lend him the gun, but I had no mind
+to remain. I gave him a cooper's draw-knife and some other small
+implements which would be of service in canoe-making, and bade him be
+off.
+
+Under the cover of darkness that night I went to the steamer, which I
+found to be the _Colombia,_ Captain Henderson, from New York, bound
+for San Francisco. I carried all my guns along with me, in case it
+should be necessary to fight my way back. In the chief mate of the
+_Colombia,_ Mr. Hannibal, I found an old friend, and he referred
+affectionately to days in Manila when we were there together, he in
+the _Southern Cross_ and I in the _Northern Light,_ both ships as
+beautiful as their names.
+
+The _Colombia_ had an abundance of fresh stores on board. The captain
+gave his steward some order, and I remember that the guileless young
+man asked me if I could manage, besides other things, a few cans of
+milk and a cheese. When I offered my Montevideo gold for the supplies,
+the captain roared like a lion and told me to put my money up. It was
+a glorious outfit of provisions of all kinds that I got.
+
+[Illustration: A contrast in lighting--the electric lights of the
+_Colombia_ and the canoe fires of the Fortescue Indians.]
+
+Returning to the _Spray_, where I found all secure, I prepared for an
+early start in the morning. It was agreed that the steamer should blow
+her whistle for me if first on the move. I watched the steamer, off
+and on, through the night for the pleasure alone of seeing her
+electric lights, a pleasing sight in contrast to the ordinary Fuegian
+canoe with a brand of fire in it. The sloop was the first under way,
+but the _Colombia_, soon following, passed, and saluted as she went
+by. Had the captain given me his steamer, his company would have been
+no worse off than they were two or three months later. I read
+afterward, in a late California paper, "The _Colombia_ will be a total
+loss." On her second trip to Panama she was wrecked on the rocks of
+the California coast.
+
+The _Spray_ was then beating against wind and current, as usual in the
+strait. At this point the tides from the Atlantic and the Pacific
+meet, and in the strait, as on the outside coast, their meeting makes
+a commotion of whirlpools and combers that in a gale of wind is
+dangerous to canoes and other frail craft.
+
+A few miles farther along was a large steamer ashore, bottom up.
+Passing this place, the sloop ran into a streak of light wind, and
+then--a most remarkable condition for strait weather--it fell entirely
+calm. Signal-fires sprang up at once on all sides, and then more than
+twenty canoes hove in sight, all heading for the _Spray_. As they came
+within hail, their savage crews cried, "Amigo yammerschooner," "Anclas
+aqui," "Bueno puerto aqui," and like scraps of Spanish mixed with
+their own jargon. I had no thought of anchoring in their "good port."
+I hoisted the sloop's flag and fired a gun, all of which they might
+construe as a friendly salute or an invitation to come on. They drew
+up in a semicircle, but kept outside of eighty yards, which in
+self-defense would have been the death-line.
+
+In their mosquito fleet was a ship's boat stolen probably from a
+murdered crew. Six savages paddled this rather awkwardly with the
+blades of oars which had been broken off. Two of the savages standing
+erect wore sea-boots, and this sustained the suspicion that they had
+fallen upon some luckless ship's crew, and also added a hint that they
+had already visited the _Spray's_ deck, and would now, if they could,
+try her again. Their sea-boots, I have no doubt, would have protected
+their feet and rendered carpet-tacks harmless. Paddling clumsily, they
+passed down the strait at a distance of a hundred yards from the
+sloop, in an offhand manner and as if bound to Fortescue Bay. This I
+judged to be a piece of strategy, and so kept a sharp lookout over a
+small island which soon came in range between them and the sloop,
+completely hiding them from view, and toward which the _Spray_ was now
+drifting helplessly with the tide, and with every prospect of going on
+the rocks, for there was no anchorage, at least, none that my cables
+would reach. And, sure enough, I soon saw a movement in the grass just
+on top of the island, which is called Bonet Island and is one hundred
+and thirty-six feet high. I fired several shots over the place, but
+saw no other sign of the savages. It was they that had moved the
+grass, for as the sloop swept past the island, the rebound of the tide
+carrying her clear, there on the other side was the boat, surely
+enough exposing their cunning and treachery. A stiff breeze, coming up
+suddenly, now scattered the canoes while it extricated the sloop from
+a dangerous position, albeit the wind, though friendly, was still
+ahead.
+
+The _Spray_, flogging against current and wind, made Borgia Bay on the
+following afternoon, and cast anchor there for the second time. I
+would now, if I could, describe the moonlit scene on the strait at
+midnight after I had cleared the savages and Bonet Island. A heavy
+cloud-bank that had swept across the sky then cleared away, and the
+night became suddenly as light as day, or nearly so. A high mountain
+was mirrored in the channel ahead, and the _Spray_ sailing along with
+her shadow was as two sloops on the sea.
+
+[Illustration: Records of passages through the strait at the head of
+Borgia Bay. Note.--On a small bush nearer the water there was a board
+bearing several other inscriptions, to which were added the words
+"Sloop _Spray_, March, 1896"]
+
+The sloop being moored, I threw out my skiff, and with ax and gun
+landed at the head of the cove, and filled a barrel of water from a
+stream. Then, as before, there was no sign of Indians at the place.
+Finding it quite deserted, I rambled about near the beach for an hour
+or more. The fine weather seemed, somehow, to add loneliness to the
+place, and when I came upon a spot where a grave was marked I went no
+farther. Returning to the head of the cove, I came to a sort of
+Calvary, it appeared to me, where navigators, carrying their cross,
+had each set one up as a beacon to others coming after. They had
+anchored here and gone on, all except the one under the little mound.
+One of the simple marks, curiously enough, had been left there by the
+steamship _Colimbia_, sister ship to the _Colombia_, my neighbor of
+that morning.
+
+I read the names of many other vessels; some of them I copied in my
+journal, others were illegible. Many of the crosses had decayed and
+fallen, and many a hand that put them there I had known, many a hand
+now still. The air of depression was about the place, and I hurried
+back to the sloop to forget myself again in the voyage.
+
+Early the next morning I stood out from Borgia Bay, and off Cape Quod,
+where the wind fell light, I moored the sloop by kelp in twenty
+fathoms of water, and held her there a few hours against a three-knot
+current. That night I anchored in Langara Cove, a few miles farther
+along, where on the following day I discovered wreckage and goods
+washed up from the sea. I worked all day now, salving and boating off
+a cargo to the sloop. The bulk of the goods was tallow in casks and in
+lumps from which the casks had broken away; and embedded in the
+seaweed was a barrel of wine, which I also towed alongside. I hoisted
+them all in with the throat-halyards, which I took to the windlass.
+The weight of some of the casks was a little over eight hundred
+pounds.
+
+[Illustration: Salving wreckage.]
+
+There were no Indians about Langara; evidently there had not been any
+since the great gale which had washed the wreckage on shore. Probably
+it was the same gale that drove the _Spray_ off Cape Horn, from March
+3 to 8. Hundreds of tons of kelp had been torn from beds in deep water
+and rolled up into ridges on the beach. A specimen stalk which I found
+entire, roots, leaves, and all, measured one hundred and thirty-one
+feet in length. At this place I filled a barrel of water at night, and
+on the following day sailed with a fair wind at last.
+
+I had not sailed far, however, when I came abreast of more tallow in a
+small cove, where I anchored, and boated off as before. It rained and
+snowed hard all that day, and it was no light work carrying tallow in
+my arms over the boulders on the beach. But I worked on till the
+_Spray_ was loaded with a full cargo. I was happy then in the prospect
+of doing a good business farther along on the voyage, for the habits
+of an old trader would come to the surface. I sailed from the cove
+about noon, greased from top to toe, while my vessel was tallowed from
+keelson to truck. My cabin, as well as the hold and deck, was stowed
+full of tallow, and all were thoroughly smeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm--A defective sheetrope places
+the _Spray_ in peril--The _Spray_ as a target for a Fuegian arrow--The
+island of Alan Erric--Again in the open Pacific--The run to the island
+of Juan Fernandez--An absentee king--At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage.
+
+Another gale had then sprung up, but the wind was still fair, and I
+had only twenty-six miles to run for Port Angosto, a dreary enough
+place, where, however, I would find a safe harbor in which to refit
+and stow cargo. I carried on sail to make the harbor before dark, and
+she fairly flew along, all covered with snow, which fell thick and
+fast, till she looked like a white winter bird. Between the
+storm-bursts I saw the headland of my port, and was steering for it
+when a flaw of wind caught the mainsail by the lee, jibed it over, and
+dear! dear! how nearly was this the cause of disaster; for the sheet
+parted and the boom unshipped, and it was then close upon night. I
+worked till the perspiration poured from my body to get things
+adjusted and in working order before dark, and, above all, to get it
+done before the sloop drove to leeward of the port of refuge. Even
+then I did not get the boom shipped in its saddle. I was at the
+entrance of the harbor before I could get this done, and it was time
+to haul her to or lose the port; but in that condition, like a bird
+with a broken wing, she made the haven. The accident which so
+jeopardized my vessel and cargo came of a defective sheet-rope, one
+made from sisal, a treacherous fiber which has caused a deal of strong
+language among sailors.
+
+I did not run the _Spray_ into the inner harbor of Port Angosto, but
+came to inside a bed of kelp under a steep bluff on the port hand
+going in. It was an exceedingly snug nook, and to make doubly sure of
+holding on here against all williwaws I moored her with two anchors
+and secured her besides, by cables to trees. However, no wind ever
+reached there except back flaws from the mountains on the opposite
+side of the harbor. There, as elsewhere in that region, the country
+was made up of mountains. This was the place where I was to refit and
+whence I was to sail direct, once more, for Cape Pillar and the
+Pacific.
+
+I remained at Port Angosto some days, busily employed about the sloop.
+I stowed the tallow from the deck to the hold, arranged my cabin in
+better order, and took in a good supply of wood and water. I also
+mended the sloop's sails and rigging, and fitted a jigger, which
+changed the rig to a yawl, though I called the boat a sloop just the
+same, the jigger being merely a temporary affair.
+
+I never forgot, even at the busiest time of my work there, to have my
+rifle by me ready for instant use; for I was of necessity within range
+of savages, and I had seen Fuegian canoes at this place when I
+anchored in the port, farther down the reach, on the first trip
+through the strait. I think it was on the second day, while I was
+busily employed about decks, that I heard the swish of something
+through the air close by my ear, and heard a "zip"-like sound in the
+water, but saw nothing. Presently, however, I suspected that it was an
+arrow of some sort, for just then one passing not far from me struck
+the mainmast, where it stuck fast, vibrating from the shock--a Fuegian
+autograph. A savage was somewhere near, there could be no doubt about
+that. I did not know but he might be shooting at me, with a view to
+getting my sloop and her cargo; and so I threw up my old
+Martini-Henry, the rifle that kept on shooting, and the first shot
+uncovered three Fuegians, who scampered from a clump of bushes where
+they had been concealed, and made over the hills. I fired away a good
+many cartridges, aiming under their feet to encourage their climbing.
+My dear old gun woke up the hills, and at every report all three of
+the savages jumped as if shot; but they kept on, and put Fuego real
+estate between themselves and the _Spray_ as fast as their legs could
+carry them. I took care then, more than ever before, that all my
+firearms should be in order and that a supply of ammunition should
+always be ready at hand. But the savages did not return, and although
+I put tacks on deck every night, I never discovered that any more
+visitors came, and I had only to sweep the deck of tacks carefully
+every morning after.
+
+[Illustration: "The first shot uncovered three Fuegians."]
+
+As the days went by, the season became more favorable for a chance to
+clear the strait with a fair wind, and so I made up my mind after six
+attempts, being driven back each, time, to be in no further haste to
+sail. The bad weather on my last return to Port Angosto for shelter
+brought the Chilean gunboat _Condor_ and the Argentine cruiser
+_Azopardo_ into port. As soon as the latter came to anchor, Captain
+Mascarella, the commander, sent a boat to the _Spray_ with the message
+that he would take me in tow for Sandy Point if I would give up the
+voyage and return--the thing farthest from my mind. The officers of
+the _Azopardo_ told me that, coming up the strait after the _Spray_ on
+her first passage through, they saw Black Pedro and learned that he
+had visited me. The _Azopardo_, being a foreign man-of-war, had no
+right to arrest the Fuegian outlaw, but her captain blamed me for not
+shooting the rascal when he came to my sloop.
+
+I procured some cordage and other small supplies from these vessels,
+and the officers of each of them mustered a supply of warm flannels,
+of which I was most in need. With these additions to my outfit, and
+with the vessel in good trim, though somewhat deeply laden, I was well
+prepared for another bout with the Southern, misnamed Pacific, Ocean.
+
+In the first week in April southeast winds, such as appear about Cape
+Horn in the fall and winter seasons, bringing better weather than that
+experienced in the summer, began to disturb the upper clouds; a little
+more patience, and the time would come for sailing with a fair wind.
+
+At Port Angosto I met Professor Dusen of the Swedish scientific
+expedition to South America and the Pacific Islands. The professor was
+camped by the side of a brook at the head of the harbor, where there
+were many varieties of moss, in which he was interested, and where the
+water was, as his Argentine cook said, "muy rico." The professor had
+three well-armed Argentines along in his camp to fight savages. They
+seemed disgusted when I filled water at a small stream near the
+vessel, slighting their advice to go farther up to the greater brook,
+where it was "muy rico." But they were all fine fellows, though it was
+a wonder that they did not all die of rheumatic pains from living on
+wet ground.
+
+Of all the little haps and mishaps to the _Spray_ at Port Angosto, of
+the many attempts to put to sea, and of each return for shelter, it is
+not my purpose to speak. Of hindrances there were many to keep her
+back, but on the thirteenth day of April, and for the seventh and last
+time, she weighed anchor from that port. Difficulties, however,
+multiplied all about in so strange a manner that had I been given to
+superstitious fears I should not have persisted in sailing on a
+thirteenth day, notwithstanding that a fair wind blew in the offing.
+Many of the incidents were ludicrous. When I found myself, for
+instance, disentangling the sloop's mast from the branches of a tree
+after she had drifted three times around a small island, against my
+will, it seemed more than one's nerves could bear, and I had to speak
+about it, so I thought, or die of lockjaw, and I apostrophized the
+_Spray_ as an impatient farmer might his horse or his ox. "Didn't you
+know," cried I--"didn't you know that you couldn't climb a tree!" But
+the poor old _Spray_ had essayed, and successfully too, nearly
+everything else in the Strait of Magellan, and my heart softened
+toward her when I thought of what she had gone through. Moreover, she
+had discovered an island. On the charts this one that she had sailed
+around was traced as a point of land. I named it Alan Erric Island,
+after a worthy literary friend whom I had met in strange by-places,
+and I put up a sign, "Keep off the grass," which, as discoverer, was
+within my rights.
+
+Now at last the _Spray_ carried me free of Tierra del Fuego. If by a
+close shave only, still she carried me clear, though her boom actually
+hit the beacon rocks to leeward as she lugged on sail to clear the
+point. The thing was done on the 13th of April, 1896. But a close
+shave and a narrow escape were nothing new to the _Spray_.
+
+The waves doffed their white caps beautifully to her in the strait
+that day before the southeast wind, the first true winter breeze of
+the season from that quarter, and here she was out on the first of it,
+with every prospect of clearing Cape Pillar before it should shift. So
+it turned out; the wind blew hard, as it always blows about Cape Horn,
+but she had cleared the great tide-race off Cape Pillar and the
+Evangelistas, the outermost rocks of all, before the change came. I
+remained at the helm, humoring my vessel in the cross seas, for it was
+rough, and I did not dare to let her take a straight course. It was
+necessary to change her course in the combing seas, to meet them with
+what skill I could when they rolled up ahead, and to keep off when
+they came up abeam.
+
+On the following morning, April 14, only the tops of the highest
+mountains were in sight, and the _Spray_, making good headway on a
+northwest course, soon sank these out of sight. "Hurrah for the
+_Spray_!" I shouted to seals, sea-gulls, and penguins; for there were
+no other living creatures about, and she had weathered all the dangers
+of Cape Horn. Moreover, she had on her voyage round the Horn salved a
+cargo of which she had not jettisoned a pound. And why should not one
+rejoice also in the main chance coming so of itself?
+
+I shook out a reef, and set the whole jib, for, having sea-room, I
+could square away two points. This brought the sea more on her
+quarter, and she was the wholesomer under a press of sail.
+Occasionally an old southwest sea, rolling up, combed athwart her, but
+did no harm. The wind freshened as the sun rose half-mast or more, and
+the air, a bit chilly in the morning, softened later in the day; but I
+gave little thought to such things as these.
+
+One wave, in the evening, larger than others that had threatened all
+day,--one such as sailors call "fine-weather seas,"-broke over the
+sloop fore and aft. It washed over me at the helm, the last that swept
+over the _Spray_ off Cape Horn. It seemed to wash away old regrets.
+All my troubles were now astern; summer was ahead; all the world was
+again before me. The wind was even literally fair. My "trick" at the
+wheel was now up, and it was 5 p.m. I had stood at the helm since
+eleven o'clock the morning before, or thirty hours.
+
+Then was the time to uncover my head, for I sailed alone with God. The
+vast ocean was again around me, and the horizon was unbroken by land.
+A few days later the _Spray_ was under full sail, and I saw her for
+the first time with a jigger spread, This was indeed a small incident,
+but it was the incident following a triumph. The wind was still
+southwest, but it had moderated, and roaring seas had turned to
+gossiping waves that rippled and pattered against her sides as she
+rolled among them, delighted with their story. Rapid changes went on,
+those days, in things all about while she headed for the tropics. New
+species of birds came around; albatrosses fell back and became scarcer
+and scarcer; lighter gulls came in their stead, and pecked for crumbs
+in the sloop's wake.
+
+On the tenth day from Cape Pillar a shark came along, the first of its
+kind on this part of the voyage to get into trouble. I harpooned him
+and took out his ugly jaws. I had not till then felt inclined to take
+the life of any animal, but when John Shark hove in sight my sympathy
+flew to the winds. It is a fact that in Magellan I let pass many ducks
+that would have made a good stew, for I had no mind in the lonesome
+strait to take the life of any living thing.
+
+From Cape Pillar I steered for Juan Fernandez, and on the 26th of
+April, fifteen days out, made that historic island right ahead.
+
+The blue hills of Juan Fernandez, high among the clouds, could be seen
+about thirty miles off. A thousand emotions thrilled me when I saw the
+island, and I bowed my head to the deck. We may mock the Oriental
+salaam, but for my part I could find no other way of expressing
+myself.
+
+The wind being light through the day, the _Spray_ did not reach the
+island till night. With what wind there was to fill her sails she
+stood close in to shore on the northeast side, where it fell calm and
+remained so all night. I saw the twinkling of a small light farther
+along in a cove, and fired a gun, but got no answer, and soon the
+light disappeared altogether. I heard the sea booming against the
+cliffs all night, and realized that the ocean swell was still great,
+although from the deck of my little ship it was apparently small. From
+the cry of animals in the hills, which sounded fainter and fainter
+through the night, I judged that a light current was drifting the
+sloop from the land, though she seemed all night dangerously near the
+shore, for, the land being very high, appearances were deceptive.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ approaching Juan Fernandez, Robinson
+Crusoe's Island.]
+
+Soon after daylight I saw a boat putting out toward me. As it pulled
+near, it so happened that I picked up my gun, which was on the deck,
+meaning only to put it below; but the people in the boat, seeing the
+piece in my hands, quickly turned and pulled back for shore, which was
+about four miles distant. There were six rowers in her, and I observed
+that they pulled with oars in oar-locks, after the manner of trained
+seamen, and so I knew they belonged to a civilized race; but their
+opinion of me must have been anything but flattering when they mistook
+my purpose with the gun and pulled away with all their might. I made
+them understand by signs, but not without difficulty, that I did not
+intend to shoot, that I was simply putting the piece in the cabin, and
+that I wished them to return. When they understood my meaning they
+came back and were soon on board.
+
+One of the party, whom the rest called "king," spoke English; the
+others spoke Spanish. They had all heard of the voyage of the _Spray_
+through the papers of Valparaiso, and were hungry for news concerning
+it. They told me of a war between Chile and the Argentine, which I had
+not heard of when I was there. I had just visited both countries, and
+I told them that according to the latest reports, while I was in
+Chile, their own island was sunk. (This same report that Juan
+Fernandez had sunk was current in Australia when I arrived there three
+months later.)
+
+I had already prepared a pot of coffee and a plate of doughnuts,
+which, after some words of civility, the islanders stood up to and
+discussed with a will, after which they took the _Spray_ in tow of
+their boat and made toward the island with her at the rate of a good
+three knots. The man they called king took the helm, and with whirling
+it up and down he so rattled the _Spray_ that I thought she would
+never carry herself straight again. The others pulled away lustily
+with their oars. The king, I soon learned, was king only by courtesy.
+Having lived longer on the island than any other man in the
+world,--thirty years,--he was so dubbed. Juan Fernandez was then under
+the administration of a governor of Swedish nobility, so I was told. I
+was also told that his daughter could ride the wildest goat on the
+island. The governor, at the time of my visit, was away at Valparaiso
+with his family, to place his children at school. The king had been
+away once for a year or two, and in Rio de Janeiro had married a
+Brazilian woman who followed his fortunes to the far-off island. He
+was himself a Portuguese and a native of the Azores. He had sailed in
+New Bedford whale-ships and had steered a boat. All this I learned,
+and more too, before we reached the anchorage. The sea-breeze, coming
+in before long, filled the _Spray's_ sails, and the experienced
+Portuguese mariner piloted her to a safe berth in the bay, where she
+was moored to a buoy abreast the settlement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The islanders at Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts--The
+beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm--The mountain monument to
+Alexander Selkirk--Robinson Crusoe's cave--A stroll with the children
+of the island--Westward ho! with a friendly gale--A month's free
+sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides--Sighting the
+Marquesas--Experience in reckoning.
+
+The _Spray_ being secured, the islanders returned to the coffee and
+doughnuts, and I was more than flattered when they did not slight my
+buns, as the professor had done in the Strait of Magellan. Between
+buns and doughnuts there was little difference except in name. Both
+had been fried in tallow, which was the strong point in both, for
+there was nothing on the island fatter than a goat, and a goat is but
+a lean beast, to make the best of it. So with a view to business I
+hooked my steelyards to the boom at once, ready to weigh out tallow,
+there being no customs officer to say, "Why do you do so?" and before
+the sun went down the islanders had learned the art of making buns and
+doughnuts. I did not charge a high price for what I sold, but the
+ancient and curious coins I got in payment, some of them from the
+wreck of a galleon sunk in the bay no one knows when, I sold afterward
+to antiquarians for more than face-value. In this way I made a
+reasonable profit. I brought away money of all denominations from the
+island, and nearly all there was, so far as I could find out.
+
+[Illustration: The house of the king.]
+
+Juan Fernandez, as a place of call, is a lovely spot. The hills are
+well wooded, the valleys fertile, and pouring down through many
+ravines are streams of pure water. There are no serpents on the
+island, and no wild beasts other than pigs and goats, of which I saw a
+number, with possibly a dog or two. The people lived without the use
+of rum or beer of any sort. There was not a police officer or a lawyer
+among them. The domestic economy of the island was simplicity itself.
+The fashions of Paris did not affect the inhabitants; each dressed
+according to his own taste. Although there was no doctor, the people
+were all healthy, and the children were all beautiful. There were
+about forty-five souls on the island all told. The adults were mostly
+from the mainland of South America. One lady there, from Chile, who
+made a flying-jib for the _Spray_, taking her pay in tallow, would be
+called a belle at Newport. Blessed island of Juan Fernandez! Why
+Alexander Selkirk ever left you was more than I could make out.
+
+[Illustration: Robinson Crusoe's cave.]
+
+A large ship which had arrived some time before, on fire, had been
+stranded at the head of the bay, and as the sea smashed her to pieces
+on the rocks, after the fire was drowned, the islanders picked up the
+timbers and utilized them in the construction of houses, which
+naturally presented a ship-like appearance. The house of the king of
+Juan Fernandez, Manuel Carroza by name, besides resembling the ark,
+wore a polished brass knocker on its only door, which was painted
+green. In front of this gorgeous entrance was a flag-mast all ataunto,
+and near it a smart whale-boat painted red and blue, the delight of
+the king's old age.
+
+I of course made a pilgrimage to the old lookout place at the top of
+the mountain, where Selkirk spent many days peering into the distance
+for the ship which came at last. From a tablet fixed into the face of
+the rock I copied these words, inscribed in Arabic capitals:
+
+/*[4]
+       IN MEMORY
+           OF
+    ALEXANDER SELKIRK,
+         MARINER,
+*/
+
+/#
+     A native of Largo, in the county of Fife, Scotland, who lived on
+     this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. He
+     was landed from the <i>Cinque Ports</i> galley, 96 tons, 18 guns, A. D.
+     1704, and was taken off in the <i>Duke</i>, privateer, 12th February,
+     1709. He died Lieutenant of H. M. S. <i>Weymouth</i>, A. D. 1723,[A]
+     aged 47. This tablet is erected near Selkirk's lookout, by
+     Commodore Powell and the officers of H. M. S. <i>Topaze</i>, A. D. 1868.
+#/
+
+[A] Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, in the "Century Magazine" for July, 1899,
+shows that the tablet is in error as to Selkirk's death. It should be
+1721
+
+The cave in which Selkirk dwelt while on the island is at the head of
+the bay now called Robinson Crusoe Bay. It is around a bold headland
+west of the present anchorage and landing. Ships have anchored there,
+but it affords a very indifferent berth. Both of these anchorages are
+exposed to north winds, which, however, do not reach home with much
+violence. The holding-ground being good in the first-named bay to the
+eastward, the anchorage there may be considered safe, although the
+undertow at times makes it wild riding.
+
+I visited Robinson Crusoe Bay in a boat, and with some difficulty
+landed through the surf near the cave, which I entered. I found it dry
+and inhabitable. It is located in a beautiful nook sheltered by high
+mountains from all the severe storms that sweep over the island, which
+are not many; for it lies near the limits of the trade-wind regions,
+being in latitude 35 1/2 degrees. The island is about fourteen miles
+in length, east and west, and eight miles in width; its height is over
+three thousand feet. Its distance from Chile, to which country it
+belongs, is about three hundred and forty miles.
+
+Juan Fernandez was once a convict station. A number of caves in which
+the prisoners were kept, damp, unwholesome dens, are no longer in use,
+and no more prisoners are sent to the island.
+
+The pleasantest day I spent on the island, if not the pleasantest on
+my whole voyage, was my last day on shore,--but by no means because it
+was the last,--when the children of the little community, one and all,
+went out with me to gather wild fruits for the voyage. We found
+quinces, peaches, and figs, and the children gathered a basket of
+each. It takes very little to please children, and these little ones,
+never hearing a word in their lives except Spanish, made the hills
+ring with mirth at the sound of words in English. They asked me the
+names of all manner of things on the island. We came to a wild
+fig-tree loaded with fruit, of which I gave them the English name.
+"Figgies, figgies!" they cried, while they picked till their baskets
+were full. But when I told them that the _cabra_ they pointed out was
+only a goat, they screamed with laughter, and rolled on the grass in
+wild delight to think that a man had come to their island who would
+call a cabra a goat.
+
+[Illustration: The man who called a cabra a goat.]
+
+The first child born on Juan Fernandez, I was told, had become a
+beautiful woman and was now a mother. Manuel Carroza and the good soul
+who followed him here from Brazil had laid away their only child, a
+girl, at the age of seven, in the little churchyard on the point. In
+the same half-acre were other mounds among the rough lava rocks, some
+marking the burial-place of native-born children, some the
+resting-places of seamen from passing ships, landed here to end days
+of sickness and get into a sailors' heaven.
+
+The greatest drawback I saw in the island was the want of a school. A
+class there would necessarily be small, but to some kind soul who
+loved teaching and quietude life on Juan Fernandez would, for a
+limited time, be one of delight.
+
+On the morning of May 5, 1896, I sailed from Juan Fernandez, having
+feasted on many things, but on nothing sweeter than the adventure
+itself of a visit to the home and to the very cave of Robinson Crusoe.
+From the island the _Spray_ bore away to the north, passing the island
+of St. Felix before she gained the trade-winds, which seemed slow in
+reaching their limits.
+
+If the trades were tardy, however, when they did come they came with a
+bang, and made up for lost time; and the _Spray_, under reefs,
+sometimes one, sometimes two, flew before a gale for a great many
+days, with a bone in her mouth, toward the Marquesas, in the west,
+which, she made on the forty-third day out, and still kept on sailing.
+My time was all taken up those days--not by standing at the helm; no
+man, I think, could stand or sit and steer a vessel round the world: I
+did better than that; for I sat and read my books, mended my clothes,
+or cooked my meals and ate them in peace. I had already found that it
+was not good to be alone, and so I made companionship with what there
+was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own
+insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all
+else. Nothing could be easier or more restful than my voyage in the
+trade-winds.
+
+I sailed with a free wind day after day, marking the position of my
+ship on the chart with considerable precision; but this was done by
+intuition, I think, more than by slavish calculations. For one whole
+month my vessel held her course true; I had not, the while, so much as
+a light in the binnacle. The Southern Cross I saw every night abeam.
+The sun every morning came up astern; every evening it went down
+ahead. I wished for no other compass to guide me, for these were true.
+If I doubted my reckoning after a long time at sea I verified it by
+reading the clock aloft made by the Great Architect, and it was right.
+
+There was no denying that the comical side of the strange life
+appeared. I awoke, sometimes, to find the sun already shining into my
+cabin. I heard water rushing by, with only a thin plank between me and
+the depths, and I said, "How is this?" But it was all right; it was my
+ship on her course, sailing as no other ship had ever sailed before in
+the world. The rushing water along her side told me that she was
+sailing at full speed. I knew that no human hand was at the helm; I
+knew that all was well with "the hands" forward, and that there was no
+mutiny on board.
+
+The phenomena of ocean meteorology were interesting studies even here
+in the trade-winds. I observed that about every seven days the wind
+freshened and drew several points farther than usual from the
+direction of the pole; that is, it went round from east-southeast to
+south-southeast, while at the same time a heavy swell rolled up from
+the southwest. All this indicated that gales were going on in the
+anti-trades. The wind then hauled day after day as it moderated, till
+it stood again at the normal point, east-southeast. This is more or
+less the constant state of the winter trades in latitude 12 degrees
+S., where I "ran down the longitude" for weeks. The sun, we all know,
+is the creator of the trade-winds and of the wind system over all the
+earth. But ocean meteorology is, I think, the most fascinating of all.
+From Juan Fernandez to the Marquesas I experienced six changes of
+these great palpitations of sea-winds and of the sea itself, the
+effect of far-off gales. To know the laws that govern the winds, and
+to know that you know them, will give you an easy mind on your voyage
+round the world; otherwise you may tremble at the appearance of every
+cloud. What is true of this in the trade-winds is much more so in the
+variables, where changes run more to extremes.
+
+To cross the Pacific Ocean, even under the most favorable
+circumstances, brings you for many days close to nature, and you
+realize the vastness of the sea. Slowly but surely the mark of my
+little ship's course on the track-chart reached out on the ocean and
+across it, while at her utmost speed she marked with her keel still
+slowly the sea that carried her. On the forty-third day from land,--a
+long time to be at sea alone,--the sky being beautifully clear and the
+moon being "in distance" with the sun, I threw up my sextant for
+sights. I found from the result of three observations, after long
+wrestling with lunar tables, that her longitude by observation agreed
+within five miles of that by dead-reckoning.
+
+This was wonderful; both, however, might be in error, but somehow I
+felt confident that both were nearly true, and that in a few hours
+more I should see land; and so it happened, for then I made the island
+of Nukahiva, the southernmost of the Marquesas group, clear-cut and
+lofty. The verified longitude when abreast was somewhere between the
+two reckonings; this was extraordinary. All navigators will tell you
+that from one day to another a ship may lose or gain more than five
+miles in her sailing-account, and again, in the matter of lunars, even
+expert lunarians are considered as doing clever work when they average
+within eight miles of the truth.
+
+I hope I am making it clear that I do not lay claim to cleverness or
+to slavish calculations in my reckonings. I think I have already
+stated that I kept my longitude, at least, mostly by intuition. A
+rotator log always towed astern, but so much has to be allowed for
+currents and for drift, which the log never shows, that it is only an
+approximation, after all, to be corrected by one's own judgment from
+data of a thousand voyages; and even then the master of the ship, if
+he be wise, cries out for the lead and the lookout.
+
+Unique was my experience in nautical astronomy from the deck of the
+_Spray_--so much so that I feel justified in briefly telling it here.
+The first set of sights, just spoken of, put her many hundred miles
+west of my reckoning by account. I knew that this could not be
+correct. In about an hour's time I took another set of observations
+with the utmost care; the mean result of these was about the same as
+that of the first set. I asked myself why, with my boasted
+self-dependence, I had not done at least better than this. Then I went
+in search of a discrepancy in the tables, and I found it. In the
+tables I found that the column of figures from which I had got an
+important logarithm was in error. It was a matter I could prove beyond
+a doubt, and it made the difference as already stated. The tables
+being corrected, I sailed on with self-reliance unshaken, and with my
+tin clock fast asleep. The result of these observations naturally
+tickled my vanity, for I knew that it was something to stand on a
+great ship's deck and with two assistants take lunar observations
+approximately near the truth. As one of the poorest of American
+sailors, I was proud of the little achievement alone on the sloop,
+even by chance though it may have been.
+
+I was _en rapport_ now with my surroundings, and was carried on a vast
+stream where I felt the buoyancy of His hand who made all the worlds.
+I realized the mathematical truth of their motions, so well known that
+astronomers compile tables of their positions through the years and
+the days, and the minutes of a day, with such precision that one
+coming along over the sea even five years later may, by their aid,
+find the standard time of any given meridian on the earth.
+
+To find local time is a simpler matter. The difference between local
+and standard time is longitude expressed in time--four minutes, we all
+know, representing one degree. This, briefly, is the principle on
+which longitude is found independent of chronometers. The work of the
+lunarian, though seldom practised in these days of chronometers, is
+beautifully edifying, and there is nothing in the realm of navigation
+that lifts one's heart up more in adoration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Seventy-two days without a port--Whales and birds--A peep into the
+_Spray's_ galley--Flying-fish for breakfast--A welcome at Apia--A
+visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson--At Vailima--Samoan
+hospitality--Arrested for fast riding--An amusing
+merry-go-round--Teachers and pupils of Papauta College--At the mercy
+of sea-nymphs.
+
+To be alone forty-three days would seem a long time, but in reality,
+even here, winged moments flew lightly by, and instead of my hauling
+in for Nukahiva, which I could have made as well as not, I kept on for
+Samoa, where I wished to make my next landing. This occupied
+twenty-nine days more, making seventy-two days in all. I was not
+distressed in any way during that time. There was no end of
+companionship; the very coral reefs kept me company, or gave me no
+time to feel lonely, which is the same thing, and there were many of
+them now in my course to Samoa.
+
+First among the incidents of the voyage from Juan Fernandez to Samoa
+(which were not many) was a narrow escape from collision with a great
+whale that was absent-mindedly plowing the ocean at night while I was
+below. The noise from his startled snort and the commotion he made in
+the sea, as he turned to clear my vessel, brought me on deck in time
+to catch a wetting from the water he threw up with his flukes. The
+monster was apparently frightened. He headed quickly for the east; I
+kept on going west. Soon another whale passed, evidently a companion,
+following in its wake. I saw no more on this part of the voyage, nor
+did I wish to.
+
+[Illustration: Meeting with the whale]
+
+Hungry sharks came about the vessel often when she neared islands or
+coral reefs. I own to a satisfaction in shooting them as one would a
+tiger. Sharks, after all, are the tigers of the sea. Nothing is
+more dreadful to the mind of a sailor, I think, than a possible
+encounter with a hungry shark.
+
+A number of birds were always about; occasionally one poised on the
+mast to look the _Spray_ over, wondering, perhaps, at her odd wings,
+for she now wore her Fuego mainsail, which, like Joseph's coat, was
+made of many pieces. Ships are less common on the Southern seas than
+formerly. I saw not one in the many days crossing the Pacific.
+
+My diet on these long passages usually consisted of potatoes and salt
+cod and biscuits, which I made two or three times a week. I had always
+plenty of coffee, tea, sugar, and flour. I carried usually a good
+supply of potatoes, but before reaching Samoa I had a mishap which
+left me destitute of this highly prized sailors' luxury. Through
+meeting at Juan Fernandez the Yankee Portuguese named Manuel Carroza,
+who nearly traded me out of my boots, I ran out of potatoes in
+mid-ocean, and was wretched thereafter. I prided myself on being
+something of a trader; but this Portuguese from the Azores by way of
+New Bedford, who gave me new potatoes for the older ones I had got
+from the _Colombia_, a bushel or more of the best, left me no ground
+for boasting. He wanted mine, he said, "for changee the seed." When I
+got to sea I found that his tubers were rank and unedible, and full of
+fine yellow streaks of repulsive appearance. I tied the sack up and
+returned to the few left of my old stock, thinking that maybe when I
+got right hungry the island potatoes would improve in flavor. Three
+weeks later I opened the bag again, and out flew millions of winged
+insects! Manuel's potatoes had all turned to moths. I tied them up
+quickly and threw all into the sea.
+
+Manuel had a large crop of potatoes on hand, and as a hint to
+whalemen, who are always eager to buy vegetables, he wished me to
+report whales off the island of Juan Fernandez, which I have already
+done, and big ones at that, but they were a long way off.
+
+Taking things by and large, as sailors say, I got on fairly well in
+the matter of provisions even on the long voyage across the Pacific. I
+found always some small stores to help the fare of luxuries; what I
+lacked of fresh meat was made up in fresh fish, at least while in the
+trade-winds, where flying-fish crossing on the wing at night would hit
+the sails and fall on deck, sometimes two or three of them, sometimes
+a dozen. Every morning except when the moon was large I got a
+bountiful supply by merely picking them up from the lee scuppers. All
+tinned meats went begging.
+
+On the 16th of July, after considerable care and some skill and hard
+work, the _Spray_ cast anchor at Apia, in the kingdom of Samoa, about
+noon. My vessel being moored, I spread an awning, and instead of going
+at once on shore I sat under it till late in the evening, listening
+with delight to the musical voices of the Samoan men and women.
+
+A canoe coming down the harbor, with three young women in it, rested
+her paddles abreast the sloop. One of the fair crew, hailing with the
+naive salutation, "Talofa lee" ("Love to you, chief"), asked:
+
+"Schoon come Melike?"
+
+"Love to you," I answered, and said, "Yes."
+
+"You man come 'lone?"
+
+Again I answered, "Yes."
+
+"I don't believe that. You had other mans, and you eat 'em."
+
+At this sally the others laughed. "What for you come long way?" they
+asked.
+
+"To hear you ladies sing," I replied.
+
+[Illustration: First exchange of courtesies in Samoa.]
+
+"Oh, talofa lee!" they all cried, and sang on. Their voices filled the
+air with music that rolled across to the grove of tall palms on the
+other side of the harbor and back. Soon after this six young men came
+down in the United States consul-general's boat, singing in parts and
+beating time with their oars. In my interview with them I came off
+better than with the damsels in the canoe. They bore an invitation
+from General Churchill for me to come and dine at the consulate. There
+was a lady's hand in things about the consulate at Samoa. Mrs.
+Churchill picked the crew for the general's boat, and saw to it that
+they wore a smart uniform and that they could sing the Samoan
+boatsong, which in the first week Mrs. Churchill herself could sing
+like a native girl.
+
+Next morning bright and early Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson came to the
+_Spray_ and invited me to Vailima the following day. I was of course
+thrilled when I found myself, after so many days of adventure, face to
+face with this bright woman, so lately the companion of the author who
+had delighted me on the voyage. The kindly eyes, that looked me
+through and through, sparkled when we compared notes of adventure. I
+marveled at some of her experiences and escapes. She told me that,
+along with her husband, she had voyaged in all manner of rickety craft
+among the islands of the Pacific, reflectively adding, "Our tastes
+were similar."
+
+Following the subject of voyages, she gave me the four beautiful
+volumes of sailing directories for the Mediterranean, writing on the
+fly-leaf of the first:
+
+To CAPTAIN SLOCUM. These volumes have been read and re-read many times
+by my husband, and I am very sure that he would be pleased that they
+should be passed on to the sort of seafaring man that he liked above
+all others. FANNY V. DE G. STEVENSON.
+
+Mrs. Stevenson also gave me a great directory of the Indian Ocean. It
+was not without a feeling of reverential awe that I received the books
+so nearly direct from the hand of Tusitala, "who sleeps in the
+forest." Aolele, the _Spray_ will cherish your gift.
+
+[Illustration: Vailima, the home of Robert Louis Stevenson.]
+
+The novelist's stepson, Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, walked through the Vailima
+mansion with me and bade me write my letters at the old desk. I
+thought it would be presumptuous to do that; it was sufficient for me
+to enter the hall on the floor of which the "Writer of Tales,"
+according to the Samoan custom, was wont to sit.
+
+Coming through the main street of Apia one day, with my hosts, all
+bound for the _Spray_, Mrs. Stevenson on horseback, I walking by her
+side, and Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne close in our wake on bicycles, at a
+sudden turn in the road we found ourselves mixed with a remarkable
+native procession, with a somewhat primitive band of music, in front
+of us, while behind was a festival or a funeral, we could not tell
+which. Several of the stoutest men carried bales and bundles on poles.
+Some were evidently bales of tapa-cloth. The burden of one set of
+poles, heavier than the rest, however, was not so easily made out. My
+curiosity was whetted to know whether it was a roast pig or something
+of a gruesome nature, and I inquired about it. "I don't know," said
+Mrs. Stevenson, "whether this is a wedding or a funeral. Whatever it
+is, though, captain, our place seems to be at the head of it."
+
+The _Spray_ being in the stream, we boarded her from the beach
+abreast, in the little razeed Gloucester dory, which had been painted
+a smart green. Our combined weight loaded it gunwale to the water, and
+I was obliged to steer with great care to avoid swamping. The
+adventure pleased Mrs. Stevenson greatly, and as we paddled along she
+sang, "They went to sea in a pea-green boat." I could understand her
+saying of her husband and herself, "Our tastes were similar."
+
+As I sailed farther from the center of civilization I heard less and
+less of what would and what would not pay. Mrs. Stevenson, in speaking
+of my voyage, did not once ask me what I would make out of it. When I
+came to a Samoan village, the chief did not ask the price of gin, or
+say, "How much will you pay for roast pig?" but, "Dollar, dollar,"
+said he; "white man know only dollar."
+
+"Never mind dollar. The _tapo_ has prepared ava; let us drink and
+rejoice." The tapo is the virgin hostess of the village; in this
+instance it was Taloa, daughter of the chief. "Our taro is good; let
+us eat. On the tree there is fruit. Let the day go by; why should we
+mourn over that? There are millions of days coming. The breadfruit is
+yellow in the sun, and from the cloth-tree is Taloa's gown. Our house,
+which is good, cost but the labor of building it, and there is no lock
+on the door."
+
+While the days go thus in these Southern islands we at the North are
+struggling for the bare necessities of life.
+
+For food the islanders have only to put out their hand and take what
+nature has provided for them; if they plant a banana-tree, their only
+care afterward is to see that too many trees do not grow. They have
+great reason to love their country and to fear the white man's yoke,
+for once harnessed to the plow, their life would no longer be a poem.
+
+The chief of the village of Caini, who was a tall and dignified Tonga
+man, could be approached only through an interpreter and talking man.
+It was perfectly natural for him to inquire the object of my visit,
+and I was sincere when I told him that my reason for casting anchor in
+Samoa was to see their fine men, and fine women, too. After a
+considerable pause the chief said: "The captain has come a long way to
+see so little; but," he added, "the tapo must sit nearer the captain."
+"Yack," said Taloa, who had so nearly learned to say yes in English,
+and suiting the action to the word, she hitched a peg nearer, all
+hands sitting in a circle upon mats. I was no less taken with the
+chiefs eloquence than delighted with the simplicity of all he said.
+About him there was nothing pompous; he might have been taken for a
+great scholar or statesman, the least assuming of the men I met on the
+voyage. As for Taloa, a sort of Queen of the May, and the other tapo
+girls, well, it is wise to learn as soon as possible the manners and
+customs of these hospitable people, and meanwhile not to mistake for
+over-familiarity that which is intended as honor to a guest. I was
+fortunate in my travels in the islands, and saw nothing to shake one's
+faith in native virtue.
+
+To the unconventional mind the punctilious etiquette of Samoa is
+perhaps a little painful. For instance, I found that in partaking of
+ava, the social bowl, I was supposed to toss a little of the beverage
+over my shoulder, or pretend to do so, and say, "Let the gods drink,"
+and then drink it all myself; and the dish, invariably a
+cocoanut-shell, being empty, I might not pass it politely as we would
+do, but politely throw it twirling across the mats at the tapo.
+
+My most grievous mistake while at the islands was made on a nag,
+which, inspired by a bit of good road, must needs break into a smart
+trot through a village. I was instantly hailed by the chief's deputy,
+who in an angry voice brought me to a halt. Perceiving that I was in
+trouble, I made signs for pardon, the safest thing to do, though I did
+not know what offense I had committed. My interpreter coming up,
+however, put me right, but not until a long palaver had ensued. The
+deputy's hail, liberally translated, was: "Ahoy, there, on the frantic
+steed! Know you not that it is against the law to ride thus through
+the village of our fathers?" I made what apologies I could, and
+offered to dismount and, like my servant, lead my nag by the bridle.
+This, the interpreter told me, would also be a grievous wrong, and so
+I again begged for pardon. I was summoned to appear before a chief;
+but my interpreter, being a wit as well as a bit of a rogue, explained
+that I was myself something of a chief, and should not be detained,
+being on a most important mission. In my own behalf I could only say
+that I was a stranger, but, pleading all this, I knew I still deserved
+to be roasted, at which the chief showed a fine row of teeth and
+seemed pleased, but allowed me to pass on.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray's_ course from the Strait of Magellan to
+Torres Strait.]
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray's_ course from Australia to South Africa.]
+
+The chief of the Tongas and his family at Caini, returning my visit,
+brought presents of tapa-cloth and fruits. Taloa, the princess,
+brought a bottle of cocoanut-oil for my hair, which another man might
+have regarded as coming late.
+
+It was impossible to entertain on the _Spray_ after the royal manner
+in which I had been received by the chief. His fare had included all
+that the land could afford, fruits, fowl, fishes, and flesh, a hog
+having been roasted whole. I set before them boiled salt pork and salt
+beef, with which I was well supplied, and in the evening took them all
+to a new amusement in the town, a rocking-horse merry-go-round, which
+they called a "kee-kee," meaning theater; and in a spirit of justice
+they pulled off the horses' tails, for the proprietors of the show,
+two hard-fisted countrymen of mine, I grieve to say, unceremoniously
+hustled them off for a new set, almost at the first spin. I was not a
+little proud of my Tonga friends; the chief, finest of them all,
+carried a portentous club. As for the theater, through the greed of
+the proprietors it was becoming unpopular, and the representatives of
+the three great powers, in want of laws which they could enforce,
+adopted a vigorous foreign policy, taxing it twenty-five per cent, on
+the gate-money. This was considered a great stroke of legislative
+reform!
+
+It was the fashion of the native visitors to the _Spray_ to come over
+the bows, where they could reach the head-gear and climb aboard with
+ease, and on going ashore to jump off the stern and swim away; nothing
+could have been more delightfully simple. The modest natives wore
+_lava-lava_ bathing-dresses, a native cloth from the bark of the
+mulberry-tree, and they did no harm to the _Spray_. In summer-land
+Samoa their coming and going was only a merry every-day scene.  One
+day the head teachers of Papauta College, Miss Schultze and Miss
+Moore, came on board with their ninety-seven young women students.
+They were all dressed in white, and each wore a red rose, and of
+course came in boats or canoes in the cold-climate style. A merrier
+bevy of girls it would be difficult to find. As soon as they got on
+deck, by request of one of the teachers, they sang "The Watch on the
+Rhine," which I had never heard before. "And now," said they all,
+"let's up anchor and away." But I had no inclination to sail from
+Samoa so soon. On leaving the _Spray_ these accomplished young women
+each seized a palm-branch or paddle, or whatever else would serve the
+purpose, and literally paddled her own canoe. Each could have swum as
+readily, and would have done so, I dare say, had it not been for the
+holiday muslin.
+
+It was not uncommon at Apia to see a young woman swimming alongside a
+small canoe with a passenger for the _Spray_. Mr. Trood, an old Eton
+boy, came in this manner to see me, and he exclaimed, "Was ever king
+ferried in such state?" Then, suiting his action to the sentiment, he
+gave the damsel pieces of silver till the natives watching on shore
+yelled with envy. My own canoe, a small dugout, one day when it had
+rolled over with me, was seized by a party of fair bathers, and before
+I could get my breath, almost, was towed around and around the
+_Spray_, while I sat in the bottom of it, wondering what they would do
+next. But in this case there were six of them, three on a side, and I
+could not help myself. One of the sprites, I remember, was a young
+English lady, who made more sport of it than any of the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Samoan royalty--King Malietoa--Good-by to friends at Vailima--Leaving
+Fiji to the south--Arrival at Newcastle, Australia--The yachts of
+Sydney--A ducking on the _Spray_--Commodore Foy presents the sloop
+with a new suit of sails--On to Melbourne--A shark that proved to be
+valuable--A change of course--The "Rain of Blood"--In Tasmania.
+
+At Apia I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. A. Young, the father of the
+late Queen Margaret, who was Queen of Manua from 1891 to 1895. Her
+grandfather was an English sailor who married a princess. Mr. Young is
+now the only survivor of the family, two of his children, the last of
+them all, having been lost in an island trader which a few months
+before had sailed, never to return. Mr. Young was a Christian
+gentleman, and his daughter Margaret was accomplished in graces that
+would become any lady. It was with pain that I saw in the newspapers a
+sensational account of her life and death, taken evidently from a
+paper in the supposed interest of a benevolent society, but without
+foundation in fact. And the startling head-lines saying, "Queen
+Margaret of Manua is dead," could hardly be called news in 1898, the
+queen having then been dead three years.
+
+While hobnobbing, as it were, with royalty, I called on the king
+himself, the late Malietoa. King Malietoa was a great ruler; he never
+got less than forty-five dollars a month for the job, as he told me
+himself, and this amount had lately been raised, so that he could live
+on the fat of the land and not any longer be called "Tin-of-salmon
+Malietoa" by graceless beach-combers.
+
+As my interpreter and I entered the front door of the palace, the
+king's brother, who was viceroy, sneaked in through a taro-patch by
+the back way, and sat cowering by the door while I told my story to
+the king. Mr. W---of New York, a gentleman interested in missionary
+work, had charged me, when I sailed, to give his remembrance to the
+king of the Cannibal Islands, other islands of course being meant; but
+the good King Malietoa, notwithstanding that his people have not eaten
+a missionary in a hundred years, received the message himself, and
+seemed greatly pleased to hear so directly from the publishers of the
+"Missionary Review," and wished me to make his compliments in return.
+His Majesty then excused himself, while I talked with his daughter,
+the beautiful Faamu-Sami (a name signifying "To make the sea burn"),
+and soon reappeared in the full-dress uniform of the German
+commander-in-chief, Emperor William himself; for, stupidly enough, I
+had not sent my credentials ahead that the king might be in full
+regalia to receive me. Calling a few days later to say good-by to
+Faamu-Sami, I saw King Malietoa for the last time.
+
+Of the landmarks in the pleasant town of Apia, my memory rests first
+on the little school just back of the London Missionary Society
+coffee-house and reading-rooms, where Mrs. Bell taught English to
+about a hundred native children, boys and girls. Brighter children you
+will not find anywhere.
+
+"Now, children," said Mrs. Bell, when I called one day, "let us show
+the captain that we know something about the Cape Horn he passed in
+the _Spray_" at which a lad of nine or ten years stepped nimbly
+forward and read Basil Hall's fine description of the great cape, and
+read it well. He afterward copied the essay for me in a clear hand.
+
+Calling to say good-by to my friends at Vailima, I met Mrs. Stevenson
+in her Panama hat, and went over the estate with her. Men were at work
+clearing the land, and to one of them she gave an order to cut a
+couple of bamboo-trees for the _Spray_ from a clump she had planted
+four years before, and which had grown to the height of sixty feet. I
+used them for spare spars, and the butt of one made a serviceable
+jib-boom on the homeward voyage. I had then only to take ava with the
+family and be ready for sea. This ceremony, important among Samoans,
+was conducted after the native fashion. A Triton horn was sounded to
+let us know when the beverage was ready, and in response we all
+clapped hands. The bout being in honor of the _Spray_, it was my turn
+first, after the custom of the country, to spill a little over my
+shoulder; but having forgotten the Samoan for "Let the gods drink," I
+repeated the equivalent in Russian and Chinook, as I remembered a word
+in each, whereupon Mr. Osbourne pronounced me a confirmed Samoan. Then
+I said "Tofah!" to my good friends of Samoa, and all wishing the
+_Spray_ _bon voyage_, she stood out of the harbor August 20, 1896, and
+continued on her course. A sense of loneliness seized upon me as the
+islands faded astern, and as a remedy for it I crowded on sail for
+lovely Australia, which was not a strange land to me; but for long
+days in my dreams Vailima stood before the prow.
+
+The _Spray_ had barely cleared the islands when a sudden burst of the
+trades brought her down to close reefs, and she reeled off one hundred
+and eighty-four miles the first day, of which I counted forty miles of
+current in her favor. Finding a rough sea, I swung her off free and
+sailed north of the Horn Islands, also north of Fiji instead of south,
+as I had intended, and coasted down the west side of the archipelago.
+Thence I sailed direct for New South Wales, passing south of New
+Caledonia, and arrived at Newcastle after a passage of forty-two days,
+mostly of storms and gales.
+
+One particularly severe gale encountered near New Caledonia foundered
+the American clipper-ship _Patrician_ farther south. Again, nearer the
+coast of Australia, when, however, I was not aware that the gale was
+extraordinary, a French mail-steamer from New Caledonia for Sydney,
+blown considerably out of her course, on her arrival reported it an
+awful storm, and to inquiring friends said: "Oh, my! we don't know
+what has become of the little sloop _Spray_. We saw her in the thick
+of the storm." The _Spray_ was all right, lying to like a duck. She
+was under a goose's wing mainsail, and had had a dry deck while the
+passengers on the steamer, I heard later, were up to their knees in
+water in the saloon. When their ship arrived at Sydney they gave the
+captain a purse of gold for his skill and seamanship in bringing them
+safe into port. The captain of the _Spray_ got nothing of this sort.
+In this gale I made the land about Seal Rocks, where the steamship
+_Catherton_, with many lives, was lost a short time before. I was many
+hours off the rocks, beating back and forth, but weathered them at
+last.
+
+I arrived at Newcastle in the teeth of a gale of wind. It was a stormy
+season. The government pilot, Captain Cumming, met me at the harbor
+bar, and with the assistance of a steamer carried my vessel to a safe
+berth. Many visitors came on board, the first being the United States
+consul, Mr. Brown. Nothing was too good for the _Spray_ here. All
+government dues were remitted, and after I had rested a few days a
+port pilot with a tug carried her to sea again, and she made along the
+coast toward the harbor of Sydney, where she arrived on the following
+day, October 10, 1896.
+
+I came to in a snug cove near Manly for the night, the Sydney harbor
+police-boat giving me a pluck into anchorage while they gathered data
+from an old scrap-book of mine, which seemed to interest them. Nothing
+escapes the vigilance of the New South Wales police; their reputation
+is known the world over. They made a shrewd guess that I could give
+them some useful information, and they were the first to meet me. Some
+one said they came to arrest me, and--well, let it go at that.
+
+[Illustration: The accident at Sydney.]
+
+Summer was approaching, and the harbor of Sydney was blooming with
+yachts. Some of them came down to the weather-beaten _Spray_ and
+sailed round her at Shelcote, where she took a berth for a few days.
+At Sydney I was at once among friends. The _Spray_ remained at the
+various watering-places in the great port for several weeks, and was
+visited by many agreeable people, frequently by officers of H.M.S.
+_Orlando_ and their friends. Captain Fisher, the commander, with a
+party of young ladies from the city and gentlemen belonging to his
+ship, came one day to pay me a visit in the midst of a deluge of rain.
+I never saw it rain harder even in Australia. But they were out for
+fun, and rain could not dampen their feelings, however hard it
+poured. But, as ill luck would have it, a young gentleman of another
+party on board, in the full uniform of a very great yacht club, with
+brass buttons enough to sink him, stepping quickly to get out of the
+wet, tumbled holus-bolus, head and heels, into a barrel of water I had
+been coopering, and being a short man, was soon out of sight, and
+nearly drowned before he was rescued. It was the nearest to a casualty
+on the _Spray_ in her whole course, so far as I know. The young man
+having come on board with compliments made the mishap most
+embarrassing. It had been decided by his club that the _Spray_ could
+not be officially recognized, for the reason that she brought no
+letters from yacht-clubs in America, and so I say it seemed all the
+more embarrassing and strange that I should have caught at least one
+of the members, in a barrel, and, too, when I was not fishing for
+yachtsmen.
+
+The typical Sydney boat is a handy sloop of great beam and enormous
+sail-carrying power; but a capsize is not uncommon, for they carry
+sail like vikings. In Sydney I saw all manner of craft, from the smart
+steam-launch and sailing-cutter to the smaller sloop and canoe
+pleasuring on the bay. Everybody owned a boat. If a boy in Australia
+has not the means to buy him a boat he builds one, and it is usually
+one not to be ashamed of. The _Spray_ shed her Joseph's coat, the
+Fuego mainsail, in Sydney, and wearing a new suit, the handsome
+present of Commodore Foy, she was flagship of the Johnstone's Bay
+Flying Squadron when the circumnavigators of Sydney harbor sailed in
+their annual regatta. They "recognized" the _Spray_ as belonging to "a
+club of her own," and with more Australian sentiment than
+fastidiousness gave her credit for her record.
+
+Time flew fast those days in Australia, and it was December 6,1896,
+when the _Spray_ sailed from Sydney. My intention was now to sail
+around Cape Leeuwin direct for Mauritius on my way home, and so I
+coasted along toward Bass Strait in that direction.
+
+There was little to report on this part of the voyage, except
+changeable winds, "busters," and rough seas. The 12th of December,
+however, was an exceptional day, with a fine coast wind, northeast.
+The _Spray_ early in the morning passed Twofold Bay and later Cape
+Bundooro in a smooth sea with land close aboard. The lighthouse on the
+cape dipped a flag to the _Spray's_ flag, and children on the
+balconies of a cottage near the shore waved handkerchiefs as she
+passed by. There were only a few people all told on the shore, but the
+scene was a happy one. I saw festoons of evergreen in token of
+Christmas, near at hand. I saluted the merrymakers, wishing them a
+"Merry Christmas." and could hear them say, "I wish you the same."
+
+From Cape Bundooro I passed by Cliff Island in Bass Strait, and
+exchanged signals with the light-keepers while the _Spray_ worked up
+under the island. The wind howled that day while the sea broke over
+their rocky home.
+
+A few days later, December 17, the _Spray_ came in close under
+Wilson's Promontory, again seeking shelter. The keeper of the light at
+that station, Mr. J. Clark, came on board and gave me directions for
+Waterloo Bay, about three miles to leeward, for which I bore up at
+once, finding good anchorage there in a sandy cove protected from all
+westerly and northerly winds.
+
+Anchored here was the ketch _Secret_, a fisherman, and the _Mary_ of
+Sydney, a steam ferry-boat fitted for whaling. The captain of the
+_Mary_ was a genius, and an Australian genius at that, and smart. His
+crew, from a sawmill up the coast, had not one of them seen a live
+whale when they shipped; but they were boatmen after an Australian's
+own heart, and the captain had told them that to kill a whale was no
+more than to kill a rabbit. They believed him, and that settled it. As
+luck would have it, the very first one they saw on their cruise,
+although an ugly humpback, was a dead whale in no time, Captain Young,
+the master of the _Mary_, killing the monster at a single thrust of a
+harpoon. It was taken in tow for Sydney, where they put it on
+exhibition. Nothing but whales interested the crew of the gallant
+_Mary_, and they spent most of their time here gathering fuel along
+shore for a cruise on the grounds off Tasmania. Whenever the word
+"whale" was mentioned in the hearing of these men their eyes glistened
+with excitement.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum working the _Spray_ out of the Yarrow
+River, a part of Melbourne harbor.]
+
+We spent three days in the quiet cove, listening to the wind outside.
+Meanwhile Captain Young and I explored the shores, visited abandoned
+miners' pits, and prospected for gold ourselves.
+
+Our vessels, parting company the morning they sailed, stood away like
+sea-birds each on its own course. The wind for a few days was
+moderate, and, with unusual luck of fine weather, the _Spray_ made
+Melbourne Heads on the 22d of December, and, taken in tow by the
+steam-tug Racer, was brought into port.
+
+Christmas day was spent at a berth in the river Yarrow, but I lost
+little time in shifting to St. Kilda, where I spent nearly a month.
+
+The _Spray_ paid no port charges in Australia or anywhere else on the
+voyage, except at Pernambuco, till she poked her nose into the
+custom-house at Melbourne, where she was charged tonnage dues; in this
+instance, sixpence a ton on the gross. The collector exacted six
+shillings and sixpence, taking off nothing for the fraction under
+thirteen tons, her exact gross being 12.70 tons. I squared the matter
+by charging people sixpence each for coming on board, and when this
+business got dull I caught a shark and charged them sixpence each to
+look at that. The shark was twelve feet six inches in length, and
+carried a progeny of twenty-six, not one of them less than two feet in
+length. A slit of a knife let them out in a canoe full of water,
+which, changed constantly, kept them alive one whole day. In less than
+an hour from the time I heard of the ugly brute it was on deck and on
+exhibition, with rather more than the amount of the _Spray's_ tonnage
+dues already collected. Then I hired a good Irishman, Tom Howard by
+name,--who knew all about sharks, both on the land and in the sea, and
+could talk about them,--to answer questions and lecture. When I found
+that I could not keep abreast of the questions I turned the
+responsibility over to him.
+
+[Illustration: The shark on the deck of the _Spray_.]
+
+Returning from the bank, where I had been to deposit money early in
+the day, I found Howard in the midst of a very excited crowd, telling
+imaginary habits of the fish. It was a good show; the people wished to
+see it, and it was my wish that they should; but owing to his
+over-stimulated enthusiasm, I was obliged to let Howard resign. The
+income from the show and the proceeds of the tallow I had gathered in
+the Strait of Magellan, the last of which I had disposed of to a
+German soap-boiler at Samoa, put me in ample funds.
+
+January 24, 1897, found the _Spray_ again in tow of the tug _Racer_,
+leaving Hobson's Bay after a pleasant time in Melbourne and St. Kilda,
+which had been protracted by a succession of southwest winds that
+seemed never-ending.
+
+In the summer months, that is, December, January, February, and
+sometimes March, east winds are prevalent through Bass Strait and
+round Cape Leeuwin; but owing to a vast amount of ice drifting up from
+the Antarctic, this was all changed now and emphasized with much bad
+weather, so much so that I considered it impracticable to pursue the
+course farther. Therefore, instead of thrashing round cold and stormy
+Cape Leeuwin, I decided to spend a pleasanter and more profitable time
+in Tasmania, waiting for the season for favorable winds through Torres
+Strait, by way of the Great Barrier Reef, the route I finally decided
+on. To sail this course would be taking advantage of anticyclones,
+which never fail, and besides it would give me the chance to put foot
+on the shores of Tasmania, round which I had sailed years before.
+
+I should mention that while I was at Melbourne there occurred one of
+those extraordinary storms sometimes called "rain of blood," the first
+of the kind in many years about Australia. The "blood" came from a
+fine brick-dust matter afloat in the air from the deserts. A
+rain-storm setting in brought down this dust simply as mud; it fell in
+such quantities that a bucketful was collected from the sloop's
+awnings, which were spread at the time. When the wind blew hard and I
+was obliged to furl awnings, her sails, unprotected on the booms, got
+mud-stained from clue to earing.
+
+The phenomena of dust-storms, well understood by scientists, are not
+uncommon on the coast of Africa. Reaching some distance out over the
+sea, they frequently cover the track of ships, as in the case of the
+one through which the _Spray_ passed in the earlier part of her
+voyage. Sailors no longer regard them with superstitious fear, but our
+credulous brothers on the land cry out "Rain of blood!" at the first
+splash of the awful mud.
+
+The rip off Port Phillip Heads, a wild place, was rough when the
+_Spray_ entered Hobson's Bay from the sea, and was rougher when she
+stood out. But, with sea-room and under sail, she made good weather
+immediately after passing it. It was only a few hours' sail to
+Tasmania across the strait, the wind being fair and blowing hard. I
+carried the St. Kilda shark along, stuffed with hay, and disposed of
+it to Professor Porter, the curator of the Victoria Museum of
+Launceston, which is at the head of the Tamar. For many a long day to
+come may be seen there the shark of St. Kilda. Alas! the good but
+mistaken people of St. Kilda, when the illustrated journals with
+pictures of my shark reached their news-stands, flew into a passion,
+and swept all papers containing mention of fish into the fire; for St.
+Kilda was a watering-place--and the idea of a shark _there_! But my
+show went on.
+
+[Illustration: On board at St. Kilda. Retracing on the chart the
+course of the _Spray_ from Boston.]
+
+The _Spray_ was berthed on the beach at a small jetty at Launceston
+while the tide driven in by the gale that brought her up the river was
+unusually high; and she lay there hard and fast, with not enough water
+around her at any time after to wet one's feet till she was ready to
+sail; then, to float her, the ground was dug from under her keel.
+
+In this snug place I left her in charge of three children, while I
+made journeys among the hills and rested my bones, for the coming
+voyage, on the moss-covered rocks at the gorge hard by, and among the
+ferns I found wherever I went. My vessel was well taken care of. I
+never returned without finding that the decks had been washed and that
+one of the children, my nearest neighbor's little girl from across the
+road, was at the gangway attending to visitors, while the others, a
+brother and sister, sold marine curios such as were in the cargo, on
+"ship's account." They were a bright, cheerful crew, and people came a
+long way to hear them tell the story of the voyage, and of the
+monsters of the deep "the captain had slain." I had only to keep
+myself away to be a hero of the first water; and it suited me very
+well to do so and to rusticate in the forests and among the streams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+A testimonial from a lady--Cruising round Tasmania--The skipper
+delivers his first lecture on the voyage--Abundant provisions-An
+inspection of the _Spray_ for safety at Devonport--Again at
+Sydney--Northward bound for Torres Strait--An amateur
+shipwreck--Friends on the Australian coast--Perils of a coral sea.
+
+February 1,1897, on returning to my vessel I found waiting for me the
+letter of sympathy which I subjoin:
+
+A lady sends Mr. Slocum the inclosed five-pound note as a token of her
+appreciation of his bravery in crossing the wide seas on so small a
+boat, and all alone, without human sympathy to help when danger
+threatened. All success to you.
+
+To this day I do not know who wrote it or to whom I am indebted for
+the generous gift it contained. I could not refuse a thing so kindly
+meant, but promised myself to pass it on with interest at the first
+opportunity, and this I did before leaving Australia.
+
+The season of fair weather around the north of Australia being yet a
+long way off, I sailed to other ports in Tasmania, where it is fine
+the year round, the first of these being Beauty Point, near which are
+Beaconsfield and the great Tasmania gold-mine, which I visited in
+turn. I saw much gray, uninteresting rock being hoisted out of the
+mine there, and hundreds of stamps crushing it into powder. People
+told me there was gold in it, and I believed what they said.
+
+I remember Beauty Point for its shady forest and for the road among
+the tall gum-trees. While there the governor of New South Wales, Lord
+Hampden, and his family came in on a steam-yacht, sight-seeing. The
+_Spray_, anchored near the landing-pier, threw her bunting out, of
+course, and probably a more insignificant craft bearing the Stars and
+Stripes was never seen in those waters. However, the governor's party
+seemed to know why it floated there, and all about the _Spray_, and
+when I heard his Excellency say, "Introduce me to the captain," or
+"Introduce the captain to me," whichever it was, I found myself at
+once in the presence of a gentleman and a friend, and one greatly
+interested in my voyage. If any one of the party was more interested
+than the governor himself, it was the Honorable Margaret, his
+daughter. On leaving, Lord and Lady Hampden promised to rendezvous
+with me on board the _Spray_ at the Paris Exposition in 1900. "If we
+live," they said, and I added, for my part, "Dangers of the seas
+excepted."
+
+From Beauty Point the _Spray_ visited Georgetown, near the mouth of
+the river Tamar. This little settlement, I believe, marks the place
+where the first footprints were made by whites in Tasmania, though it
+never grew to be more than a hamlet.
+
+Considering that I had seen something of the world, and finding people
+here interested in adventure, I talked the matter over before my first
+audience in a little hall by the country road. A piano having been
+brought in from a neighbor's, I was helped out by the severe thumping
+it got, and by a "Tommy Atkins" song from a strolling comedian. People
+came from a great distance, and the attendance all told netted the
+house about three pounds sterling. The owner of the hall, a kind lady
+from Scotland, would take no rent, and so my lecture from the start
+was a success.
+
+From this snug little place I made sail for Devonport, a thriving
+place on the river Mersey, a few hours' sail westward along the coast,
+and fast becoming the most important port in Tasmania. Large steamers
+enter there now and carry away great cargoes of farm produce, but the
+_Spray_ was the first vessel to bring the Stars and Stripes to the
+port, the harbor-master, Captain Murray, told me, and so it is written
+in the port records. For the great distinction the _Spray_ enjoyed
+many civilities while she rode comfortably at anchor in her
+port-duster awning that covered her from stem to stern.
+
+From the magistrate's house, "Malunnah," on the point, she was saluted
+by the Jack both on coming in and on going out, and dear Mrs.
+Aikenhead, the mistress of Malunnah, supplied the _Spray_ with jams
+and jellies of all sorts, by the case, prepared from the fruits of her
+own rich garden--enough to last all the way home and to spare. Mrs.
+Wood, farther up the harbor, put up bottles of raspberry wine for me.
+At this point, more than ever before, I was in the land of good cheer.
+Mrs. Powell sent on board chutney prepared "as we prepare it in
+India." Fish, and game were plentiful here, and the voice of the
+gobbler was heard, and from Pardo, farther up the country, came an
+enormous cheese; and yet people inquire: "What did you live on? What
+did you eat?"
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ in her port duster at Devonport, Tasmania,
+February 22, 1897.]
+
+I was haunted by the beauty of the landscape all about, of the natural
+ferneries then disappearing, and of the domed forest-trees on the
+slopes, and was fortunate in meeting a gentleman intent on preserving
+in art the beauties of his country. He presented me with many
+reproductions from his collection of pictures, also many originals, to
+show to my friends.
+
+By another gentleman I was charged to tell the glories of Tasmania in
+every land and on every occasion. This was Dr. McCall, M. L. C. The
+doctor gave me useful hints on lecturing. It was not without
+misgivings, however, that I filled away on this new course, and I am
+free to say that it is only by the kindness of sympathetic audiences
+that my oratorical bark was held on even keel. Soon after my first
+talk the kind doctor came to me with words of approval. As in many
+other of my enterprises, I had gone about it at once and without
+second thought. "Man, man," said he, "great nervousness is only a sign
+of brain, and the more brain a man has the longer it takes him to get
+over the affliction; but," he added reflectively, "you will get over
+it." However, in my own behalf I think it only fair to say that I am
+not yet entirely cured.
+
+The _Spray_ was hauled out on the marine railway at Devonport and
+examined carefully top and bottom, but was found absolutely free from
+the destructive teredo, and sound in all respects. To protect her
+further against the ravage of these insects the bottom was coated once
+more with copper paint, for she would have to sail through the Coral
+and Arafura seas before refitting again. Everything was done to fit
+her for all the known dangers. But it was not without regret that I
+looked forward to the day of sailing from a country of so many
+pleasant associations. If there was a moment in my voyage when I could
+have given it up, it was there and then; but no vacancies for a better
+post being open, I weighed anchor April 16,1897, and again put to sea.
+
+The season of summer was then over; winter was rolling up from the
+south, with fair winds for the north. A foretaste of winter wind sent
+the _Spray_ flying round Cape Howe and as far as Cape Bundooro farther
+along, which she passed on the following day, retracing her course
+northward. This was a fine run, and boded good for the long voyage
+home from the antipodes. My old Christmas friends on Bundooro seemed
+to be up and moving when I came the second time by their cape, and we
+exchanged signals again, while the sloop sailed along as before in a
+smooth sea and close to the shore.
+
+The weather was fine, with clear sky the rest of the passage to Port
+Jackson (Sydney), where the _Spray_ arrived April 22, 1897, and
+anchored in Watson's Bay, near the heads, in eight fathoms of water.
+The harbor from the heads to Parramatta, up the river, was more than
+ever alive with boats and yachts of every class. It was, indeed, a
+scene of animation, hardly equaled in any other part of the world.
+
+A few days later the bay was flecked with tempestuous waves, and none
+but stout ships carried sail. I was in a neighboring hotel then,
+nursing a neuralgia which I had picked up alongshore, and had only
+that moment got a glance of just the stern of a large, unmanageable
+steamship passing the range of my window as she forged in by the
+point, when the bell-boy burst into my room shouting that the _Spray_
+had "gone bung." I tumbled out quickly, to learn that "bung" meant
+that a large steamship had run into her, and that it was the one of
+which I saw the stern, the other end of her having hit the _Spray_. It
+turned out, however, that no damage was done beyond the loss of an
+anchor and chain, which from the shock of the collision had parted at
+the hawse. I had nothing at all to complain of, though, in the end,
+for the captain, after he clubbed his ship, took the _Spray_ in tow up
+the harbor, clear of all dangers, and sent her back again, in charge
+of an officer and three men, to her anchorage in the bay, with a
+polite note saying he would repair any damages done. But what yawing
+about she made of it when she came with a stranger at the helm! Her
+old friend the pilot of the _Pinta_ would not have been guilty of such
+lubberly work. But to my great delight they got her into a berth, and
+the neuralgia left me then, or was forgotten. The captain of the
+steamer, like a true seaman, kept his word, and his agent, Mr.
+Collishaw handed me on the very next day the price of the lost anchor
+and chain, with something over for anxiety of mind. I remember that he
+offered me twelve pounds at once; but my lucky number being thirteen,
+we made the amount thirteen pounds, which squared all accounts.
+
+I sailed again, May 9, before a strong southwest wind, which sent the
+_Spray_ gallantly on as far as Port Stevens, where it fell calm and
+then came up ahead; but the weather was fine, and so remained for many
+days, which was a great change from the state of the weather
+experienced here some months before.
+
+Having a full set of admiralty sheet-charts of the coast and Barrier
+Reef, I felt easy in mind. Captain Fisher, R.N., who had steamed
+through the Barrier passages in H. M. S. _Orlando_, advised me from
+the first to take this route, and I did not regret coming back to it
+now.
+
+The wind, for a few days after passing Port Stevens, Seal Rocks, and
+Cape Hawk, was light and dead ahead; but these points are photographed
+on my memory from the trial of beating round them some months before
+when bound the other way. But now, with a good stock of books on
+board, I fell to reading day and night, leaving this pleasant
+occupation merely to trim sails or tack, or to lie down and rest,
+while the _Spray_ nibbled at the miles. I tried to compare my state
+with that of old circumnavigators, who sailed exactly over the route
+which I took from Cape Verde Islands or farther back to this point and
+beyond, but there was no comparison so far as I had got. Their
+hardships and romantic escapes--those of them who escaped death and
+worse sufferings--did not enter into my experience, sailing all alone
+around the world. For me is left to tell only of pleasant experiences,
+till finally my adventures are prosy and tame.
+
+I had just finished reading some of the most interesting of the old
+voyages in woe-begone ships, and was already near Port Macquarie, on my
+own cruise, when I made out, May 13, a modern dandy craft in distress,
+anchored on the coast. Standing in for her, I found that she was the
+cutter-yacht _Akbar_[B], which had sailed from Watson's Bay about three
+days ahead of the _Spray_, and that she had run at once into trouble. No
+wonder she did so. It was a case of babes in the wood or butterflies at
+sea. Her owner, on his maiden voyage, was all duck trousers; the
+captain, distinguished for the enormous yachtsman's cap he wore, was a
+Murrumbidgee[C] whaler before he took command of the _Akbar_; and the
+navigating officer, poor fellow, was almost as deaf as a post, and
+nearly as stiff and immovable as a post in the ground. These three jolly
+tars comprised the crew. None of them knew more about the sea or about a
+vessel than a newly born babe knows about another world. They were bound
+for New Guinea, so they said; perhaps it was as well that three
+tenderfeet so tender as those never reached that destination.
+
+[B] _Akbar_ was not her registered name, which need not be told
+
+[C] The Murrumbidgee is a small river winding among the mountains of
+Australia, and would be the last place in which to look for a whale.
+
+The owner, whom I had met before he sailed, wanted to race the poor
+old _Spray_ to Thursday Island en route. I declined the challenge,
+naturally, on the ground of the unfairness of three young yachtsmen in
+a clipper against an old sailor all alone in a craft of coarse build;
+besides that, I would not on any account race in the Coral Sea.
+
+[Illustration: "'Is it a-goin' to blow?'"]
+
+"_Spray_ ahoy!" they all hailed now. "What's the weather goin' t' be?
+Is it a-goin' to blow? And don't you think we'd better go back t'
+r-r-refit?"
+
+I thought, "If ever you get back, don't refit," but I said: "Give me
+the end of a rope, and I'll tow you into yon port farther along; and
+on your lives," I urged, "do not go back round Cape Hawk, for it's
+winter to the south of it."
+
+They purposed making for Newcastle under jury-sails; for their
+mainsail had been blown to ribbons, even the jigger had been blown
+away, and her rigging flew at loose ends. The _Akbar_, in a word, was
+a wreck.
+
+"Up anchor," I shouted, "up anchor, and let me tow you into Port
+Macquarie, twelve miles north of this."
+
+"No," cried the owner; "we'll go back to Newcastle. We missed
+Newcastle on the way coming; we didn't see the light, and it was not
+thick, either." This he shouted very loud, ostensibly for my hearing,
+but closer even than necessary, I thought, to the ear of the
+navigating officer. Again I tried to persuade them to be towed into
+the port of refuge so near at hand. It would have cost them only the
+trouble of weighing their anchor and passing me a rope; of this I
+assured them, but they declined even this, in sheer ignorance of a
+rational course.
+
+"What is your depth of water?" I asked.
+
+"Don't know; we lost our lead. All the chain is out. We sounded with
+the anchor."
+
+"Send your dinghy over, and I'll give you a lead."
+
+"We've lost our dinghy, too," they cried.
+
+"God is good, else you would have lost yourselves," and "Farewell" was
+all I could say.
+
+The trifling service proffered by the _Spray_ would have saved their
+vessel.
+
+"Report us," they cried, as I stood on--"report us with sails blown
+away, and that we don't care a dash and are not afraid."
+
+"Then there is no hope for you," and again "Farewell." I promised I
+would report them, and did so at the first opportunity, and out of
+humane reasons I do so again. On the following day I spoke the
+steamship _Sherman,_ bound down the coast, and reported the yacht in
+distress and that it would be an act of humanity to tow her somewhere
+away from her exposed position on an open coast. That she did not get
+a tow from the steamer was from no lack of funds to pay the bill; for
+the owner, lately heir to a few hundred pounds, had the money with
+him. The proposed voyage to New Guinea was to look that island over
+with a view to its purchase. It was about eighteen days before I heard
+of the _Akbar_ again, which was on the 31st of May, when I reached
+Cooktown, on the Endeavor River, where I found this news:
+
+May 31, the yacht _Akbar,_ from Sydney for New Guinea, three hands on
+board, lost at Crescent Head; the crew saved.
+
+So it took them several days to lose the yacht, after all.
+
+After speaking the distressed _Akbar_ and the _Sherman_, the voyage
+for many days was uneventful save in the pleasant incident on May 16
+of a chat by signal with the people on South Solitary Island, a dreary
+stone heap in the ocean just off the coast of New South Wales, in
+latitude 30 degrees 12' south.
+
+"What vessel is that?" they asked, as the sloop came abreast of their
+island. For answer I tried them with the Stars and Stripes at the
+peak. Down came their signals at once, and up went the British ensign
+instead, which they dipped heartily. I understood from this that they
+made out my vessel and knew all about her, for they asked no more
+questions. They didn't even ask if the "voyage would pay," but they
+threw out this friendly message, "Wishing you a pleasant voyage,"
+which at that very moment I was having.
+
+May 19 the _Spray_, passing the Tweed River, was signaled from Danger
+Point, where those on shore seemed most anxious about the state of my
+health, for they asked if "all hands" were well, to which I could say,
+"Yes."
+
+On the following day the _Spray_ rounded Great Sandy Cape, and, what
+is a notable event in every voyage, picked up the trade-winds, and
+these winds followed her now for many thousands of miles, never
+ceasing to blow from a moderate gale to a mild summer breeze, except
+at rare intervals.
+
+From the pitch of the cape was a noble light seen twenty-seven miles;
+passing from this to Lady Elliott Light, which stands on an island as
+a sentinel at the gateway of the Barrier Reef, the _Spray_ was at once
+in the fairway leading north. Poets have sung of beacon-light and of
+pharos, but did ever poet behold a great light flash up before his
+path on a dark night in the midst of a coral sea? If so, he knew the
+meaning of his song.
+
+The _Spray_ had sailed for hours in suspense, evidently stemming a
+current. Almost mad with doubt, I grasped the helm to throw her head
+off shore, when blazing out of the sea was the light ahead.
+"Excalibur!" cried "all hands," and rejoiced, and sailed on. The
+_Spray_ was now in a protected sea and smooth water, the first she had
+dipped her keel into since leaving Gibraltar, and a change it was from
+the heaving of the misnamed "Pacific" Ocean.
+
+The Pacific is perhaps, upon the whole, no more boisterous than other
+oceans, though I feel quite safe in saying that it is not more pacific
+except in name. It is often wild enough in one part or another. I once
+knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed
+through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man. But where,
+after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves? At
+last here was the _Spray_ in the midst of a sea of coral. The sea
+itself might be called smooth indeed, but coral rocks are always
+rough, sharp, and dangerous. I trusted now to the mercies of the Maker
+of all reefs, keeping a good lookout at the same time for perils on
+every hand.
+
+Lo! the Barrier Reef and the waters of many colors studded all about
+with enchanted islands! I behold among them after all many safe
+harbors, else my vision is astray. On the 24th of May, the sloop,
+having made one hundred and ten miles a day from Danger Point, now
+entered Whitsunday Pass, and that night sailed through among the
+islands. When the sun rose next morning I looked back and regretted
+having gone by while it was dark, for the scenery far astern was
+varied and charming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland--A lecture--Reminiscences of
+Captain Cook--Lecturing for charity at Cooktown--A happy escape from a
+coral reef--Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island--An American
+pearl-fisherman--Jubilee at Thursday Island--A new ensign for the
+_Spray_--Booby Island--Across the Indian Ocean--Christmas Island.
+
+On the morning of the 26th Gloucester Island was close aboard, and the
+_Spray_ anchored in the evening at Port Denison, where rests, on a
+hill, the sweet little town of Bowen, the future watering place and
+health-resort of Queensland. The country all about here had a
+healthful appearance.
+
+The harbor was easy of approach, spacious and safe, and afforded
+excellent holding-ground. It was quiet in Bowen when the _Spray_
+arrived, and the good people with an hour to throw away on the second
+evening of her arrival came down to the School of Arts to talk about
+the voyage, it being the latest event. It was duly advertised in the
+two little papers, "Boomerang" and "Nully Nully," in the one the day
+before the affair came off, and in the other the day after, which was
+all the same to the editor, and, for that matter, it was the same to
+me.
+
+Besides this, circulars were distributed with a flourish, and the
+"best bellman" in Australia was employed. But I could have keelhauled
+the wretch, bell and all, when he came to the door of the little hotel
+where my prospective audience and I were dining, and with his
+clattering bell and fiendish yell made noises that would awake the
+dead, all over the voyage of the _Spray_ from "Boston to Bowen, the
+two Hubs in the cart-wheels of creation," as the "Boomerang" afterward
+said.
+
+Mr. Myles, magistrate, harbor-master, land commissioner, gold warden,
+etc., was chairman, and introduced me, for what reason I never knew,
+except to embarrass me with a sense of vain ostentation and embitter
+my life, for Heaven knows I had met every person in town the first
+hour ashore. I knew them all by name now, and they all knew me.
+However, Mr. Myles was a good talker. Indeed, I tried to induce him to
+go on and tell the story while I showed the pictures, but this he
+refused to do. I may explain that it was a talk illustrated by
+stereopticon. The views were good, but the lantern, a thirty-shilling
+affair, was wretched, and had only an oil-lamp in it.
+
+I sailed early the next morning before the papers came out, thinking
+it best to do so. They each appeared with a favorable column, however,
+of what they called a lecture, so I learned afterward, and they had a
+kind word for the bellman besides.
+
+From Port Denison the sloop ran before the constant trade-wind, and
+made no stop at all, night or day, till she reached Cooktown, on the
+Endeavor River, where she arrived Monday, May 31, 1897, before a
+furious blast of wind encountered that day fifty miles down the coast.
+On this parallel of latitude is the high ridge and backbone of the
+tradewinds, which about Cooktown amount often to a hard gale.
+
+I had been charged to navigate the route with extra care, and to feel
+my way over the ground. The skilled officer of the royal navy who
+advised me to take the Barrier Reef passage wrote me that H. M. S.
+_Orlando_ steamed nights as well as days through it, but that I, under
+sail, would jeopardize my vessel on coral reefs if I undertook to do
+so.
+
+Confidentially, it would have been no easy matter finding anchorage
+every night. The hard work, too, of getting the sloop under way every
+morning was finished, I had hoped, when she cleared the Strait of
+Magellan. Besides that, the best of admiralty charts made it possible
+to keep on sailing night and day. Indeed, with a fair wind, and in the
+clear weather of that season, the way through the Barrier Reef
+Channel, in all sincerity, was clearer than a highway in a busy city,
+and by all odds less dangerous. But to any one contemplating the
+voyage I would say, beware of reefs day or night, or, remaining on the
+land, be wary still.
+
+"The _Spray_ came flying into port like a bird," said the longshore
+daily papers of Cooktown the morning after she arrived; "and it seemed
+strange," they added, "that only one man could be seen on board
+working the craft." The _Spray_ was doing her best, to be sure, for it
+was near night, and she was in haste to find a perch before dark.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ leaving Sydney, Australia, in, the new suit
+of sails given by Commodore Foy of Australia. (From a photograph.)]
+
+Tacking inside of all the craft in port, I moored her at sunset nearly
+abreast the Captain Cook monument, and next morning went ashore to
+feast my eyes on the very stones the great navigator had seen, for I
+was now on a seaman's consecrated ground. But there seemed a question
+in Cooktown's mind as to the exact spot where his ship, the
+_Endeavor_, hove down for repairs on her memorable voyage around the
+world. Some said it was not at all at the place where the monument now
+stood. A discussion of the subject was going on one morning where I
+happened to be, and a young lady present, turning to me as one of some
+authority in nautical matters, very flatteringly asked my opinion.
+Well, I could see no reason why Captain Cook, if he made up his mind
+to repair his ship inland, couldn't have dredged out a channel to the
+place where the monument now stood, if he had a dredging-machine with
+him, and afterward fill it up again; for Captain Cook could do 'most
+anything, and nobody ever said that he hadn't a dredger along. The
+young lady seemed to lean to my way of thinking, and following up the
+story of the historical voyage, asked if I had visited the point
+farther down the harbor where the great circumnavigator was murdered.
+This took my breath, but a bright school-boy coming along relieved my
+embarrassment, for, like all boys, seeing that information was wanted,
+he volunteered to supply it. Said he: "Captain Cook wasn't murdered
+'ere at all, ma'am; 'e was killed in Hafrica: a lion et 'im."
+
+Here I was reminded of distressful days gone by. I think it was in
+1866 that the old steamship _Soushay_, from Batavia for Sydney, put in
+at Cooktown for scurvy-grass, as I always thought, and "incidentally"
+to land mails. On her sick-list was my fevered self; and so I didn't
+see the place till I came back on the _Spray_ thirty-one years later.
+And now I saw coming into port the physical wrecks of miners from New
+Guinea, destitute and dying. Many had died on the way and had been
+buried at sea. He would have been a hardened wretch who could look on
+and not try to do something for them.
+
+The sympathy of all went out to these sufferers, but the little town
+was already straitened from a long run on its benevolence. I thought
+of the matter, of the lady's gift to me at Tasmania, which I had
+promised myself I would keep only as a loan, but found now, to my
+embarrassment, that I had invested the money. However, the good
+Cooktown people wished to hear a story of the sea, and how the crew of
+the _Spray_ fared when illness got aboard of her. Accordingly the
+little Presbyterian church on the hill was opened for a conversation;
+everybody talked, and they made a roaring success of it. Judge
+Chester, the magistrate, was at the head of the gam, and so it was
+bound to succeed. He it was who annexed the island of New Guinea to
+Great Britain. "While I was about it," said he, "I annexed the
+blooming lot of it." There was a ring in the statement pleasant to the
+ear of an old voyager. However, the Germans made such a row over the
+judge's mainsail haul that they got a share in the venture.
+
+Well, I was now indebted to the miners of Cooktown for the great
+privilege of adding a mite to a worthy cause, and to Judge Chester all
+the town was indebted for a general good time. The matter standing so,
+I sailed on June 6,1897, heading away for the north as before.
+
+Arrived at a very inviting anchorage about sundown, the 7th, I came
+to, for the night, abreast the Claremont light-ship. This was the only
+time throughout the passage of the Barrier Reef Channel that the
+_Spray_ anchored, except at Port Denison and at Endeavor River. On the
+very night following this, however (the 8th), I regretted keenly, for
+an instant, that I had not anchored before dark, as I might have done
+easily under the lee of a coral reef. It happened in this way. The
+_Spray_ had just passed M Reef light-ship, and left the light dipping
+astern, when, going at full speed, with sheets off, she hit the M Reef
+itself on the north end, where I expected to see a beacon.
+
+She swung off quickly on her heel, however, and with one more bound on
+a swell cut across the shoal point so quickly that I hardly knew how
+it was done. The beacon wasn't there; at least, I didn't see it. I
+hadn't time to look for it after she struck, and certainly it didn't
+much matter then whether I saw it or not.
+
+But this gave her a fine departure for Cape Greenville, the next point
+ahead. I saw the ugly boulders under the sloop's keel as she flashed
+over them, and I made a mental note of it that the letter M, for which
+the reef was named, was the thirteenth one in our alphabet, and that
+thirteen, as noted years before, was still my lucky number. The
+natives of Cape Greenville are notoriously bad, and I was advised to
+give them the go-by. Accordingly, from M Reef I steered outside of the
+adjacent islands, to be on the safe side. Skipping along now, the
+_Spray_ passed Home Island, off the pitch of the cape, soon after
+midnight, and squared away on a westerly course. A short time later
+she fell in with a steamer bound south, groping her way in the dark
+and making the night dismal with her own black smoke.
+
+From Home Island I made for Sunday Island, and bringing that abeam,
+shortened sail, not wishing to make Bird Island, farther along, before
+daylight, the wind being still fresh and the islands being low, with
+dangers about them. Wednesday, June 9, 1897, at daylight, Bird Island
+was dead ahead, distant two and a half miles, which I considered near
+enough. A strong current was pressing the sloop forward. I did not
+shorten sail too soon in the night! The first and only Australian
+canoe seen on the voyage was encountered here standing from the
+mainland, with a rag of sail set, bound for this island.
+
+A long, slim fish that leaped on board in the night was found on deck
+this morning. I had it for breakfast. The spry chap was no larger
+around than a herring, which it resembled in every respect, except
+that it was three times as long; but that was so much the better, for
+I am rather fond of fresh herring, anyway. A great number of
+fisher-birds were about this day, which was one of the pleasantest on
+God's earth. The _Spray_, dancing over the waves, entered Albany Pass
+as the sun drew low in the west over the hills of Australia.
+
+At 7:30 P.M. the _Spray_, now through the pass, came to anchor in a
+cove in the mainland, near a pearl-fisherman, called the _Tarawa_,
+which was at anchor, her captain from the deck of his vessel directing
+me to a berth. This done, he at once came on board to clasp hands. The
+_Tarawa_ was a Californian, and Captain Jones, her master, was an
+American.
+
+On the following morning Captain Jones brought on board two pairs of
+exquisite pearl shells, the most perfect ones I ever saw. They were
+probably the best he had, for Jones was the heart-yarn of a sailor. He
+assured me that if I would remain a few hours longer some friends from
+Somerset, near by, would pay us all a visit, and one of the crew,
+sorting shells on deck, "guessed" they would. The mate "guessed" so,
+too. The friends came, as even the second mate and cook had "guessed"
+they would. They were Mr. Jardine, stockman, famous throughout the
+land, and his family. Mrs. Jardine was the niece of King Malietoa, and
+cousin to the beautiful Faamu-Sami ("To make the sea burn"), who
+visited the _Spray_ at Apia. Mr. Jardine was himself a fine specimen
+of a Scotsman. With his little family about him, he was content to
+live in this remote place, accumulating the comforts of life.
+
+The fact of the _Tarawa_ having been built in America accounted for
+the crew, boy Jim and all, being such good guessers. Strangely enough,
+though, Captain Jones himself, the only American aboard, was never
+heard to guess at all.
+
+After a pleasant chat and good-by to the people of the _Tarawa,_ and
+to Mr. and Mrs. Jardine, I again weighed anchor and stood across for
+Thursday Island, now in plain view, mid-channel in Torres Strait,
+where I arrived shortly after noon. Here the _Spray_ remained over
+until June 24. Being the only American representative in port, this
+tarry was imperative, for on the 22d was the Queen's diamond jubilee.
+The two days over were, as sailors say, for "coming up."
+
+Meanwhile I spent pleasant days about the island. Mr. Douglas,
+resident magistrate, invited me on a cruise in his steamer one day
+among the islands in Torres Strait. This being a scientific expedition
+in charge of Professor Mason Bailey, botanist, we rambled over Friday
+and Saturday islands, where I got a glimpse of botany. Miss Bailey,
+the professor's daughter, accompanied the expedition, and told me of
+many indigenous plants with long names.
+
+The 22d was the great day on Thursday Island, for then we had not only
+the jubilee, but a jubilee with a grand corroboree in it, Mr. Douglas
+having brought some four hundred native warriors and their wives and
+children across from the mainland to give the celebration the true
+native touch, for when they do a thing on Thursday Island they do it
+with a roar. The corroboree was, at any rate, a howling success. It
+took place at night, and the performers, painted in fantastic colors,
+danced or leaped about before a blazing fire. Some were rigged and
+painted like birds and beasts, in which the emu and kangaroo were well
+represented. One fellow leaped like a frog. Some had the human
+skeleton painted on their bodies, while they jumped about
+threateningly, spear in hand, ready to strike down some imaginary
+enemy. The kangaroo hopped and danced with natural ease and grace,
+making a fine figure. All kept time to music, vocal and instrumental,
+the instruments (save the mark!) being bits of wood, which they beat
+one against the other, and saucer-like bones, held in the palm of the
+hands, which they knocked together, making a dull sound. It was a show
+at once amusing, spectacular, and hideous.
+
+The warrior aborigines that I saw in Queensland were for the most part
+lithe and fairly well built, but they were stamped always with
+repulsive features, and their women were, if possible, still more ill
+favored.
+
+I observed that on the day of the jubilee no foreign flag was waving
+in the public grounds except the Stars and Stripes, which along with
+the Union Jack guarded the gateway, and floated in many places, from
+the tiniest to the standard size. Speaking to Mr. Douglas, I ventured
+a remark on this compliment to my country. "Oh," said he, "this is a
+family affair, and we do not consider the Stars and Stripes a foreign
+flag." The _Spray_ of course flew her best bunting, and hoisted the
+Jack as well as her own noble flag as high as she could.
+
+On June 24 the _Spray_, well fitted in every way, sailed for the long
+voyage ahead, down the Indian Ocean. Mr. Douglas gave her a flag as
+she was leaving his island. The _Spray_ had now passed nearly all the
+dangers of the Coral Sea and Torres Strait, which, indeed, were not a
+few; and all ahead from this point was plain sailing and a straight
+course. The trade-wind was still blowing fresh, and could be safely
+counted on now down to the coast of Madagascar, if not beyond that,
+for it was still early in the season.
+
+I had no wish to arrive off the Cape of Good Hope before midsummer,
+and it was now early winter. I had been off that cape once in July,
+which was, of course, midwinter there. The stout ship I then commanded
+encountered only fierce hurricanes, and she bore them ill. I wished
+for no winter gales now. It was not that I feared them more, being in
+the _Spray_ instead of a large ship, but that I preferred fine weather
+in any case. It is true that one may encounter heavy gales off the
+Cape of Good Hope at any season of the year, but in the summer they
+are less frequent and do not continue so long. And so with time enough
+before me to admit of a run ashore on the islands en route, I shaped
+the course now for Keeling Cocos, atoll islands, distant twenty-seven
+hundred miles. Taking a departure from Booby Island, which the sloop
+passed early in the day, I decided to sight Timor on the way, an
+island of high mountains.
+
+Booby Island I had seen before, but only once, however, and that was
+when in the steamship _Soushay_, on which I was "hove-down" in a
+fever. When she steamed along this way I was well enough to crawl on
+deck to look at Booby Island. Had I died for it, I would have seen
+that island. In those days passing ships landed stores in a cave on
+the island for shipwrecked and distressed wayfarers. Captain Airy of
+the _Soushay_, a good man, sent a boat to the cave with his
+contribution to the general store. The stores were landed in safety,
+and the boat, returning, brought back from the improvised post-office
+there a dozen or more letters, most of them left by whalemen, with the
+request that the first homeward-bound ship would carry them along and
+see to their mailing, which had been the custom of this strange postal
+service for many years. Some of the letters brought back by our boat
+were directed to New Bedford, and some to Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
+
+There is a light to-day on Booby Island, and regular packet
+communication with the rest of the world, and the beautiful
+uncertainty of the fate of letters left there is a thing of the past.
+I made no call at the little island, but standing close in, exchanged
+signals with the keeper of the light. Sailing on, the sloop was at
+once in the Arafura Sea, where for days she sailed in water milky
+white and green and purple. It was my good fortune to enter the sea on
+the last quarter of the moon, the advantage being that in the dark
+nights I witnessed the phosphorescent light effect at night in its
+greatest splendor. The sea, where the sloop disturbed it, seemed all
+ablaze, so that by its light I could see the smallest articles on
+deck, and her wake was a path of fire.
+
+On the 25th of June the sloop was already clear of all the shoals and
+dangers, and was sailing on a smooth sea as steadily as before, but
+with speed somewhat slackened. I got out the flying-jib made at Juan
+Fernandez, and set it as a spinnaker from the stoutest bamboo that
+Mrs. Stevenson had given me at Samoa. The spinnaker pulled like a
+sodger, and the bamboo holding its own, the _Spray_ mended her pace.
+
+Several pigeons flying across to-day from Australia toward the islands
+bent their course over the _Spray_. Smaller birds were seen flying in
+the opposite direction. In the part of the Arafura that I came to
+first, where it was shallow, sea-snakes writhed about on the surface
+and tumbled over and over in the waves. As the sloop sailed farther
+on, where the sea became deep, they disappeared. In the ocean, where
+the water is blue, not one was ever seen.
+
+In the days of serene weather there was not much to do but to read and
+take rest on the _Spray_, to make up as much as possible for the rough
+time off Cape Horn, which was not yet forgotten, and to forestall the
+Cape of Good Hope by a store of ease. My sea journal was now much the
+same from day to day-something like this of June 26 and 27, for
+example:
+
+June 26, in the morning, it is a bit squally; later in, the day
+blowing a steady breeze.
+
+  On the log at noon is
+                                      130 miles
+  _Subtract_ correction for slip       10   "
+                                     ---------
+                                      120   "
+  _Add_ for current                    10   "
+                                      --------
+                                      130   "
+
+  Latitude by observation at noon, 10 degrees 23' S.
+  Longitude as per mark on the chart.
+
+There wasn't much brain-work in that log, I'm sure. June 27 makes a
+better showing, when all is told:
+
+  First of all, to-day, was a flying-fish on deck; fried it in butter.
+
+  133 miles on the log.
+
+  For slip, off, and for current, on, as per guess, about equal--let it
+  go at that.
+
+  Latitude by observation at noon, 10 degrees 25' S.
+
+For several days now the _Spray_ sailed west on the parallel of 10
+degrees 25' S., as true as a hair. If she deviated at all from that,
+through the day or night,--and this may have happened,--she was back,
+strangely enough, at noon, at the same latitude. But the greatest
+science was in reckoning the longitude. My tin clock and only
+timepiece had by this time lost its minute-hand, but after I boiled
+her she told the hours, and that was near enough on a long stretch.
+
+On the 2d of July the great island of Timor was in view away to the
+nor'ard. On the following day I saw Dana Island, not far off, and a
+breeze came up from the land at night, fragrant of the spices or what
+not of the coast.
+
+On the 11th, with all sail set and with the spinnaker still abroad,
+Christmas Island, about noon, came into view one point on the
+starboard bow. Before night it was abeam and distant two and a half
+miles. The surface of the island appeared evenly rounded from the sea
+to a considerable height in the center. In outline it was as smooth as
+a fish, and a long ocean swell, rolling up, broke against the sides,
+where it lay like a monster asleep, motionless on the sea. It seemed
+to have the proportions of a whale, and as the sloop sailed along its
+side to the part where the head would be, there was a nostril, even,
+which was a blow-hole through a ledge of rock where every wave that
+dashed threw up a shaft of water, lifelike and real.
+
+It had been a long time since I last saw this island; but I remember
+my temporary admiration for the captain of the ship I was then in, the
+_Tawfore_, when he sang out one morning from the quarter-deck, well
+aft, "Go aloft there, one of ye, with a pair of eyes, and see
+Christmas Island." Sure enough, there the island was in sight from the
+royal-yard. Captain M----had thus made a great hit, and he never got
+over it. The chief mate, terror of us ordinaries in the ship, walking
+never to windward of the captain, now took himself very humbly to
+leeward altogether. When we arrived at Hong-Kong there was a letter in
+the ship's mail for me. I was in the boat with the captain some hours
+while he had it. But do you suppose he could hand a letter to a
+seaman? No, indeed; not even to an ordinary seaman. When we got to the
+ship he gave it to the first mate; the first mate gave it to the
+second mate, and he laid it, michingly, on the capstan-head, where I
+could get it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+A call for careful navigation--Three hours' steering in twenty-three
+days--Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands--A curious chapter of
+social history--A welcome from the children of the islands--Cleaning
+and painting the _Spray_ on the beach--A Mohammedan blessing for a pot
+of jam--Keeling as a paradise--A risky adventure in a small boat--Away
+to Rodriguez--Taken for Antichrist--The governor calms the fears of
+the people--A lecture--A convent in the hills.
+
+To the Keeling Cocos Islands was now only five hundred and fifty
+miles; but even in this short run it was necessary to be extremely
+careful in keeping a true course else I would miss the atoll.
+
+On the 12th, some hundred miles southwest of Christmas Island, I saw
+anti-trade clouds flying up from the southwest very high over the
+regular winds, which weakened now for a few days, while a swell
+heavier than usual set in also from the southwest. A winter gale was
+going on in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope. Accordingly, I
+steered higher to windward, allowing twenty miles a day while this
+went on, for change of current; and it was not too much, for on that
+course I made the Keeling Islands right ahead. The first unmistakable
+sign of the land was a visit one morning from a white tern that
+fluttered very knowingly about the vessel, and then took itself off
+westward with a businesslike air in its wing. The tern is called by
+the islanders the "pilot of Keeling Cocos." Farther on I came among a
+great number of birds fishing, and fighting over whatever they caught.
+My reckoning was up, and springing aloft, I saw from half-way up the
+mast cocoanut-trees standing out of the water ahead. I expected to see
+this; still, it thrilled me as an electric shock might have done. I
+slid down the mast, trembling under the strangest sensations; and not
+able to resist the impulse, I sat on deck and gave way to my emotions.
+To folks in a parlor on shore this may seem weak indeed, but I am
+telling the story of a voyage alone.
+
+I didn't touch the helm, for with the current and heave of the sea the
+sloop found herself at the end of the run absolutely in the fairway of
+the channel. You couldn't have beaten it in the navy! Then I trimmed
+her sails by the wind, took the helm, and flogged her up the couple of
+miles or so abreast the harbor landing, where I cast anchor at 3:30
+P.M., July 17,1897, twenty-three days from Thursday Island. The
+distance run was twenty-seven hundred miles as the crow flies. This
+would have been a fair Atlantic voyage. It was a delightful sail!
+During those twenty-three days I had not spent altogether more than
+three hours at the helm, including the time occupied in beating into
+Keeling harbor. I just lashed the helm and let her go; whether the
+wind was abeam or dead aft, it was all the same: she always sailed on
+her course. No part of the voyage up to this point, taking it by and
+large, had been so finished as this.[D]
+
+[D] Mr. Andrew J. Leach, reporting, July 21, 1897, through Governor
+Kynnersley of Singapore, to Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, said
+concerning the _Iphegenia's_ visit to the atoll: "As we left the ocean
+depths of deepest blue and entered the coral circle, the contrast was
+most remarkable. The brilliant colors of the waters, transparent to a
+depth of over thirty feet, now purple, now of the bluest sky-blue, and
+now green, with the white crests of the waves flashing tinder a
+brilliant sun, the encircling ... palm-clad islands, the gaps between
+which were to the south undiscernible, the white sand shores and the
+whiter gaps where breakers appeared, and, lastly, the lagoon itself,
+seven or eight miles across from north to south, and five to six from
+east to west, presented a sight never to be forgotten. After some little
+delay, Mr. Sidney Ross, the eldest son of Mr. George Ross, came off to
+meet us, and soon after, accompanied by the doctor and another officer,
+we went ashore." "On reaching the landing-stage, we found, hauled up for
+cleaning, etc., the _Spray_ of Boston, a yawl of 12.70 tons gross, the
+property of Captain Joshua Slocum. He arrived at the island on the 17th
+of July, twenty-three days out from Thursday Island. This extraordinary
+solitary traveler left Boston some two years ago single-handed, crossed
+to Gibraltar, sailed down to Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of
+Magellan to the Society Islands, thence to Australia, and through the
+Torres Strait to Thursday Island."
+
+The Keeling Cocos Islands, according to Admiral Fitzroy, R. N., lie
+between the latitudes of 11 degrees 50' and 12 degrees 12' S., and the
+longitudes of 96 degrees 51' and 96 degrees 58' E. They were
+discovered in 1608-9 by Captain William Keeling, then in the service
+of the East India Company. The southern group consists of seven or
+eight islands and islets on the atoll, which is the skeleton of what
+some day, according to the history of coral reefs, will be a
+continuous island. North Keeling has no harbor, is seldom visited, and
+is of no importance. The South Keelings are a strange little world,
+with a romantic history all their own. They have been visited
+occasionally by the floating spar of some hurricane-swept ship, or by
+a tree that has drifted all the way from Australia, or by an
+ill-starred ship cast away, and finally by man. Even a rock once
+drifted to Keeling, held fast among the roots of a tree.
+
+After the discovery of the islands by Captain Keeling, their first
+notable visitor was Captain John Clunis-Ross, who in 1814 touched in
+the ship _Borneo_ on a voyage to India. Captain Ross returned two
+years later with his wife and family and his mother-in-law, Mrs.
+Dymoke, and eight sailor-artisans, to take possession of the islands,
+but found there already one Alexander Hare, who meanwhile had marked
+the little atoll as a sort of Eden for a seraglio of Malay women which
+he moved over from the coast of Africa. It was Ross's own brother,
+oddly enough, who freighted Hare and his crowd of women to the
+islands, not knowing of Captain John's plans to occupy the little
+world. And so Hare was there with his outfit, as if he had come to
+stay.
+
+On his previous visit, however, Ross had nailed the English Jack to a
+mast on Horsburg Island, one of the group. After two years shreds of
+it still fluttered in the wind, and his sailors, nothing loath, began
+at once the invasion of the new kingdom to take possession of it,
+women and all. The force of forty women, with only one man to command
+them, was not equal to driving eight sturdy sailors back into the sea.[E]
+
+[E] In the accounts given in Findlay's "Sailing Directory" of some of
+the events there is a chronological discrepancy. I follow the accounts
+gathered from the old captain's grandsons and from records on the spot.
+
+From this time on Hare had a hard time of it. He and Ross did not get
+on well as neighbors. The islands were too small and too near for
+characters so widely different. Hare had "oceans of money," and might
+have lived well in London; but he had been governor of a wild colony
+in Borneo, and could not confine himself to the tame life that prosy
+civilization affords. And so he hung on to the atoll with his forty
+women, retreating little by little before Ross and his sturdy crew,
+till at last he found himself and his harem on the little island known
+to this day as Prison Island, where, like Bluebeard, he confined his
+wives in a castle. The channel between the islands was narrow, the
+water was not deep, and the eight Scotch sailors wore long boots. Hare
+was now dismayed. He tried to compromise with rum and other luxuries,
+but these things only made matters worse. On the day following the
+first St. Andrew's celebration on the island, Hare, consumed with
+rage, and no longer on speaking terms with the captain, dashed off a
+note to him, saying: "Dear Ross: I thought when I sent rum and roast
+pig to your sailors that they would stay away from my flower-garden."
+In reply to which the captain, burning with indignation, shouted from
+the center of the island, where he stood, "Ahoy, there, on Prison
+Island! You Hare, don't you know that rum and roast pig are not a
+sailor's heaven?" Hare said afterward that one might have heard the
+captain's roar across to Java.
+
+The lawless establishment was soon broken up by the women deserting
+Prison Island and putting themselves under Ross's protection. Hare
+then went to Batavia, where he met his death.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ ashore for "boot-topping" at the Keeling
+Islands. (From a photograph.)]
+
+My first impression upon landing was that the crime of infanticide had
+not reached the islands of Keeling Cocos. "The children have all come
+to welcome you," explained Mr. Ross, as they mustered at the jetty by
+hundreds, of all ages and sizes. The people of this country were all
+rather shy, but, young or old, they never passed one or saw one
+passing their door without a salutation. In their musical voices they
+would say, "Are you walking?" ("Jalan, jalan?") "Will you come along?"
+one would answer.
+
+For a long time after I arrived the children regarded the "one-man
+ship" with suspicion and fear. A native man had been blown away to sea
+many years before, and they hinted to one another that he might have
+been changed from black to white, and returned in the sloop. For some
+time every movement I made was closely watched. They were particularly
+interested in what I ate. One day, after I had been "boot-topping" the
+sloop with a composition of coal-tar and other stuff, and while I was
+taking my dinner, with the luxury of blackberry jam, I heard a
+commotion, and then a yell and a stampede, as the children ran away
+yelling: "The captain is eating coal-tar! The captain is eating
+coal-tar!" But they soon found out that this same "coal-tar" was very
+good to eat, and that I had brought a quantity of it. One day when I
+was spreading a sea-biscuit thick with it for a wide-awake youngster,
+I heard them whisper, "Chut-chut!" meaning that a shark had bitten my
+hand, which they observed was lame. Thenceforth they regarded me as a
+hero, and I had not fingers enough for the little bright-eyed tots
+that wanted to cling to them and follow me about. Before this, when I
+held out my hand and said, "Come!" they would shy off for the nearest
+house, and say, "Dingin" ("It's cold"), or "Ujan" ("It's going to
+rain"). But it was now accepted that I was not the returned spirit of
+the lost black, and I had plenty of friends about the island, rain or
+shine.
+
+One day after this, when I tried to haul the sloop and found her fast
+in the sand, the children all clapped their hands and cried that a
+_kpeting_ (crab) was holding her by the keel; and little Ophelia, ten
+or twelve years of age, wrote in the _Spray's_ log-book:
+
+  A hundred men with might and main
+    On the windlass hove, yeo ho!
+  The cable only came in twain;
+    The ship she would not go;
+  For, child, to tell the strangest thing,
+    The keel was held by a great kpeting.
+
+This being so or not, it was decided that the Mohammedan priest, Sama
+the Emim, for a pot of jam, should ask Mohammed to bless the voyage
+and make the crab let go the sloop's keel, which it did, if it had
+hold, and she floated on the very next tide.
+
+On the 22d of July arrived H.M.S. _Iphegenia,_ with Mr. Justice Andrew
+J. Leech and court officers on board, on a circuit of inspection among
+the Straits Settlements, of which Keeling Cocos was a dependency, to
+hear complaints and try cases by law, if any there were to try. They
+found the _Spray_ hauled ashore and tied to a cocoanut-tree. But at
+the Keeling Islands there had not been a grievance to complain of
+since the day that Hare migrated, for the Rosses have always treated
+the islanders as their own family.
+
+If there is a paradise on this earth it is Keeling. There was not a
+case for a lawyer, but something had to be done, for here were two
+ships in port, a great man-of-war and the _Spray._ Instead of a
+lawsuit a dance was got up, and all the officers who could leave their
+ship came ashore. Everybody on the island came, old and young, and the
+governor's great hall was filled with people. All that could get on
+their feet danced, while the babies lay in heaps in the corners of the
+room, content to look on. My little friend Ophelia danced with the
+judge. For music two fiddles screeched over and over again the good
+old tune, "We won't go home till morning." And we did not.
+
+The women at the Keelings do not do all the drudgery, as in many
+places visited on the voyage. It would cheer the heart of a Fuegian
+woman to see the Keeling lord of creation up a cocoanut-tree. Besides
+cleverly climbing the trees, the men of Keeling build exquisitely
+modeled canoes. By far the best workmanship in boat-building I saw on
+the voyage was here. Many finished mechanics dwelt under the palms at
+Keeling, and the hum of the band-saw and the ring of the anvil were
+heard from morning till night. The first Scotch settlers left there
+the strength of Northern blood and the inheritance of steady habits.
+No benevolent society has ever done so much for any islanders as the
+noble Captain Ross, and his sons, who have followed his example of
+industry and thrift.
+
+Admiral Fitzroy of the _Beagle_, who visited here, where many
+things are reversed, spoke of "these singular though small islands,
+where crabs eat cocoanuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men ride
+on turtles, and shells are dangerous man-traps," adding that the
+greater part of the sea-fowl roost on branches, and many rats make
+their nests in the tops of palm-trees.
+
+My vessel being refitted, I decided to load her with the famous
+mammoth tridaena shell of Keeling, found in the bayou near by. And
+right here, within sight of the village, I came near losing "the crew
+of the _Spray_"--not from putting my foot in a man-trap shell,
+however, but from carelessly neglecting to look after the details of a
+trip across the harbor in a boat. I had sailed over oceans; I have
+since completed a course over them all, and sailed round the whole
+world without so nearly meeting a fatality as on that trip across a
+lagoon, where I trusted all to some one else, and he, weak mortal that
+he was, perhaps trusted all to me. However that may be, I found myself
+with a thoughtless African negro in a rickety bateau that was fitted
+with a rotten sail, and this blew away in mid-channel in a squall,
+that sent us drifting helplessly to sea, where we should have been
+incontinently lost. With the whole ocean before us to leeward, I was
+dismayed to see, while we drifted, that there was not a paddle or an
+oar in the boat! There was an anchor, to be sure, but not enough rope
+to tie a cat, and we were already in deep water. By great good
+fortune, however, there was a pole. Plying this as a paddle with the
+utmost energy, and by the merest accidental flaw in the wind to favor
+us, the trap of a boat was worked into shoal water, where we could
+touch bottom and push her ashore. With Africa, the nearest coast to
+leeward, three thousand miles away, with not so much as a drop of
+water in the boat, and a lean and hungry negro--well, cast the lot as
+one might, the crew of the _Spray_ in a little while would have been
+hard to find. It is needless to say that I took no more such chances.
+The tridacna were afterward procured in a safe boat, thirty of them
+taking the place of three tons of cement ballast, which I threw
+overboard to make room and give buoyancy.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum drifting out to sea.]
+
+On August 22, the kpeting, or whatever else it was that held the sloop
+in the islands, let go its hold, and she swung out to sea under all
+sail, heading again for home. Mounting one or two heavy rollers on the
+fringe of the atoll, she cleared the flashing reefs. Long before dark
+Keeling Cocos, with its thousand souls, as sinless in their lives as
+perhaps it is possible for frail mortals to be, was left out of sight,
+astern. Out of sight, I say, except in my strongest affection.
+
+The sea was rugged, and the _Spray_ washed heavily when hauled on the
+wind, which course I took for the island of Rodriguez, and which
+brought the sea abeam. The true course for the island was west by
+south, one quarter south, and the distance was nineteen hundred miles;
+but I steered considerably to the windward of that to allow for the
+heave of the sea and other leeward effects. My sloop on this course
+ran under reefed sails for days together. I naturally tired of the
+never-ending motion of the sea, and, above all, of the wetting I got
+whenever I showed myself on deck. Under these heavy weather conditions
+the _Spray_ seemed to lag behind on her course; at least, I attributed
+to these conditions a discrepancy in the log, which by the fifteenth
+day out from Keeling amounted to one hundred and fifty miles between
+the rotator and the mental calculations I had kept of what she should
+have gone, and so I kept an eye lifting for land. I could see about
+sundown this day a bunch of clouds that stood in one spot, right
+ahead, while the other clouds floated on; this was a sign of
+something. By midnight, as the sloop sailed on, a black object
+appeared where I had seen the resting clouds. It was still a long way
+off, but there could be no mistaking this: it was the high island of
+Rodriguez. I hauled in the patent log, which I was now towing more
+from habit than from necessity, for I had learned the _Spray_ and her
+ways long before this. If one thing was clearer than another in her
+voyage, it was that she could be trusted to come out right and in
+safety, though at the same time I always stood ready to give her the
+benefit of even the least doubt. The officers who are over-sure, and
+"know it all like a book," are the ones, I have observed, who wreck
+the most ships and lose the most lives. The cause of the discrepancy
+in the log was one often met with, namely, coming in contact with some
+large fish; two out of the four blades of the rotator were crushed or
+bent, the work probably of a shark. Being sure of the sloop's
+position, I lay down to rest and to think, and I felt better for it.
+By daylight the island was abeam, about three miles away. It wore a
+hard, weather-beaten appearance there, all alone, far out in the
+Indian Ocean, like land adrift. The windward side was uninviting, but
+there was a good port to leeward, and I hauled in now close on the
+wind for that. A pilot came out to take me into the inner harbor,
+which was reached through a narrow channel among coral reefs.
+
+It was a curious thing that at all of the islands some reality was
+insisted on as unreal, while improbabilities were clothed as hard
+facts; and so it happened here that the good abbe, a few days before,
+had been telling his people about the coming of Antichrist, and when
+they saw the _Spray_ sail into the harbor, all feather-white before a
+gale of wind, and run all standing upon the beach, and with only one
+man aboard, they cried, "May the Lord help us, it is he, and he has
+come in a boat!" which I say would have been the most improbable way
+of his coming. Nevertheless, the news went flying through the place.
+The governor of the island, Mr. Roberts, came down immediately to see
+what it was all about, for the little town was in a great commotion.
+One elderly woman, when she heard of my advent, made for her house and
+locked herself in. When she heard that I was actually coming up the
+street she barricaded her doors, and did not come out while I was on
+the island, a period of eight days. Governor Roberts and his family
+did not share the fears of their people, but came on board at the
+jetty, where the sloop was berthed, and their example induced others
+to come also. The governor's young boys took charge of the _Spray's_
+dinghy at once, and my visit cost his Excellency, besides great
+hospitality to me, the building of a boat for them like the one
+belonging to the _Spray_.
+
+My first day at this Land of Promise was to me like a fairy-tale. For
+many days I had studied the charts and counted the time of my arrival
+at this spot, as one might his entrance to the Islands of the Blessed,
+looking upon it as the terminus of the last long run, made irksome by
+the want of many things with which, from this time on, I could keep
+well supplied. And behold, here was the sloop, arrived, and made
+securely fast to a pier in Rodriguez. On the first evening ashore, in
+the land of napkins and cut glass, I saw before me still the ghosts of
+hempen towels and of mugs with handles knocked off. Instead of tossing
+on the sea, however, as I might have been, here was I in a bright
+hall, surrounded by sparkling wit, and dining with the governor of the
+island! "Aladdin," I cried, "where is your lamp? My fisherman's
+lantern, which I got at Gloucester, has shown me better things than
+your smoky old burner ever revealed."
+
+The second day in port was spent in receiving visitors. Mrs. Roberts
+and her children came first to "shake hands," they said, "with the
+_Spray._" No one was now afraid to come on board except the poor old
+woman, who still maintained that the _Spray_ had Antichrist in the
+hold, if, indeed, he had not already gone ashore. The governor
+entertained that evening, and kindly invited the "destroyer of the
+world" to speak for himself. This he did, elaborating most effusively
+on the dangers of the sea (which, after the manner of many of our
+frailest mortals, he would have had smooth had he made it); also by
+contrivances of light and darkness he exhibited on the wall pictures
+of the places and countries visited on the voyage (nothing like the
+countries, however, that he would have made), and of the people seen,
+savage and other, frequently groaning, "Wicked world! Wicked world!"
+When this was finished his Excellency the governor, speaking words of
+thankfulness, distributed pieces of gold.
+
+On the following day I accompanied his Excellency and family on a
+visit to San Gabriel, which was up the country among the hills. The
+good abbe of San Gabriel entertained us all royally at the convent,
+and we remained his guests until the following day. As I was leaving
+his place, the abbe said, "Captain, I embrace you, and of whatever
+religion you may be, my wish is that you succeed in making your
+voyage, and that our Saviour the Christ be always with you!" To this
+good man's words I could only say, "My dear abbe, had all religionists
+been so liberal there would have been less bloodshed in the world."
+
+At Rodriguez one may now find every convenience for filling pure and
+wholesome water in any quantity, Governor Roberts having built a
+reservoir in the hills, above the village, and laid pipes to the
+jetty, where, at the time of my visit, there were five and a half feet
+at high tide. In former years well-water was used, and more or less
+sickness occurred from it. Beef may be had in any quantity on the
+island, and at a moderate price. Sweet potatoes were plentiful and
+cheap; the large sack of them that I bought there for about four
+shillings kept unusually well. I simply stored them in the sloop's dry
+hold. Of fruits, pomegranates were most plentiful; for two shillings I
+obtained a large sack of them, as many as a donkey could pack from the
+orchard, which, by the way, was planted by nature herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+A clean bill of health at Mauritius--Sailing the voyage over again in
+the opera-house--A newly discovered plant named in honor of the
+_Spray's_ skipper--A party of young ladies out for a sail--A bivouac
+on deck--A warm reception at Durban--A friendly cross-examination by
+Henry M. Stanley--Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the
+earth--Leaving South Africa.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ at Mauritius.]
+
+On the 16th of September, after eight restful days at Rodriguez, the
+mid-ocean land of plenty, I set sail, and on the 19th arrived at
+Mauritius, anchoring at quarantine about noon. The sloop was towed in
+later on the same day by the doctor's launch, after he was satisfied
+that I had mustered all the crew for inspection. Of this he seemed in
+doubt until he examined the papers, which called for a crew of one all
+told from port to port, throughout the voyage. Then finding that I had
+been well enough to come thus far alone, he gave me pratique without
+further ado. There was still another official visit for the _Spray_ to
+pass farther in the harbor. The governor of Rodriguez, who had most
+kindly given me, besides a regular mail, private letters of
+introduction to friends, told me I should meet, first of all, Mr.
+Jenkins of the postal service, a good man. "How do you do, Mr.
+Jenkins?" cried I, as his boat swung alongside. "You don't know me,"
+he said. "Why not?" I replied. "From where is the sloop?" "From around
+the world," I again replied, very solemnly. "And alone?" "Yes; why
+not?" "And you know me?" "Three thousand years ago," cried I, "when
+you and I had a warmer job than we have now" (even this was hot). "You
+were then Jenkinson, but if you have changed your name I don't blame
+you for that." Mr. Jenkins, forbearing soul, entered into the spirit
+of the jest, which served the _Spray_ a good turn, for on the strength
+of this tale it got out that if any one should go on board after dark
+the devil would get him at once. And so I could leave the _Spray_
+without the fear of her being robbed at night. The cabin, to be sure,
+was broken into, but it was done in daylight, and the thieves got no
+more than a box of smoked herrings before "Tom" Ledson, one of the
+port officials, caught them red-handed, as it were, and sent them to
+jail. This was discouraging to pilferers, for they feared Ledson more
+than they feared Satan himself. Even Mamode Hajee Ayoob, who was the
+day-watchman on board,--till an empty box fell over in the cabin and
+frightened him out of his wits,--could not be hired to watch nights,
+or even till the sun went down. "Sahib," he cried, "there is no need
+of it," and what he said was perfectly true.
+
+At Mauritius, where I drew a long breath, the _Spray_ rested her
+wings, it being the season of fine weather. The hardships of the
+voyage, if there had been any, were now computed by officers of
+experience as nine tenths finished, and yet somehow I could not forget
+that the United States was still a long way off.
+
+The kind people of Mauritius, to make me richer and happier, rigged up
+the opera-house, which they had named the "_Ship Pantai_."[F] All decks
+and no bottom was this ship, but she was as stiff as a church. They gave
+me free use of it while I talked over the _Spray's_ adventures. His
+Honor the mayor introduced me to his Excellency the governor from the
+poop-deck of the _Pantai._ In this way I was also introduced again to
+our good consul, General John P. Campbell, who had already introduced me
+to his Excellency, I was becoming well acquainted, and was in for it now
+to sail the voyage over again. How I got through the story I hardly
+know. It was a hot night, and I could have choked the tailor who made
+the coat I wore for this occasion. The kind governor saw that I had done
+my part trying to rig like a man ashore, and he invited me to Government
+House at Reduit, where I found myself among friends.
+
+[F] Guinea-hen
+
+It was winter still off stormy Cape of Good Hope, but the storms might
+whistle there. I determined to see it out in milder Mauritius,
+visiting Rose Hill, Curipepe, and other places on the island. I spent
+a day with the elder Mr. Roberts, father of Governor Roberts of
+Rodriguez, and with his friends the Very Reverend Fathers O'Loughlin
+and McCarthy. Returning to the _Spray_ by way of the great flower
+conservatory near Moka, the proprietor, having only that morning
+discovered a new and hardy plant, to my great honor named it "Slocum,"
+which he said Latinized it at once, saving him some trouble on the
+twist of a word; and the good botanist seemed pleased that I had come.
+How different things are in different countries! In Boston,
+Massachusetts, at that time, a gentleman, so I was told, paid thirty
+thousand dollars to have a flower named after his wife, and it was not
+a big flower either, while "Slocum," which came without the asking,
+was bigger than a mangel-wurzel!
+
+I was royally entertained at Moka, as well as at Reduit and other
+places--once by seven young ladies, to whom I spoke of my inability to
+return their hospitality except in my own poor way of taking them on a
+sail in the sloop. "The very thing! The very thing!" they all cried.
+"Then please name the time," I said, as meek as Moses. "To-morrow!"
+they all cried. "And, aunty, we may go, mayn't we, and we'll be real
+good for a whole week afterward, aunty! Say yes, aunty dear!" All this
+after saying "To-morrow"; for girls in Mauritius are, after all, the
+same as our girls in America; and their dear aunt said "Me, too" about
+the same as any really good aunt might say in my own country.
+
+I was then in a quandary, it having recurred to me that on the very
+"to-morrow" I was to dine with the harbor-master, Captain Wilson.
+However, I said to myself, "The _Spray_ will run out quickly into
+rough seas; these young ladies will have _mal de mer_ and a good time,
+and I'll get in early enough to be at the dinner, after all." But not
+a bit of it. We sailed almost out of sight of Mauritius, and they just
+stood up and laughed at seas tumbling aboard, while I was at the helm
+making the worst weather of it I could, and spinning yarns to the aunt
+about sea-serpents and whales. But she, dear lady, when I had finished
+with stories of monsters, only hinted at a basket of provisions they
+had brought along, enough to last a week, for I had told them about my
+wretched steward.
+
+The more the _Spray_ tried to make these young ladies seasick, the
+more they all clapped their hands and said, "How lovely it is!" and
+"How beautifully she skims over the sea!" and "How beautiful our
+island appears from the distance!" and they still cried, "Go on!" We
+were fifteen miles or more at sea before they ceased the eager cry,
+"Go on!" Then the sloop swung round, I still hoping to be back to Port
+Louis in time to keep my appointment. The _Spray_ reached the island
+quickly, and flew along the coast fast enough; but I made a mistake in
+steering along the coast on the way home, for as we came abreast of
+Tombo Bay it enchanted my crew. "Oh, let's anchor here!" they cried.
+To this no sailor in the world would have said nay. The sloop came to
+anchor, ten minutes later, as they wished, and a young man on the
+cliff abreast, waving his hat, cried, "_Vive la Spray!_" My passengers
+said, "Aunty, mayn't we have a swim in the surf along the shore?" Just
+then the harbor-master's launch hove in sight, coming out to meet us;
+but it was too late to get the sloop into Port Louis that night. The
+launch was in time, however, to land my fair crew for a swim; but they
+were determined not to desert the ship. Meanwhile I prepared a roof
+for the night on deck with the sails, and a Bengali man-servant
+arranged the evening meal. That night the _Spray_ rode in Tombo Bay
+with her precious freight. Next morning bright and early, even before
+the stars were gone, I awoke to hear praying on deck.
+
+The port officers' launch reappeared later in the morning, this time
+with Captain Wilson himself on board, to try his luck in getting the
+_Spray_ into port, for he had heard of our predicament. It was worth
+something to hear a friend tell afterward how earnestly the good
+harbor-master of Mauritius said, "I'll find the _Spray_ and I'll get
+her into port." A merry crew he discovered on her. They could hoist
+sails like old tars, and could trim them, too. They could tell all
+about the ship's "hoods," and one should have seen them clap a bonnet
+on the jib. Like the deepest of deep-water sailors, they could heave
+the lead, and--as I hope to see Mauritius again!--any of them could
+have put the sloop in stays. No ship ever had a fairer crew.
+
+The voyage was the event of Port Louis; such a thing as young ladies
+sailing about the harbor, even, was almost unheard of before.
+
+While at Mauritius the _Spray_ was tendered the use of the military
+dock free of charge, and was thoroughly refitted by the port
+authorities. My sincere gratitude is also due other friends for
+many things needful for the voyage put on board, including bags of
+sugar from some of the famous old plantations.
+
+The favorable season now set in, and thus well equipped, on the 26th
+of October, the _Spray_ put to sea. As I sailed before a light wind
+the island receded slowly, and on the following day I could still see
+the Puce Mountain near Moka. The _Spray_ arrived next day off Galets,
+Reunion, and a pilot came out and spoke her. I handed him a Mauritius
+paper and continued on my voyage; for rollers were running heavily at
+the time, and it was not practicable to make a landing. From Reunion I
+shaped a course direct for Cape St. Mary, Madagascar.
+
+The sloop was now drawing near the limits of the trade-wind, and the
+strong breeze that had carried her with free sheets the many thousands
+of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia, fell lighter each day until
+October 30, when it was altogether calm, and a motionless sea held her
+in a hushed world. I furled the sails at evening, sat down on deck,
+and enjoyed the vast stillness of the night.
+
+October 31 a light east-northeast breeze sprang up, and the sloop
+passed Cape St. Mary about noon. On the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of
+November, in the Mozambique Channel, she experienced a hard gale of
+wind from the southwest. Here the _Spray_ suffered as much as she did
+anywhere, except off Cape Horn. The thunder and lightning preceding
+this gale were very heavy. From this point until the sloop arrived off
+the coast of Africa, she encountered a succession of gales of wind,
+which drove her about in many directions, but on the 17th of November
+she arrived at Port Natal.
+
+This delightful place is the commercial center of the "Garden Colony,"
+Durban itself, the city, being the continuation of a garden. The
+signalman from the bluff station reported the _Spray_ fifteen miles
+off. The wind was freshening, and when she was within eight miles he
+said: "The _Spray_ is shortening sail; the mainsail was reefed and set
+in ten minutes. One man is doing all the work."
+
+This item of news was printed three minutes later in a Durban morning
+journal, which was handed to me when I arrived in port. I could not
+verify the time it had taken to reef the sail, for, as I have already
+said, the minute-hand of my timepiece was gone. I only knew that I
+reefed as quickly as I could.
+
+The same paper, commenting on the voyage, said: "Judging from the
+stormy weather which has prevailed off this coast during the past few
+weeks, the _Spray_ must have had a very stormy voyage from Mauritius
+to Natal." Doubtless the weather would have been called stormy by
+sailors in any ship, but it caused the _Spray_ no more inconvenience
+than the delay natural to head winds generally.
+
+The question of how I sailed the sloop alone, often asked, is best
+answered, perhaps, by a Durban newspaper. I would shrink from
+repeating the editor's words but for the reason that undue estimates
+have been made of the amount of skill and energy required to sail a
+sloop of even the _Spray's_ small tonnage. I heard a man who called
+himself a sailor say that "it would require three men to do what it
+was claimed" that I did alone, and what I found perfectly easy to do
+over and over again; and I have heard that others made similar
+nonsensical remarks, adding that I would work myself to death. But
+here is what the Durban paper said:
+
+[Citation: As briefly noted yesterday, the _Spray_, with a crew of one
+man, arrived at this port yesterday afternoon on her cruise round the
+world. The _Spray_ made quite an auspicious entrance to Natal. Her
+commander sailed his craft right up the channel past the main wharf,
+and dropped his anchor near the old _Forerunner_ in the creek, before
+any one had a chance to get on board. The _Spray_ was naturally an
+object of great curiosity to the Point people, and her arrival was
+witnessed by a large crowd. The skilful manner in which Captain Slocum
+steered his craft about the vessels which were occupying the waterway
+was a treat to witness.]
+
+The _Spray_ was not sailing in among greenhorns when she came to
+Natal. When she arrived off the port the pilot-ship, a fine, able
+steam-tug, came out to meet her, and led the way in across the bar,
+for it was blowing a smart gale and was too rough for the sloop to be
+towed with safety. The trick of going in I learned by watching the
+steamer; it was simply to keep on the windward side of the channel and
+take the combers end on.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Joshua Slocum.]
+
+I found that Durban supported two yacht-clubs, both of them full of
+enterprise. I met all the members of both clubs, and sailed in the
+crack yacht _Florence_ of the Royal Natal, with Captain Spradbrow and
+the Right Honorable Harry Escombe, premier of the colony. The yacht's
+center-board plowed furrows through the mud-banks, which, according to
+Mr. Escombe, Spradbrow afterward planted with potatoes. The
+_Florence_, however, won races while she tilled the skipper's land.
+After our sail on the _Florence_ Mr. Escombe offered to sail the
+_Spray_ round the Cape of Good Hope for me, and hinted at his famous
+cribbage-board to while away the hours. Spradbrow, in retort, warned
+me of it. Said he, "You would be played out of the sloop before you
+could round the cape." By others it was not thought probable that the
+premier of Natal would play cribbage off the Cape of Good Hope to win
+even the _Spray_.
+
+It was a matter of no small pride to me in South Africa to find that
+American humor was never at a discount, and one of the best American
+stories I ever heard was told by the premier. At Hotel Royal one day,
+dining with Colonel Saunderson, M. P., his son, and Lieutenant
+Tipping, I met Mr. Stanley. The great explorer was just from Pretoria,
+and had already as good as flayed President Krüger with his trenchant
+pen. But that did not signify, for everybody has a whack at Oom Paul,
+and no one in the world seems to stand the joke better than he, not
+even the Sultan of Turkey himself. The colonel introduced me to the
+explorer, and I hauled close to the wind, to go slow, for Mr. Stanley
+was a nautical man once himself,--on the Nyanza, I think,--and of
+course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his
+experience. He looked me over carefully, and said, "What an example of
+patience!" "Patience is all that is required," I ventured to reply. He
+then asked if my vessel had water-tight compartments. I explained that
+she was all water-tight and all compartment. "What if she should
+strike a rock?" he asked. "Compartments would not save her if she
+should hit the rocks lying along her course," said I; adding, "she
+must be kept away from the rocks." After a considerable pause Mr.
+Stanley asked, "What if a swordfish should pierce her hull with its
+sword?" Of course I had thought of that as one of the dangers of the
+sea, and also of the chance of being struck by lightning. In the case
+of the swordfish, I ventured to say that "the first thing would be to
+secure the sword." The colonel invited me to dine with the party on
+the following day, that we might go further into this matter, and so I
+had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Stanley a second time, but got no more
+hints in navigation from the famous explorer.
+
+It sounds odd to hear scholars and statesmen say the world is flat;
+but it is a fact that three Boers favored by the opinion of President
+Krüger prepared a work to support that contention. While I was at
+Durban they came from Pretoria to obtain data from me, and they seemed
+annoyed when I told them that they could not prove it by my
+experience. With the advice to call up some ghost of the dark ages for
+research, I went ashore, and left these three wise men poring over the
+_Spray's_ track on a chart of the world, which, however, proved
+nothing to them, for it was on Mercator's projection, and behold, it
+was "flat." The next morning I met one of the party in a clergyman's
+garb, carrying a large Bible, not different from the one I had read.
+He tackled me, saying, "If you respect the Word of God, you must admit
+that the world is flat." "If the Word of God stands on a flat world--"
+I began. "What!" cried he, losing himself in a passion, and making as
+if he would run me through with an assagai. "What!" he shouted in
+astonishment and rage, while I jumped aside to dodge the imaginary
+weapon. Had this good but misguided fanatic been armed with a real
+weapon, the crew of the _Spray_ would have died a martyr there and
+then. The next day, seeing him across the street, I bowed and made
+curves with my hands. He responded with a level, swimming movement of
+his hands, meaning "the world is flat." A pamphlet by these Transvaal
+geographers, made up of arguments from sources high and low to prove
+their theory, was mailed to me before I sailed from Africa on my last
+stretch around the globe.
+
+While I feebly portray the ignorance of these learned men, I have
+great admiration for their physical manhood. Much that I saw first and
+last of the Transvaal and the Boers was admirable. It is well known
+that they are the hardest of fighters, and as generous to the fallen
+as they are brave before the foe. Real stubborn bigotry with them is
+only found among old fogies, and will die a natural death, and that,
+too, perhaps long before we ourselves are entirely free from bigotry.
+Education in the Transvaal is by no means neglected, English as well
+as Dutch being taught to all that can afford both; but the tariff duty
+on English school-books is heavy, and from necessity the poorer people
+stick to the Transvaal Dutch and their flat world, just as in Samoa
+and other islands a mistaken policy has kept the natives down to
+Kanaka.
+
+I visited many public schools at Durban, and had the pleasure of
+meeting many bright children.
+
+But all fine things must end, and December 14, 1897, the "crew" of the
+_Spray_, after having a fine time in Natal, swung the sloop's dinghy
+in on deck, and sailed with a morning land-wind, which carried her
+clear of the bar, and again she was "off on her alone," as they say in
+Australia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Rounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time--A rough Christmas--The
+_Spray_ ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town--A railway trip
+to the Transvaal--President Krüger's odd definition of the _Spray's_
+voyage--His terse sayings--Distinguished guests on the
+_Spray_--Cocoanut fiber as a padlock--Courtesies from the admiral of
+the Queen's navy--Off for St. Helena--Land in sight.
+
+The Cape of Good Hope was now the most prominent point to pass. From
+Table Bay I could count on the aid of brisk trades, and then the
+_Spray_ would soon be at home. On the first day out from Durban it
+fell calm, and I sat thinking about these things and the end of the
+voyage. The distance to Table Bay, where I intended to call, was about
+eight hundred miles over what might prove a rough sea. The early
+Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than
+sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far
+as Algoa Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small
+island, now called Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross,
+and swore they would cut the captain's throat if he attempted to sail
+farther. Beyond this they thought was the edge of the world, which
+they too believed was flat; and fearing that their ship would sail
+over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their commander, to
+retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year later,
+we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape of
+Storms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered
+Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the
+way to India was easy.
+
+Gales of wind sweeping round the cape even now were frequent enough,
+one occurring, on an average, every thirty-six hours; but one gale was
+much the same as another, with no more serious result than to blow the
+_Spray_ along on her course when it was fair, or to blow her back
+somewhat when it was ahead. On Christmas, 1897, I came to the pitch of
+the cape. On this day the _Spray_ was trying to stand on her head, and
+she gave me every reason to believe that she would accomplish the feat
+before night. She began very early in the morning to pitch and toss
+about in a most unusual manner, and I have to record that, while I was
+at the end of the bowsprit reefing the jib, she ducked me under water
+three times for a Christmas box. I got wet and did not like it a bit:
+never in any other sea was I put under more than once in the same
+short space of time, say three minutes. A large English steamer
+passing ran up the signal, "Wishing you a Merry Christmas." I think
+the captain was a humorist; his own ship was throwing her propeller
+out of water.
+
+Two days later, the _Spray_, having recovered the distance lost in the
+gale, passed Cape Agulhas in company with the steamship _Scotsman_,
+now with a fair wind. The keeper of the light on Agulhas exchanged
+signals with the _Spray_ as she passed, and afterward wrote me at New
+York congratulations on the completion of the voyage. He seemed to
+think the incident of two ships of so widely different types passing
+his cape together worthy of a place on canvas, and he went about
+having the picture made. So I gathered from his letter. At lonely
+stations like this hearts grow responsive and sympathetic, and even
+poetic. This feeling was shown toward the _Spray_ along many a rugged
+coast, and reading many a kind signal thrown out to her gave one a
+grateful feeling for all the world.
+
+One more gale of wind came down upon the _Spray_ from the west after
+she passed Cape Agulhas, but that one she dodged by getting into
+Simons Bay. When it moderated she beat around the Cape of Good Hope,
+where they say the _Flying Dutchman_ is still sailing. The voyage then
+seemed as good as finished; from this time on I knew that all, or
+nearly all, would be plain sailing.
+
+Here I crossed the dividing-line of weather. To the north it was clear
+and settled, while south it was humid and squally, with, often enough,
+as I have said, a treacherous gale. From the recent hard weather the
+_Spray_ ran into a calm under Table Mountain, where she lay quietly
+till the generous sun rose over the land and drew a breeze in from the
+sea.
+
+The steam-tug _Alert_, then out looking for ships, came to the _Spray_
+off the Lion's Rump, and in lieu of a larger ship towed her into port.
+The sea being smooth, she came to anchor in the bay off the city of
+Cape Town, where she remained a day, simply to rest clear of the
+bustle of commerce. The good harbor-master sent his steam-launch to
+bring the sloop to a berth in dock at once, but I preferred to remain
+for one day alone, in the quiet of a smooth sea, enjoying the
+retrospect of the passage of the two great capes. On the following
+morning the _Spray_ sailed into the Alfred Dry-docks, where she
+remained for about three months in the care of the port authorities,
+while I traveled the country over from Simons Town to Pretoria, being
+accorded by the colonial government a free railroad pass over all the
+land.
+
+The trip to Kimberley, Johannesburg, and Pretoria was a pleasant one.
+At the last-named place I met Mr. Krüger, the Transvaal president. His
+Excellency received me cordially enough; but my friend Judge Beyers,
+the gentleman who presented me, by mentioning that I was on a voyage
+around the world, unwittingly gave great offense to the venerable
+statesman, which we both regretted deeply. Mr. Krüger corrected the
+judge rather sharply, reminding him that the world is flat. "You don't
+mean _round_ the world," said the president; "it is impossible! You
+mean _in_ the world. Impossible!" he said, "impossible!" and not
+another word did he utter either to the judge or to me. The judge
+looked at me and I looked at the judge, who should have known his
+ground, so to speak, and Mr. Krüger glowered at us both. My friend the
+judge seemed embarrassed, but I was delighted; the incident pleased me
+more than anything else that could have happened. It was a nugget of
+information quarried out of Oom Paul, some of whose sayings are
+famous. Of the English he said, "They took first my coat and then my
+trousers." He also said, "Dynamite is the corner-stone of the South
+African Republic." Only unthinking people call President Krüger dull.
+
+[Illustration: Cartoon printed in the Cape Town "Owl" of March 5,
+1898, in connection with an item about Captain Slocum's trip to
+Pretoria.]
+
+Soon after my arrival at the cape, Mr. Krüger's friend Colonel
+Saunderson,[G] who had arrived from Durban some time before, invited me
+to Newlands Vineyard, where I met many agreeable people. His Excellency
+Sir Alfred Milner, the governor, found time to come aboard with a party.
+The governor, after making a survey of the deck, found a seat on a box
+in my cabin; Lady Muriel sat on a keg, and Lady Saunderson sat by the
+skipper at the wheel, while the colonel, with his kodak, away in the
+dinghy, took snap shots of the sloop and her distinguished visitors. Dr.
+David Gill, astronomer royal, who was of the party, invited me the next
+day to the famous Cape Observatory. An hour with Dr. Gill was an hour
+among the stars. His discoveries in stellar photography are well known.
+He showed me the great astronomical clock of the observatory, and I
+showed him the tin clock on the _Spray_, and we went over the subject of
+standard time at sea, and how it was found from the deck of the little
+sloop without the aid of a clock of any kind. Later it was advertised
+that Dr. Gill would preside at a talk about the voyage of the _Spray_:
+that alone secured for me a full house. The hall was packed, and many
+were not able to get in. This success brought me sufficient money for
+all my needs in port and for the homeward voyage.
+
+[G] Colonel Saunderson was Mr. Krüger's very best friend, inasmuch as he
+advised the president to avast mounting guns.
+
+After visiting Kimberley and Pretoria, and finding the _Spray_ all
+right in the docks, I returned to Worcester and Wellington, towns
+famous for colleges and seminaries, passed coming in, still traveling
+as the guest of the colony. The ladies of all these institutions of
+learning wished to know how one might sail round the world alone,
+which I thought augured of sailing-mistresses in the future instead of
+sailing-masters. It will come to that yet if we men-folk keep on
+saying we "can't."
+
+On the plains of Africa I passed through hundreds of miles of rich but
+still barren land, save for scrub-bushes, on which herds of sheep were
+browsing. The bushes grew about the length of a sheep apart, and they,
+I thought, were rather long of body; but there was still room for all.
+My longing for a foothold on land seized upon me here, where so much
+of it lay waste; but instead of remaining to plant forests and reclaim
+vegetation, I returned again to the _Spray_ at the Alfred Docks, where
+I found her waiting for me, with everything in order, exactly as I had
+left her.
+
+I have often been asked how it was that my vessel and all
+appurtenances were not stolen in the various ports where I left her
+for days together without a watchman in charge. This is just how it
+was: The _Spray_ seldom fell among thieves. At the Keeling Islands, at
+Rodriguez, and at many such places, a wisp of cocoanut fiber in the
+door-latch, to indicate that the owner was away, secured the goods
+against even a longing glance. But when I came to a great island
+nearer home, stout locks were needed; the first night in port things
+which I had always left uncovered disappeared, as if the deck on which
+they were stowed had been swept by a sea.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (with the tall hat),
+and Colonel Saunderson, M. P., on the bow of the _Spray_ at Cape
+Town.]
+
+A pleasant visit from Admiral Sir Harry Rawson of the Royal Navy and
+his family brought to an end the _Spray's_ social relations with the
+Cape of Good Hope. The admiral, then commanding the South African
+Squadron, and now in command of the great Channel fleet, evinced the
+greatest interest in the diminutive _Spray_ and her behavior off Cape
+Horn, where he was not an entire stranger. I have to admit that I was
+delighted with the trend of Admiral Rawson's questions, and that I
+profited by some of his suggestions, notwithstanding the wide
+difference in our respective commands.
+
+On March 26, 1898, the _Spray_ sailed from South Africa, the land of
+distances and pure air, where she had spent a pleasant and profitable
+time. The steam-tug _Tigre_ towed her to sea from her wonted berth at
+the Alfred Docks, giving her a good offing. The light morning breeze,
+which scantily filled her sails when the tug let go the tow-line, soon
+died away altogether, and left her riding over a heavy swell, in full
+view of Table Mountain and the high peaks of the Cape of Good Hope.
+For a while the grand scenery served to relieve the monotony. One of
+the old circumnavigators (Sir Francis Drake, I think), when he first
+saw this magnificent pile, sang, "'T is the fairest thing and the
+grandest cape I've seen in the whole circumference of the earth."
+
+The view was certainly fine, but one has no wish to linger long to
+look in a calm at anything, and I was glad to note, finally, the short
+heaving sea, precursor of the wind which followed on the second day.
+Seals playing about the _Spray_ all day, before the breeze came,
+looked with large eyes when, at evening, she sat no longer like a lazy
+bird with folded wings. They parted company now, and the _Spray_ soon
+sailed the highest peaks of the mountains out of sight, and the world
+changed from a mere panoramic view to the light of a homeward-bound
+voyage. Porpoises and dolphins, and such other fishes as did not mind
+making a hundred and fifty miles a day, were her companions now for
+several days. The wind was from the southeast; this suited the _Spray_
+well, and she ran along steadily at her best speed, while I dipped
+into the new books given me at the cape, reading day and night. March
+30 was for me a fast-day in honor of them. I read on, oblivious of
+hunger or wind or sea, thinking that all was going well, when suddenly
+a comber rolled over the stern and slopped saucily into the cabin,
+wetting the very book I was reading. Evidently it was time to put in a
+reef, that she might not wallow on her course.
+
+[Illustration: "Reading day and night."]
+
+March 31 the fresh southeast wind had come to stay. The _Spray_ was
+running under a single-reefed mainsail, a whole jib, and a flying-jib
+besides, set on the Vailima bamboo, while I was reading Stevenson's
+delightful "Inland Voyage." The sloop was again doing her work
+smoothly, hardly rolling at all, but just leaping along among the
+white horses, a thousand gamboling porpoises keeping her company on
+all sides. She was again among her old friends the flying-fish,
+interesting denizens of the sea. Shooting out of the waves like
+arrows, and with outstretched wings, they sailed on the wind in
+graceful curves; then falling till again they touched the crest of the
+waves to wet their delicate wings and renew the flight. They made
+merry the livelong day. One of the joyful sights on the ocean of a
+bright day is the continual flight of these interesting fish.
+
+One could not be lonely in a sea like this. Moreover, the reading of
+delightful adventures enhanced the scene. I was now in the _Spray_ and
+on the Oise in the _Arethusa_ at one and the same time. And so the
+_Spray_ reeled off the miles, showing a good run every day till April
+11, which came almost before I knew it. Very early that morning I was
+awakened by that rare bird, the booby, with its harsh quack, which I
+recognized at once as a call to go on deck; it was as much as to say,
+"Skipper, there's land in sight." I tumbled out quickly, and sure
+enough, away ahead in the dim twilight, about twenty miles off, was
+St. Helena.
+
+My first impulse was to call out, "Oh, what a speck in the sea!" It is
+in reality nine miles in length and two thousand eight hundred and
+twenty-three feet in height. I reached for a bottle of port-wine out
+of the locker, and took a long pull from it to the health of my
+invisible helmsman--the pilot of the _Pinta_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+In the isle of Napoleon's exile--Two lectures--A guest in the
+ghost-room at Plantation House--An excursion to historic
+Longwood--Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it--The _Spray's_
+ill luck with animals--A prejudice against small dogs--A rat, the
+Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket--Ascension Island.
+
+It was about noon when the _Spray_ came to anchor off Jamestown, and
+"all hands" at once went ashore to pay respects to his Excellency the
+governor of the island, Sir R. A. Sterndale. His Excellency, when I
+landed, remarked that it was not often, nowadays, that a
+circumnavigator came his way, and he cordially welcomed me, and
+arranged that I should tell about the voyage, first at Garden Hall to
+the people of Jamestown, and then at Plantation House--the governor's
+residence, which is in the hills a mile or two back--to his Excellency
+and the officers of the garrison and their friends. Mr. Poole, our
+worthy consul, introduced me at the castle, and in the course of his
+remarks asserted that the sea-serpent was a Yankee.
+
+Most royally was the crew of the _Spray_ entertained by the governor.
+I remained at Plantation House a couple of days, and one of the rooms
+in the mansion, called the "west room," being haunted, the butler, by
+command of his Excellency, put me up in that--like a prince. Indeed,
+to make sure that no mistake had been made, his Excellency came later
+to see that I was in the right room, and to tell me all about the
+ghosts he had seen or heard of. He had discovered all but one, and
+wishing me pleasant dreams, he hoped I might have the honor of a visit
+from the unknown one of the west room. For the rest of the chilly
+night I kept the candle burning, and often looked from under the
+blankets, thinking that maybe I should meet the great Napoleon face to
+face; but I saw only furniture, and the horseshoe that was nailed over
+the door opposite my bed.
+
+St. Helena has been an island of tragedies--tragedies that have been
+lost sight of in wailing over the Corsican. On the second day of my
+visit the governor took me by carriage-road through the turns over the
+island. At one point of our journey the road, in winding around spurs
+and ravines, formed a perfect W within the distance of a few rods. The
+roads, though tortuous and steep, were fairly good, and I was struck
+with the amount of labor it must have cost to build them. The air on
+the heights was cool and bracing. It is said that, since hanging for
+trivial offenses went out of fashion, no one has died there, except
+from falling over the cliffs in old age, or from being crushed by
+stones rolling on them from the steep mountains! Witches at one time
+were persistent at St. Helena, as with us in America in the days of
+Cotton Mather. At the present day crime is rare in the island. While I
+was there, Governor Sterndale, in token of the fact that not one
+criminal case had come to court within the year, was presented with a
+pair of white gloves by the officers of justice.
+
+Returning from the governor's house to Jamestown, I drove with Mr.
+Clark, a countryman of mine, to "Longwood," the home of Napoleon. M.
+Morilleau, French consular agent in charge, keeps the place
+respectable and the buildings in good repair. His family at Longwood,
+consisting of wife and grown daughters, are natives of courtly and
+refined manners, and spend here days, months, and years of
+contentment, though they have never seen the world beyond the horizon
+of St. Helena.
+
+On the 20th of April the _Spray_ was again ready for sea. Before going
+on board I took luncheon with the governor and his family at the
+castle. Lady Sterndale had sent a large fruit-cake, early in the
+morning, from Plantation House, to be taken along on the voyage. It
+was a great high-decker, and I ate sparingly of it, as I thought, but
+it did not keep as I had hoped it would. I ate the last of it along
+with my first cup of coffee at Antigua, West Indies, which, after all,
+was quite a record. The one my own sister made me at the little island
+in the Bay of Fundy, at the first of the voyage, kept about the same
+length of time, namely, forty-two days.
+
+After luncheon a royal mail was made up for Ascension, the island next
+on my way. Then Mr. Poole and his daughter paid the _Spray_ a farewell
+visit, bringing me a basket of fruit. It was late in the evening
+before the anchor was up, and I bore off for the west, loath to leave
+my new friends. But fresh winds filled the sloop's sails once more,
+and I watched the beacon-light at Plantation House, the governor's
+parting signal for the _Spray_, till the island faded in the darkness
+astern and became one with the night, and by midnight the light itself
+had disappeared below the horizon.
+
+When morning came there was no land in sight, but the day went on the
+same as days before, save for one small incident. Governor Sterndale
+had given me a bag of coffee in the husk, and Clark, the American, in
+an evil moment, had put a goat on board, "to butt the sack and hustle
+the coffee-beans out of the pods." He urged that the animal, besides
+being useful, would be as companionable as a dog. I soon found that my
+sailing-companion, this sort of dog with horns, had to be tied up
+entirely. The mistake I made was that I did not chain him to the mast
+instead of tying him with grass ropes less securely, and this I
+learned to my cost. Except for the first day, before the beast got his
+sea-legs on, I had no peace of mind. After that, actuated by a spirit
+born, maybe, of his pasturage, this incarnation of evil threatened to
+devour everything from flying-jib to stern-davits. He was the worst
+pirate I met on the whole voyage. He began depredations by eating my
+chart of the West Indies, in the cabin, one day, while I was about my
+work for'ard, thinking that the critter was securely tied on deck by
+the pumps. Alas! there was not a rope in the sloop proof against that
+goat's awful teeth!
+
+It was clear from the very first that I was having no luck with
+animals on board. There was the tree-crab from the Keeling Islands. No
+sooner had it got a claw through its prison-box than my sea-jacket,
+hanging within reach, was torn to ribbons. Encouraged by this success,
+it smashed the box open and escaped into my cabin, tearing up things
+generally, and finally threatening my life in the dark. I had hoped to
+bring the creature home alive, but this did not prove feasible. Next
+the goat devoured my straw hat, and so when I arrived in port I had
+nothing to wear ashore on my head. This last unkind stroke decided his
+fate. On the 27th of April the _Spray_ arrived at Ascension, which is
+garrisoned by a man-of-war crew, and the boatswain of the island came
+on board. As he stepped out of his boat the mutinous goat climbed into
+it, and defied boatswain and crew. I hired them to land the wretch at
+once, which they were only too willing to do, and there he fell into
+the hands of a most excellent Scotchman, with the chances that he
+would never get away. I was destined to sail once more into the depths
+of solitude, but these experiences had no bad effect upon me; on the
+contrary, a spirit of charity and even benevolence grew stronger in my
+nature through the meditations of these supreme hours on the sea.
+
+In the loneliness of the dreary country about Cape Horn I found myself
+in no mood to make one life less in the world, except in self-defense,
+and as I sailed this trait of the hermit character grew till the
+mention of killing food-animals was revolting to me. However well I
+may have enjoyed a chicken stew afterward at Samoa, a new self
+rebelled at the thought suggested there of carrying chickens to be
+slain for my table on the voyage, and Mrs. Stevenson, hearing my
+protest, agreed with me that to kill the companions of my voyage and
+eat them would be indeed next to murder and cannibalism.
+
+As to pet animals, there was no room for a noble large dog on the
+_Spray_ on so long a voyage, and a small cur was for many years
+associated in my mind with hydrophobia. I witnessed once the death of
+a sterling young German from that dreadful disease, and about the same
+time heard of the death, also by hydrophobia, of the young gentleman
+who had just written a line of insurance in his company's books for
+me. I have seen the whole crew of a ship scamper up the rigging to
+avoid a dog racing about the decks in a fit. It would never do, I
+thought, for the crew of the _Spray_ to take a canine risk, and with
+these just prejudices indelibly stamped on my mind, I have, I am
+afraid, answered impatiently too often the query, "Didn't you have a
+dog!" with, "I and the dog wouldn't have been very long in the same
+boat, in any sense." A cat would have been a harmless animal, I dare
+say, but there was nothing for puss to do on board, and she is an
+unsociable animal at best. True, a rat got into my vessel at the
+Keeling Cocos Islands, and another at Rodriguez, along with a centiped
+stowed away in the hold; but one of them I drove out of the ship, and
+the other I caught. This is how it was: for the first one with
+infinite pains I made a trap, looking to its capture and destruction;
+but the wily rodent, not to be deluded, took the hint and got ashore
+the day the thing was completed.
+
+It is, according to tradition, a most reassuring sign to find rats
+coming to a ship, and I had a mind to abide the knowing one of
+Rodriguez; but a breach of discipline decided the matter against him.
+While I slept one night, my ship sailing on, he undertook to walk over
+me, beginning at the crown of my head, concerning which I am always
+sensitive. I sleep lightly. Before his impertinence had got him even
+to my nose I cried "Rat!" had him by the tail, and threw him out of
+the companionway into the sea.
+
+As for the centiped, I was not aware of its presence till the wretched
+insect, all feet and venom, beginning, like the rat, at my head,
+wakened me by a sharp bite on the scalp. This also was more than I
+could tolerate. After a few applications of kerosene the poisonous
+bite, painful at first, gave me no further inconvenience.
+
+From this on for a time no living thing disturbed my solitude; no
+insect even was present in my vessel, except the spider and his wife,
+from Boston, now with a family of young spiders. Nothing, I say, till
+sailing down the last stretch of the Indian Ocean, where mosquitos
+came by hundreds from rain-water poured out of the heavens. Simply a
+barrel of rain-water stood on deck five days, I think, in the sun,
+then music began. I knew the sound at once; it was the same as heard
+from Alaska to New Orleans.
+
+Again at Cape Town, while dining out one day, I was taken with the
+song of a cricket, and Mr. Branscombe, my host, volunteered to capture
+a pair of them for me. They were sent on board next day in a box
+labeled, "Pluto and Scamp." Stowing them away in the binnacle in their
+own snug box, I left them there without food till I got to sea--a few
+days. I had never heard of a cricket eating anything. It seems that
+Pluto was a cannibal, for only the wings of poor Scamp were visible
+when I opened the lid, and they lay broken on the floor of the
+prison-box. Even with Pluto it had gone hard, for he lay on his back
+stark and stiff, never to chirrup again.
+
+Ascension Island, where the goat was marooned, is called the Stone
+Frigate, R. N, and is rated "tender" to the South African Squadron. It
+lies in 7 degrees 35' south latitude and 14 degrees 25' west
+longitude, being in the very heart of the southeast trade-winds and
+about eight hundred and forty miles from the coast of Liberia. It is a
+mass of volcanic matter, thrown up from the bed of the ocean to the
+height of two thousand eight hundred and eighteen feet at the highest
+point above sea-level. It is a strategic point, and belonged to Great
+Britain before it got cold. In the limited but rich soil at the top of
+the island, among the clouds, vegetation has taken root, and a little
+scientific farming is carried on under the supervision of a gentleman
+from Canada. Also a few cattle and sheep are pastured there for the
+garrison mess. Water storage is made on a large scale. In a word, this
+heap of cinders and lava rock is stored and fortified, and would stand
+a siege.
+
+Very soon after the _Spray_ arrived I received a note from Captain
+Blaxland, the commander of the island, conveying his thanks for the
+royal mail brought from St. Helena, and inviting me to luncheon with
+him and his wife and sister at headquarters, not far away. It is
+hardly necessary to say that I availed myself of the captain's
+hospitality at once. A carriage was waiting at the jetty when I
+landed, and a sailor, with a broad grin, led the horse carefully up
+the hill to the captain's house, as if I were a lord of the admiralty,
+and a governor besides; and he led it as carefully down again when I
+returned. On the following day I visited the summit among the clouds,
+the same team being provided, and the same old sailor leading the
+horse. There was probably not a man on the island at that moment
+better able to walk than I. The sailor knew that. I finally suggested
+that we change places. "Let me take the bridle," I said, "and keep the
+horse from bolting." "Great Stone Frigate!" he exclaimed, as he burst
+into a laugh, "this 'ere 'oss wouldn't bolt no faster nor a turtle. If
+I didn't tow 'im 'ard we'd never get into port." I walked most of the
+way over the steep grades, whereupon my guide, every inch a sailor,
+became my friend. Arriving at the summit of the island, I met Mr.
+Schank, the farmer from Canada, and his sister, living very cozily in
+a house among the rocks, as snug as conies, and as safe. He showed me
+over the farm, taking me through a tunnel which led from one field to
+the other, divided by an inaccessible spur of mountain. Mr. Schank
+said that he had lost many cows and bullocks, as well as sheep, from
+breakneck over the steep cliffs and precipices. One cow, he said,
+would sometimes hook another right over a precipice to destruction,
+and go on feeding unconcernedly. It seemed that the animals on the
+island farm, like mankind in the wide world, found it all too small.
+
+On the 26th of April, while I was ashore, rollers came in which
+rendered launching a boat impossible. However, the sloop being
+securely moored to a buoy in deep water outside of all breakers, she
+was safe, while I, in the best of quarters, listened to well-told
+stories among the officers of the Stone Frigate. On the evening of the
+29th, the sea having gone down, I went on board and made preparations
+to start again on my voyage early next day, the boatswain of the
+island and his crew giving me a hearty handshake as I embarked at the
+jetty.
+
+For reasons of scientific interest, I invited in mid-ocean the most
+thorough investigation concerning the crew-list of the _Spray_. Very
+few had challenged it, and perhaps few ever will do so henceforth; but
+for the benefit of the few that may, I wished to clench beyond doubt
+the fact that it was not at all necessary in the expedition of a sloop
+around the world to have more than one man for the crew, all told, and
+that the _Spray_ sailed with only one person on board. And so, by
+appointment, Lieutenant Eagles, the executive officer, in the morning,
+just as I was ready to sail, fumigated the sloop, rendering it
+impossible for a person to live concealed below, and proving that only
+one person was on board when she arrived. A certificate to this
+effect, besides the official documents from the many consulates,
+health offices, and customhouses, will seem to many superfluous; but
+this story of the voyage may find its way into hands unfamiliar with
+the business of these offices and of their ways of seeing that a
+vessel's papers, and, above all, her bills of health, are in order.
+
+The lieutenant's certificate being made out, the _Spray_, nothing
+loath, now filled away clear of the sea-beaten rocks, and the
+trade-winds, comfortably cool and bracing, sent her flying along on
+her course. On May 8, 1898, she crossed the track, homeward bound,
+that she had made October 2, 1895, on the voyage out. She passed
+Fernando de Noronha at night, going some miles south of it, and so I
+did not see the island. I felt a contentment in knowing that the
+_Spray_ had encircled the globe, and even as an adventure alone I was
+in no way discouraged as to its utility, and said to myself, "Let what
+will happen, the voyage is now on record." A period was made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil--All at sea
+regarding the Spanish-American war--An exchange of signals with the
+battle-ship _Oregon_--Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
+Island--Reappearance to the _Spray_ of the north star--The light on
+Trinidad--A charming introduction to Grenada--Talks to friendly
+auditors.
+
+On May 10 there was a great change in the condition of the sea; there
+could be no doubt of my longitude now, if any had before existed in my
+mind. Strange and long-forgotten current ripples pattered against the
+sloop's sides in grateful music; the tune arrested the oar, and I sat
+quietly listening to it while the _Spray_ kept on her course. By these
+current ripples I was assured that she was now off St. Roque and had
+struck the current which sweeps around that cape. The trade-winds, we
+old sailors say, produce this current, which, in its course from this
+point forward, is governed by the coastline of Brazil, Guiana,
+Venezuela, and, as some would say, by the Monroe Doctrine.
+
+The trades had been blowing fresh for some time, and the current, now
+at its height, amounted to forty miles a day. This, added to the
+sloop's run by the log, made the handsome day's work of one hundred
+and eighty miles on several consecutive days, I saw nothing of the
+coast of Brazil, though I was not many leagues off and was always in
+the Brazil current.
+
+I did not know that war with Spain had been declared, and that I might
+be liable, right there, to meet the enemy and be captured. Many had
+told me at Cape Town that, in their opinion, war was inevitable, and
+they said: "The Spaniard will get you! The Spaniard will get you!" To
+all this I could only say that, even so, he would not get much. Even
+in the fever-heat over the disaster to the _Maine_ I did not think
+there would be war; but I am no politician. Indeed, I had hardly given
+the matter a serious thought when, on the 14th of May, just north of
+the equator, and near the longitude of the river Amazon, I saw first a
+mast, with the Stars and Stripes floating from it, rising astern as if
+poked up out of the sea, and then rapidly appearing on the horizon,
+like a citadel, the _Oregon!_ As she came near I saw that the great
+ship was flying the signals "C B T," which read, "Are there any
+men-of-war about?" Right under these flags, and larger than the
+_Spray's_ mainsail, so it appeared, was the yellowest Spanish flag I
+ever saw. It gave me nightmare some time after when I reflected on it
+in my dreams.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ passed by the _Oregon_.]
+
+I did not make out the _Oregon's_ signals till she passed ahead, where
+I could read them better, for she was two miles away, and I had no
+binoculars. When I had read her flags I hoisted the signal "No," for I
+had not seen any Spanish men-of-war; I had not been looking for any.
+My final signal, "Let us keep together for mutual protection," Captain
+Clark did not seem to regard as necessary. Perhaps my small flags were
+not made out; anyhow, the _Oregon_ steamed on with a rush, looking for
+Spanish men-of-war, as I learned afterward. The _Oregon's_ great flag
+was dipped beautifully three times to the _Spray's_ lowered flag as
+she passed on. Both had crossed the line only a few hours before. I
+pondered long that night over the probability of a war risk now coming
+upon the _Spray_ after she had cleared all, or nearly all, the dangers
+of the sea, but finally a strong hope mastered my fears.
+
+On the 17th of May, the _Spray_, coming out of a storm at daylight,
+made Devil's Island, two points on the lee bow, not far off. The wind
+was still blowing a stiff breeze on shore. I could clearly see the
+dark-gray buildings on the island as the sloop brought it abeam. No
+flag or sign of life was seen on the dreary place.
+
+Later in the day a French bark on the port tack, making for Cayenne,
+hove in sight, close-hauled on the wind. She was falling to leeward
+fast, The _Spray_ was also closed-hauled, and was lugging on sail to
+secure an offing on the starboard tack, a heavy swell in the night
+having thrown her too near the shore, and now I considered the matter
+of supplicating a change of wind. I had already enjoyed my share of
+favoring breezes over the great oceans, and I asked myself if it would
+be right to have the wind turned now all into my sails while the
+Frenchman was bound the other way. A head current, which he stemmed,
+together with a scant wind, was bad enough for him. And so I could
+only say, in my heart, "Lord, let matters stand as they are, but do
+not help the Frenchman any more just now, for what would suit him well
+would ruin me!"
+
+I remembered that when a lad I heard a captain often say in meeting that
+in answer to a prayer of his own the wind changed from southeast to
+northwest, entirely to his satisfaction. He was a good man, but did this
+glorify the Architect--the Ruler of the winds and the waves? Moreover,
+it was not a trade-wind, as I remember it, that changed for him, but one
+of the variables which will change when you ask it, if you ask long
+enough. Again, this man's brother maybe was not bound the opposite way,
+well content with a fair wind himself, which made all the difference in
+the world.[H]
+
+[H] The Bishop of Melbourne (commend me to his teachings) refused to set
+aside a day of prayer for rain, recommending his people to husband water
+when the rainy season was on. In like manner, a navigator husbands the
+wind, keeping a weather-gage where practicable.
+
+On May 18,1898, is written large in the _Spray's_ log-book: "To-night,
+in latitude 7 degrees 13' N., for the first time in nearly three years
+I see the north star." The _Spray_ on the day following logged one
+hundred and forty-seven miles. To this I add thirty-five miles for
+current sweeping her onward. On the 20th of May, about sunset, the
+island of Tobago, off the Orinoco, came into view, bearing west by
+north, distant twenty-two miles. The _Spray_ was drawing rapidly
+toward her home destination. Later at night, while running free along
+the coast of Tobago, the wind still blowing fresh, I was startled by
+the sudden flash of breakers on the port bow and not far off. I luffed
+instantly offshore, and then tacked, heading in for the island.
+Finding myself, shortly after, close in with the land, I tacked again
+offshore, but without much altering the bearings of the danger. Sail
+whichever way I would, it seemed clear that if the sloop weathered the
+rocks at all it would be a close shave, and I watched with anxiety,
+while beating against the current, always losing ground. So the matter
+stood hour after hour, while I watched the flashes of light thrown up
+as regularly as the beats of the long ocean swells, and always they
+seemed just a little nearer. It was evidently a coral reef,--of this I
+had not the slightest doubt,--and a bad reef at that. Worse still,
+there might be other reefs ahead forming a bight into which the
+current would sweep me, and where I should be hemmed in and finally
+wrecked. I had not sailed these waters since a lad, and lamented the
+day I had allowed on board the goat that ate my chart. I taxed my
+memory of sea lore, of wrecks on sunken reefs, and of pirates harbored
+among coral reefs where other ships might not come, but nothing that I
+could think of applied to the island of Tobago, save the one wreck of
+Robinson Crusoe's ship in the fiction, and that gave me little
+information about reefs. I remembered only that in Crusoe's case he
+kept his powder dry. "But there she booms again," I cried, "and how
+close the flash is now! Almost aboard was that last breaker! But
+you'll go by, _Spray_, old girl! 'T is abeam now! One surge more! and
+oh, one more like that will clear your ribs and keel!" And I slapped
+her on the transom, proud of her last noble effort to leap clear of
+the danger, when a wave greater than the rest threw her higher than
+before, and, behold, from the crest of it was revealed at once all
+there was of the reef. I fell back in a coil of rope, speechless and
+amazed, not distressed, but rejoiced. Aladdin's lamp! My fisherman's
+own lantern! It was the great revolving light on the island of
+Trinidad, thirty miles away, throwing flashes over the waves, which
+had deceived me! The orb of the light was now dipping on the horizon,
+and how glorious was the sight of it! But, dear Father Neptune, as I
+live, after a long life at sea, and much among corals, I would have
+made a solemn declaration to that reef! Through all the rest of the
+night I saw imaginary reefs, and not knowing what moment the sloop
+might fetch up on a real one, I tacked off and on till daylight, as
+nearly as possible in the same track, all for the want of a chart. I
+could have nailed the St. Helena goat's pelt to the deck.
+
+My course was now for Grenada, to which I carried letters from
+Mauritius. About midnight of the 22d of May I arrived at the island,
+and cast anchor in the roads off the town of St. George, entering the
+inner harbor at daylight on the morning of the 23d, which made
+forty-two days' sailing from the Cape of Good Hope, It was a good run,
+and I doffed my cap again to the pilot of the _Pinta_.
+
+Lady Bruce, in a note to the _Spray_ at Port Louis, said Grenada was a
+lovely island, and she wished the sloop might call there on the voyage
+home. When the _Spray_ arrived, I found that she had been fully
+expected. "How so?" I asked. "Oh, we heard that you were at
+Mauritius," they said, "and from Mauritius, after meeting Sir Charles
+Bruce, our old governor, we knew you would come to Grenada." This was
+a charming introduction, and it brought me in contact with people
+worth knowing.
+
+The _Spray_ sailed from Grenada on the 28th of May, and coasted along
+under the lee of the Antilles, arriving at the island of Dominica on
+the 30th, where, for the want of knowing better, I cast anchor at the
+quarantine ground; for I was still without a chart of the islands, not
+having been able to get one even at Grenada. Here I not only met with
+further disappointment in the matter, but was threatened with a fine
+for the mistake I made in the anchorage. There were no ships either at
+the quarantine or at the commercial roads, and I could not see that it
+made much difference where I anchored. But a negro chap, a sort of
+deputy harbormaster, coming along, thought it did, and he ordered me
+to shift to the other anchorage, which, in truth, I had already
+investigated and did not like, because of the heavier roll there from
+the sea. And so instead of springing to the sails at once to shift, I
+said I would leave outright as soon as I could procure a chart, which
+I begged he would send and get for me. "But I say you mus' move befo'
+you gets anyt'ing't all," he insisted, and raising his voice so that
+all the people alongshore could hear him, he added, "An' jes now!"
+Then he flew into a towering passion when they on shore snickered to
+see the crew of the _Spray_ sitting calmly by the bulwark instead of
+hoisting sail. "I tell you dis am quarantine" he shouted, very much
+louder than before. "That's all right, general," I replied; "I want to
+be quarantined anyhow." "That's right, boss," some one on the beach
+cried, "that's right; you get quarantined," while others shouted to
+the deputy to "make de white trash move 'long out o' dat." They were
+about equally divided on the island for and against me. The man who
+had made so much fuss over the matter gave it up when he found that I
+wished to be quarantined, and sent for an all-important half-white,
+who soon came alongside, starched from clue to earing. He stood in the
+boat as straight up and down as a fathom of pump-water--a marvel of
+importance. "Charts!" cried I, as soon as his shirt-collar appeared
+over the sloop's rail; "have you any charts?" "No, sah," he replied
+with much-stiffened dignity; "no, sah; cha'ts do'sn't grow on dis
+island." Not doubting the information, I tripped anchor immediately,
+as I had intended to do from the first, and made all sail for St.
+John, Antigua, where I arrived on the 1st of June, having sailed with
+great caution in midchannel all the way.
+
+The _Spray_, always in good company, now fell in with the port
+officers' steam-launch at the harbor entrance, having on board Sir
+Francis Fleming, governor of the Leeward Islands, who, to the delight
+of "all hands," gave the officer in charge instructions to tow my ship
+into port. On the following day his Excellency and Lady Fleming, along
+with Captain Burr, R. N., paid me a visit. The court-house was
+tendered free to me at Antigua, as was done also at Grenada, and at
+each place a highly intelligent audience filled the hall to listen to
+a talk about the seas the _Spray_ had crossed, and the countries she
+had visited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Clearing for home--In the calm belt--A sea covered with sargasso--The
+jibstay parts in a gale--Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island--A
+change of plan--Arrival at Newport--End of a cruise of over forty-six
+thousand miles--The _Spray_ again at Fairhaven.
+
+On the 4th of June, 1898, the _Spray_ cleared from the United States
+consulate, and her license to sail single-handed, even round the
+world, was returned to her for the last time. The United States
+consul, Mr. Hunt, before handing the paper to me, wrote on it, as
+General Roberts had done at Cape Town, a short commentary on the
+voyage. The document, by regular course, is now lodged in the Treasury
+Department at Washington, D. C.
+
+On June 5, 1898, the _Spray_ sailed for a home port, heading first
+direct for Cape Hatteras. On the 8th of June she passed under the sun
+from south to north; the sun's declination on that day was 22 degrees
+54', and the latitude of the _Spray_ was the same just before noon.
+Many think it is excessively hot right under the sun. It is not
+necessarily so. As a matter of fact the thermometer stands at a
+bearable point whenever there is a breeze and a ripple on the sea,
+even exactly under the sun. It is often hotter in cities and on sandy
+shores in higher latitudes.
+
+The _Spray_ was booming joyously along for home now, making her usual
+good time, when of a sudden she struck the horse latitudes, and her
+sail flapped limp in a calm. I had almost forgotten this calm belt, or
+had come to regard it as a myth. I now found it real, however, and
+difficult to cross. This was as it should have been, for, after all of
+the dangers of the sea, the dust-storm on the coast of Africa, the
+"rain of blood" in Australia, and the war risk when nearing home, a
+natural experience would have been missing had the calm of the horse
+latitudes been left out. Anyhow, a philosophical turn of thought now
+was not amiss, else one's patience would have given out almost at the
+harbor entrance. The term of her probation was eight days. Evening
+after evening during this time I read by the light of a candle on
+deck. There was no wind at all, and the sea became smooth and
+monotonous. For three days I saw a full-rigged ship on the horizon,
+also becalmed.
+
+Sargasso, scattered over the sea in bunches, or trailed curiously
+along down the wind in narrow lanes, now gathered together in great
+fields, strange sea-animals, little and big, swimming in and out, the
+most curious among them being a tiny seahorse which I captured and
+brought home preserved in a bottle. But on the 18th of June a gale
+began to blow from the southwest, and the sargasso was dispersed again
+in windrows and lanes.
+
+On this day there was soon wind enough and to spare. The same might
+have been said of the sea. The _Spray_ was in the midst of the
+turbulent Gulf Stream itself. She was jumping like a porpoise over the
+uneasy waves. As if to make up for lost time, she seemed to touch only
+the high places. Under a sudden shock and strain her rigging began to
+give out. First the main-sheet strap was carried away, and then the
+peak halyard-block broke from the gaff. It was time to reef and refit,
+and so when "all hands" came on deck I went about doing that.
+
+The 19th of June was fine, but on the morning of the 20th another gale
+was blowing, accompanied by cross-seas that tumbled about and shook
+things up with great confusion. Just as I was thinking about taking in
+sail the jibstay broke at the masthead, and fell, jib and all, into
+the sea. It gave me the strangest sensation to see the bellying sail
+fall, and where it had been suddenly to see only space. However, I was
+at the bows, with presence of mind to gather it in on the first wave
+that rolled up, before it was torn or trailed under the sloop's
+bottom. I found by the amount of work done in three minutes' or less
+time that I had by no means grown stiff-jointed on the voyage; anyhow,
+scurvy had not set in, and being now within a few degrees of home, I
+might complete the voyage, I thought, without the aid of a doctor.
+Yes, my health was still good, and I could skip about the decks in a
+lively manner, but could I climb? The great King Neptune tested me
+severely at this time, for the stay being gone, the mast itself
+switched about like a reed, and was not easy to climb; but a
+gun-tackle purchase was got up, and the stay set taut from the
+masthead, for I had spare blocks and rope on board with which to rig
+it, and the jib, with a reef in it, was soon pulling again like a
+"sodger" for home. Had the _Spray's_ mast not been well stepped,
+however, it would have been "John Walker" when the stay broke. Good
+work in the building of my vessel stood me always in good stead.
+
+On the 23d of June I was at last tired, tired, tired of baffling
+squalls and fretful cobble-seas. I had not seen a vessel for days and
+days, where I had expected the company of at least a schooner now and
+then. As to the whistling of the wind through the rigging, and the
+slopping of the sea against the sloop's sides, that was well enough in
+its way, and we could not have got on without it, the _Spray_ and I;
+but there was so much of it now, and it lasted so long! At noon of
+that day a winterish storm was upon us from the nor'west. In the Gulf
+Stream, thus late in June, hailstones were pelting the _Spray_, and
+lightning was pouring down from the clouds, not in flashes alone, but
+in almost continuous streams. By slants, however, day and night I
+worked the sloop in toward the coast, where, on the 25th of June, off
+Fire Island, she fell into the tornado which, an hour earlier, had
+swept over New York city with lightning that wrecked buildings and
+sent trees flying about in splinters; even ships at docks had parted
+their moorings and smashed into other ships, doing great damage. It
+was the climax storm of the voyage, but I saw the unmistakable
+character of it in time to have all snug aboard and receive it under
+bare poles. Even so, the sloop shivered when it struck her, and she
+heeled over unwillingly on her beam ends; but rounding to, with a
+sea-anchor ahead, she righted and faced out the storm. In the midst of
+the gale I could do no more than look on, for what is a man in a storm
+like this? I had seen one electric storm on the voyage, off the coast
+of Madagascar, but it was unlike this one. Here the lightning kept on
+longer, and thunderbolts fell in the sea all about. Up to this time I
+was bound for New York; but when all was over I rose, made sail, and
+hove the sloop round from starboard to port tack, to make for a quiet
+harbor to think the matter over; and so, under short sail, she reached
+in for the coast of Long Island, while I sat thinking and watching the
+lights of coasting-vessels which now began to appear in sight.
+Reflections of the voyage so nearly finished stole in upon me now;
+many tunes I had hummed again and again came back once more. I found
+myself repeating fragments of a hymn often sung by a dear Christian
+woman of Fairhaven when I was rebuilding the _Spray_. I was to hear
+once more and only once, in profound solemnity, the metaphorical hymn:
+
+  By waves and wind I'm tossed and driven.
+
+And again:
+
+  But still my little ship outbraves
+    The blust'ring winds and stormy waves.
+
+After this storm I saw the pilot of the _Pinta_ no more.
+
+The experiences of the voyage of the _Spray_, reaching over three
+years, had been to me like reading a book, and one that was more and
+more interesting as I turned the pages, till I had come now to the
+last page of all, and the one more interesting than any of the rest.
+
+When daylight came I saw that the sea had changed color from dark
+green to light. I threw the lead and got soundings in thirteen
+fathoms. I made the land soon after, some miles east of Fire Island,
+and sailing thence before a pleasant breeze along the coast, made for
+Newport. The weather after the furious gale was remarkably fine. The
+_Spray_ rounded Montauk Point early in the afternoon; Point Judith was
+abeam at dark; she fetched in at Beavertail next. Sailing on, she had
+one more danger to pass--Newport harbor was mined. The _Spray_ hugged
+the rocks along where neither friend nor foe could come if drawing
+much water, and where she would not disturb the guard-ship in the
+channel. It was close work, but it was safe enough so long as she
+hugged the rocks close, and not the mines. Flitting by a low point
+abreast of the guard-ship, the dear old _Dexter_, which I knew well,
+some one on board of her sang out, "There goes a craft!" I threw up a
+light at once and heard the hail, "_Spray_, ahoy!" It was the voice of
+a friend, and I knew that a friend would not fire on the _Spray_. I
+eased off the main-sheet now, and the _Spray_ swung off for the
+beacon-lights of the inner harbor. At last she reached port in safety,
+and there at 1 a.m. on June 27, 1898, cast anchor, after the cruise of
+more than forty-six thousand miles round the world, during an absence
+of three years and two months, with two days over for coming up.
+
+Was the crew well? Was I not? I had profited in many ways by the
+voyage. I had even gained flesh, and actually weighed a pound more
+than when I sailed from Boston. As for aging, why, the dial of my life
+was turned back till my friends all said, "Slocum is young again." And
+so I was, at least ten years younger than the day I felled the first
+tree for the construction of the _Spray_.
+
+My ship was also in better condition than when she sailed from Boston
+on her long voyage. She was still as sound as a nut, and as tight as
+the best ship afloat. She did not leak a drop--not one drop! The pump,
+which had been little used before reaching Australia, had not been
+rigged since that at all.
+
+The first name on the _Spray's_ visitors' book in the home port was
+written by the one who always said, "The _Spray_ will come back." The
+_Spray_ was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around to her
+birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, farther along. I had myself a
+desire to return to the place of the very beginning whence I had, as I
+have said, renewed my age. So on July 3, with a fair wind, she waltzed
+beautifully round the coast and up the Acushnet River to Fairhaven,
+where I secured her to the cedar spile driven in the bank to hold her
+when she was launched. I could bring her no nearer home.
+
+If the _Spray_ discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that
+there were no more continents to be discovered; she did not seek new
+worlds, or sail to powwow about the dangers of the seas. The sea has
+been much maligned. To find one's way to lands already discovered is a
+good thing, and the _Spray_ made the discovery that even the worst sea
+is not so terrible to a well-appointed ship. No king, no country, no
+treasury at all, was taxed for the voyage of the _Spray_, and she
+accomplished all that she undertook to do.
+
+[Illustration: The <i>Spray</i> in the storm of New York.]
+
+To succeed, however, in anything at all, one should go understandingly
+about his work and be prepared for every emergency. I see, as I look
+back over my own small achievement, a kit of not too elaborate
+carpenters' tools, a tin clock, and some carpet-tacks, not a great
+many, to facilitate the enterprise as already mentioned in the story.
+But above all to be taken into account were some years of schooling,
+where I studied with diligence Neptune's laws, and these laws I tried
+to obey when I sailed overseas; it was worth the while.
+
+And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed
+scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I
+have endeavored to tell just the story of the adventure itself. This,
+in my own poor way, having been done, I now moor ship, weather-bitt
+cables, and leave the sloop _Spray_, for the present, safe in port.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+[Illustration: Again tied to the old stake at Fairhaven.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+Her pedigree so far as known--The Lines of the _Spray_--Her
+self-steering qualities--Sail-plan and steering-gear--An unprecedented
+feat--A final word of cheer to would-be navigators.
+
+From a feeling of diffidence toward sailors of great experience, I
+refrained, in the preceding chapters as prepared for serial
+publication in the "Century Magazine," from entering fully into the
+details of the _Spray's_ build, and of the primitive methods employed
+to sail her. Having had no yachting experience at all, I had no means
+of knowing that the trim vessels seen in our harbors and near the land
+could not all do as much, or even more, than the _Spray_, sailing, for
+example, on a course with the helm lashed.
+
+I was aware that no other vessel had sailed in this manner around the
+globe, but would have been loath to say that another could not do it,
+or that many men had not sailed vessels of a certain rig in that
+manner as far as they wished to go. I was greatly amused, therefore,
+by the flat assertions of an expert that it could not be done.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the after cabin of the _Spray._]
+
+The _Spray_, as I sailed her, was entirely a new boat, built over from
+a sloop which bore the same name, and which, tradition said, had first
+served as an oysterman, about a hundred years ago, on the coast of
+Delaware. There was no record in the custom-house of where she was
+built. She was once owned at Noank, Connecticut, afterward in New
+Bedford and when Captain Eben Pierce presented her to me, at the end
+of her natural life, she stood, as I have already described, propped
+up in a field at Fairhaven. Her lines were supposed to be those of a
+North Sea fisherman. In rebuilding timber by timber and plank by
+plank, I added to her free-board twelve inches amidships, eighteen
+inches forward, and fourteen inches aft, thereby increasing her sheer,
+and making her, as I thought, a better deep-water ship. I will not
+repeat the history of the rebuilding of the _Spray_, which I have
+detailed in my first chapter, except to say that, when finished, her
+dimensions were thirty-six feet nine inches over all, fourteen feet
+two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her
+tonnage being nine tons net, and twelve and seventy one-hundredths
+tons gross.
+
+I gladly produce the lines of the _Spray_, with such hints as my
+really limited fore-and-aft sailing will allow, my seafaring life
+having been spent mostly in barks and ships. No pains have been spared
+to give them accurately. The _Spray_ was taken from New York to
+Bridgeport, Connecticut, and, under the supervision of the Park City
+Yacht Club, was hauled out of water and very carefully measured in
+every way to secure a satisfactory result. Captain Robins produced the
+model. Our young yachtsmen, pleasuring in the "lilies of the sea,"
+very naturally will not think favorably of my craft. They have a right
+to their opinion, while I stick to mine. They will take exceptions to
+her short ends, the advantage of these being most apparent in a heavy
+sea.
+
+Some things about the _Spray's_ deck might be fashioned differently
+without materially affecting the vessel. I know of no good reason why
+for a party-boat a cabin trunk might not be built amidships instead of
+far aft, like the one on her, which leaves a very narrow space between
+the wheel and the line of the companionway. Some even say that I might
+have improved the shape of her stern. I do not know about that. The
+water leaves her run sharp after bearing her to the last inch, and no
+suction is formed by undue cutaway.
+
+Smooth-water sailors say, "Where is her overhang?" They never crossed
+the Gulf Stream in a nor'easter, and they do not know what is best in
+all weathers. For your life, build no fantail overhang on a craft
+going offshore. As a sailor judges his prospective ship by a "blow of
+the eye" when he takes interest enough to look her over at all, so I
+judged the _Spray_, and I was not deceived.
+
+In a sloop-rig the _Spray_ made that part of her voyage reaching from
+Boston through the Strait of Magellan, during which she experienced
+the greatest variety of weather conditions. The yawl-rig then adopted
+was an improvement only in that it reduced the size of a rather heavy
+mainsail and slightly improved her steering qualities on the wind.
+When the wind was aft the jigger was not in use; invariably it was
+then furled. With her boom broad off and with the wind two points on
+the quarter the _Spray_ sailed her truest course. It never took long
+to find the amount of helm, or angle of rudder, required to hold her
+on her course, and when that was found I lashed the wheel with it at
+that angle. The mainsail then drove her, and the main-jib, with its
+sheet boused flat amidships or a little to one side or the other,
+added greatly to the steadying power. Then if the wind was even strong
+or squally I would sometimes set a flying-jib also, on a pole rigged
+out on the bowsprit, with, the sheets hauled flat amidships, which was
+a safe thing to do, even in a gale of wind. A stout downhaul on the
+gaff was a necessity, because without it the mainsail might not have
+come down when I wished to lower it in a breeze. The amount of helm
+required varied according to the amount of wind and its direction.
+These points are quickly gathered from practice.
+
+[Illustration: Deck-plan of the _Spray_.]
+
+Briefly I have to say that when close-hauled in a light wind under all
+sail she required little or no weather helm. As the wind increased I
+would go on deck, if below, and turn the wheel up a spoke more or
+less, relash it, or, as sailors say, put it in a becket, and then
+leave it as before.
+
+[Illustration: Sail-Plan of the _Spray_ The solid lines represent the
+sail-plan of the _Spray_ on starting for the long voyage. With it she
+crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, and then crossed again southwest to
+Brazil. In South American waters the bowsprit and boom were shortened
+and the jigger-sail added to form the yawl-rig with which the rest of
+the trip was made, the sail-plan of which is indicated by the dotted
+lines The extreme sail forward is a flying jib occasionally used, set
+to a bamboo stick fastened to the bowsprit. The manner of setting and
+bracing the jigger-mast is not indicated in this drawing, but may be
+partly observed in the plans on pages 287 and 289.]
+
+To answer the questions that might be asked to meet every contingency
+would be a pleasure, but it would overburden my book. I can only say
+here that much comes to one in practice, and that, with such as love
+sailing, mother-wit is the best teacher, after experience.
+Labor-saving appliances? There were none. The sails were hoisted by
+hand; the halyards were rove through ordinary ships' blocks with
+common patent rollers. Of course the sheets were all belayed aft.
+
+[Illustration: Steering-gear of the _Spray_. The dotted lines are the
+ropes used to lash the wheel. In practice the loose ends were belayed,
+one over the other, around the top spokes of the wheel.]
+
+The windlass used was in the shape of a winch, or crab, I think it is
+called. I had three anchors, weighing forty pounds, one hundred
+pounds, and one hundred and eighty pounds respectively. The windlass
+and the forty-pound anchor, and the "fiddle-head," or carving, on the
+end of the cutwater, belonged to the original _Spray_. The ballast,
+concrete cement, was stanchioned down securely. There was no iron or
+lead or other weight on the keel.
+
+If I took measurements by rule I did not set them down, and after
+sailing even the longest voyage in her I could not tell offhand the
+length of her mast, boom, or gaff. I did not know the center of effort
+in her sails, except as it hit me in practice at sea, nor did I care a
+rope yarn about it. Mathematical calculations, however, are all right
+in a good boat, and the _Spray_ could have stood them. She was easily
+balanced and easily kept in trim.
+
+Some of the oldest and ablest shipmasters have asked how it was
+possible for her to hold a true course before the wind, which was just
+what the _Spray_ did for weeks together. One of these gentlemen, a
+highly esteemed shipmaster and friend, testified as government expert
+in a famous murder trial in Boston, not long since, that a ship would
+not hold her course long enough for the steersman to leave the helm to
+cut the captain's throat. Ordinarily it would be so. One might say
+that with a square-rigged ship it would always be so. But the _Spray_,
+at the moment of the tragedy in question, was sailing around the globe
+with no one at the helm, except at intervals more or less rare.
+However, I may say here that this would have had no bearing on the
+murder case in Boston. In all probability Justice laid her hand on the
+true rogue. In other words, in the case of a model and rig similar to
+that of the tragedy ship, I should myself testify as did the nautical
+experts at the trial.
+
+[Illustration: Body-plan of the _Spray_.]
+
+But see the run the _Spray_ made from Thursday Island to the Keeling
+Cocos Islands, twenty-seven hundred miles distant, in twenty-three
+days, with no one at the helm in that time, save for about one hour,
+from land to land. No other ship in the history of the world ever
+performed, under similar circumstances, the feat on so long and
+continuous a voyage. It was, however, a delightful midsummer sail. No
+one can know the pleasure of sailing free over the great oceans save
+those who have had the experience. It is not necessary, in order to
+realize the utmost enjoyment of going around the globe, to sail alone,
+yet for once and the first time there was a great deal of fun in it.
+My friend the government expert, and saltest of salt sea-captains,
+standing only yesterday on the deck of the _Spray_, was convinced of
+her famous qualities, and he spoke enthusiastically of selling his
+farm on Cape Cod and putting to sea again.
+
+To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough
+usage are for the most part exaggerations, as also are the stories of
+sea danger. I had a fair schooling in the so-called "hard ships" on
+the hard Western Ocean, and in the years there I do not remember
+having once been "called out of my name." Such recollections have
+endeared the sea to me. I owe it further to the officers of all the
+ships I ever sailed in as boy and man to say that not one ever lifted
+so much as a finger to me. I did not live among angels, but among men
+who could be roused. My wish was, though, to please the officers of my
+ship wherever I was, and so I got on. Dangers there are, to be sure,
+on the sea as well as on the land, but the intelligence and skill God
+gives to man reduce these to a minimum. And here comes in again the
+skilfully modeled ship worthy to sail the seas.
+
+To face the elements is, to be sure, no light matter when the sea is
+in its grandest mood. You must then know the sea, and know that you
+know it, and not forget that it was made to be sailed over.
+
+I have given in the plans of the _Spray_ the dimensions of such a ship
+as I should call seaworthy in all conditions of weather and on all
+seas. It is only right to say, though, that to insure a reasonable
+measure of success, experience should sail with the ship. But in order
+to be a successful navigator or sailor it is not necessary to hang a
+tar-bucket about one's neck. On the other hand, much thought
+concerning the brass buttons one should wear adds nothing to the
+safety of the ship.
+
+[Illustration: Lines of the _Spray_.]
+
+I may some day see reason to modify the model of the dear old _Spray_,
+but out of my limited experience I strongly recommend her wholesome
+lines over those of pleasure-fliers for safety. Practice in a craft
+such as the _Spray_ will teach young sailors and fit them for the more
+important vessels. I myself learned more seamanship, I think, on the
+_Spray_ than on any other ship I ever sailed, and as for patience, the
+greatest of all the virtues, even while sailing through the reaches of
+the Strait of Magellan, between the bluff mainland and dismal Fuego,
+where through intricate sailing I was obliged to steer, I learned to
+sit by the wheel, content to make ten miles a day beating against the
+tide, and when a month at that was all lost, I could find some old
+tune to hum while I worked the route all over again, beating as
+before. Nor did thirty hours at the wheel, in storm, overtax my human
+endurance, and to clap a hand to an oar and pull into or out of port
+in a calm was no strange experience for the crew of the _Spray_. The
+days passed happily with me wherever my ship sailed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Sailing Alone Around The World, by Joshua Slocum
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Sailing Alone Around The World, by Joshua Slocum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sailing Alone Around The World
+
+Author: Joshua Slocum
+
+Illustrator: Thomas Fogarty
+             George Varian
+
+Posting Date: October 12, 2010
+Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6317]
+[This file was first posted on November 25, 2002]
+[Last updated: January 20, 2018]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+HTML version produced by Chuck Greif.
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h1>SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD</h1>
+
+<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;">
+<a href="images/front_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" id="coverpage" width="392" height="570" alt="The &quot;Spray&quot; from a photograph taken in Australian
+waters." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The &quot;Spray&quot; from a photograph taken in Australian
+waters.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h1>SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD</h1>
+
+<p class="c">By<br />
+<big>Captain Joshua Slocum</big></p>
+
+<p class="c">Illustrated by<br />
+THOMAS FOGARTY AND GEORGE VARIAN</p>
+
+<p class="c">TO THE ONE WHO SAID:<br />
+"THE 'SPRAY' WILL COME BACK."</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h3>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities&mdash;Youthful fondness for
+the sea&mdash;Master of the ship <i>Northern Light</i>&mdash;Loss of the
+<i>Aquidneck</i>&mdash;Return home from Brazil in the canoe <i>Liberdade</i>&mdash;The
+gift of a "ship"&mdash;The rebuilding of the <i>Spray</i>&mdash;Conundrums in regard
+to finance and calking&mdash;The launching of the <i>Spray</i>.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Failure as a fisherman&mdash;A voyage around the world projected&mdash;From
+Boston to Gloucester&mdash;Fitting out for the ocean voyage&mdash;Half of a dory
+for a ship's boat&mdash;The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia&mdash;A shaking
+up in home waters&mdash;Among old friends.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Good-by to the American coast&mdash;Off Sable Island in a fog&mdash;In the open
+sea&mdash;The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage&mdash;The first
+fit of loneliness&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> encounters <i>La Vaguisa</i>&mdash;A bottle of
+wine from the Spaniard&mdash;A bout of words with the captain of the
+<i>Java</i>&mdash;The steamship <i>Olympia</i> spoken&mdash;Arrival at the Azores.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Squally weather in the Azores&mdash;High living&mdash;Delirious from cheese and
+plums&mdash;The pilot of the <i>Pinta</i>&mdash;At Gibraltar&mdash;Compliments exchanged
+with the British navy&mdash;A picnic on the Morocco shore.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug&mdash;The
+<i>Spray's</i> course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn&mdash;Chased by a
+Moorish pirate&mdash;A comparison with Columbus&mdash;The Canary Islands&mdash;The
+Cape Verde Islands&mdash;Sea life&mdash;Arrival at Pernambuco&mdash;A bill against
+the Brazilian government&mdash;Preparing for the stormy weather of the cape.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Departure from Rio de Janeiro&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> ashore on the sands of
+Uruguay&mdash;A narrow escape from shipwreck&mdash;The boy who found a
+sloop&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> floated but somewhat damaged&mdash;Courtesies from the
+British consul at Maldonado&mdash;A warm greeting at Montevideo&mdash;An
+excursion to Buenos Aires&mdash;Shortening the mast and bowsprit.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires&mdash;An outburst of emotion at the mouth
+of the Plate&mdash;Submerged by a great wave&mdash;A stormy entrance to the
+strait&mdash;Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks&mdash;Off
+Cape Froward&mdash;Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay&mdash;A miss-shot for
+"Black Pedro"&mdash;Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island
+Cove&mdash;Animal life.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">From Cape Pillar into the Pacific&mdash;Driven by a tempest toward Cape
+Horn&mdash;Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure&mdash;Reaching the strait
+again by way of Cockburn Channel&mdash;Some savages find the
+carpet-tacks&mdash;Danger from firebrands&mdash;A series of fierce
+williwaws&mdash;Again sailing westward.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Repairing the <i>Spray's</i> sails&mdash;Savages and an obstreperous anchor&mdash;A
+spider-fight&mdash;An encounter with Black Pedro&mdash;A visit to the steamship
+<i>Colombia</i>&mdash;On the defensive against a fleet of canoes&mdash;A record of
+voyages through the strait&mdash;A chance cargo of tallow.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm&mdash;A defective sheet-rope places
+the <i>Spray</i> in peril&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> as a target for a Fuegian arrow&mdash;The
+island of Alan Erric&mdash;Again in the open Pacific&mdash;The run to the island
+of Juan Fernandez&mdash;An absentee king&mdash;At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">The islanders of Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts&mdash;The
+beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm&mdash;The mountain monument to
+Alexander Selkirk&mdash;Robinson Crusoe's cave&mdash;A stroll with the children
+of the island&mdash;Westward ho! with a friendly gale&mdash;A month's free
+sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides&mdash;Sighting the
+Marquesas&mdash;Experience in reckoning.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Seventy-two days without a port&mdash;Whales and birds&mdash;A peep into the
+<i>Spray's</i> galley&mdash;Flying-fish for breakfast&mdash;A welcome at Apia&mdash;A
+visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson&mdash;At Vailima&mdash;Samoan
+hospitality&mdash;Arrested for fast riding&mdash;An amusing
+merry-go-round&mdash;Teachers and pupils of Papauta College&mdash;At the mercy
+of sea-nymphs.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Samoan royalty&mdash;King Malietoa&mdash;Good-by to friends at Vailima&mdash;Leaving
+Fiji to the south&mdash;Arrival at Newcastle, Australia&mdash;The yachts of
+Sydney&mdash;A ducking on the <i>Spray</i>&mdash;Commodore Foy presents the sloop
+with a new suit of sails&mdash;On to Melbourne&mdash;A shark that proved to be
+valuable&mdash;A change of course-The "Rain of Blood"&mdash;In Tasmania.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">A testimonial from a lady&mdash;Cruising round Tasmania&mdash;The skipper
+delivers his first lecture on the voyage&mdash;Abundant provisions&mdash;An
+inspection of the <i>Spray</i> for safety at Devonport&mdash;Again at
+Sydney&mdash;Northward bound for Torres Strait&mdash;An amateur
+shipwreck&mdash;Friends on the Australian coast&mdash;Perils of a coral sea.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland&mdash;A lecture&mdash;Reminiscences of
+Captain Cook&mdash;Lecturing for charity at Cooktown&mdash;A happy escape from a
+coral reef&mdash;Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island&mdash;An American
+pearl-fisherman&mdash;Jubilee at Thursday Island&mdash;A new ensign for the
+<i>Spray</i>&mdash;Booby Island&mdash;Across the Indian Ocean&mdash;Christmas Island.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">A call for careful navigation&mdash;Three hours' steering in twenty-three
+days&mdash;Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands&mdash;A curious chapter of
+social history&mdash;A welcome from the children of the islands&mdash;Cleaning
+and painting the <i>Spray</i> on the beach&mdash;A Mohammedan blessing for a pot
+of jam&mdash;Keeling as a paradise&mdash;A risky adventure in a small boat&mdash;Away
+to Rodriguez&mdash;Taken for Antichrist&mdash;The governor calms the fears of
+the people&mdash;A lecture&mdash;A convent in the hills.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">A clean bill of health at Mauritius&mdash;Sailing the voyage over again in
+the opera-house&mdash;A newly discovered plant named in honor of the
+<i>Spray's</i> skipper&mdash;A party of young ladies out for a sail&mdash;A bivouac
+on deck&mdash;A warm reception at Durban&mdash;A friendly cross-examination by
+Henry M. Stanley&mdash;Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the
+earth&mdash;Leaving South Africa.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Bounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time&mdash;A rough Christmas&mdash;The
+<i>Spray</i> ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town&mdash;A railway trip
+to the Transvaal&mdash;President Krüger's odd definition of the <i>Spray's</i>
+voyage&mdash;His terse sayings&mdash;Distinguished guests on the
+<i>Spray</i>&mdash;Cocoanut fiber as a padlock&mdash;Courtesies from the admiral of
+the Queen's navy&mdash;Off for St. Helena&mdash;Land in sight.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">In the isle of Napoleon's exile&mdash;Two lectures&mdash;A guest in the
+ghost-room at Plantation House&mdash;An excursion to historic
+Longwood&mdash;Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it&mdash;The <i>Spray's</i>
+ill luck with animals&mdash;A prejudice against small dogs&mdash;A rat, the
+Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket&mdash;Ascension Island.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil&mdash;All at sea
+regarding the Spanish-American war&mdash;An exchange of signals with the
+battle-ship <i>Oregon</i>&mdash;Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
+Island&mdash;Reappearance to the <i>Spray</i> of the north star&mdash;The light on
+Trinidad&mdash;A charming introduction to Grenada&mdash;Talks to friendly
+auditors.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Clearing for home&mdash;In the calm belt&mdash;A sea covered with sargasso&mdash;The
+jibstay parts in a gale&mdash;Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island&mdash;A
+change of plan&mdash;Arrival at Newport&mdash;End of a cruise of over forty-six
+thousand miles&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> again at Fairhaven.</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#APPENDIX">APPENDIX</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="center">LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td><p class="hang">Her pedigree so far as known&mdash;The lines of the <i>Spray</i>&mdash;Her
+self-steering qualities&mdash;Sail-plan and steering-gear&mdash;An unprecedented
+feat&mdash;A final word of cheer to would-be navigators.</p></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<h3><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3>
+
+<table summary="note" border="1" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #ffffff;">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center"><small>
+      Click directly on the images to view them at full size.<br />
+(note of etext transcriber)</small></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#front">The "Spray" (Frontispiece)<br />From A Photograph Taken In Australian Waters.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_northern">The "Northern Light," Captain Joshua Slocum, Bound For Liverpool, 1885</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#cross-section">Cross-section Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#itll_crawl">"It'll Crawl"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#no_dorg">"No Dorg Nor No Cat"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_deacon">The Deacon's Dream</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#captain_slocum_chronometer">Captain Slocum's Chronometer</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#good">"Good Evening, Sir"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#he_also">He Also Sent His Card</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#chart_of_7-3">Chart Of The "Spray's" Course Around The World&mdash;april 24, 1895, To
+July 3, 1898</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_island">The Island Of Pico</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#chart_of_gibraltar">Chart Of The "Spray's" Atlantic Voyages From Boston To Gibraltar,
+Thence To The Strait Of Magellan, In 1895, And Finally Homeward Bound
+From The Cape Of Good Hope In 1898</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_apparition">The Apparition At The Wheel</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#coming_to">Coming To Anchor At Gibraltar</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#thesprayanchor">The "Spray" At Anchor Off Gibraltar</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#chased_by">Chased By Pirates</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#i_suddenly">I Suddenly Remembered That I Could Not Swim</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_double">A Double Surprise</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#at_the">At The Sign Of The Comet</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_great">A Great Wave Off The Patagonian Coast</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#entrance_to">Entrance To The Strait Of Magellan</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_course">The Course Of The "Spray" Through The Strait Of Magellan</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_man">The Man Who Wouldn't Ship Without Another "Mon And A Doog"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_fuegian">A Fuegian Girl</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#looking_west">Looking West From Fortescue Bay, Where The "Spray" Was Chased By Indians</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_brush">A Brush With Fuegians</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_bit">A Bit Of Friendly Assistance</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#cape_pillar">Cape Pillar</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#they_howled">They Howled Like A Pack Of Hounds</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_glimpse">A Glimpse Of Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) In The Strait Of Magellan</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#yammerschooner">"Yammerschooner!"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#a_contrast">A Contrast In Lighting&mdash;the Electric Lights Of The "Colombia" And The
+Canoe Fires Of The Fortescue Indians</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#records_of">Records Of Passages Through The Strait At The Head Of Borgia Bay</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#salving_wreckage">Salving Wreckage</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_first">The First Shot Uncovered Three Fuegians</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_app">The "Spray" Approaching Juan Fernandez, Robinson Crusoe's Island</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_house">The House Of The King</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#robinson_crusoe">Robinson Crusoe's Cave</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_man_cabra">The Man Who Called A Cabra A Goat</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#meeting_with">Meeting With The Whale</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#first_exchange">First Exchange Of Courtesies In Samoa</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#vailima">Vailima, The Home Of Robert Louis Stevenson</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_course">The "Spray's" Course From Australia To South Africa</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_accident">The Accident At Sydney</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#captain_slocum_working">Captain Slocum Working The "Spray" Out Of The Yarrow River, A Part Of
+Melbourne Harbor</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_shark">The Shark On The Deck Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#on_board">On Board At St. Kilda. Retracing On The Chart The Course Of The
+"Spray" From Boston</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_port">The "Spray" In Her Port Duster At Devonport, Tasmania, February 22, 1897</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#is_it">"Is It A-goin' To Blow?"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_sydney">The "Spray" Leaving Sydney, Australia, In The New Suit Of Sails Given
+By Commodore Foy Of Australia</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_ashore">The "Spray" Ashore For "Boot-topping" At The Keeling Islands</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#captain_slocum_drifting">Captain Slocum Drifting Out To Sea</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_mauritius">The "Spray" At Mauritius</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#captain_joshua">Captain Joshua Slocum</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#cartoon_printed">Cartoon Printed In The Cape Town "Owl" Of March 5, 1898, In Connection
+With An Item About Captain Slocum's Trip To Pretoria</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#captain_slocum_milner">Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (With The Tall Hat), And Colonel
+Saunderson, M. P., On The Bow Of The "Spray" At Cape Town</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#new_york">The Spray in the storm of New York.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#reading_day">Reading Day And Night.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#the_spray_oregon">The "Spray" Passed By The "Oregon"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#again_tied">Again Tied To The Old Stake At Fairhaven.</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#plan_of_after_cabin">Plan Of The After Cabin Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#deck_plan">Deck-plan Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#sail_plan">Sail-plan Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#steering-gear">Steering-gear Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#body-plan">Body-plan Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="#lines_of">Lines Of The "Spray"</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<img src="images/illpg_001_lg.jpg" width="550" height="171" alt="decoration" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD</h1>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<p>A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities&mdash;Youthful fondness for
+the sea&mdash;Master of the ship <i>Northern Light</i>&mdash;Loss of the
+<i>Aquidneck</i>&mdash;Return home from Brazil in the canoe <i>Liberdade</i>&mdash;The
+gift of a "ship"&mdash;The rebuilding of the <i>Spray</i>-Conundrums in regard
+to finance and calking&mdash;The launching of the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge
+called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and
+the fertile Annapolis valley on the other. On the northern slope of
+the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-timbers,
+of which many vessels of all classes have been built. The people of
+this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the
+world's commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the
+birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia. I was born in
+a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though
+I am a citizen of the United States&mdash;a naturalized Yankee, if it may
+be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the
+word. On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should
+be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to
+whittle models of boats and contemplate voyages. My father was the
+sort of man who, if wrecked on a desolate island, would find his way
+home, if he had a jack-knife and could find a tree. He was a good
+judge of a boat, but the old clay farm which some calamity made his
+was an anchor to him. He was not afraid of a capful of wind, and he
+never took a back seat at a camp-meeting or a good, old-fashioned
+revival.</p>
+
+<p>As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first. At the age
+of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay,
+with chances greatly in favor of being drowned. When a lad I filled
+the important post of cook on a fishing-schooner; but I was not long in
+the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff,
+and "chucked me out" before I had a chance to shine as a culinary
+artist. The next step toward the goal of happiness found me before the
+mast in a full-rigged ship bound on a foreign voyage. Thus I came
+"over the bows," and not in through the cabin windows, to the command
+of a ship.</p>
+
+<p>My best command was that of the magnificent ship <i>Northern Light</i>, of
+which I was part-owner. I had a right to be proud of her, for at that
+time&mdash;in the eighties&mdash;she was the finest American sailing-vessel
+afloat. Afterward I owned and sailed the <i>Aquidneck</i>, a little bark
+which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of
+beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of
+steamers, I had been nearly twenty years a shipmaster when I quit her
+deck on the coast of Brazil, where she was wrecked. My home voyage to
+New York with my family was made in the canoe <i>Liberdade</i>, without
+accident.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_northern" id="the_northern"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_003_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_003.jpg" width="358" height="255" alt="The Northern Light, Captain Joshua
+Slocum, bound for Liverpool, 1885. Drawn by W. Taber." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Northern Light, Captain Joshua
+Slocum, bound for Liverpool, 1885. Drawn by W. Taber.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as freighter and trader
+principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice
+Islands. Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to coil up
+one's ropes on land, the customs and ways of which I had finally
+almost forgotten. And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last
+they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old
+sailor to do? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as
+perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else. Next in
+attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building. I longed to be
+master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I
+accomplished my desire. From the decks of stout ships in the worst
+gales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of ship safest
+for all weather and all seas. Thus the voyage which I am now to
+narrate was a natural outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of
+my lifelong experience.</p>
+
+<p>One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, where I had been cast up from
+old ocean, so to speak, a year or two before, I was cogitating whether
+I should apply for a command, and again eat my bread and butter on the
+sea, or go to work at the shipyard, when I met an old acquaintance, a
+whaling-captain, who said: "Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a
+ship. But," he added, "she wants some repairs." The captain's terms,
+when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me. They included
+all the assistance I would require to fit the craft for sea. I was
+only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not
+obtain work in the shipyard without first paying fifty dollars to a
+society, and as for a ship to command&mdash;there were not enough ships to
+go round. Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for
+coal-barges, and were being ignominiously towed by the nose from port
+to port, while many worthy captains addressed themselves to Sailors'
+Snug Harbor.</p>
+
+<p>The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found
+that my friend had something of a joke on me. For seven years the joke
+had been on him. The "ship" proved to be a very antiquated sloop
+called the <i>Spray,</i> which the neighbors declared had been built in the
+year 1. She was affectionately propped up in a field, some distance
+from salt water, and was covered with canvas. The people of Fairhaven,
+I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant. For seven years they had
+asked, "I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old
+<i>Spray?"</i> The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange:
+at last some one had come and was actually at work on the old <i>Spray.</i>
+"Breaking her up, I s'pose?" "No; going to rebuild her." Great was the
+amazement. "Will it pay?" was the question which for a year or more I
+answered by declaring that I would make it pay.</p>
+
+<p>My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard,
+for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for the
+frame of the new vessel. I rigged a steam-box and a pot for a boiler.
+The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and
+steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured
+till set. Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor,
+and the neighbors made the work sociable. It was a great day in the
+<i>Spray</i> shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new
+keel. Whaling-captains came from far to survey it. With one voice they
+pronounced it "A 1," and in their opinion "fit to smash ice." The
+oldest captain shook my hand warmly when the breast-hooks were put in,
+declaring that he could see no reason why the <i>Spray</i> should not "cut
+in bow-head" yet off the coast of Greenland. The much-esteemed
+stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak. It
+afterward split a coral patch in two at the Keeling Islands, and did
+not receive a blemish. Better timber for a ship than pasture white oak
+never grew. The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this
+wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required. It was hard
+upon March when I began work in earnest; the weather was cold; still,
+there were plenty of inspectors to back me with advice. When a
+whaling-captain hove in sight I just rested on my adz awhile and
+"gammed" with him.</p>
+
+<p>New Bedford, the home of whaling-captains, is connected with Fairhaven
+by a bridge, and the walking is good. They never "worked along up" to
+the shipyard too often for me. It was the charming tales about arctic
+whaling that inspired me to put a double set of breast-hooks in the
+<i>Spray</i>, that she might shunt ice.</p>
+
+<p>The seasons came quickly while I worked. Hardly were the ribs of the
+sloop up before apple-trees were in bloom. Then the daisies and the
+cherries came soon after. Close by the place where the old <i>Spray</i> had
+now dissolved rested the ashes of John Cook, a revered Pilgrim father.
+So the new <i>Spray</i> rose from hallowed ground. From the deck of the new
+craft I could put out my hand and pick cherries that grew over the
+little grave. The planks for the new vessel, which I soon came to put
+on, were of Georgia pine an inch and a half thick. The operation of
+putting them on was tedious, but, when on, the calking was easy. The
+outward edges stood slightly open to receive the calking, but the
+inner edges were so close that I could not see daylight between them.
+All the butts were fastened by through bolts, with screw-nuts
+tightening them to the timbers, so that there would be no complaint
+from them. Many bolts with screw-nuts were used in other parts of the
+construction, in all about a thousand. It was my purpose to make my
+vessel stout and strong.</p>
+
+<p><a name="cross-section" id="cross-section"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 168px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_007_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_007.jpg" width="168" height="214" alt="Cross-section of the Spray." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Cross-section of the Spray.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the <i>Jane</i> repaired all out of the
+old until she is entirely new is still the <i>Jane</i>. The <i>Spray</i> changed
+her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old
+died or the new took birth, and it was no matter. The bulwarks I built
+up of white-oak stanchions fourteen inches high, and covered with
+seven-eighth-inch white pine. These stanchions, mortised through a
+two-inch covering-board, I calked with thin cedar wedges. They have
+remained perfectly tight ever since. The deck I made of
+one-and-a-half-inch by three-inch white pine spiked to beams, six by
+six inches, of yellow or Georgia pine, placed three feet apart. The
+deck-inclosures were one over the aperture of the main hatch, six feet
+by six, for a cooking-galley, and a trunk farther aft, about ten feet
+by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these rose about three feet above the
+deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head-room. In
+the spaces along the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a
+berth to sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not forgetting a
+place for the medicine-chest. In the midship hold, that is, the space
+between cabin and galley, under the deck, was room for provision of
+water, salt beef, etc., ample for many months.</p>
+
+<p>The hull of my vessel being now put together as strongly as wood and
+iron could make her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I set
+about "calking ship." Grave fears were entertained by some that at
+this point I should fail. I myself gave some thought to the
+advisability of a "professional calker." The very first blow I struck
+on the cotton with the calking-iron, which I thought was right, many
+others thought wrong. "It'll crawl!" cried a man from Marion, passing
+with a basket of clams on his back. "It'll crawl!" cried another from
+West Island, when he saw me driving cotton into the seams. Bruno
+simply wagged his tail. Even Mr. Ben J&mdash;&mdash;, a noted authority on
+whaling-ships, whose mind, however, was said to totter, asked rather
+confidently if I did not think "it would crawl." "How fast will it
+crawl?" cried my old captain friend, who had been towed by many a
+lively sperm-whale. "Tell us how fast," cried he, "that we may get
+into port in time."</p>
+
+<p><a name="itll_crawl" id="itll_crawl"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 533px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_009_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_009.jpg" width="533" height="360" alt="&quot;&#39;It&#39;ll crawl&#39;&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;It&#39;ll crawl&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>However, I drove a thread of oakum on top of the cotton, as from the
+first I had intended to do. And Bruno again wagged his tail. The
+cotton never "crawled." When the calking was finished, two coats of
+copper paint were slapped on the bottom, two of white lead on the
+topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then shipped and painted, and on
+the following day the <i>Spray</i> was launched. As she rode at her
+ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray's</i> dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine
+inches long, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet
+two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and
+twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross.</p>
+
+<p>Then the mast, a smart New Hampshire spruce, was fitted, and likewise
+all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise. Sails were
+bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce and me, across
+Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip&mdash;all right. The only thing that now
+worried my friends along the beach was, "Will she pay?" The cost of my
+new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thirteen months of my own
+labor. I was several months more than that at Fairhaven, for I got
+work now and then on an occasional whale-ship fitting farther down the
+harbor, and that kept me the overtime.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<p>Failure as a fisherman&mdash;A voyage around the world projected&mdash;From
+Boston to Gloucester&mdash;Fitting out for the ocean voyage&mdash;Half of a dory
+for a ship's boat&mdash;The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia&mdash;A shaking
+up in home waters&mdash;Among old friends.</p>
+
+<p>I spent a season in my new craft fishing on the coast, only to find
+that I had not the cunning properly to bait a hook. But at last the
+time arrived to weigh anchor and get to sea in earnest. I had resolved
+on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April
+24,1895, was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away
+from Boston, where the <i>Spray</i> had been moored snugly all winter. The
+twelve-o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead
+under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port
+tack, then coming about she stood seaward, with her boom well off to
+port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on
+the outer pier at East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by,
+her flag at the peak throwing its folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat
+high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt that
+there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an
+adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood. I had taken
+little advice from any one, for I had a right to my own opinions in
+matters pertaining to the sea. That the best of sailors might do worse
+than even I alone was borne in upon me not a league from Boston docks,
+where a great steamship, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay
+stranded and broken. This was the <i>Venetian.</i> She was broken
+completely in two over a ledge. So in the first hour of my lone voyage
+I had proof that the <i>Spray</i> could at least do better than this
+full-handed steamship, for I was already farther on my voyage than
+she. "Take warning, <i>Spray,</i> and have a care," I uttered aloud to my
+bark, passing fairylike silently down the bay.</p>
+
+<p>The wind freshened, and the <i>Spray</i> rounded Deer Island light at the
+rate of seven knots.</p>
+
+<p>Passing it, she squared away direct for Gloucester to procure there
+some fishermen's stores. Waves dancing joyously across Massachusetts
+Bay met her coming out of the harbor to dash them into myriads of
+sparkling gems that hung about her at every surge. The day was
+perfect, the sunlight clear and strong. Every particle of water thrown
+into the air became a gem, and the <i>Spray,</i> bounding ahead, snatched
+necklace after necklace from the sea, and as often threw them away. We
+have all seen miniature rainbows about a ship's prow, but the <i>Spray</i>
+flung out a bow of her own that day, such as I had never seen before.
+Her good angel had embarked on the voyage; I so read it in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Bold Nahant was soon abeam, then Marblehead was put astern. Other
+vessels were outward bound, but none of them passed the <i>Spray</i> flying
+along on her course. I heard the clanking of the dismal bell on
+Norman's Woe as we went by; and the reef where the schooner <i>Hesperus</i>
+struck I passed close aboard. The "bones" of a wreck tossed up lay
+bleaching on the shore abreast. The wind still freshening, I settled
+the throat of the mainsail to ease the sloop's helm, for I could
+hardly hold her before it with the whole mainsail set. A schooner
+ahead of me lowered all sail and ran into port under bare poles, the
+wind being fair. As the <i>Spray</i> brushed by the stranger, I saw that
+some of his sails were gone, and much broken canvas hung in his
+rigging, from the effects of a squall.</p>
+
+<p>I made for the cove, a lovely branch of Gloucester's fine harbor,
+again to look the <i>Spray</i> over and again to weigh the voyage, and my
+feelings, and all that. The bay was feather-white as my little vessel
+tore in, smothered in foam. It was my first experience of coming into
+port alone, with a craft of any size, and in among shipping. Old
+fishermen ran down to the wharf for which the <i>Spray</i> was heading,
+apparently intent upon braining herself there. I hardly know how a
+calamity was averted, but with my heart in my mouth, almost, I let go
+the wheel, stepped quickly forward, and downed the jib. The sloop
+naturally rounded in the wind, and just ranging ahead, laid her cheek
+against a mooring-pile at the windward corner of the wharf, so
+quietly, after all, that she would not have broken an egg. Very
+leisurely I passed a rope around the post, and she was moored. Then a
+cheer went up from the little crowd on the wharf. "You couldn't 'a'
+done it better," cried an old skipper, "if you weighed a ton!" Now, my
+weight was rather less than the fifteenth part of a ton, but I said
+nothing, only putting on a look of careless indifference to say for
+me, "Oh, that's nothing"; for some of the ablest sailors in the world
+were looking at me, and my wish was not to appear green, for I had a
+mind to stay in Gloucester several days. Had I uttered a word it
+surely would have betrayed me, for I was still quite nervous and short
+of breath.</p>
+
+<p>I remained in Gloucester about two weeks, fitting out with the various
+articles for the voyage most readily obtained there. The owners of the
+wharf where I lay, and of many fishing-vessels, put on board dry cod
+galore, also a barrel of oil to calm the waves. They were old skippers
+themselves, and took a great interest in the voyage. They also made
+the <i>Spray</i> a present of a "fisherman's own" lantern, which I found
+would throw a light a great distance round. Indeed, a ship that would
+run another down having such a good light aboard would be capable of
+running into a light-ship. A gaff, a pugh, and a dip-net, all of which
+an old fisherman declared I could not sail without, were also put
+aboard. Then, top, from across the cove came a case of copper paint, a
+famous antifouling article, which stood me in good stead long after. I
+slapped two coats of this paint on the bottom of the <i>Spray</i> while she
+lay a tide or so on the hard beach.</p>
+
+<p>For a boat to take along, I made shift to cut a castaway dory in two
+athwartships, boarding up the end where it was cut. This half-dory I
+could hoist in and out by the nose easily enough, by hooking the
+throat-halyards into a strop fitted for the purpose. A whole dory
+would be heavy and awkward to handle alone. Manifestly there was not
+room on deck for more than the half of a boat, which, after all, was
+better than no boat at all, and was large enough for one man. I
+perceived, moreover, that the newly arranged craft would answer for a
+washing-machine when placed athwartships, and also for a bath-tub.
+Indeed, for the former office my razeed dory gained such a reputation
+on the voyage that my washerwoman at Samoa would not take no for an
+answer. She could see with one eye that it was a new invention which
+beat any Yankee notion ever brought by missionaries to the islands,
+and she had to have it.</p>
+
+<p>The want of a chronometer for the voyage was all that now worried me.
+In our newfangled notions of navigation it is supposed that a mariner
+cannot find his way without one; and I had myself drifted into this
+way of thinking. My old chronometer, a good one, had been long in
+disuse. It would cost fifteen dollars to clean and rate it. Fifteen
+dollars! For sufficient reasons I left that timepiece at home, where
+the Dutchman left his anchor. I had the great lantern, and a lady in
+Boston sent me the price of a large two-burner cabin lamp, which
+lighted the cabin at night, and by some small contriving served for a
+stove through the day.</p>
+
+<p>Being thus refitted I was once more ready for sea, and on May 7 again
+made sail. With little room in which to turn, the <i>Spray</i>, in
+gathering headway, scratched the paint off an old, fine-weather craft
+in the fairway, being puttied and painted for a summer voyage. "Who'll
+pay for that?" growled the painters. "I will," said I. "With the
+main-sheet," echoed the captain of the <i>Bluebird</i>, close by, which was
+his way of saying that I was off. There was nothing to pay for above
+five cents' worth of paint, maybe, but such a din was raised between
+the old "hooker" and the <i>Bluebird</i>, which now took up my case, that
+the first cause of it was forgotten altogether. Anyhow, no bill was
+sent after me.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was mild on the day of my departure from Gloucester. On
+the point ahead, as the <i>Spray</i> stood out of the cove, was a lively
+picture, for the front of a tall factory was a flutter of
+handkerchiefs and caps. Pretty faces peered out of the windows from
+the top to the bottom of the building, all smiling <i>bon voyage</i>. Some
+hailed me to know where away and why alone. Why? When I made as if to
+stand in, a hundred pairs of arms reached out, and said come, but the
+shore was dangerous! The sloop worked out of the bay against a light
+southwest wind, and about noon squared away off Eastern Point,
+receiving at the same time a hearty salute&mdash;the last of many
+kindnesses to her at Gloucester. The wind freshened off the point, and
+skipping along smoothly, the <i>Spray</i> was soon off Thatcher's Island
+lights. Thence shaping her course east, by compass, to go north of
+Cashes Ledge and the Amen Rocks, I sat and considered the matter all
+over again, and asked myself once more whether it were best to sail
+beyond the ledge and rocks at all. I had only said that I would sail
+round the world in the <i>Spray</i>, "dangers of the sea excepted," but I
+must have said it very much in earnest. The "charter-party" with
+myself seemed to bind me, and so I sailed on. Toward night I hauled
+the sloop to the wind, and baiting a hook, sounded for bottom-fish, in
+thirty fathoms of water, on the edge of Cashes Ledge. With fair
+success I hauled till dark, landing on deck three cod and two
+haddocks, one hake, and, best of all, a small halibut, all plump and
+spry. This, I thought, would be the place to take in a good stock of
+provisions above what I already had; so I put out a sea-anchor that
+would hold her head to windward. The current being southwest, against
+the wind, I felt quite sure I would find the <i>Spray</i> still on the bank
+or near it in the morning. Then "stradding" the cable and putting my
+great lantern in the rigging, I lay down, for the first time at sea
+alone, not to sleep, but to doze and to dream.</p>
+
+<p>I had read somewhere of a fishing-schooner hooking her anchor into a
+whale, and being towed a long way and at great speed. This was exactly
+what happened to the <i>Spray</i>&mdash;in my dream! I could not shake it off
+entirely when I awoke and found that it was the wind blowing and the
+heavy sea now running that had disturbed my short rest. A scud was
+flying across the moon. A storm was brewing; indeed, it was already
+stormy. I reefed the sails, then hauled in my sea-anchor, and setting
+what canvas the sloop could carry, headed her away for Monhegan light,
+which she made before daylight on the morning of the 8th. The wind
+being free, I ran on into Round Pond harbor, which is a little port
+east from Pemaquid. Here I rested a day, while the wind rattled among
+the pine-trees on shore. But the following day was fine enough, and I
+put to sea, first writing up my log from Cape Ann, not omitting a full
+account of my adventure with the whale.</p>
+
+<p><a name="no_dorg" id="no_dorg"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_018_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_018.jpg" width="258" height="430" alt="&quot;&#39;No dorg nor no cat.&#39;&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;No dorg nor no cat.&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i>, heading east, stretched along the coast among many
+islands and over a tranquil sea. At evening of this day, May 10, she
+came up with a considerable island, which I shall always think of as
+the Island of Frogs, for the <i>Spray</i> was charmed by a million voices.
+From the Island of Frogs we made for the Island of Birds, called
+Gannet Island, and sometimes Gannet Rock, whereon is a bright,
+intermittent light, which flashed fitfully across the <i>Spray's</i> deck
+as she coasted along under its light and shade. Thence shaping a
+course for Briar's Island, I came among vessels the following
+afternoon on the western fishing-grounds, and after speaking a
+fisherman at anchor, who gave me a wrong course, the <i>Spray</i> sailed
+directly over the southwest ledge through the worst tide-race in the
+Bay of Fundy, and got into Westport harbor in Nova Scotia, where I had
+spent eight years of my life as a lad.</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman may have said "east-southeast," the course I was
+steering when I hailed him; but I thought he said "east-northeast,"
+and I accordingly changed it to that. Before he made up his mind to
+answer me at all, he improved the occasion of his own curiosity to
+know where I was from, and if I was alone, and if I didn't have "no
+dorg nor no cat." It was the first time in all my life at sea that I
+had heard a hail for information answered by a question. I think the
+chap belonged to the Foreign Islands. There was one thing I was sure
+of, and that was that he did not belong to Briar's Island, because he
+dodged a sea that slopped over the rail, and stopping to brush the
+water from his face, lost a fine cod which he was about to ship. My
+islander would not have done that. It is known that a Briar Islander,
+fish or no fish on his hook, never flinches from a sea. He just tends
+to his lines and hauls or "saws." Nay, have I not seen my old friend
+Deacon W. D&mdash;-, a good man of the island, while listening to a sermon
+in the little church on the hill, reach out his hand over the door of
+his pew and "jig" imaginary squid in the aisle, to the intense delight
+of the young people, who did not realize that to catch good fish one
+must have good bait, the thing most on the deacon's mind.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_deacon" id="the_deacon"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 264px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_020_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_020.jpg" width="264" height="249" alt="The deacon&#39;s dream." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The deacon&#39;s dream.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I was delighted to reach Westport. Any port at all would have been
+delightful after the terrible thrashing I got in the fierce sou'west
+rip, and to find myself among old schoolmates now was charming. It was
+the 13th of the month, and 13 is my lucky number&mdash;a fact registered
+long before Dr. Nansen sailed in search of the north pole with his
+crew of thirteen. Perhaps he had heard of my success in taking a most
+extraordinary ship successfully to Brazil with that number of crew.
+The very stones on Briar's Island I was glad to see again, and I knew
+them all. The little shop round the corner, which for thirty-five
+years I had not seen, was the same, except that it looked a deal
+smaller. It wore the same shingles&mdash;I was sure of it; for did not I
+know the roof where we boys, night after night, hunted for the skin of
+a black cat, to be taken on a dark night, to make a plaster for a poor
+lame man? Lowry the tailor lived there when boys were boys. In his day
+he was fond of the gun. He always carried his powder loose in the tail
+pocket of his coat. He usually had in his mouth a short dudeen; but in
+an evil moment he put the dudeen, lighted, in the pocket among the
+powder. Mr. Lowry was an eccentric man.</p>
+
+<p>At Briar's Island I overhauled the <i>Spray</i> once more and tried her
+seams, but found that even the test of the sou'west rip had started
+nothing. Bad weather and much head wind prevailing outside, I was in
+no hurry to round Cape Sable. I made a short excursion with some
+friends to St. Mary's Bay, an old cruising-ground, and back to the
+island. Then I sailed, putting into Yarmouth the following day on
+account of fog and head wind. I spent some days pleasantly enough in
+Yarmouth, took in some butter for the voyage, also a barrel of
+potatoes, filled six barrels of water, and stowed all under deck. At
+Yarmouth, too, I got my famous tin clock, the only timepiece I carried
+on the whole voyage. The price of it was a dollar and a half, but on
+account of the face being smashed the merchant let me have it for a
+dollar.</p>
+
+<p><a name="captain_slocum_chronometer" id="captain_slocum_chronometer"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 257px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_022_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_022.jpg" width="257" height="180" alt="Captain Slocum&#39;s chronometer." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Captain Slocum&#39;s chronometer.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<p>Good-by to the American coast&mdash;Off Sable Island in a fog&mdash;In the open
+sea&mdash;The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage&mdash;The first
+fit of loneliness&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> encounters <i>La Vaguisa</i>&mdash;A bottle of
+wine from the Spaniard&mdash;A bout of words with the captain of the
+<i>Java</i>&mdash;The steamship <i>Olympia</i> spoken&mdash;Arrival at the Azores.</p>
+
+<p>I now stowed all my goods securely, for the boisterous Atlantic was
+before me, and I sent the topmast down, knowing that the <i>Spray</i> would
+be the wholesomer with it on deck. Then I gave the lanyards a pull and
+hitched them afresh, and saw that the gammon was secure, also that the
+boat was lashed, for even in summer one may meet with bad weather in
+the crossing.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, many weeks of bad weather had prevailed. On July 1, however,
+after a rude gale, the wind came out nor'west and clear, propitious
+for a good run. On the following day, the head sea having gone down, I
+sailed from Yarmouth, and let go my last hold on America. The log of
+my first day on the Atlantic in the <i>Spray</i> reads briefly: "9:30 A.M.
+sailed from Yarmouth. 4:30 P.M. passed Cape Sable; distance, three
+cables from the land. The sloop making eight knots. Fresh breeze N.W."
+Before the sun went down I was taking my supper of strawberries and
+tea in smooth water under the lee of the east-coast land, along which
+the <i>Spray</i> was now leisurely skirting.</p>
+
+<p>At noon on July 3 Ironbound Island was abeam. The <i>Spray</i> was again at
+her best. A large schooner came out of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, this
+morning, steering eastward. The <i>Spray</i> put her hull down astern in
+five hours. At 6:45 P.M. I was in close under Chebucto Head light,
+near Halifax harbor. I set my flag and squared away, taking my
+departure from George's Island before dark to sail east of Sable
+Island. There are many beacon lights along the coast. Sambro, the Rock
+of Lamentations, carries a noble light, which, however, the liner
+<i>Atlantic</i>, on the night of her terrible disaster, did not see. I
+watched light after light sink astern as I sailed into the unbounded
+sea, till Sambro, the last of them all, was below the horizon. The
+<i>Spray</i> was then alone, and sailing on, she held her course. July 4,
+at 6 A.M., I put in double reefs, and at 8:30 A.M. turned out all
+reefs. At 9:40 P.M. I raised the sheen only of the light on the west
+end of Sable Island, which may also be called the Island of Tragedies.
+The fog, which till this moment had held off, now lowered over the sea
+like a pall. I was in a world of fog, shut off from the universe. I
+did not see any more of the light. By the lead, which I cast often, I
+found that a little after midnight I was passing the east point of the
+island, and should soon be clear of dangers of land and shoals. The
+wind was holding free, though it was from the foggy point,
+south-southwest. It is said that within a few years Sable Island has
+been reduced from forty miles in length to twenty, and that of three
+lighthouses built on it since 1880, two have been washed away and the
+third will soon be engulfed.</p>
+
+<p><a name="good" id="good"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_025_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_025.jpg" width="258" height="395" alt="&quot;&#39;Good evening, sir.&#39;&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;Good evening, sir.&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the evening of July 5 the <i>Spray</i>, after having steered all day
+over a lumpy sea, took it into her head to go without the helmsman's
+aid. I had been steering southeast by south, but the wind hauling
+forward a bit, she dropped into a smooth lane, heading southeast, and
+making about eight knots, her very best work. I crowded on sail to
+cross the track of the liners without loss of time, and to reach as
+soon as possible the friendly Gulf Stream. The fog lifting before
+night, I was afforded a look at the sun just as it was touching the
+sea. I watched it go down and out of sight. Then I turned my face
+eastward, and there, apparently at the very end of the bowsprit, was
+the smiling full moon rising out of the sea. Neptune himself coming
+over the bows could not have startled me more. "Good evening, sir," I
+cried; "I'm glad to see you." Many a long talk since then I have had
+with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>About midnight the fog shut down again denser than ever before. One
+could almost "stand on it." It continued so for a number of days, the
+wind increasing to a gale. The waves rose high, but I had a good ship.
+Still, in the dismal fog I felt myself drifting into loneliness, an
+insect on a straw in the midst of the elements. I lashed the helm, and
+my vessel held her course, and while she sailed I slept.</p>
+
+<p>During these days a feeling of awe crept over me. My memory worked
+with startling power. The ominous, the insignificant, the great, the
+small, the wonderful, the commonplace&mdash;all appeared before my mental
+vision in magical succession. Pages of my history were recalled which
+had been so long forgotten that they seemed to belong to a previous
+existence. I heard all the voices of the past laughing, crying,
+telling what I had heard them tell in many corners of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>The loneliness of my state wore off when the gale was high and I found
+much work to do. When fine weather returned, then came the sense of
+solitude, which I could not shake off. I used my voice often, at first
+giving some order about the affairs of a ship, for I had been told
+that from disuse I should lose my speech. At the meridian altitude of
+the sun I called aloud, "Eight bells," after the custom on a ship at
+sea. Again from my cabin I cried to an imaginary man at the helm, "How
+does she head, there?" and again, "Is she on her course?" But getting
+no reply, I was reminded the more palpably of my condition. My voice
+sounded hollow on the empty air, and I dropped the practice. However,
+it was not long before the thought came to me that when I was a lad I
+used to sing; why not try that now, where it would disturb no one? My
+musical talent had never bred envy in others, but out on the Atlantic,
+to realize what it meant, you should have heard me sing. You should
+have seen the porpoises leap when I pitched my voice for the waves and
+the sea and all that was in it. Old turtles, with large eyes, poked
+their heads up out of the sea as I sang "Johnny Boker," and "We'll Pay
+Darby Doyl for his Boots," and the like. But the porpoises were, on
+the whole, vastly more appreciative than the turtles; they jumped a
+deal higher. One day when I was humming a favorite chant, I think it
+was "Babylon's a-Fallin'," a porpoise jumped higher than the bowsprit.
+Had the <i>Spray</i> been going a little faster she would have scooped
+him in. The sea-birds sailed around rather shy.</p>
+
+<p>July 10, eight days at sea, the <i>Spray</i> was twelve hundred miles east
+of Cape Sable. One hundred and fifty miles a day for so small a vessel
+must be considered good sailing. It was the greatest run the <i>Spray</i>
+ever made before or since in so few days. On the evening of July 14,
+in better humor than ever before, all hands cried, "Sail ho!" The sail
+was a barkantine, three points on the weather bow, hull down. Then
+came the night. My ship was sailing along now without attention to the
+helm. The wind was south; she was heading east. Her sails were trimmed
+like the sails of the nautilus. They drew steadily all night. I went
+frequently on deck, but found all well. A merry breeze kept on from
+the south. Early in the morning of the 15th the <i>Spray</i> was close
+aboard the stranger, which proved to be <i>La Vaguisa</i> of Vigo,
+twenty-three days from Philadelphia, bound for Vigo. A lookout from
+his masthead had spied the <i>Spray</i> the evening before. The captain,
+when I came near enough, threw a line to me and sent a bottle of wine
+across slung by the neck, and very good wine it was. He also sent his
+card, which bore the name of Juan Gantes. I think he was a good man,
+as Spaniards go. But when I asked him to report me "all well" (the
+<i>Spray</i> passing him in a lively manner), he hauled his shoulders much
+above his head; and when his mate, who knew of my expedition, told him
+that I was alone, he crossed himself and made for his cabin. I did not
+see him again. By sundown he was as far astern as he had been ahead
+the evening before.</p>
+
+<p><a name="he_also" id="he_also"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 279px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_028_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_028.jpg" width="279" height="250" alt="&quot;He also sent his card.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;He also sent his card.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was now less and less monotony. On July 16 the wind was
+northwest and clear, the sea smooth, and a large bark, hull down, came
+in sight on the lee bow, and at 2:30 P.M. I spoke the stranger. She
+was the bark <i>Java</i> of Glasgow, from Peru for Queenstown for orders.
+Her old captain was bearish, but I met a bear once in Alaska that
+looked pleasanter. At least, the bear seemed pleased to meet me, but
+this grizzly old man! Well, I suppose my hail disturbed his siesta,
+and my little sloop passing his great ship had somewhat the effect on
+him that a red rag has upon a bull. I had the advantage over heavy
+ships, by long odds, in the light winds of this and the two previous
+days. The wind was light; his ship was heavy and foul, making poor
+headway, while the <i>Spray</i>, with a great mainsail bellying even to
+light winds, was just skipping along as nimbly as one could wish. "How
+long has it been calm about here?" roared the captain of the <i>Java</i>,
+as I came within hail of him. "Dunno, cap'n," I shouted back as loud
+as I could bawl. "I haven't been here long." At this the mate on the
+forecastle wore a broad grin. "I left Cape Sable fourteen days ago," I
+added. (I was now well across toward the Azores.) "Mate," he roared to
+his chief officer&mdash;"mate, come here and listen to the Yankee's yarn.
+Haul down the flag, mate, haul down the flag!" In the best of humor,
+after all, the <i>Java</i> surrendered to the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p><a name="chart_of_7-3" id="chart_of_7-3"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 504px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_030_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_030.jpg" width="504" height="260" alt="Chart of the Spray&#39;s course around the world&mdash;April
+24, 1895, to July 3, 1898" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Chart of the Spray&#39;s course around the world&mdash;April
+24, 1895, to July 3, 1898</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The acute pain of solitude experienced at first never returned. I had
+penetrated a mystery, and, by the way, I had sailed through a fog. I
+had met Neptune in his wrath, but he found that I had not treated him
+with contempt, and so he suffered me to go on and explore.</p>
+
+<p>In the log for July 18 there is this entry: "Fine weather, wind
+south-southwest. Porpoises gamboling all about. The S.S. <i>Olympia</i>
+passed at 11:30 A.M., long. W. 34 degrees 50'."</p>
+
+<p>"It lacks now three minutes of the half-hour," shouted the captain, as
+he gave me the longitude and the time. I admired the businesslike air
+of the <i>Olympia</i>; but I have the feeling still that the captain was
+just a little too precise in his reckoning. That may be all well
+enough, however, where there is plenty of sea-room. But
+over-confidence, I believe, was the cause of the disaster to the liner
+<i>Atlantic</i>, and many more like her. The captain knew too well where he
+was. There were no porpoises at all skipping along with the <i>Olympia</i>!
+Porpoises always prefer sailing-ships. The captain was a young man, I
+observed, and had before him, I hope, a good record.</p>
+
+<p>Land ho! On the morning of July 19 a mystic dome like a mountain of
+silver stood alone in the sea ahead. Although the land was completely
+hidden by the white, glistening haze that shone in the sun like
+polished silver, I felt quite sure that it was Flores Island. At
+half-past four P.M. it was abeam. The haze in the meantime had
+disappeared. Flores is one hundred and seventy-four miles from Fayal,
+and although it is a high island, it remained many years undiscovered
+after the principal group of the islands had been colonized.</p>
+
+<p>Early on the morning of July 20 I saw Pico looming above the clouds on
+the starboard bow. Lower lands burst forth as the sun burned away the
+morning fog, and island after island came into view. As I approached
+nearer, cultivated fields appeared, "and oh, how green the corn!" Only
+those who have seen the Azores from the deck of a vessel realize the
+beauty of the mid-ocean picture.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_island" id="the_island"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_032_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_032.jpg" width="356" height="82" alt="The island of Pico." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The island of Pico.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>At 4:30 P.M. I cast anchor at Fayal, exactly eighteen days from Cape
+Sable. The American consul, in a smart boat, came alongside before the
+<i>Spray</i> reached the breakwater, and a young naval officer, who feared
+for the safety of my vessel, boarded, and offered his services as
+pilot. The youngster, I have no good reason to doubt, could have
+handled a man-of-war, but the <i>Spray</i> was too small for the amount of
+uniform he wore. However, after fouling all the craft in port and
+sinking a lighter, she was moored without much damage to herself. This
+wonderful pilot expected a "gratification," I understood, but whether
+for the reason that his government, and not I, would have to pay the
+cost of raising the lighter, or because he did not sink the <i>Spray</i>, I
+could never make out. But I forgive him.</p>
+
+<p>It was the season for fruit when I arrived at the Azores, and there
+was soon more of all kinds of it put on board than I knew what to do
+with. Islanders are always the kindest people in the world, and I met
+none anywhere kinder than the good hearts of this place. The people of
+the Azores are not a very rich community. The burden of taxes is
+heavy, with scant privileges in return, the air they breathe being
+about the only thing that is not taxed. The mother-country does not
+even allow them a port of entry for a foreign mail service. A packet
+passing never so close with mails for Horta must deliver them first in
+Lisbon, ostensibly to be fumigated, but really for the tariff from the
+packet. My own letters posted at Horta reached the United States six
+days behind my letter from Gibraltar, mailed thirteen days later.</p>
+
+<p>The day after my arrival at Horta was the feast of a great saint.
+Boats loaded with people came from other islands to celebrate at
+Horta, the capital, or Jerusalem, of the Azores. The deck of the
+<i>Spray</i> was crowded from morning till night with men, women, and
+children. On the day after the feast a kind-hearted native harnessed a
+team and drove me a day over the beautiful roads all about Fayal,
+"because," said he, in broken English, "when I was in America and
+couldn't speak a word of English, I found it hard till I met some one
+who seemed to have time to listen to my story, and I promised my good
+saint then that if ever a stranger came to my country I would try to
+make him happy." Unfortunately, this gentleman brought along an
+interpreter, that I might "learn more of the country." The fellow was
+nearly the death of me, talking of ships and voyages, and of the boats
+he had steered, the last thing in the world I wished to hear. He had
+sailed out of New Bedford, so he said, for "that Joe Wing they call
+'John.'" My friend and host found hardly a chance to edge in a word.
+Before we parted my host dined me with a cheer that would have
+gladdened the heart of a prince, but he was quite alone in his house.
+"My wife and children all rest there," said he, pointing to the
+churchyard across the way. "I moved to this house from far off," he
+added, "to be near the spot, where I pray every morning."</p>
+
+<p>I remained four days at Fayal, and that was two days more than I had
+intended to stay. It was the kindness of the islanders and their
+touching simplicity which detained me. A damsel, as innocent as an
+angel, came alongside one day, and said she would embark on the
+<i>Spray</i> if I would land her at Lisbon. She could cook flying-fish, she
+thought, but her forte was dressing <i>bacalhao</i>. Her brother Antonio,
+who served as interpreter, hinted that, anyhow, he would like to make
+the trip. Antonio's heart went out to one John Wilson, and he was
+ready to sail for America by way of the two capes to meet his friend.
+"Do you know John Wilson of Boston?" he cried. "I knew a John Wilson,"
+I said, "but not of Boston." "He had one daughter and one son," said
+Antonio, by way of identifying his friend. If this reaches the right
+John Wilson, I am told to say that "Antonio of Pico remembers him."</p>
+
+<p><a name="chart_of_gibraltar" id="chart_of_gibraltar"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 361px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_035_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_035.jpg" width="361" height="456" alt="Chart of the Spray&#39;s Atlantic voyages from Boston to
+Gibraltar, thence to the Strait of Magellan, in 1895, and finally
+homeward bound from the Cape of Good Hope in 1898." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Chart of the Spray&#39;s Atlantic voyages from Boston to
+Gibraltar, thence to the Strait of Magellan, in 1895, and finally
+homeward bound from the Cape of Good Hope in 1898.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+
+<p>Squally weather in the Azores&mdash;High living&mdash;Delirious from cheese and
+plums&mdash;The pilot of the <i>Pinta</i>&mdash;At Gibraltar&mdash;Compliments exchanged
+with the British navy&mdash;A picnic on the Morocco shore.</p>
+
+<p>I set sail from Horta early on July 24. The southwest wind at the time
+was light, but squalls came up with the sun, and I was glad enough to
+get reefs in my sails before I had gone a mile. I had hardly set the
+mainsail, double-reefed, when a squall of wind down the mountains
+struck the sloop with such violence that I thought her mast would go.
+However, a quick helm brought her to the wind. As it was, one of the
+weather lanyards was carried away and the other was stranded. My tin
+basin, caught up by the wind, went flying across a French school-ship
+to leeward. It was more or less squally all day, sailing along under
+high land; but rounding close under a bluff, I found an opportunity to
+mend the lanyards broken in the squall. No sooner had I lowered my
+sails when a four-oared boat shot out from some gully in the rocks,
+with a customs officer on board, who thought he had come upon a
+smuggler. I had some difficulty in making him comprehend the true
+case. However, one of his crew, a sailorly chap, who understood how
+matters were, while we palavered jumped on board and rove off the new
+lanyards I had already prepared, and with a friendly hand helped me
+"set up the rigging." This incident gave the turn in my favor. My
+story was then clear to all. I have found this the way of the world.
+Let one be without a friend, and see what will happen!</p>
+
+<p>Passing the island of Pico, after the rigging was mended, the <i>Spray</i>
+stretched across to leeward of the island of St. Michael's, which she
+was up with early on the morning of July 26, the wind blowing hard.
+Later in the day she passed the Prince of Monaco's fine steam-yacht
+bound to Fayal, where, on a previous voyage, the prince had slipped
+his cables to "escape a reception" which the padres of the island
+wished to give him. Why he so dreaded the "ovation" I could not make
+out. At Horta they did not know. Since reaching the islands I had
+lived most luxuriously on fresh bread, butter, vegetables, and fruits
+of all kinds. Plums seemed the most plentiful on the <i>Spray</i>, and
+these I ate without stint. I had also a Pico white cheese that General
+Manning, the American consul-general, had given me, which I supposed
+was to be eaten, and of this I partook with the plums. Alas! by
+night-time I was doubled up with cramps. The wind, which was already a
+smart breeze, was increasing somewhat, with a heavy sky to the
+sou'west. Reefs had been turned out, and I must turn them in again
+somehow. Between cramps I got the mainsail down, hauled out the
+earings as best I could, and tied away point by point, in the double
+reef. There being sea-room, I should, in strict prudence, have made
+all snug and gone down at once to my cabin. I am a careful man at sea,
+but this night, in the coming storm, I swayed up my sails, which,
+reefed though they were, were still too much in such heavy weather;
+and I saw to it that the sheets were securely belayed. In a word, I
+should have laid to, but did not. I gave her the double-reefed
+mainsail and whole jib instead, and set her on her course. Then I went
+below, and threw myself upon the cabin floor in great pain. How long I
+lay there I could not tell, for I became delirious. When I came to, as
+I thought, from my swoon, I realized that the sloop was plunging into
+a heavy sea, and looking out of the companionway, to my amazement I
+saw a tall man at the helm. His rigid hand, grasping the spokes of the
+wheel, held them as in a vise. One may imagine my astonishment. His
+rig was that of a foreign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was
+cockbilled over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy black
+whiskers. He would have been taken for a pirate in any part of the
+world. While I gazed upon his threatening aspect I forgot the storm,
+and wondered if he had come to cut my throat. This he seemed to
+divine. "Senor," said he, doffing his cap, "I have come to do you no
+harm." And a smile, the faintest in the world, but still a smile,
+played on his face, which seemed not unkind when he spoke. "I have
+come to do you no harm. I have sailed free," he said, "but was never
+worse than a <i>contrabandista</i>. I am one of Columbus's crew," he
+continued. "I am the pilot of the Pinta come to aid you. Lie quiet,
+senor captain," he added, "and I will guide your ship to-night. You
+have a <i>calentura</i>, but you will be all right tomorrow." I thought
+what a very devil he was to carry sail. Again, as if he read my mind,
+he exclaimed: "Yonder is the <i>Pinta</i> ahead; we must overtake her. Give
+her sail; give her sail! <i>Vale, vale, muy vale!</i>" Biting off a large
+quid of black twist, he said: "You did wrong, captain, to mix cheese
+with plums. White cheese is never safe unless you know whence it
+comes. <i>Quien sabe</i>, it may have been from <i>leche de Capra</i> and
+becoming capricious&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_apparition" id="the_apparition"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_040_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_040.jpg" width="259" height="425" alt="The apparition at the wheel." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The apparition at the wheel.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Avast, there!" I cried. "I have no mind for moralizing."</p>
+
+<p>I made shift to spread a mattress and lie on that instead of the hard
+floor, my eyes all the while fastened on my strange guest, who,
+remarking again that I would have "only pains and calentura," chuckled
+as he chanted a wild song:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">High are the waves, fierce, gleaming,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">High is the tempest roar!</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">High the sea-bird screaming!</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">High the Azore!</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>I suppose I was now on the mend, for I was peevish, and complained: "I
+detest your jingle. Your Azore should be at roost, and would have been
+were it a respectable bird!" I begged he would tie a rope-yarn on the
+rest of the song, if there was any more of it. I was still in agony.
+Great seas were boarding the <i>Spray</i>, but in my fevered brain I
+thought they were boats falling on deck, that careless draymen were
+throwing from wagons on the pier to which I imagined the <i>Spray</i> was
+now moored, and without fenders to breast her off. "You'll smash your
+boats!" I called out again and again, as the seas crashed on the cabin
+over my head. "You'll smash your boats, but you can't hurt the
+<i>Spray</i>. She is strong!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>I found, when my pains and calentura had gone, that the deck, now as
+white as a shark's tooth from seas washing over it, had been swept of
+everything movable. To my astonishment, I saw now at broad day that
+the <i>Spray</i> was still heading as I had left her, and was going like a
+racehorse. Columbus himself could not have held her more exactly on
+her course. The sloop had made ninety miles in the night through a
+rough sea. I felt grateful to the old pilot, but I marveled some that
+he had not taken in the jib. The gale was moderating, and by noon the
+sun was shining. A meridian altitude and the distance on the patent
+log, which I always kept towing, told me that she had made a true
+course throughout the twenty-four hours. I was getting much better
+now, but was very weak, and did not turn out reefs that day or the
+night following, although the wind fell light; but I just put my wet
+clothes out in the sun when it was shining, and lying down there
+myself, fell asleep. Then who should visit me again but my old friend
+of the night before, this time, of course, in a dream. "You did well
+last night to take my advice," said he, "and if you would, I should
+like to be with you often on the voyage, for the love of adventure
+alone." Finishing what he had to say, he again doffed his cap and
+disappeared as mysteriously as he came, returning, I suppose, to the
+phantom <i>Pinta</i>. I awoke much refreshed, and with the feeling that I
+had been in the presence of a friend and a seaman of vast experience.
+I gathered up my clothes, which by this time were dry, then, by
+inspiration, I threw overboard all the plums in the vessel.</p>
+
+<p>July 28 was exceptionally fine. The wind from the northwest was light
+and the air balmy. I overhauled my wardrobe, and bent on a white shirt
+against nearing some coasting-packet with genteel folk on board. I
+also did some washing to get the salt out of my clothes. After it all
+I was hungry, so I made a fire and very cautiously stewed a dish of
+pears and set them carefully aside till I had made a pot of delicious
+coffee, for both of which I could afford sugar and cream. But the
+crowning dish of all was a fish-hash, and there was enough of it for
+two. I was in good health again, and my appetite was simply ravenous.
+While I was dining I had a large onion over the double lamp stewing
+for a luncheon later in the day. High living to-day!</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon the <i>Spray</i> came upon a large turtle asleep on the
+sea. He awoke with my harpoon through his neck, if he awoke at all. I
+had much difficulty in landing him on deck, which I finally
+accomplished by hooking the throat-halyards to one of his flippers,
+for he was about as heavy as my boat. I saw more turtles, and I rigged
+a burton ready with which to hoist them in; for I was obliged to lower
+the mainsail whenever the halyards were used for such purposes, and it
+was no small matter to hoist the large sail again. But the
+turtle-steak was good. I found no fault with the cook, and it was the
+rule of the voyage that the cook found no fault with me. There was
+never a ship's crew so well agreed. The bill of fare that evening was
+turtle-steak, tea and toast, fried potatoes, stewed onions; with
+dessert of stewed pears and cream.</p>
+
+<p>Sometime in the afternoon I passed a barrel-buoy adrift, floating
+light on the water. It was painted red, and rigged with a signal-staff
+about six feet high. A sudden change in the weather coming on, I got
+no more turtle or fish of any sort before reaching port. July 31 a
+gale sprang up suddenly from the north, with heavy seas, and I
+shortened sail. The <i>Spray</i> made only fifty-one miles on her course
+that day. August 1 the gale continued, with heavy seas. Through the
+night the sloop was reaching, under close-reefed mainsail and bobbed
+jib. At 3 P.M. the jib was washed off the bowsprit and blown to rags
+and ribbons. I bent the "jumbo" on a stay at the night-heads. As for
+the jib, let it go; I saved pieces of it, and, after all, I was in
+want of pot-rags.</p>
+
+<p>On August 3 the gale broke, and I saw many signs of land. Bad weather
+having made itself felt in the galley, I was minded to try my hand at
+a loaf of bread, and so rigging a pot of fire on deck by which to bake
+it, a loaf soon became an accomplished fact. One great feature about
+ship's cooking is that one's appetite on the sea is always good&mdash;a
+fact that I realized when I cooked for the crew of fishermen in the
+before-mentioned boyhood days. Dinner being over, I sat for hours
+reading the life of Columbus, and as the day wore on I watched the
+birds all flying in one direction, and said, "Land lies there."</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning, August 4, I discovered Spain. I saw fires on
+shore, and knew that the country was inhabited. The <i>Spray</i> continued
+on her course till well in with the land, which was that about
+Trafalgar. Then keeping away a point, she passed through the Strait of
+Gibraltar, where she cast anchor at 3 P. M. of the same day, less than
+twenty-nine days from Cape Sable. At the finish of this preliminary
+trip I found myself in excellent health, not overworked or cramped,
+but as well as ever in my life, though I was as thin as a reef-point.</p>
+
+<p><a name="coming_to" id="coming_to"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 364px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_045_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_045.jpg" width="364" height="266" alt="Coming to anchor at Gibraltar." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Coming to anchor at Gibraltar.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Two Italian barks, which had been close alongside at daylight, I saw
+long after I had anchored, passing up the African side of the strait.
+The <i>Spray</i> had sailed them both hull down before she reached Tarifa.
+So far as I know, the <i>Spray</i> beat everything going across the
+Atlantic except the steamers.</p>
+
+<p>All was well, but I had forgotten to bring a bill of health from
+Horta, and so when the fierce old port doctor came to inspect there
+was a row. That, however, was the very thing needed. If you want to
+get on well with a true Britisher you must first have a deuce of a row
+with him. I knew that well enough, and so I fired away, shot for shot,
+as best I could. "Well, yes," the doctor admitted at last, "your crew
+are healthy enough, no doubt, but who knows the diseases of your last
+port?"&mdash;a reasonable enough remark. "We ought to put you in the fort,
+sir!" he blustered; "but never mind. Free pratique, sir! Shove off,
+cockswain!" And that was the last I saw of the port doctor.</p>
+
+<p>But on the following morning a steam-launch, much longer than the
+<i>Spray</i>, came alongside,&mdash;or as much of her as could get
+alongside,&mdash;with compliments from the senior naval officer, Admiral
+Bruce, saying there was a berth for the <i>Spray</i> at the arsenal. This
+was around at the new mole. I had anchored at the old mole, among the
+native craft, where it was rough and uncomfortable. Of course I was
+glad to shift, and did so as soon as possible, thinking of the great
+company the <i>Spray</i> would be in among battle-ships such as the
+<i>Collingwood</i>, <i>Balfleur</i>, and <i>Cormorant</i>, which were at that time
+stationed there, and on board all of which I was entertained, later,
+most royally.</p>
+
+<p>"'Put it thar!' as the Americans say," was the salute I got from
+Admiral Bruce, when I called at the admiralty to thank him for his
+courtesy of the berth, and for the use of the steam-launch which towed
+me into dock. "About the berth, it is all right if it suits, and we'll
+tow you out when you are ready to go. But, say, what repairs do you
+want? Ahoy the <i>Hebe</i>, can you spare your sailmaker? The <i>Spray</i> wants
+a new jib. Construction and repair, there! will you see to the
+<i>Spray</i>? Say, old man, you must have knocked the devil out of her
+coming over alone in twenty-nine days! But we'll make it smooth for
+you here!" Not even her Majesty's ship the <i>Collingwood</i> was better
+looked after than the <i>Spray</i> at Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p><a name="thesprayanchor" id="thesprayanchor"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_047_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_047.jpg" width="356" height="285" alt="The Spray at anchor off Gibraltar." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray at anchor off Gibraltar.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Later in the day came the hail: "<i>Spray</i> ahoy! Mrs. Bruce would like
+to come on board and shake hands with the <i>Spray</i>. Will it be
+convenient to-day!" "Very!" I joyfully shouted.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day Sir F. Carrington, at the time governor of
+Gibraltar, with other high officers of the garrison, and all the
+commanders of the battle-ships, came on board and signed their names
+in the <i>Spray's</i> log-book. Again there was a hail, "<i>Spray</i> ahoy!"
+"Hello!" "Commander Reynolds's compliments. You are invited on board
+H.M.S. <i>Collingwood</i>, 'at home' at 4:30 P.M. Not later than 5:30 P.M."
+I had already hinted at the limited amount of my wardrobe, and that I
+could never succeed as a dude. "You are expected, sir, in a stovepipe
+hat and a claw-hammer coat!" "Then I can't come." "Dash it! come in
+what you have on; that is what we mean." "Aye, aye, sir!" The
+<i>Collingwood's</i> cheer was good, and had I worn a silk hat as high as
+the moon I could not have had a better time or been made more at home.
+An Englishman, even on his great battle-ship, unbends when the
+stranger passes his gangway, and when he says "at home" he means it.</p>
+
+<p>That one should like Gibraltar would go without saying. How could one
+help loving so hospitable a place? Vegetables twice a week and milk
+every morning came from the palatial grounds of the admiralty.
+"<i>Spray</i> ahoy!" would hail the admiral. "<i>Spray</i> ahoy!" "Hello!"
+"To-morrow is your vegetable day, sir." "Aye, aye, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>I rambled much about the old city, and a gunner piloted me through the
+galleries of the rock as far as a stranger is permitted to go. There
+is no excavation in the world, for military purposes, at all
+approaching these of Gibraltar in conception or execution. Viewing the
+stupendous works, it became hard to realize that one was within the
+Gibraltar of his little old Morse geography.</p>
+
+<p>Before sailing I was invited on a picnic with the governor, the
+officers of the garrison, and the commanders of the war-ships at the
+station; and a royal affair it was. Torpedo-boat No. 91, going
+twenty-two knots, carried our party to the Morocco shore and back. The
+day was perfect&mdash;too fine, in fact, for comfort on shore, and so no
+one landed at Morocco. No. 91 trembled like an aspen-leaf as she raced
+through the sea at top speed. Sublieutenant Boucher, apparently a mere
+lad, was in command, and handled his ship with the skill of an older
+sailor. On the following day I lunched with General Carrington, the
+governor, at Line Wall House, which was once the Franciscan convent.
+In this interesting edifice are preserved relics of the fourteen
+sieges which Gibraltar has seen. On the next day I supped with the
+admiral at his residence, the palace, which was once the convent of
+the Mercenaries. At each place, and all about, I felt the friendly
+grasp of a manly hand, that lent me vital strength to pass the coming
+long days at sea. I must confess that the perfect discipline, order,
+and cheerfulness at Gibraltar were only a second wonder in the great
+stronghold. The vast amount of business going forward caused no more
+excitement than the quiet sailing of a well-appointed ship in a smooth
+sea. No one spoke above his natural voice, save a boatswain's mate now
+and then. The Hon. Horatio J. Sprague, the venerable United States
+consul at Gibraltar, honored the <i>Spray</i> with a visit on Sunday,
+August 24, and was much pleased to find that our British cousins had
+been so kind to her.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h3>
+
+<p>Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug&mdash;The
+<i>Spray's</i> course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn&mdash;Chased by a
+Moorish pirate&mdash;A comparison with Columbus&mdash;The Canary Islands-The
+Cape Verde Islands&mdash;Sea life&mdash;Arrival at Pernambuco&mdash;A bill against
+the Brazilian government&mdash;Preparing for the stormy weather of the
+cape.</p>
+
+<p>Monday, August 25, the <i>Spray</i> sailed from Gibraltar, well repaid for
+whatever deviation she had made from a direct course to reach the
+place. A tug belonging to her Majesty towed the sloop into the steady
+breeze clear of the mount, where her sails caught a volant wind, which
+carried her once more to the Atlantic, where it rose rapidly to a
+furious gale. My plan was, in going down this coast, to haul offshore,
+well clear of the land, which hereabouts is the home of pirates; but I
+had hardly accomplished this when I perceived a felucca making out of
+the nearest port, and finally following in the wake of the <i>Spray</i>.
+Now, my course to Gibraltar had been taken with a view to proceed up
+the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and
+east about, instead of a western route, which I finally adopted. By
+officers of vast experience in navigating these seas, I was influenced
+to make the change. Longshore pirates on both coasts being numerous, I
+could not afford to make light of the advice. But here I was, after
+all, evidently in the midst of pirates and thieves! I changed my
+course; the felucca did the same, both vessels sailing very fast, but
+the distance growing less and less between us. The <i>Spray</i> was doing
+nobly; she was even more than at her best; but, in spite of all I
+could do, she would broach now and then. She was carrying too much
+sail for safety. I must reef or be dismasted and lose all, pirate or
+no pirate. I must reef, even if I had to grapple with him for my life.</p>
+
+<p>I was not long in reefing the mainsail and sweating it up&mdash;probably
+not more than fifteen minutes; but the felucca had in the meantime so
+shortened the distance between us that I now saw the tuft of hair on
+the heads of the crew,&mdash;by which, it is said, Mohammed will pull the
+villains up into heaven,&mdash;and they were coming on like the wind. From
+what I could clearly make out now, I felt them to be the sons of
+generations of pirates, and I saw by their movements that they were
+now preparing to strike a blow. The exultation on their faces,
+however, was changed in an instant to a look of fear and rage. Their
+craft, with too much sail on, broached to on the crest of a great
+wave. This one great sea changed the aspect of affairs suddenly as the
+flash of a gun. Three minutes later the same wave overtook the <i>Spray</i>
+and shook her in every timber. At the same moment the sheet-strop
+parted, and away went the main-boom, broken short at the rigging.
+Impulsively I sprang to the jib-halyards and down-haul, and instantly
+downed the jib. The head-sail being off, and the helm put hard down,
+the sloop came in the wind with a bound. While shivering there, but a
+moment though it was, I got the mainsail down and secured inboard,
+broken boom and all. How I got the boom in before the sail was torn I
+hardly know; but not a stitch of it was broken. The mainsail being
+secured, I hoisted away the jib, and, without looking round, stepped
+quickly to the cabin and snatched down my loaded rifle and cartridges
+at hand; for I made mental calculations that the pirate would by this
+time have recovered his course and be close aboard, and that when I
+saw him it would be better for me to be looking at him along the
+barrel of a gun. The piece was at my shoulder when I peered into the
+mist, but there was no pirate within a mile. The wave and squall that
+carried away my boom dismasted the felucca outright. I perceived his
+thieving crew, some dozen or more of them, struggling to recover their
+rigging from the sea. Allah blacken their faces!</p>
+
+<p>I sailed comfortably on under the jib and forestaysail, which I now
+set. I fished the boom and furled the sail snug for the night; then
+hauled the sloop's head two points offshore to allow for the set of
+current and heavy rollers toward the land. This gave me the wind three
+points on the starboard quarter and a steady pull in the headsails. By
+the time I had things in this order it was dark, and a flying-fish had
+already fallen on deck. I took him below for my supper, but found
+myself too tired to cook, or even to eat a thing already prepared. I
+do not remember to have been more tired before or since in all my life
+than I was at the finish of that day. Too fatigued to sleep, I rolled
+about with the motion of the vessel till near midnight, when I made
+shift to dress my fish and prepare a dish of tea. I fully realized
+now, if I had not before, that the voyage ahead would call for
+exertions ardent and lasting. On August 27 nothing could be seen of
+the Moor, or his country either, except two peaks, away in the east
+through the clear atmosphere of morning. Soon after the sun rose even
+these were obscured by haze, much to my satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p><a name="chased_by" id="chased_by"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 256px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_053_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_053.jpg" width="256" height="245" alt="Chased by pirates." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Chased by pirates.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The wind, for a few days following my escape from the pirates, blew a
+steady but moderate gale, and the sea, though agitated into long
+rollers, was not uncomfortably rough or dangerous, and while sitting
+in my cabin I could hardly realize that any sea was running at all, so
+easy was the long, swinging motion of the sloop over the waves. All
+distracting uneasiness and excitement being now over, I was once more
+alone with myself in the realization that I was on the mighty sea and
+in the hands of the elements. But I was happy, and was becoming more
+and more interested in the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Columbus, in the <i>Santa Maria</i>, sailing these seas more than four
+hundred years before, was not so happy as I, nor so sure of success in
+what he had undertaken. His first troubles at sea had already begun.
+His crew had managed, by foul play or otherwise, to break the ship's
+rudder while running before probably just such a gale as the <i>Spray</i>
+had passed through; and there was dissension on the <i>Santa Maria</i>,
+something that was unknown on the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p>After three days of squalls and shifting winds I threw myself down to
+rest and sleep, while, with helm lashed, the sloop sailed steadily on
+her course.</p>
+
+<p>September 1, in the early morning, land-clouds rising ahead told of
+the Canary Islands not far away. A change in the weather came next
+day: storm-clouds stretched their arms across the sky; from the east,
+to all appearances, might come a fierce harmattan, or from the south
+might come the fierce hurricane. Every point of the compass threatened
+a wild storm. My attention was turned to reefing sails, and no time
+was to be lost over it, either, for the sea in a moment was confusion
+itself, and I was glad to head the sloop three points or more away
+from her true course that she might ride safely over the waves. I was
+now scudding her for the channel between Africa and the island of
+Fuerteventura, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, for which I was
+on the lookout. At 2 P.M., the weather becoming suddenly fine, the
+island stood in view, already abeam to starboard, and not more than
+seven miles off. Fuerteventura is twenty-seven hundred feet high, and
+in fine weather is visible many leagues away.</p>
+
+<p>The wind freshened in the night, and the <i>Spray</i> had a fine run
+through the channel. By daylight, September 3, she was twenty-five
+miles clear of all the islands, when a calm ensued, which was the
+precursor of another gale of wind that soon came on, bringing with it
+dust from the African shore. It howled dismally while it lasted, and
+though it was not the season of the harmattan, the sea in the course
+of an hour was discolored with a reddish-brown dust. The air remained
+thick with flying dust all the afternoon, but the wind, veering
+northwest at night, swept it back to land, and afforded the <i>Spray</i>
+once more a clear sky. Her mast now bent under a strong, steady
+pressure, and her bellying sail swept the sea as she rolled scuppers
+under, courtesying to the waves. These rolling waves thrilled me as
+they tossed my ship, passing quickly under her keel. This was grand
+sailing.</p>
+
+<p>September 4, the wind, still fresh, blew from the north-northeast, and
+the sea surged along with the sloop. About noon a steamship, a
+bullock-droger, from the river Plate hove in sight, steering
+northeast, and making bad weather of it. I signaled her, but got no
+answer. She was plunging into the head sea and rolling in a most
+astonishing manner, and from the way she yawed one might have said
+that a wild steer was at the helm.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of September 6 I found three flying-fish on deck, and a
+fourth one down the fore-scuttle as close as possible to the
+frying-pan. It was the best haul yet, and afforded me a sumptuous
+breakfast and dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> had now settled down to the tradewinds and to the business
+of her voyage. Later in the day another droger hove in sight, rolling
+as badly as her predecessor. I threw out no flag to this one, but got
+the worst of it for passing under her lee. She was, indeed, a stale
+one! And the poor cattle, how they bellowed! The time was when ships
+passing one another at sea backed their topsails and had a "gam," and
+on parting fired guns; but those good old days have gone. People have
+hardly time nowadays to speak even on the broad ocean, where news is
+news, and as for a salute of guns, they cannot afford the powder.
+There are no poetry-enshrined freighters on the sea now; it is a prosy
+life when we have no time to bid one another good morning.</p>
+
+<p>My ship, running now in the full swing of the trades, left me days to
+myself for rest and recuperation. I employed the time in reading and
+writing, or in whatever I found to do about the rigging and the sails
+to keep them all in order. The cooking was always done quickly, and
+was a small matter, as the bill of fare consisted mostly of
+flying-fish, hot biscuits and butter, potatoes, coffee and
+cream&mdash;dishes readily prepared.</p>
+
+<p>On September 10 the <i>Spray</i> passed the island of St. Antonio, the
+northwesternmost of the Cape Verdes, close aboard. The landfall was
+wonderfully true, considering that no observations for longitude had
+been made. The wind, northeast, as the sloop drew by the island, was
+very squally, but I reefed her sails snug, and steered broad from the
+highland of blustering St. Antonio. Then leaving the Cape Verde
+Islands out of sight astern, I found myself once more sailing a lonely
+sea and in a solitude supreme all around. When I slept I dreamed that
+I was alone. This feeling never left me; but, sleeping or waking, I
+seemed always to know the position of the sloop, and I saw my vessel
+moving across the chart, which became a picture before me.</p>
+
+<p>One night while I sat in the cabin under this spell, the profound
+stillness all about was broken by human voices alongside! I sprang
+instantly to the deck, startled beyond my power to tell. Passing close
+under lee, like an apparition, was a white bark under full sail. The
+sailors on board of her were hauling on ropes to brace the yards,
+which just cleared the sloop's mast as she swept by. No one hailed
+from the white-winged flier, but I heard some one on board say that he
+saw lights on the sloop, and that he made her out to be a fisherman. I
+sat long on the starlit deck that night, thinking of ships, and
+watching the constellations on their voyage.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, September 13, a large four-masted ship passed
+some distance to windward, heading north.</p>
+
+<p>The sloop was now rapidly drawing toward the region of doldrums, and
+the force of the trade-winds was lessening. I could see by the ripples
+that a counter-current had set in. This I estimated to be about
+sixteen miles a day. In the heart of the counter-stream the rate was
+more than that setting eastward.</p>
+
+<p>September 14 a lofty three-masted ship, heading north, was seen from
+the masthead. Neither this ship nor the one seen yesterday was within
+signal distance, yet it was good even to see them. On the following
+day heavy rain-clouds rose in the south, obscuring the sun; this was
+ominous of doldrums. On the 16th the <i>Spray</i> entered this gloomy
+region, to battle with squalls and to be harassed by fitful calms; for
+this is the state of the elements between the northeast and the
+southeast trades, where each wind, struggling in turn for mastery,
+expends its force whirling about in all directions. Making this still
+more trying to one's nerve and patience, the sea was tossed into
+confused cross-lumps and fretted by eddying currents. As if something
+more were needed to complete a sailor's discomfort in this state, the
+rain poured down in torrents day and night. The <i>Spray</i> struggled and
+tossed for ten days, making only three hundred miles on her course in
+all that time. I didn't say anything!</p>
+
+<p>On September 23 the fine schooner <i>Nantasket</i> of Boston, from Bear
+River, for the river Plate, lumber-laden, and just through the
+doldrums, came up with the <i>Spray</i>, and her captain passing a few
+words, she sailed on. Being much fouled on the bottom by shell-fish,
+she drew along with her fishes which had been following the <i>Spray</i>,
+which was less provided with that sort of food. Fishes will always
+follow a foul ship. A barnacle-grown log adrift has the same
+attraction for deep-sea fishes. One of this little school of deserters
+was a dolphin that had followed the <i>Spray</i> about a thousand miles,
+and had been content to eat scraps of food thrown overboard from my
+table; for, having been wounded, it could not dart through the sea to
+prey on other fishes. I had become accustomed to seeing the dolphin,
+which I knew by its scars, and missed it whenever it took occasional
+excursions away from the sloop. One day, after it had been off some
+hours, it returned in company with three yellowtails, a sort of cousin
+to the dolphin. This little school kept together, except when in
+danger and when foraging about the sea. Their lives were often
+threatened by hungry sharks that came round the vessel, and more than
+once they had narrow escapes. Their mode of escape interested me
+greatly, and I passed hours watching them. They would dart away, each
+in a different direction, so that the wolf of the sea, the shark,
+pursuing one, would be led away from the others; then after a while
+they would all return and rendezvous under one side or the other of
+the sloop. Twice their pursuers were diverted by a tin pan, which I
+towed astern of the sloop, and which was mistaken for a bright fish;
+and while turning, in the peculiar way that sharks have when about to
+devour their prey, I shot them through the head.</p>
+
+<p>Their precarious life seemed to concern the yellowtails very little,
+if at all. All living beings, without doubt, are afraid of death.
+Nevertheless, some of the species I saw huddle together as though they
+knew they were created for the larger fishes, and wished to give the
+least possible trouble to their captors. I have seen, on the other
+hand, whales swimming in a circle around a school of herrings, and
+with mighty exertion "bunching" them together in a whirlpool set in
+motion by their flukes, and when the small fry were all whirled nicely
+together, one or the other of the leviathans, lunging through the
+center with open jaws, take in a boat-load or so at a single mouthful.
+Off the Cape of Good Hope I saw schools of sardines or other small
+fish being treated in this way by great numbers of cavally-fish. There
+was not the slightest chance of escape for the sardines, while the
+cavally circled round and round, feeding from the edge of the mass. It
+was interesting to note how rapidly the small fry disappeared; and
+though it was repeated before my eyes over and over, I could hardly
+perceive the capture of a single sardine, so dexterously was it done.</p>
+
+<p>Along the equatorial limit of the southeast trade winds the air was
+heavily charged with electricity, and there was much thunder and
+lightning. It was hereabout I remembered that, a few years before, the
+American ship <i>Alert</i> was destroyed by lightning. Her people, by
+wonderful good fortune, were rescued on the same day and brought to
+Pernambuco, where I then met them.</p>
+
+<p>On September 25, in the latitude of 5 degrees N., longitude 26 degrees
+30' W., I spoke the ship <i>North Star</i> of London. The great ship was
+out forty-eight days from Norfolk, Virginia, and was bound for Rio,
+where we met again about two months later. The <i>Spray</i> was now thirty
+days from Gibraltar.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray's</i> next companion of the voyage was a swordfish, that swam
+alongside, showing its tall fin out of the water, till I made a stir
+for my harpoon, when it hauled its black flag down and disappeared.
+September 30, at half-past eleven in the morning, the <i>Spray</i> crossed
+the equator in longitude 29 degrees 30' W. At noon she was two miles
+south of the line. The southeast trade-winds, met, rather light, in
+about 4 degrees N., gave her sails now a stiff full sending her
+handsomely over the sea toward the coast of Brazil, where on October
+5, just north of Olinda Point, without further incident, she made the
+land, casting anchor in Pernambuco harbor about noon: forty days from
+Gibraltar, and all well on board. Did I tire of the voyage in all that
+time? Not a bit of it! I was never in better trim in all my life, and
+was eager for the more perilous experience of rounding the Horn.</p>
+
+<p>It was not at all strange in a life common to sailors that, having
+already crossed the Atlantic twice and being now half-way from Boston
+to the Horn, I should find myself still among friends. My
+determination to sail westward from Gibraltar not only enabled me to
+escape the pirates of the Red Sea, but, in bringing me to Pernambuco,
+landed me on familiar shores. I had made many voyages to this and
+other ports in Brazil. In 1893 I was employed as master to take the
+famous Ericsson ship <i>Destroyer</i> from New York to Brazil to go against
+the rebel Mello and his party. The <i>Destroyer</i>, by the way, carried a
+submarine cannon of enormous length.</p>
+
+<p>In the same expedition went the <i>Nictheroy</i>, the ship purchased by the
+United States government during the Spanish war and renamed the
+<i>Buffalo</i>. The <i>Destroyer</i> was in many ways the better ship of the
+two, but the Brazilians in their curious war sank her themselves at
+Bahia. With her sank my hope of recovering wages due me; still, I
+could but try to recover, for to me it meant a great deal. But now
+within two years the whirligig of time had brought the Mello party
+into power, and although it was the legal government which had
+employed me, the so-called "rebels" felt under less obligation to me
+than I could have wished.</p>
+
+<p>During these visits to Brazil I had made the acquaintance of Dr.
+Perera, owner and editor of "El Commercio Jornal," and soon after the
+<i>Spray</i> was safely moored in Upper Topsail Reach, the doctor, who is a
+very enthusiastic yachtsman, came to pay me a visit and to carry me up
+the waterway of the lagoon to his country residence. The approach to
+his mansion by the waterside was guarded by his armada, a fleet of
+boats including a Chinese sampan, a Norwegian pram, and a Cape Ann
+dory, the last of which he obtained from the <i>Destroyer</i>. The doctor
+dined me often on good Brazilian fare, that I might, as he said,
+"salle gordo" for the voyage; but he found that even on the best I
+fattened slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Fruits and vegetables and all other provisions necessary for the
+voyage having been taken in, on the 23d of October I unmoored and made
+ready for sea. Here I encountered one of the unforgiving Mello faction
+in the person of the collector of customs, who charged the <i>Spray</i>
+tonnage dues when she cleared, notwithstanding that she sailed with a
+yacht license and should have been exempt from port charges. Our
+consul reminded the collector of this and of the fact&mdash;without much
+diplomacy, I thought&mdash;that it was I who brought the <i>Destroyer</i> to
+Brazil. "Oh, yes," said the bland collector; "we remember it very
+well," for it was now in a small way his turn.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lungrin, a merchant, to help me out of the trifling difficulty,
+offered to freight the <i>Spray</i> with a cargo of gunpowder for Bahia,
+which would have put me in funds; and when the insurance companies
+refused to take the risk on cargo shipped on a vessel manned by a crew
+of only one, he offered to ship it without insurance, taking all the
+risk himself. This was perhaps paying me a greater compliment than I
+deserved. The reason why I did not accept the business was that in so
+doing I found that I should vitiate my yacht license and run into more
+expense for harbor dues around the world than the freight would amount
+to. Instead of all this, another old merchant friend came to my
+assistance, advancing the cash direct.</p>
+
+<p>While at Pernambuco I shortened the boom, which had been broken when
+off the coast of Morocco, by removing the broken piece, which took
+about four feet off the inboard end; I also refitted the jaws. On
+October 24,1895, a fine day even as days go in Brazil, the <i>Spray</i>
+sailed, having had abundant good cheer. Making about one hundred miles
+a day along the coast, I arrived at Rio de Janeiro November 5, without
+any event worth mentioning, and about noon cast anchor near
+Villaganon, to await the official port visit. On the following day I
+bestirred myself to meet the highest lord of the admiralty and the
+ministers, to inquire concerning the matter of wages due me from the
+beloved <i>Destroyer</i>. The high official I met said: "Captain, so far as
+we are concerned, you may have the ship, and if you care to accept her
+we will send an officer to show you where she is." I knew well enough
+where she was at that moment. The top of her smoke-stack being awash
+in Bahia, it was more than likely that she rested on the bottom there.
+I thanked the kind officer, but declined his offer.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i>, with a number of old shipmasters on board, sailed about
+the harbor of Rio the day before she put to sea. As I had decided to
+give the <i>Spray</i> a yawl rig for the tempestuous waters of Patagonia, I
+here placed on the stern a semicircular brace to support a jigger
+mast. These old captains inspected the <i>Spray's</i> rigging, and each one
+contributed something to her outfit. Captain Jones, who had acted as
+my interpreter at Rio, gave her an anchor, and one of the steamers
+gave her a cable to match it. She never dragged Jones's anchor once on
+the voyage, and the cable not only stood the strain on a lee shore,
+but when towed off Cape Horn helped break combing seas astern that
+threatened to board her.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+
+<p>Departure from Rio de Janeiro&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> ashore on the sands of
+Uruguay&mdash;A narrow escape from shipwreck&mdash;The boy who found a
+sloop&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> floated but somewhat damaged&mdash;Courtesies from the
+British consul at Maldonado&mdash;A warm greeting at Montevideo&mdash;An
+excursion to Buenos Aires&mdash;Shortening the mast and bowsprit.</p>
+
+<p>On November 28 the <i>Spray</i> sailed from Rio de Janeiro, and first of
+all ran into a gale of wind, which tore up things generally along the
+coast, doing considerable damage to shipping. It was well for her,
+perhaps, that she was clear of the land. Coasting along on this part
+of the voyage, I observed that while some of the small vessels I
+fell in with were able to outsail the <i>Spray</i> by day, they fell astern
+of her by night. To the <i>Spray</i> day and night were the same; to the
+others clearly there was a difference. On one of the very fine days
+experienced after leaving Rio, the steamship <i>South Wales</i> spoke the
+<i>Spray</i> and unsolicited gave the longitude by chronometer as 48
+degrees W., "as near as I can make it," the captain said. The <i>Spray</i>,
+with her tin clock, had exactly the same reckoning. I was feeling at
+ease in my primitive method of navigation, but it startled me not a
+little to find my position by account verified by the ship's
+chronometer. On December 5 a barkantine hove in sight, and for several
+days the two vessels sailed along the coast together. Right here a
+current was experienced setting north, making it necessary to hug the
+shore, with which the <i>Spray</i> became rather familiar. Here I confess a
+weakness: I hugged the shore entirely too close. In a word, at
+daybreak on the morning of December 11 the <i>Spray</i> ran hard and fast
+on the beach. This was annoying; but I soon found that the sloop was
+in no great danger. The false appearance of the sand-hills under a
+bright moon had deceived me, and I lamented now that I had trusted to
+appearances at all. The sea, though moderately smooth, still carried a
+swell which broke with some force on the shore. I managed to launch my
+small dory from the deck, and ran out a kedge-anchor and warp; but it
+was too late to kedge the sloop off, for the tide was falling and she
+had already sewed a foot. Then I went about "laying out" the larger
+anchor, which was no easy matter, for my only life-boat, the frail
+dory, when the anchor and cable were in it, was swamped at once in the
+surf, the load being too great for her. Then I cut the cable and made
+two loads of it instead of one. The anchor, with forty fathoms bent
+and already buoyed, I now took and succeeded in getting through the
+surf; but my dory was leaking fast, and by the time I had rowed far
+enough to drop the anchor she was full to the gunwale and sinking.
+There was not a moment to spare, and I saw clearly that if I failed
+now all might be lost. I sprang from the oars to my feet, and lifting
+the anchor above my head, threw it clear just as she was turning over.
+I grasped her gunwale and held on as she turned bottom up, for I
+suddenly remembered that I could not swim. Then I tried to right her,
+but with too much eagerness, for she rolled clean over, and left me as
+before, clinging to her gunwale, while my body was still in the water.
+Giving a moment to cool reflection, I found that although the wind was
+blowing moderately toward the land, the current was carrying me to
+sea, and that something would have to be done. Three times I had been
+under water, in trying to right the dory, and I was just saying, "Now
+I lay me," when I was seized by a determination to try yet once more,
+so that no one of the prophets of evil I had left behind me could say,
+"I told you so." Whatever the danger may have been, much or little, I
+can truly say that the moment was the most serene of my life.</p>
+
+<p><a name="i_suddenly" id="i_suddenly"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 252px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_067_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_067.jpg" width="252" height="162" alt="&quot;I suddenly remembered that I could not swim.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;I suddenly remembered that I could not swim.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>After righting the dory for the fourth time, I finally succeeded by
+the utmost care in keeping her upright while I hauled myself into her
+and with one of the oars, which I had recovered, paddled to the shore,
+somewhat the worse for wear and pretty full of salt water. The
+position of my vessel, now high and dry, gave me anxiety. To get her
+afloat again was all I thought of or cared for. I had little
+difficulty in carrying the second part of my cable out and securing it
+to the first, which I had taken the precaution to buoy before I put it
+into the boat. To bring the end back to the sloop was a smaller matter
+still, and I believe I chuckled above my sorrows when I found that in
+all the haphazard my judgment or my good genius had faithfully stood
+by me. The cable reached from the anchor in deep water to the sloop's
+windlass by just enough to secure a turn and no more. The anchor had
+been dropped at the right distance from the vessel. To heave all taut
+now and wait for the coming tide was all I could do.</p>
+
+<p>I had already done enough work to tire a stouter man, and was only too
+glad to throw myself on the sand above the tide and rest; for the sun
+was already up, and pouring a generous warmth over the land. While my
+state could have been worse, I was on the wild coast of a foreign
+country, and not entirely secure in my property, as I soon found out.
+I had not been long on the shore when I heard the patter, patter of a
+horse's feet approaching along the hard beach, which ceased as it came
+abreast of the sand-ridge where I lay sheltered from the wind. Looking
+up cautiously, I saw mounted on a nag probably the most astonished boy
+on the whole coast. He had found a sloop! "It must be mine," he
+thought, "for am I not the first to see it on the beach?" Sure enough,
+there it was all high and dry and painted white. He trotted his horse
+around it, and finding no owner, hitched the nag to the sloop's
+bobstay and hauled as though he would take her home; but of course she
+was too heavy for one horse to move. With my skiff, however, it was
+different; this he hauled some distance, and concealed behind a dune
+in a bunch of tall grass. He had made up his mind, I dare say, to
+bring more horses and drag his bigger prize away, anyhow, and was
+starting off for the settlement a mile or so away for the
+reinforcement when I discovered myself to him, at which he seemed
+displeased and disappointed. "Buenos dias, muchacho," I said. He
+grunted a reply, and eyed me keenly from head to foot. Then bursting
+into a volley of questions,&mdash;more than six Yankees could ask,&mdash;he
+wanted to know, first, where my ship was from, and how many days she
+had been coming. Then he asked what I was doing here ashore so early
+in the morning. "Your questions are easily answered," I replied; "my
+ship is from the moon, it has taken her a month to come, and she is
+here for a cargo of boys." But the intimation of this enterprise, had
+I not been on the alert, might have cost me dearly; for while I spoke
+this child of the campo coiled his lariat ready to throw, and instead
+of being himself carried to the moon, he was apparently thinking of
+towing me home by the neck, astern of his wild cayuse, over the fields
+of Uruguay.</p>
+
+<p>The exact spot where I was stranded was at the Castillo Chicos, about
+seven miles south of the dividing-line of Uruguay and Brazil, and of
+course the natives there speak Spanish. To reconcile my early visitor,
+I told him that I had on my ship biscuits, and that I wished to trade
+them for butter and milk. On hearing this a broad grin lighted up his
+face, and showed that he was greatly interested, and that even in
+Uruguay a ship's biscuit will cheer the heart of a boy and make him
+your bosom friend. The lad almost flew home, and returned quickly with
+butter, milk, and eggs. I was, after all, in a land of plenty. With
+the boy came others, old and young, from neighboring ranches, among
+them a German settler, who was of great assistance to me in many ways.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_double" id="a_double"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 535px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_070_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_070.jpg" width="535" height="315" alt="A double surprise." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A double surprise.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A coast-guard from Fort Teresa, a few miles away, also came, "to
+protect your property from the natives of the plains," he said. I took
+occasion to tell him, however, that if he would look after the people
+of his own village, I would take care of those from the plains,
+pointing, as I spoke, to the nondescript "merchant" who had already
+stolen my revolver and several small articles from my cabin, which by
+a bold front I had recovered. The chap was not a native Uruguayan.
+Here, as in many other places that I visited, the natives themselves
+were not the ones discreditable to the country.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the day a despatch came from the port captain of Montevideo,
+commanding the coastguards to render the <i>Spray</i> every assistance.
+This, however, was not necessary, for a guard was already on the
+alert, and making all the ado that would become the wreck of a steamer
+with a thousand emigrants aboard. The same messenger brought word from
+the port captain that he would despatch a steam-tug to tow the <i>Spray</i>
+to Montevideo. The officer was as good as his word; a powerful tug
+arrived on the following day; but, to make a long story short, with
+the help of the German and one soldier and one Italian, called "Angel
+of Milan," I had already floated the sloop and was sailing for port
+with the boom off before a fair wind. The adventure cost the <i>Spray</i>
+no small amount of pounding on the hard sand; she lost her shoe and
+part of her false keel, and received other damage, which, however, was
+readily mended afterward in dock.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day I anchored at Maldonado. The British consul, his
+daughter, and another young lady came on board, bringing with them a
+basket of fresh eggs, strawberries, bottles of milk, and a great loaf
+of sweet bread. This was a good landfall, and better cheer than I had
+found at Maldonado once upon a time when I entered the port with a
+stricken crew in my bark, the <i>Aquidneck</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the waters of Maldonado Bay a variety of fishes abound, and
+fur-seals in their season haul out on the island abreast the bay to
+breed. Currents on this coast are greatly affected by the prevailing
+winds, and a tidal wave higher than that ordinarily produced by the
+moon is sent up the whole shore of Uruguay before a southwest gale, or
+lowered by a northeaster, as may happen. One of these waves having
+just receded before the northeast wind which brought the <i>Spray</i> in
+left the tide now at low ebb, with oyster-rocks laid bare for some
+distance along the shore. Other shellfish of good flavor were also
+plentiful, though small in size. I gathered a mess of oysters and
+mussels here, while a native with hook and line, and with mussels for
+bait, fished from a point of detached rocks for bream, landing several
+good-sized ones.</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman's nephew, a lad about seven years old, deserves mention
+as the tallest blasphemer, for a short boy, that I met on the voyage.
+He called his old uncle all the vile names under the sun for not
+helping him across the gully. While he swore roundly in all the moods
+and tenses of the Spanish language, his uncle fished on, now and then
+congratulating his hopeful nephew on his accomplishment. At the end of
+his rich vocabulary the urchin sauntered off into the fields, and
+shortly returned with a bunch of flowers, and with all smiles handed
+them to me with the innocence of an angel. I remembered having seen
+the same flower on the banks of the river farther up, some years
+before. I asked the young pirate why he had brought them to me. Said
+he, "I don't know; I only wished to do so." Whatever the influence was
+that put so amiable a wish in this wild pampa boy, it must be
+far-reaching, thought I, and potent, seas over.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after, the <i>Spray</i> sailed for Montevideo, where she arrived on
+the following day and was greeted by steam-whistles till I felt
+embarrassed and wished that I had arrived unobserved. The voyage so
+far alone may have seemed to the Uruguayans a feat worthy of some
+recognition; but there was so much of it yet ahead, and of such an
+arduous nature, that any demonstration at this point seemed, somehow,
+like boasting prematurely.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> had barely come to anchor at Montevideo when the agents of
+the Royal Mail Steamship Company, Messrs. Humphreys &amp; Co., sent word
+that they would dock and repair her free of expense and give me twenty
+pounds sterling, which, they did to the letter, and more besides. The
+calkers at Montevideo paid very careful attention to the work of
+making the sloop tight. Carpenters mended the keel and also the
+life-boat (the dory), painting it till I hardly knew it from a
+butterfly.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas of 1895 found the <i>Spray</i> refitted even to a wonderful
+makeshift stove which was contrived from a large iron drum of some
+sort punched full of holes to give it a draft; the pipe reached
+straight up through the top of the forecastle. Now, this was not a
+stove by mere courtesy. It was always hungry, even for green wood; and
+in cold, wet days off the coast of Tierra del Fuego it stood me in
+good stead. Its one door swung on copper hinges, which one of the yard
+apprentices, with laudable pride, polished till the whole thing
+blushed like the brass binnacle of a P. &amp; O. steamer.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> was now ready for sea. Instead of proceeding at once on
+her voyage, however, she made an excursion up the river, sailing
+December 29. An old friend of mine, Captain Howard of Cape Cod and of
+River Plate fame, took the trip in her to Buenos Aires, where she
+arrived early on the following day, with a gale of wind and a current
+so much in her favor that she outdid herself. I was glad to have a
+sailor of Howard's experience on board to witness her performance of
+sailing with no living being at the helm. Howard sat near the binnacle
+and watched the compass while the sloop held her course so steadily
+that one would have declared that the card was nailed fast. Not a
+quarter of a point did she deviate from her course. My old friend had
+owned and sailed a pilot-sloop on the river for many years, but this
+feat took the wind out of his sails at last, and he cried, "I'll be
+stranded on Chico Bank if ever I saw the like of it!" Perhaps he had
+never given his sloop a chance to show what she could do. The point I
+make for the <i>Spray</i> here, above all other points, is that she sailed
+in shoal water and in a strong current, with other difficult and
+unusual conditions. Captain Howard took all this into account.</p>
+
+<p>In all the years away from his native home Howard had not forgotten
+the art of making fish chowders; and to prove this he brought along
+some fine rockfish and prepared a mess fit for kings. When the savory
+chowder was done, chocking the pot securely between two boxes on the
+cabin floor, so that it could not roll over, we helped ourselves and
+swapped yarns over it while the <i>Spray</i> made her own way through the
+darkness on the river. Howard told me stories about the Fuegian
+cannibals as she reeled along, and I told him about the pilot of the
+<i>Pinta</i> steering my vessel through the storm off the coast of the
+Azores, and that I looked for him at the helm in a gale such as this.
+I do not charge Howard with superstition,&mdash;we are none of us
+superstitious,&mdash;but when I spoke about his returning to Montevideo on
+the <i>Spray</i> he shook his head and took a steam-packet instead.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been in Buenos Aires for a number of years. The place where
+I had once landed from packets, in a cart, was now built up with
+magnificent docks. Vast fortunes had been spent in remodeling the
+harbor; London bankers could tell you that. The port captain, after
+assigning the <i>Spray</i> a safe berth, with his compliments, sent me word
+to call on him for anything I might want while in port, and I felt
+quite sure that his friendship was sincere. The sloop was well cared
+for at Buenos Aires; her dockage and tonnage dues were all free, and
+the yachting fraternity of the city welcomed her with a good will. In
+town I found things not so greatly changed as about the docks, and I
+soon felt myself more at home.</p>
+
+<p>From Montevideo I had forwarded a letter from Sir Edward Hairby to the
+owner of the "Standard," Mr. Mulhall, and in reply to it was assured
+of a warm welcome to the warmest heart, I think, outside of Ireland.
+Mr. Mulhall, with a prancing team, came down to the docks as soon as
+the <i>Spray</i> was berthed, and would have me go to his house at once,
+where a room was waiting. And it was New Year's day, 1896. The course
+of the Spray had been followed in the columns of the "Standard."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Mulhall kindly drove me to see many improvements about the city,
+and we went in search of some of the old landmarks. The man who sold
+"lemonade" on the plaza when first I visited this wonderful city I
+found selling lemonade still at two cents a glass; he had made a
+fortune by it. His stock in trade was a wash-tub and a neighboring
+hydrant, a moderate supply of brown sugar, and about six lemons that
+floated on the sweetened water. The water from time to time was
+renewed from the friendly pump, but the lemon "went on forever," and
+all at two cents a glass.</p>
+
+<p><a name="at_the" id="at_the"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_077_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_077.jpg" width="358" height="286" alt="At the sign of the comet." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">At the sign of the comet.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But we looked in vain for the man who once sold whisky and coffins in
+Buenos Aires; the march of civilization had crushed him&mdash;memory only
+clung to his name. Enterprising man that he was, I fain would have
+looked him up. I remember the tiers of whisky-barrels, ranged on end,
+on one side of the store, while on the other side, and divided by a
+thin partition, were the coffins in the same order, of all sizes and
+in great numbers. The unique arrangement seemed in order, for as a
+cask was emptied a coffin might be filled. Besides cheap whisky and
+many other liquors, he sold "cider," which he manufactured from
+damaged Malaga raisins. Within the scope of his enterprise was also
+the sale of mineral waters, not entirely blameless of the germs of
+disease. This man surely catered to all the tastes, wants, and
+conditions of his customers.</p>
+
+<p>Farther along in the city, however, survived the good man who wrote on
+the side of his store, where thoughtful men might read and learn:
+"This wicked world will be destroyed by a comet! The owner of this
+store is therefore bound to sell out at any price and avoid the
+catastrophe." My friend Mr. Mulhall drove me round to view the fearful
+comet with streaming tail pictured large on the trembling merchant's
+walls.</p>
+
+<p>I unshipped the sloop's mast at Buenos Aires and shortened it by seven
+feet. I reduced the length of the bowsprit by about five feet, and
+even then I found it reaching far enough from home; and more than
+once, when on the end of it reefing the jib, I regretted that I had
+not shortened it another foot.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+
+<p>Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires&mdash;An outburst of emotion at the mouth
+of the Plate&mdash;Submerged by a great wave&mdash;A stormy entrance to the
+strait&mdash;Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks&mdash;Off
+Cape Froward&mdash;Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay&mdash;A miss-shot for
+"Black Pedro"&mdash;Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island
+Cove&mdash;Animal life.</p>
+
+<p>On January 26, 1896, the <i>Spray</i>, being refitted and well provisioned
+in every way, sailed from Buenos Aires. There was little wind at the
+start; the surface of the great river was like a silver disk, and I
+was glad of a tow from a harbor tug to clear the port entrance. But a
+gale came up soon after, and caused an ugly sea, and instead of being
+all silver, as before, the river was now all mud. The Plate is a
+treacherous place for storms. One sailing there should always be on
+the alert for squalls. I cast anchor before dark in the best lee I
+could find near the land, but was tossed miserably all night,
+heartsore of choppy seas. On the following morning I got the sloop
+under way, and with reefed sails worked her down the river against a
+head wind. Standing in that night to the place where pilot Howard
+joined me for the up-river sail, I took a departure, shaping my course
+to clear Point Indio on the one hand, and the English Bank on the
+other.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_great" id="a_great"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 533px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_080_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_080.jpg" width="533" height="318" alt="A great wave off the Patagonian coast" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A great wave off the Patagonian coast</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I had not for many years been south of these regions. I will not say
+that I expected all fine sailing on the course for Cape Horn direct,
+but while I worked at the sails and rigging I thought only of onward
+and forward. It was when I anchored in the lonely places that a
+feeling of awe crept over me. At the last anchorage on the monotonous
+and muddy river, weak as it may seem, I gave way to my feelings. I
+resolved then that I would anchor no more north of the Strait of
+Magellan.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th of January the <i>Spray</i> was clear of Point Indio, English
+Bank, and all the other dangers of the River Plate. With a fair wind
+she then bore away for the Strait of Magellan, under all sail,
+pressing farther and farther toward the wonderland of the South, till
+I forgot the blessings of our milder North.</p>
+
+<p>My ship passed in safety Bahia Blanca, also the Gulf of St. Matias and
+the mighty Gulf of St. George. Hoping that she might go clear of the
+destructive tide-races, the dread of big craft or little along this
+coast, I gave all the capes a berth of about fifty miles, for these
+dangers extend many miles from the land. But where the sloop avoided
+one danger she encountered another. For, one day, well off the
+Patagonian coast, while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a
+tremendous wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled
+down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to
+get all sail down and myself up on the peak halliards, out of danger,
+when I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me. The
+mountain of water submerged my vessel. She shook in every timber and
+reeled under the weight of the sea, but rose quickly out of it, and
+rode grandly over the rollers that followed. It may have been a minute
+that from my hold in the rigging I could see no part of the <i>Spray's</i>
+hull. Perhaps it was even less time than that, but it seemed a long
+while, for under great excitement one lives fast, and in a few seconds
+one may think a great deal of one's past life. Not only did the past,
+with electric speed, flash before me, but I had time while in my
+hazardous position for resolutions for the future that would take a
+long time to fulfil. The first one was, I remember, that if the
+<i>Spray</i> came through this danger I would dedicate my best energies
+to building a larger ship on her lines, which I hope yet to do. Other
+promises, less easily kept, I should have made under protest. However,
+the incident, which filled me with fear, was only one more test of the
+<i>Spray's</i> seaworthiness. It reassured me against rude Cape Horn.</p>
+
+<p>From the time the great wave swept over the <i>Spray</i> until she reached
+Cape Virgins nothing occurred to move a pulse and set blood in motion.
+On the contrary, the weather became fine and the sea smooth and life
+tranquil. The phenomenon of mirage frequently occurred. An albatross
+sitting on the water one day loomed up like a large ship; two
+fur-seals asleep on the surface of the sea appeared like great whales,
+and a bank of haze I could have sworn was high land. The kaleidescope
+then changed, and on the following day I sailed in a world peopled by
+dwarfs.</p>
+
+<p><a name="entrance_to" id="entrance_to"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 363px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_083_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_083.jpg" width="363" height="132" alt="Entrance to the Strait of Magellan." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Entrance to the Strait of Magellan.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On February 11 the <i>Spray</i> rounded Cape Virgins and entered the Strait
+of Magellan. The scene was again real and gloomy; the wind, northeast,
+and blowing a gale, sent feather-white spume along the coast; such a
+sea ran as would swamp an ill-appointed ship. As the sloop neared the
+entrance to the strait I observed that two great tide-races made
+ahead, one very close to the point of the land and one farther
+offshore. Between the two, in a sort of channel, through combers, went
+the <i>Spray</i> with close-reefed sails. But a rolling sea followed her a
+long way in, and a fierce current swept around the cape against her;
+but this she stemmed, and was soon chirruping under the lee of Cape
+Virgins and running every minute into smoother water. However, long
+trailing kelp from sunken rocks waved forebodingly under her keel, and
+the wreck of a great steamship smashed on the beach abreast gave a
+gloomy aspect to the scene.</p>
+
+<p>I was not to be let off easy. The Virgins would collect tribute even
+from the <i>Spray</i> passing their promontory. Fitful rain-squalls from
+the northwest followed the northeast gale. I reefed the sloop's sails,
+and sitting in the cabin to rest my eyes, I was so strongly impressed
+with what in all nature I might expect that as I dozed the very air I
+breathed seemed to warn me of danger. My senses heard "<i>Spray</i> ahoy!"
+shouted in warning. I sprang to the deck, wondering who could be there
+that knew the <i>Spray</i> so well as to call out her name passing in the
+dark; for it was now the blackest of nights all around, except away in
+the southwest, where the old familiar white arch, the terror of Cape
+Horn, rapidly pushed up by a southwest gale. I had only a moment to
+douse sail and lash all solid when it struck like a shot from a
+cannon, and for the first half-hour it was something to be remembered
+by way of a gale. For thirty hours it kept on blowing hard. The sloop
+could carry no more than a three-reefed mainsail and forestaysail;
+with these she held on stoutly and was not blown out of the strait. In
+the height of the squalls in this gale she doused all sail, and this
+occurred often enough.</p>
+
+<p>After this gale followed only a smart breeze, and the <i>Spray</i>, passing
+through the narrows without mishap, cast anchor at Sandy Point on
+February 14, 1896.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_course" id="the_course"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 509px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_085_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_085.jpg" width="509" height="312" alt="The course of the Spray through the Strait of
+Magellan." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The course of the Spray through the Strait of
+Magellan.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) is a Chilean coaling-station, and boasts
+about two thousand inhabitants, of mixed nationality, but mostly
+Chileans. What with sheep-farming, gold-mining, and hunting, the
+settlers in this dreary land seemed not the worst off in the world.
+But the natives, Patagonian and Fuegian, on the other hand, were as
+squalid as contact with unscrupulous traders could make them. A large
+percentage of the business there was traffic in "fire-water." If there
+was a law against selling the poisonous stuff to the natives, it was
+not enforced. Fine specimens of the Patagonian race, looking smart in
+the morning when they came into town, had repented before night of
+ever having seen a white man, so beastly drunk were they, to say
+nothing about the peltry of which they had been robbed.</p>
+
+<p>The port at that time was free, but a customhouse was in course of
+construction, and when it is finished, port and tariff dues are to be
+collected. A soldier police guarded the place, and a sort of vigilante
+force besides took down its guns now and then; but as a general thing,
+to my mind, whenever an execution was made they killed the wrong man.
+Just previous to my arrival the governor, himself of a jovial turn of
+mind, had sent a party of young bloods to foray a Fuegian settlement
+and wipe out what they could of it on account of the recent massacre
+of a schooner's crew somewhere else. Altogether the place was quite
+newsy and supported two papers&mdash;dailies, I think. The port captain, a
+Chilean naval officer, advised me to ship hands to fight Indians in
+the strait farther west, and spoke of my stopping until a gunboat
+should be going through, which would give me a tow. After canvassing
+the place, however, I found only one man willing to embark, and he on
+condition that I should ship another "mon and a doog." But as no one
+else was willing to come along, and as I drew the line at dogs, I said
+no more about the matter, but simply loaded my guns. At this point in
+my dilemma Captain Pedro Samblich, a good Austrian of large
+experience, coming along, gave me a bag of carpet-tacks, worth more
+than all the fighting men and dogs of Tierra del Fuego. I protested
+that I had no use for carpet-tacks on board. Samblich smiled at my
+want of experience, and maintained stoutly that I would have use for
+them. "You must use them with discretion," he said; "that is to say,
+don't step on them yourself." With this remote hint about the use of
+the tacks I got on all right, and saw the way to maintain clear decks
+at night without the care of watching.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_man" id="the_man"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 164px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_087_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_087.jpg" width="164" height="361" alt="The man who wouldn&#39;t ship without another &quot;mon and a
+doog.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The man who wouldn&#39;t ship without another &quot;mon and a
+doog.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Samblich was greatly interested in my voyage, and after giving me the
+tacks he put on board bags of biscuits and a large quantity of smoked
+venison. He declared that my bread, which was ordinary sea-biscuits
+and easily broken, was not nutritious as his, which was so hard that I
+could break it only with a stout blow from a maul. Then he gave me,
+from his own sloop, a compass which was certainly better than mine,
+and offered to unbend her mainsail for me if I would accept it. Last of
+all, this large-hearted man brought out a bottle of Fuegian gold-dust
+from a place where it had been <i>cached</i> and begged me to help myself
+from it, for use farther along on the voyage. But I felt sure of
+success without this draft on a friend, and I was right. Samblich's
+tacks, as it turned out, were of more value than gold.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_fuegian" id="a_fuegian"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 140px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_088_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_088.jpg" width="140" height="299" alt="A Fuegian Girl." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A Fuegian Girl.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The port captain finding that I was resolved to go, even alone, since
+there was no help for it, set up no further objections, but advised
+me, in case the savages tried to surround me with their canoes, to
+shoot straight, and begin to do it in time, but to avoid killing them
+if possible, which I heartily agreed to do. With these simple
+injunctions the officer gave me my port clearance free of charge, and
+I sailed on the same day, February 19, 1896. It was not without
+thoughts of strange and stirring adventure beyond all I had yet
+encountered that I now sailed into the country and very core of the
+savage Fuegians.</p>
+
+<p>A fair wind from Sandy Point brought me on the first day to St.
+Nicholas Bay, where, so I was told, I might expect to meet savages;
+but seeing no signs of life, I came to anchor in eight fathoms of
+water, where I lay all night under a high mountain. Here I had my
+first experience with the terrific squalls, called williwaws, which
+extended from this point on through the strait to the Pacific. They
+were compressed gales of wind that Boreas handed down over the hills
+in chunks. A full-blown williwaw will throw a ship, even without sail
+on, over on her beam ends; but, like other gales, they cease now and
+then, if only for a short time.</p>
+
+<p>February 20 was my birthday, and I found myself alone, with hardly so
+much as a bird in sight, off Cape Froward, the southernmost point of
+the continent of America. By daylight in the morning I was getting my
+ship under way for the bout ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The sloop held the wind fair while she ran thirty miles farther on her
+course, which brought her to Fortescue Bay, and at once among the
+natives' signal-fires, which blazed up now on all sides. Clouds flew
+over the mountain from the west all day; at night my good east wind
+failed, and in its stead a gale from the west soon came on. I gained
+anchorage at twelve o'clock that night, under the lee of a little
+island, and then prepared myself a cup of coffee, of which I was
+sorely in need; for, to tell the truth, hard beating in the heavy
+squalls and against the current had told on my strength. Finding that
+the anchor held, I drank my beverage, and named the place Coffee
+Island. It lies to the south of Charles Island, with only a narrow
+channel between.</p>
+
+<p><a name="looking_west" id="looking_west"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 537px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_090_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_090.jpg" width="537" height="282" alt="Looking west from Fortescue Bay, where the Spray was
+chased by Indians. (From a photograph.)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Looking west from Fortescue Bay, where the Spray was
+chased by Indians. (From a photograph.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By daylight the next morning the <i>Spray</i> was again under way, beating
+hard; but she came to in a cove in Charles Island, two and a half
+miles along on her course. Here she remained undisturbed two days,
+with both anchors down in a bed of kelp. Indeed, she might have
+remained undisturbed indefinitely had not the wind moderated; for
+during these two days it blew so hard that no boat could venture out
+on the strait, and the natives being away to other hunting-grounds,
+the island anchorage was safe. But at the end of the fierce wind-storm
+fair weather came; then I got my anchors, and again sailed out upon
+the strait.</p>
+
+<p>Canoes manned by savages from Fortescue now came in pursuit. The wind
+falling light, they gained on me rapidly till coming within hail, when
+they ceased paddling, and a bow-legged savage stood up and called to
+me, "Yammerschooner! yammerschooner!" which is their begging term. I
+said, "No!" Now, I was not for letting on that I was alone, and so I
+stepped into the cabin, and, passing through the hold, came out at the
+fore-scuttle, changing my clothes as I went along. That made two men.
+Then the piece of bowsprit which I had sawed off at Buenos Aires, and
+which I had still on board, I arranged forward on the lookout, dressed
+as a seaman, attaching a line by which I could pull it into motion.
+That made three of us, and we didn't want to "yammerschooner"; but for
+all that the savages came on faster than before. I saw that besides
+four at the paddles in the canoe nearest to me, there were others in
+the bottom, and that they were shifting hands often. At eighty yards I
+fired a shot across the bows of the nearest canoe, at which they all
+stopped, but only for a moment. Seeing that they persisted in coming
+nearer, I fired the second shot so close to the chap who wanted to
+"yammerschooner" that he changed his mind quickly enough and bellowed
+with fear, "Bueno jo via Isla," and sitting down in his canoe, he
+rubbed his starboard cat-head for some time. I was thinking of the
+good port captain's advice when I pulled the trigger, and must have
+aimed pretty straight; however, a miss was as good as a mile for Mr.
+"Black Pedro," as he it was, and no other, a leader in several bloody
+massacres. He made for the island now, and the others followed him. I
+knew by his Spanish lingo and by his full beard that he was the
+villain I have named, a renegade mongrel, and the worst murderer in
+Tierra del Fuego. The authorities had been in search of him for two
+years. The Fuegians are not bearded.</p>
+
+<p>So much for the first day among the savages. I came to anchor at
+midnight in Three Island Cove, about twenty miles along from Fortescue
+Bay. I saw on the opposite side of the strait signal-fires, and heard
+the barking of dogs, but where I lay it was quite deserted by natives.
+I have always taken it as a sign that where I found birds sitting
+about, or seals on the rocks, I should not find savage Indians. Seals
+are never plentiful in these waters, but in Three Island Cove I saw
+one on the rocks, and other signs of the absence of savage men.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_brush" id="a_brush"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 459px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_093_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_093.jpg" width="459" height="311" alt="A brush with Fuegians" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A brush with Fuegians</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the next day the wind was again blowing a gale, and although she
+was in the lee of the land, the sloop dragged her anchors, so that I
+had to get her under way and beat farther into the cove, where I came
+to in a landlocked pool. At another time or place this would have been
+a rash thing to do, and it was safe now only from the fact that the
+gale which drove me to shelter would keep the Indians from crossing
+the strait. Seeing this was the case, I went ashore with gun and ax on
+an island, where I could not in any event be surprised, and there
+felled trees and split about a cord of fire-wood, which loaded my
+small boat several times.</p>
+
+<p>While I carried the wood, though I was morally sure there were no
+savages near, I never once went to or from the skiff without my gun.
+While I had that and a clear field of over eighty yards about me I
+felt safe.</p>
+
+<p>The trees on the island, very scattering, were a sort of beech and a
+stunted cedar, both of which made good fuel. Even the green limbs of
+the beech, which seemed to possess a resinous quality, burned readily
+in my great drum-stove. I have described my method of wooding up in
+detail, that the reader who has kindly borne with me so far may see
+that in this, as in all other particulars of my voyage, I took great
+care against all kinds of surprises, whether by animals or by the
+elements. In the Strait of Magellan the greatest vigilance was
+necessary. In this instance I reasoned that I had all about me the
+greatest danger of the whole voyage&mdash;the treachery of cunning savages,
+for which I must be particularly on the alert.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> sailed from Three Island Cove in the morning after the
+gale went down, but was glad to return for shelter from another sudden
+gale. Sailing again on the following day, she fetched Borgia Bay, a
+few miles on her course, where vessels had anchored from time to time
+and had nailed boards on the trees ashore with name and date of
+harboring carved or painted. Nothing else could I see to indicate that
+civilized man had ever been there. I had taken a survey of the gloomy
+place with my spy-glass, and was getting my boat out to land and take
+notes, when the Chilean gunboat <i>Huemel</i> came in, and officers, coming
+on board, advised me to leave the place at once, a thing that required
+little eloquence to persuade me to do. I accepted the captain's kind
+offer of a tow to the next anchorage, at the place called Notch Cove,
+eight miles farther along, where I should be clear of the worst of the
+Fuegians.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_bit" id="a_bit"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_095_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_095.jpg" width="362" height="143" alt="A bit of friendly assistance. (After a sketch by
+Midshipman Miguel Arenas.)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A bit of friendly assistance. (After a sketch by
+Midshipman Miguel Arenas.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We made anchorage at the cove about dark that night, while the wind
+came down in fierce williwaws from the mountains. An instance of
+Magellan weather was afforded when the <i>Huemel</i>, a well-appointed
+gunboat of great power, after attempting on the following day to
+proceed on her voyage, was obliged by sheer force of the wind to
+return and take up anchorage again and remain till the gale abated;
+and lucky she was to get back!</p>
+
+<p>Meeting this vessel was a little godsend. She was commanded and
+officered by high-class sailors and educated gentlemen. An
+entertainment that was gotten up on her, impromptu, at the Notch would
+be hard to beat anywhere. One of her midshipmen sang popular songs in
+French, German, and Spanish, and one (so he said) in Russian. If the
+audience did not know the lingo of one song from another, it was no
+drawback to the merriment.</p>
+
+<p>I was left alone the next day, for then the <i>Huemel</i> put out on her
+voyage the gale having abated. I spent a day taking in wood and water;
+by the end of that time the weather was fine. Then I sailed from the
+desolate place.</p>
+
+<p>There is little more to be said concerning the <i>Spray's</i> first passage
+through the strait that would differ from what I have already
+recorded. She anchored and weighed many times, and beat many days
+against the current, with now and then a "slant" for a few miles, till
+finally she gained anchorage and shelter for the night at Port Tamar,
+with Cape Pillar in sight to the west. Here I felt the throb of the
+great ocean that lay before me. I knew now that I had put a world
+behind me, and that I was opening out another world ahead. I had
+passed the haunts of savages. Great piles of granite mountains of
+bleak and lifeless aspect were now astern; on some of them not even a
+speck of moss had ever grown. There was an unfinished newness all
+about the land. On the hill back of Port Tamar a small beacon had been
+thrown up, showing that some man had been there. But how could one
+tell but that he had died of loneliness and grief? In a bleak land is
+not the place to enjoy solitude.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the whole of the strait west of Cape Froward I saw no
+animals except dogs owned by savages. These I saw often enough, and
+heard them yelping night and day. Birds were not plentiful. The scream
+of a wild fowl, which I took for a loon, sometimes startled me with
+its piercing cry. The steamboat duck, so called because it propels
+itself over the sea with its wings, and resembles a miniature
+side-wheel steamer in its motion, was sometimes seen scurrying on out
+of danger. It never flies, but, hitting the water instead of the air
+with its wings, it moves faster than a rowboat or a canoe. The few
+fur-seals I saw were very shy; and of fishes I saw next to none at
+all. I did not catch one; indeed, I seldom or never put a hook over
+during the whole voyage. Here in the strait I found great abundance of
+mussels of an excellent quality. I fared sumptuously on them. There
+was a sort of swan, smaller than a Muscovy duck, which might have been
+brought down with the gun, but in the loneliness of life about the
+dreary country I found myself in no mood to make one life less, except
+in self-defense.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+
+<p>From Cape Pillar into the Pacific&mdash;Driven by a tempest toward Cape
+Horn&mdash;Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure&mdash;Beaching the strait
+again by way of Cockburn Channel&mdash;Some savages find the
+carpet-tacks&mdash;Danger from firebrands&mdash;A series of fierce
+williwaws&mdash;Again sailing westward.</p>
+
+<p>It was the 3d of March when the <i>Spray</i> sailed from Port Tamar direct
+for Cape Pillar, with the wind from the northeast, which I fervently
+hoped might hold till she cleared the land; but there was no such good
+luck in store. It soon began to rain and thicken in the northwest,
+boding no good. The <i>Spray</i> reared Cape Pillar rapidly, and, nothing
+loath, plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath
+of it in the gathering storm. There was no turning back even had I
+wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of
+night. The wind freshened, and I took in a third reef. The sea was
+confused and treacherous. In such a time as this the old fisherman
+prayed, "Remember, Lord, my ship is small and thy sea is so wide!" I
+saw now only the gleaming crests of the waves. They showed white teeth
+while the sloop balanced over them. "Everything for an offing," I
+cried, and to this end I carried on all the sail she would bear. She
+ran all night with a free sheet, but on the morning of March 4 the
+wind shifted to southwest, then back suddenly to northwest, and blew
+with terrific force. The <i>Spray</i>, stripped of her sails, then bore off
+under bare poles. No ship in the world could have stood up against so
+violent a gale. Knowing that this storm might continue for many days,
+and that it would be impossible to work back to the westward along the
+coast outside of Tierra del Fuego, there seemed nothing to do but to
+keep on and go east about, after all. Anyhow, for my present safety
+the only course lay in keeping her before the wind. And so she drove
+southeast, as though about to round the Horn, while the waves rose and
+fell and bellowed their never-ending story of the sea; but the Hand
+that held these held also the <i>Spray</i>. She was running now with a
+reefed forestaysail, the sheets flat amidship. I paid out two long
+ropes to steady her course and to break combing seas astern, and I
+lashed the helm amidship. In this trim she ran before it, shipping
+never a sea. Even while the storm raged at its worst, my ship was
+wholesome and noble. My mind as to her seaworthiness was put at ease
+for aye.</p>
+
+<p><a name="cape_pillar" id="cape_pillar"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 366px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_099_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_099.jpg" width="366" height="166" alt="Cape Pillar." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Cape Pillar.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When all had been done that I could do for the safety of the vessel, I
+got to the fore-scuttle, between seas, and prepared a pot of coffee
+over a wood fire, and made a good Irish stew. Then, as before and
+afterward on the <i>Spray</i>, I insisted on warm meals. In the tide-race
+off Cape Pillar, however, where the sea was marvelously high, uneven,
+and crooked, my appetite was slim, and for a time I postponed cooking.
+(Confidentially, I was seasick!)</p>
+
+<p>The first day of the storm gave the <i>Spray</i> her actual test in the
+worst sea that Cape Horn or its wild regions could afford, and in no
+part of the world could a rougher sea be found than at this particular
+point, namely, off Cape Pillar, the grim sentinel of the Horn.</p>
+
+<p>Farther offshore, while the sea was majestic, there was less
+apprehension of danger. There the <i>Spray</i> rode, now like a bird on the
+crest of a wave, and now like a waif deep down in the hollow between
+seas; and so she drove on. Whole days passed, counted as other days,
+but with always a thrill&mdash;yes, of delight.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth day of the gale, rapidly nearing the pitch of Cape Horn,
+I inspected my chart and pricked off the course and distance to Port
+Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, where I might find my way and refit,
+when I saw through a rift in the clouds a high mountain, about seven
+leagues away on the port beam. The fierce edge of the gale by this
+time had blown off, and I had already bent a square-sail on the boom
+in place of the mainsail, which was torn to rags. I hauled in the
+trailing ropes, hoisted this awkward sail reefed, the forestaysail
+being already set, and under this sail brought her at once on the wind
+heading for the land, which appeared as an island in the sea. So it
+turned out to be, though not the one I had supposed.</p>
+
+<p>I was exultant over the prospect of once more entering the Strait of
+Magellan and beating through again into the Pacific, for it was more
+than rough on the outside coast of Tierra del Fuego. It was indeed a
+mountainous sea. When the sloop was in the fiercest squalls, with only
+the reefed forestaysail set, even that small sail shook her from
+keelson to truck when it shivered by the leech. Had I harbored the
+shadow of a doubt for her safety, it would have been that she might
+spring a leak in the garboard at the heel of the mast; but she never
+called me once to the pump. Under pressure of the smallest sail I
+could set she made for the land like a race-horse, and steering her
+over the crests of the waves so that she might not trip was nice work.
+I stood at the helm now and made the most of it.</p>
+
+<p>Night closed in before the sloop reached the land, leaving her feeling
+the way in pitchy darkness. I saw breakers ahead before long. At this
+I wore ship and stood offshore, but was immediately startled by the
+tremendous roaring of breakers again ahead and on the lee bow. This
+puzzled me, for there should have been no broken water where I
+supposed myself to be. I kept off a good bit, then wore round, but
+finding broken water also there, threw her head again offshore. In
+this way, among dangers, I spent the rest of the night. Hail and sleet
+in the fierce squalls cut my flesh till the blood trickled over my
+face; but what of that? It was daylight, and the sloop was in the
+midst of the Milky Way of the sea, which is northwest of Cape Horn,
+and it was the white breakers of a huge sea over sunken rocks which
+had threatened to engulf her through the night. It was Fury Island I
+had sighted and steered for, and what a panorama was before me now and
+all around! It was not the time to complain of a broken skin. What
+could I do but fill away among the breakers and find a channel between
+them, now that it was day? Since she had escaped the rocks through the
+night, surely she would find her way by daylight. This was the
+greatest sea adventure of my life. God knows how my vessel escaped.</p>
+
+<p>The sloop at last reached inside of small islands that sheltered her
+in smooth water. Then I climbed the mast to survey the wild scene
+astern. The great naturalist Darwin looked over this seascape from the
+deck of the <i>Beagle,</i> and wrote in his journal, "Any landsman seeing
+the Milky Way would have nightmare for a week." He might have added,
+"or seaman" as well.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray's</i> good luck followed fast. I discovered, as she sailed
+along through a labyrinth of islands, that she was in the Cockburn
+Channel, which leads into the Strait of Magellan at a point opposite
+Cape Froward, and that she was already passing Thieves' Bay,
+suggestively named. And at night, March 8, behold, she was at anchor
+in a snug cove at the Turn! Every heart-beat on the <i>Spray</i> now
+counted thanks.</p>
+
+<p>Here I pondered on the events of the last few days, and, strangely
+enough, instead of feeling rested from sitting or lying down, I now
+began to feel jaded and worn; but a hot meal of venison stew soon put
+me right, so that I could sleep. As drowsiness came on I sprinkled the
+deck with tacks, and then I turned in, bearing in mind the advice of
+my old friend Samblich that I was not to step on them myself. I saw to
+it that not a few of them stood "business end" up; for when the
+<i>Spray</i> passed Thieves' Bay two canoes had put out and followed in her
+wake, and there was no disguising the fact any longer that I was
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is well known that one cannot step on a tack without saying
+something about it. A pretty good Christian will whistle when he steps
+on the "commercial end" of a carpet-tack; a savage will howl and claw
+the air, and that was just what happened that night about twelve
+o'clock, while I was asleep in the cabin, where the savages thought
+they "had me," sloop and all, but changed their minds when they
+stepped on deck, for then they thought that I or somebody else had
+them. I had no need of a dog; they howled like a pack of hounds. I had
+hardly use for a gun. They jumped pell-mell, some into their canoes
+and some into the sea, to cool off, I suppose, and there was a deal of
+free language over it as they went. I fired several guns when I came
+on deck, to let the rascals know that I was home, and then I turned in
+again, feeling sure I should not be disturbed any more by people who
+left in so great a hurry.</p>
+
+<p>The Fuegians, being cruel, are naturally cowards; they regard a rifle
+with superstitious fear. The only real danger one could see that might
+come from their quarter would be from allowing them to surround one
+within bow-shot, or to anchor within range where they might lie in
+ambush. As for their coming on deck at night, even had I not put tacks
+about, I could have cleared them off by shots from the cabin and hold.
+I always kept a quantity of ammunition within reach in the hold and in
+the cabin and in the forepeak, so that retreating to any of these
+places I could "hold the fort" simply by shooting up through the deck.</p>
+
+<p><a name="they_howled" id="they_howled"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 360px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_104_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_104.jpg" width="360" height="329" alt="&quot;They howled like a pack of hounds.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;They howled like a pack of hounds.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Perhaps the greatest danger to be apprehended was from the use of
+fire. Every canoe carries fire; nothing is thought of that, for it is
+their custom to communicate by smoke-signals. The harmless brand that
+lies smoldering in the bottom of one of their canoes might be ablaze
+in one's cabin if he were not on the alert. The port captain of Sandy
+Point warned me particularly of this danger. Only a short time before
+they had fired a Chilean gunboat by throwing brands in through the
+stern windows of the cabin. The <i>Spray</i> had no openings in the cabin
+or deck, except two scuttles, and these were guarded by fastenings
+which could not be undone without waking me if I were asleep.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 9th, after a refreshing rest and a warm
+breakfast, and after I had swept the deck of tacks, I got out what
+spare canvas there was on board, and began to sew the pieces together
+in the shape of a peak for my square-mainsail, the tarpaulin. The day
+to all appearances promised fine weather and light winds, but
+appearances in Tierra del Fuego do not always count. While I was
+wondering why no trees grew on the slope abreast of the anchorage,
+half minded to lay by the sail-making and land with my gun for some
+game and to inspect a white boulder on the beach, near the brook, a
+williwaw came down with such terrific force as to carry the <i>Spray</i>,
+with two anchors down, like a feather out of the cove and away into
+deep water. No wonder trees did not grow on the side of that hill!
+Great Boreas! a tree would need to be all roots to hold on against
+such a furious wind.</p>
+
+<p>From the cove to the nearest land to leeward was a long drift,
+however, and I had ample time to weigh both anchors before the sloop
+came near any danger, and so no harm came of it. I saw no more savages
+that day or the next; they probably had some sign by which they knew
+of the coming williwaws; at least, they were wise in not being afloat
+even on the second day, for I had no sooner gotten to work at
+sail-making again, after the anchor was down, than the wind, as on the
+day before, picked the sloop up and flung her seaward with a
+vengeance, anchor and all, as before. This fierce wind, usual to the
+Magellan country, continued on through the day, and swept the sloop by
+several miles of steep bluffs and precipices overhanging a bold shore
+of wild and uninviting appearance. I was not sorry to get away from
+it, though in doing so it was no Elysian shore to which I shaped my
+course. I kept on sailing in hope, since I had no choice but to go on,
+heading across for St. Nicholas Bay, where I had cast anchor February
+19. It was now the 10th of March! Upon reaching the bay the second
+time I had circumnavigated the wildest part of desolate Tierra del
+Fuego. But the <i>Spray</i> had not yet arrived at St. Nicholas, and by the
+merest accident her bones were saved from resting there when she did
+arrive. The parting of a staysail-sheet in a williwaw, when the sea
+was turbulent and she was plunging into the storm, brought me forward
+to see instantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close under the
+bows that I felt surely lost, and in my thoughts cried, "Is the hand
+of fate against me, after all, leading me in the end to this dark
+spot?" I sprang aft again, unheeding the flapping sail, and threw the
+wheel over, expecting, as the sloop came down into the hollow of a
+wave, to feel her timbers smash under me on the rocks. But at the
+touch of her helm she swung clear of the danger, and in the next
+moment she was in the lee of the land.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_glimpse" id="a_glimpse"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 395px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_107_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_107.jpg" width="395" height="283" alt="A glimpse of Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) in the Strait
+of Magellan." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A glimpse of Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) in the Strait
+of Magellan.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was the small island in the middle of the bay for which the sloop
+had been steering, and which she made with such unerring aim as nearly
+to run it down. Farther along in the bay was the anchorage, which I
+managed to reach, but before I could get the anchor down another
+squall caught the sloop and whirled her round like a top and carried
+her away, altogether to leeward of the bay. Still farther to leeward
+was a great headland, and I bore off for that. This was retracing my
+course toward Sandy Point, for the gale was from the southwest.</p>
+
+<p>I had the sloop soon under good control, however, and in a short time
+rounded to under the lee of a mountain, where the sea was as smooth as
+a mill-pond, and the sails flapped and hung limp while she carried her
+way close in. Here I thought I would anchor and rest till morning, the
+depth being eight fathoms very close to the shore. But it was
+interesting to see, as I let go the anchor, that it did not reach the
+bottom before another williwaw struck down from this mountain and
+carried the sloop off faster than I could pay out cable. Therefore,
+instead of resting, I had to "man the windlass" and heave up the
+anchor with fifty fathoms of cable hanging up and down in deep water.
+This was in that part of the strait called Famine Reach. Dismal Famine
+Reach! On the sloop's crab-windlass I worked the rest of the night,
+thinking how much easier it was for me when I could say, "Do that
+thing or the other," than now doing all myself. But I hove away and
+sang the old chants that I sang when I was a sailor. Within the last
+few days I had passed through much and was now thankful that my state
+was no worse.</p>
+
+<p>It was daybreak when the anchor was at the hawse. By this time the
+wind had gone down, and cat's-paws took the place of williwaws, while
+the sloop drifted slowly toward Sandy Point. She came within sight of
+ships at anchor in the roads, and I was more than half minded to put
+in for new sails, but the wind coming out from the northeast, which
+was fair for the other direction, I turned the prow of the <i>Spray</i>
+westward once more for the Pacific, to traverse a second time the
+second half of my first course through the strait.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h3>
+
+<p>Repairing the <i>Spray's</i> sails&mdash;Savages and an obstreperous anchor-A
+spider-fight&mdash;An encounter with Black Pedro&mdash;A visit to the steamship
+<i>Colombia</i>,&mdash;On the defensive against a fleet of canoes&mdash;A record of
+voyages through the strait&mdash;A chance cargo of tallow.</p>
+
+<p>I was determined to rely on my own small resources to repair the
+damages of the great gale which drove me southward toward the Horn,
+after I had passed from the Strait of Magellan out into the Pacific.
+So when I had got back into the strait, by way of Cockburn Channel, I
+did not proceed eastward for help at the Sandy Point settlement, but
+turning again into the northwestward reach of the strait, set to work
+with my palm and needle at every opportunity, when at anchor and when
+sailing. It was slow work; but little by little the squaresail on the
+boom expanded to the dimensions of a serviceable mainsail with a peak
+to it and a leech besides. If it was not the best-setting sail afloat,
+it was at least very strongly made and would stand a hard blow. A
+ship, meeting the <i>Spray</i> long afterward, reported her as wearing a
+mainsail of some improved design and patent reefer, but that was not
+the case.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> for a few days after the storm enjoyed fine weather, and
+made fair time through the strait for the distance of twenty miles,
+which, in these days of many adversities, I called a long run. The
+weather, I say, was fine for a few days; but it brought little rest.
+Care for the safety of my vessel, and even for my own life, was in no
+wise lessened by the absence of heavy weather. Indeed, the peril was
+even greater, inasmuch as the savages on comparatively fine days
+ventured forth on their marauding excursions, and in boisterous
+weather disappeared from sight, their wretched canoes being frail and
+undeserving the name of craft at all. This being so, I now enjoyed
+gales of wind as never before, and the <i>Spray</i> was never long without
+them during her struggles about Cape Horn. I became in a measure
+inured to the life, and began to think that one more trip through the
+strait, if perchance the sloop should be blown off again, would make me
+the aggressor, and put the Fuegians entirely on the defensive. This
+feeling was forcibly borne in on me at Snug Bay, where I anchored at
+gray morning after passing Cape Froward, to find, when broad day
+appeared, that two canoes which I had eluded by sailing all night were
+now entering the same bay stealthily under the shadow of the high
+headland. They were well manned, and the savages were well armed with
+spears and bows. At a shot from my rifle across the bows, both turned
+aside into a small creek out of range. In danger now of being flanked
+by the savages in the bush close aboard, I was obliged to hoist the
+sails, which I had barely lowered, and make across to the opposite
+side of the strait, a distance of six miles. But now I was put to my
+wit's end as to how I should weigh anchor, for through an accident to
+the windlass right here I could not budge it. However, I set all sail
+and filled away, first hauling short by hand. The sloop carried her
+anchor away, as though it was meant to be always towed in this way
+underfoot, and with it she towed a ton or more of kelp from a reef in
+the bay, the wind blowing a wholesale breeze.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I worked till blood started from my fingers, and with one
+eye over my shoulder for savages, I watched at the same time, and sent
+a bullet whistling whenever I saw a limb or a twig move; for I kept a
+gun always at hand, and an Indian appearing then within range would
+have been taken as a declaration of war. As it was, however, my own
+blood was all that was spilt&mdash;and from the trifling accident of
+sometimes breaking the flesh against a cleat or a pin which came in
+the way when I was in haste. Sea-cuts in my hands from pulling on
+hard, wet ropes were sometimes painful and often bled freely; but
+these healed when I finally got away from the strait into fine
+weather.</p>
+
+<p>After clearing Snug Bay I hauled the sloop to the wind, repaired the
+windlass, and hove the anchor to the hawse, catted it, and then
+stretched across to a port of refuge under a high mountain about six
+miles away, and came to in nine fathoms close under the face of a
+perpendicular cliff. Here my own voice answered back, and I named the
+place "Echo Mountain." Seeing dead trees farther along where the shore
+was broken, I made a landing for fuel, taking, besides my ax, a rifle,
+which on these days I never left far from hand; but I saw no living
+thing here, except a small spider, which had nested in a dry log that
+I boated to the sloop. The conduct of this insect interested me now
+more than anything else around the wild place. In my cabin it met,
+oddly enough, a spider of its own size and species that had come all
+the way from Boston&mdash;a very civil little chap, too, but mighty spry.
+Well, the Fuegian threw up its antennae for a fight; but my little
+Bostonian downed it at once, then broke its legs, and pulled them off,
+one by one, so dexterously that in less than three minutes from the
+time the battle began the Fuegian spider didn't know itself from a
+fly.</p>
+
+<p>I made haste the following morning to be under way after a night of
+wakefulness on the weird shore. Before weighing anchor, however, I
+prepared a cup of warm coffee over a smart wood fire in my great
+Montevideo stove. In the same fire was cremated the Fuegian spider,
+slain the day before by the little warrior from Boston, which a Scots
+lady at Cape Town long after named "Bruce" upon hearing of its prowess
+at Echo Mountain. The <i>Spray</i> now reached away for Coffee Island,
+which I sighted on my birthday, February 20,1896.</p>
+
+<p><a name="yammerschooner" id="yammerschooner"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 536px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_114_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_114.jpg" width="536" height="304" alt="&quot;Yammerschooner&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Yammerschooner&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There she encountered another gale, that brought her in the lee of
+great Charles Island for shelter. On a bluff point on Charles were
+signal-fires, and a tribe of savages, mustered here since my first
+trip through the strait, manned their canoes to put off for the sloop.
+It was not prudent to come to, the anchorage being within bow-shot of
+the shore, which was thickly wooded; but I made signs that one canoe
+might come alongside, while the sloop ranged about under sail in the
+lee of the land. The others I motioned to keep off, and incidentally
+laid a smart Martini-Henry rifle in sight, close at hand, on the top
+of the cabin. In the canoe that came alongside, crying their
+never-ending begging word "yammerschooner," were two squaws and one
+Indian, the hardest specimens of humanity I had ever seen in any of my
+travels. "Yammerschooner" was their plaint when they pushed off from
+the shore, and "yammerschooner" it was when they got alongside. The
+squaws beckoned for food, while the Indian, a black-visaged savage,
+stood sulkily as if he took no interest at all in the matter, but on
+my turning my back for some biscuits and jerked beef for the squaws,
+the "buck" sprang on deck and confronted me, saying in Spanish jargon
+that we had met before. I thought I recognized the tone of his
+"yammerschooner," and his full beard identified him as the Black Pedro
+whom, it was true, I had met before. "Where are the rest of the crew?"
+he asked, as he looked uneasily around, expecting hands, maybe, to
+come out of the fore-scuttle and deal him his just deserts for many
+murders. "About three weeks ago," said he, "when you passed up here, I
+saw three men on board. Where are the other two?" I answered him
+briefly that the same crew was still on board. "But," said he, "I see
+you are doing all the work," and with a leer he added, as he glanced
+at the mainsail, "hombre valiente." I explained that I did all the
+work in the day, while the rest of the crew slept, so that they would
+be fresh to watch for Indians at night. I was interested in the subtle
+cunning of this savage, knowing him, as I did, better perhaps than he
+was aware. Even had I not been advised before I sailed from Sandy
+Point, I should have measured him for an arch-villain now. Moreover,
+one of the squaws, with that spark of kindliness which is somehow
+found in the breast of even the lowest savage, warned me by a sign to
+be on my guard, or Black Pedro would do me harm. There was no need of
+the warning, however, for I was on my guard from the first, and at
+that moment held a smart revolver in my hand ready for instant
+service.</p>
+
+<p>"When you sailed through here before," he said, "you fired a shot at
+me," adding with some warmth that it was "muy malo." I affected not to
+understand, and said, "You have lived at Sandy Point, have you not I"
+He answered frankly, "Yes," and appeared delighted to meet one who had
+come from the dear old place. "At the mission?" I queried. "Why, yes,"
+he replied, stepping forward as if to embrace an old friend. I
+motioned him back, for I did not share his flattering humor. "And you
+know Captain Pedro Samblich?" continued I. "Yes," said the villain,
+who had killed a kinsman of Samblich&mdash;"yes, indeed; he is a great
+friend of mine." "I know it," said I. Samblich had told me to shoot
+him on sight. Pointing to my rifle on the cabin, he wanted to know how
+many times it fired. "Cuantos?" said he. When I explained to him that
+that gun kept right on shooting, his jaw fell, and he spoke of getting
+away. I did not hinder him from going. I gave the squaws biscuits and
+beef, and one of them gave me several lumps of tallow in exchange, and
+I think it worth mentioning that she did not offer me the smallest
+pieces, but with some extra trouble handed me the largest of all the
+pieces in the canoe. No Christian could have done more. Before pushing
+off from the sloop the cunning savage asked for matches, and made as
+if to reach with the end of his spear the box I was about to give him;
+but I held it toward him on the muzzle of my rifle, the one that "kept
+on shooting." The chap picked the box off the gun gingerly enough, to
+be sure, but he jumped when I said, "Quedao [Look out]," at which the
+squaws laughed and seemed not at all displeased. Perhaps the wretch
+had clubbed them that morning for not gathering mussels enough for his
+breakfast. There was a good understanding among us all.</p>
+
+<p>From Charles Island the <i>Spray</i> crossed over to Fortescue Bay, where
+she anchored and spent a comfortable night under the lee of high land,
+while the wind howled outside. The bay was deserted now. They were
+Fortescue Indians whom I had seen at the island, and I felt quite sure
+they could not follow the <i>Spray</i> in the present hard blow. Not to
+neglect a precaution, however, I sprinkled tacks on deck before I
+turned in.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day the loneliness of the place was broken by the
+appearance of a great steamship, making for the anchorage with a lofty
+bearing. She was no Diego craft. I knew the sheer, the model, and the
+poise. I threw out my flag, and directly saw the Stars and Stripes
+flung to the breeze from the great ship.</p>
+
+<p>The wind had then abated, and toward night the savages made their
+appearance from the island, going direct to the steamer to
+"yammerschooner." Then they came to the <i>Spray</i> to beg more, or to
+steal all, declaring that they got nothing from the steamer. Black
+Pedro here came alongside again. My own brother could not have been
+more delighted to see me, and he begged me to lend him my rifle to
+shoot a guanaco for me in the morning. I assured the fellow that if I
+remained there another day I would lend him the gun, but I had no mind
+to remain. I gave him a cooper's draw-knife and some other small
+implements which would be of service in canoe-making, and bade him be
+off.</p>
+
+<p>Under the cover of darkness that night I went to the steamer, which I
+found to be the <i>Colombia,</i> Captain Henderson, from New York, bound
+for San Francisco. I carried all my guns along with me, in case it
+should be necessary to fight my way back. In the chief mate of the
+<i>Colombia,</i> Mr. Hannibal, I found an old friend, and he referred
+affectionately to days in Manila when we were there together, he in
+the <i>Southern Cross</i> and I in the <i>Northern Light,</i> both ships as
+beautiful as their names.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Colombia</i> had an abundance of fresh stores on board. The captain
+gave his steward some order, and I remember that the guileless young
+man asked me if I could manage, besides other things, a few cans of
+milk and a cheese. When I offered my Montevideo gold for the supplies,
+the captain roared like a lion and told me to put my money up. It was
+a glorious outfit of provisions of all kinds that I got.</p>
+
+<p><a name="a_contrast" id="a_contrast"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 382px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_119_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_119.jpg" width="382" height="286" alt="A contrast in lighting&mdash;the electric lights of the
+Colombia and the canoe fires of the Fortescue Indians." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">A contrast in lighting&mdash;the electric lights of the
+Colombia and the canoe fires of the Fortescue Indians.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Returning to the <i>Spray</i>, where I found all secure, I prepared for an
+early start in the morning. It was agreed that the steamer should blow
+her whistle for me if first on the move. I watched the steamer, off
+and on, through the night for the pleasure alone of seeing her
+electric lights, a pleasing sight in contrast to the ordinary Fuegian
+canoe with a brand of fire in it. The sloop was the first under way,
+but the <i>Colombia</i>, soon following, passed, and saluted as she went
+by. Had the captain given me his steamer, his company would have been
+no worse off than they were two or three months later. I read
+afterward, in a late California paper, "The <i>Colombia</i> will be a total
+loss." On her second trip to Panama she was wrecked on the rocks of
+the California coast.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> was then beating against wind and current, as usual in the
+strait. At this point the tides from the Atlantic and the Pacific
+meet, and in the strait, as on the outside coast, their meeting makes
+a commotion of whirlpools and combers that in a gale of wind is
+dangerous to canoes and other frail craft.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles farther along was a large steamer ashore, bottom up.
+Passing this place, the sloop ran into a streak of light wind, and
+then&mdash;a most remarkable condition for strait weather&mdash;it fell entirely
+calm. Signal-fires sprang up at once on all sides, and then more than
+twenty canoes hove in sight, all heading for the <i>Spray</i>. As they came
+within hail, their savage crews cried, "Amigo yammerschooner," "Anclas
+aqui," "Bueno puerto aqui," and like scraps of Spanish mixed with
+their own jargon. I had no thought of anchoring in their "good port."
+I hoisted the sloop's flag and fired a gun, all of which they might
+construe as a friendly salute or an invitation to come on. They drew
+up in a semicircle, but kept outside of eighty yards, which in
+self-defense would have been the death-line.</p>
+
+<p>In their mosquito fleet was a ship's boat stolen probably from a
+murdered crew. Six savages paddled this rather awkwardly with the
+blades of oars which had been broken off. Two of the savages standing
+erect wore sea-boots, and this sustained the suspicion that they had
+fallen upon some luckless ship's crew, and also added a hint that they
+had already visited the <i>Spray's</i> deck, and would now, if they could,
+try her again. Their sea-boots, I have no doubt, would have protected
+their feet and rendered carpet-tacks harmless. Paddling clumsily, they
+passed down the strait at a distance of a hundred yards from the
+sloop, in an offhand manner and as if bound to Fortescue Bay. This I
+judged to be a piece of strategy, and so kept a sharp lookout over a
+small island which soon came in range between them and the sloop,
+completely hiding them from view, and toward which the <i>Spray</i> was now
+drifting helplessly with the tide, and with every prospect of going on
+the rocks, for there was no anchorage, at least, none that my cables
+would reach. And, sure enough, I soon saw a movement in the grass just
+on top of the island, which is called Bonet Island and is one hundred
+and thirty-six feet high. I fired several shots over the place, but
+saw no other sign of the savages. It was they that had moved the
+grass, for as the sloop swept past the island, the rebound of the tide
+carrying her clear, there on the other side was the boat, surely
+enough exposing their cunning and treachery. A stiff breeze, coming up
+suddenly, now scattered the canoes while it extricated the sloop from
+a dangerous position, albeit the wind, though friendly, was still
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i>, flogging against current and wind, made Borgia Bay on the
+following afternoon, and cast anchor there for the second time. I
+would now, if I could, describe the moonlit scene on the strait at
+midnight after I had cleared the savages and Bonet Island. A heavy
+cloud-bank that had swept across the sky then cleared away, and the
+night became suddenly as light as day, or nearly so. A high mountain
+was mirrored in the channel ahead, and the <i>Spray</i> sailing along with
+her shadow was as two sloops on the sea.</p>
+
+<p><a name="records_of" id="records_of"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 206px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_122_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_122.jpg" width="206" height="319" alt="Records of passages through the strait at the head of
+Borgia Bay. Note.&mdash;On a small bush nearer the water there was a board
+bearing several other inscriptions, to which were added the words
+&quot;Sloop Spray, March, 1896&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Records of passages through the strait at the head of
+Borgia Bay. <small>Note.&mdash;On a small bush nearer the water there was a board
+bearing several other inscriptions, to which were added the words
+&quot;Sloop Spray, March, 1896&quot;</small></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The sloop being moored, I threw out my skiff, and with ax and gun
+landed at the head of the cove, and filled a barrel of water from a
+stream. Then, as before, there was no sign of Indians at the place.
+Finding it quite deserted, I rambled about near the beach for an hour
+or more. The fine weather seemed, somehow, to add loneliness to the
+place, and when I came upon a spot where a grave was marked I went no
+farther. Returning to the head of the cove, I came to a sort of
+Calvary, it appeared to me, where navigators, carrying their cross,
+had each set one up as a beacon to others coming after. They had
+anchored here and gone on, all except the one under the little mound.
+One of the simple marks, curiously enough, had been left there by the
+steamship <i>Colimbia</i>, sister ship to the <i>Colombia</i>, my neighbor of
+that morning.</p>
+
+<p>I read the names of many other vessels; some of them I copied in my
+journal, others were illegible. Many of the crosses had decayed and
+fallen, and many a hand that put them there I had known, many a hand
+now still. The air of depression was about the place, and I hurried
+back to the sloop to forget myself again in the voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning I stood out from Borgia Bay, and off Cape Quod,
+where the wind fell light, I moored the sloop by kelp in twenty
+fathoms of water, and held her there a few hours against a three-knot
+current. That night I anchored in Langara Cove, a few miles farther
+along, where on the following day I discovered wreckage and goods
+washed up from the sea. I worked all day now, salving and boating off
+a cargo to the sloop. The bulk of the goods was tallow in casks and in
+lumps from which the casks had broken away; and embedded in the
+seaweed was a barrel of wine, which I also towed alongside. I hoisted
+them all in with the throat-halyards, which I took to the windlass.
+The weight of some of the casks was a little over eight hundred
+pounds.</p>
+
+<p><a name="salving_wreckage" id="salving_wreckage"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 530px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_124_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_124.jpg" width="530" height="343" alt="Salving wreckage." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Salving wreckage.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There were no Indians about Langara; evidently there had not been any
+since the great gale which had washed the wreckage on shore. Probably
+it was the same gale that drove the <i>Spray</i> off Cape Horn, from March
+3 to 8. Hundreds of tons of kelp had been torn from beds in deep water
+and rolled up into ridges on the beach. A specimen stalk which I found
+entire, roots, leaves, and all, measured one hundred and thirty-one
+feet in length. At this place I filled a barrel of water at night, and
+on the following day sailed with a fair wind at last.</p>
+
+<p>I had not sailed far, however, when I came abreast of more tallow in a
+small cove, where I anchored, and boated off as before. It rained and
+snowed hard all that day, and it was no light work carrying tallow in
+my arms over the boulders on the beach. But I worked on till the
+<i>Spray</i> was loaded with a full cargo. I was happy then in the prospect
+of doing a good business farther along on the voyage, for the habits
+of an old trader would come to the surface. I sailed from the cove
+about noon, greased from top to toe, while my vessel was tallowed from
+keelson to truck. My cabin, as well as the hold and deck, was stowed
+full of tallow, and all were thoroughly smeared.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h3>
+
+<p>Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm&mdash;A defective sheetrope places
+the <i>Spray</i> in peril&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> as a target for a Fuegian arrow&mdash;The
+island of Alan Erric&mdash;Again in the open Pacific&mdash;The run to the island
+of Juan Fernandez&mdash;An absentee king&mdash;At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage.</p>
+
+<p>Another gale had then sprung up, but the wind was still fair, and I
+had only twenty-six miles to run for Port Angosto, a dreary enough
+place, where, however, I would find a safe harbor in which to refit
+and stow cargo. I carried on sail to make the harbor before dark, and
+she fairly flew along, all covered with snow, which fell thick and
+fast, till she looked like a white winter bird. Between the
+storm-bursts I saw the headland of my port, and was steering for it
+when a flaw of wind caught the mainsail by the lee, jibed it over, and
+dear! dear! how nearly was this the cause of disaster; for the sheet
+parted and the boom unshipped, and it was then close upon night. I
+worked till the perspiration poured from my body to get things
+adjusted and in working order before dark, and, above all, to get it
+done before the sloop drove to leeward of the port of refuge. Even
+then I did not get the boom shipped in its saddle. I was at the
+entrance of the harbor before I could get this done, and it was time
+to haul her to or lose the port; but in that condition, like a bird
+with a broken wing, she made the haven. The accident which so
+jeopardized my vessel and cargo came of a defective sheet-rope, one
+made from sisal, a treacherous fiber which has caused a deal of strong
+language among sailors.</p>
+
+<p>I did not run the <i>Spray</i> into the inner harbor of Port Angosto, but
+came to inside a bed of kelp under a steep bluff on the port hand
+going in. It was an exceedingly snug nook, and to make doubly sure of
+holding on here against all williwaws I moored her with two anchors
+and secured her besides, by cables to trees. However, no wind ever
+reached there except back flaws from the mountains on the opposite
+side of the harbor. There, as elsewhere in that region, the country
+was made up of mountains. This was the place where I was to refit and
+whence I was to sail direct, once more, for Cape Pillar and the
+Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>I remained at Port Angosto some days, busily employed about the sloop.
+I stowed the tallow from the deck to the hold, arranged my cabin in
+better order, and took in a good supply of wood and water. I also
+mended the sloop's sails and rigging, and fitted a jigger, which
+changed the rig to a yawl, though I called the boat a sloop just the
+same, the jigger being merely a temporary affair.</p>
+
+<p>I never forgot, even at the busiest time of my work there, to have my
+rifle by me ready for instant use; for I was of necessity within range
+of savages, and I had seen Fuegian canoes at this place when I
+anchored in the port, farther down the reach, on the first trip
+through the strait. I think it was on the second day, while I was
+busily employed about decks, that I heard the swish of something
+through the air close by my ear, and heard a "zip"-like sound in the
+water, but saw nothing. Presently, however, I suspected that it was an
+arrow of some sort, for just then one passing not far from me struck
+the mainmast, where it stuck fast, vibrating from the shock&mdash;a Fuegian
+autograph. A savage was somewhere near, there could be no doubt about
+that. I did not know but he might be shooting at me, with a view to
+getting my sloop and her cargo; and so I threw up my old
+Martini-Henry, the rifle that kept on shooting, and the first shot
+uncovered three Fuegians, who scampered from a clump of bushes where
+they had been concealed, and made over the hills. I fired away a good
+many cartridges, aiming under their feet to encourage their climbing.
+My dear old gun woke up the hills, and at every report all three of
+the savages jumped as if shot; but they kept on, and put Fuego real
+estate between themselves and the <i>Spray</i> as fast as their legs could
+carry them. I took care then, more than ever before, that all my
+firearms should be in order and that a supply of ammunition should
+always be ready at hand. But the savages did not return, and although
+I put tacks on deck every night, I never discovered that any more
+visitors came, and I had only to sweep the deck of tacks carefully
+every morning after.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_first" id="the_first"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 361px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_129_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_129.jpg" width="361" height="488" alt="&quot;The first shot uncovered three Fuegians.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;The first shot uncovered three Fuegians.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As the days went by, the season became more favorable for a chance to
+clear the strait with a fair wind, and so I made up my mind after six
+attempts, being driven back each, time, to be in no further haste to
+sail. The bad weather on my last return to Port Angosto for shelter
+brought the Chilean gunboat <i>Condor</i> and the Argentine cruiser
+<i>Azopardo</i> into port. As soon as the latter came to anchor, Captain
+Mascarella, the commander, sent a boat to the <i>Spray</i> with the message
+that he would take me in tow for Sandy Point if I would give up the
+voyage and return&mdash;the thing farthest from my mind. The officers of
+the <i>Azopardo</i> told me that, coming up the strait after the <i>Spray</i> on
+her first passage through, they saw Black Pedro and learned that he
+had visited me. The <i>Azopardo</i>, being a foreign man-of-war, had no
+right to arrest the Fuegian outlaw, but her captain blamed me for not
+shooting the rascal when he came to my sloop.</p>
+
+<p>I procured some cordage and other small supplies from these vessels,
+and the officers of each of them mustered a supply of warm flannels,
+of which I was most in need. With these additions to my outfit, and
+with the vessel in good trim, though somewhat deeply laden, I was well
+prepared for another bout with the Southern, misnamed Pacific, Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>In the first week in April southeast winds, such as appear about Cape
+Horn in the fall and winter seasons, bringing better weather than that
+experienced in the summer, began to disturb the upper clouds; a little
+more patience, and the time would come for sailing with a fair wind.</p>
+
+<p>At Port Angosto I met Professor Dusen of the Swedish scientific
+expedition to South America and the Pacific Islands. The professor was
+camped by the side of a brook at the head of the harbor, where there
+were many varieties of moss, in which he was interested, and where the
+water was, as his Argentine cook said, "muy rico." The professor had
+three well-armed Argentines along in his camp to fight savages. They
+seemed disgusted when I filled water at a small stream near the
+vessel, slighting their advice to go farther up to the greater brook,
+where it was "muy rico." But they were all fine fellows, though it was
+a wonder that they did not all die of rheumatic pains from living on
+wet ground.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the little haps and mishaps to the <i>Spray</i> at Port Angosto, of
+the many attempts to put to sea, and of each return for shelter, it is
+not my purpose to speak. Of hindrances there were many to keep her
+back, but on the thirteenth day of April, and for the seventh and last
+time, she weighed anchor from that port. Difficulties, however,
+multiplied all about in so strange a manner that had I been given to
+superstitious fears I should not have persisted in sailing on a
+thirteenth day, notwithstanding that a fair wind blew in the offing.
+Many of the incidents were ludicrous. When I found myself, for
+instance, disentangling the sloop's mast from the branches of a tree
+after she had drifted three times around a small island, against my
+will, it seemed more than one's nerves could bear, and I had to speak
+about it, so I thought, or die of lockjaw, and I apostrophized the
+<i>Spray</i> as an impatient farmer might his horse or his ox. "Didn't you
+know," cried I&mdash;"didn't you know that you couldn't climb a tree!" But
+the poor old <i>Spray</i> had essayed, and successfully too, nearly
+everything else in the Strait of Magellan, and my heart softened
+toward her when I thought of what she had gone through. Moreover, she
+had discovered an island. On the charts this one that she had sailed
+around was traced as a point of land. I named it Alan Erric Island,
+after a worthy literary friend whom I had met in strange by-places,
+and I put up a sign, "Keep off the grass," which, as discoverer, was
+within my rights.</p>
+
+<p>Now at last the <i>Spray</i> carried me free of Tierra del Fuego. If by a
+close shave only, still she carried me clear, though her boom actually
+hit the beacon rocks to leeward as she lugged on sail to clear the
+point. The thing was done on the 13th of April, 1896. But a close
+shave and a narrow escape were nothing new to the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The waves doffed their white caps beautifully to her in the strait
+that day before the southeast wind, the first true winter breeze of
+the season from that quarter, and here she was out on the first of it,
+with every prospect of clearing Cape Pillar before it should shift. So
+it turned out; the wind blew hard, as it always blows about Cape Horn,
+but she had cleared the great tide-race off Cape Pillar and the
+Evangelistas, the outermost rocks of all, before the change came. I
+remained at the helm, humoring my vessel in the cross seas, for it was
+rough, and I did not dare to let her take a straight course. It was
+necessary to change her course in the combing seas, to meet them with
+what skill I could when they rolled up ahead, and to keep off when
+they came up abeam.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning, April 14, only the tops of the highest
+mountains were in sight, and the <i>Spray</i>, making good headway on a
+northwest course, soon sank these out of sight. "Hurrah for the
+<i>Spray</i>!" I shouted to seals, sea-gulls, and penguins; for there were
+no other living creatures about, and she had weathered all the dangers
+of Cape Horn. Moreover, she had on her voyage round the Horn salved a
+cargo of which she had not jettisoned a pound. And why should not one
+rejoice also in the main chance coming so of itself?</p>
+
+<p>I shook out a reef, and set the whole jib, for, having sea-room, I
+could square away two points. This brought the sea more on her
+quarter, and she was the wholesomer under a press of sail.
+Occasionally an old southwest sea, rolling up, combed athwart her, but
+did no harm. The wind freshened as the sun rose half-mast or more, and
+the air, a bit chilly in the morning, softened later in the day; but I
+gave little thought to such things as these.</p>
+
+<p>One wave, in the evening, larger than others that had threatened all
+day,&mdash;one such as sailors call "fine-weather seas,"-broke over the
+sloop fore and aft. It washed over me at the helm, the last that swept
+over the <i>Spray</i> off Cape Horn. It seemed to wash away old regrets.
+All my troubles were now astern; summer was ahead; all the world was
+again before me. The wind was even literally fair. My "trick" at the
+wheel was now up, and it was 5 p.m. I had stood at the helm since
+eleven o'clock the morning before, or thirty hours.</p>
+
+<p>Then was the time to uncover my head, for I sailed alone with God. The
+vast ocean was again around me, and the horizon was unbroken by land.
+A few days later the <i>Spray</i> was under full sail, and I saw her for
+the first time with a jigger spread, This was indeed a small incident,
+but it was the incident following a triumph. The wind was still
+southwest, but it had moderated, and roaring seas had turned to
+gossiping waves that rippled and pattered against her sides as she
+rolled among them, delighted with their story. Rapid changes went on,
+those days, in things all about while she headed for the tropics. New
+species of birds came around; albatrosses fell back and became scarcer
+and scarcer; lighter gulls came in their stead, and pecked for crumbs
+in the sloop's wake.</p>
+
+<p>On the tenth day from Cape Pillar a shark came along, the first of its
+kind on this part of the voyage to get into trouble. I harpooned him
+and took out his ugly jaws. I had not till then felt inclined to take
+the life of any animal, but when John Shark hove in sight my sympathy
+flew to the winds. It is a fact that in Magellan I let pass many ducks
+that would have made a good stew, for I had no mind in the lonesome
+strait to take the life of any living thing.</p>
+
+<p>From Cape Pillar I steered for Juan Fernandez, and on the 26th of
+April, fifteen days out, made that historic island right ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The blue hills of Juan Fernandez, high among the clouds, could be seen
+about thirty miles off. A thousand emotions thrilled me when I saw the
+island, and I bowed my head to the deck. We may mock the Oriental
+salaam, but for my part I could find no other way of expressing
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>The wind being light through the day, the <i>Spray</i> did not reach the
+island till night. With what wind there was to fill her sails she
+stood close in to shore on the northeast side, where it fell calm and
+remained so all night. I saw the twinkling of a small light farther
+along in a cove, and fired a gun, but got no answer, and soon the
+light disappeared altogether. I heard the sea booming against the
+cliffs all night, and realized that the ocean swell was still great,
+although from the deck of my little ship it was apparently small. From
+the cry of animals in the hills, which sounded fainter and fainter
+through the night, I judged that a light current was drifting the
+sloop from the land, though she seemed all night dangerously near the
+shore, for, the land being very high, appearances were deceptive.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_app" id="the_spray_app"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 352px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_135_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_135.jpg" width="352" height="248" alt="The Spray approaching Juan Fernandez, Robinson Crusoe&#39;s Island." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray approaching<br />Juan Fernandez,<br />Robinson Crusoe&#39;s Island.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Soon after daylight I saw a boat putting out toward me. As it pulled
+near, it so happened that I picked up my gun, which was on the deck,
+meaning only to put it below; but the people in the boat, seeing the
+piece in my hands, quickly turned and pulled back for shore, which was
+about four miles distant. There were six rowers in her, and I observed
+that they pulled with oars in oar-locks, after the manner of trained
+seamen, and so I knew they belonged to a civilized race; but their
+opinion of me must have been anything but flattering when they mistook
+my purpose with the gun and pulled away with all their might. I made
+them understand by signs, but not without difficulty, that I did not
+intend to shoot, that I was simply putting the piece in the cabin, and
+that I wished them to return. When they understood my meaning they
+came back and were soon on board.</p>
+
+<p>One of the party, whom the rest called "king," spoke English; the
+others spoke Spanish. They had all heard of the voyage of the <i>Spray</i>
+through the papers of Valparaiso, and were hungry for news concerning
+it. They told me of a war between Chile and the Argentine, which I had
+not heard of when I was there. I had just visited both countries, and
+I told them that according to the latest reports, while I was in
+Chile, their own island was sunk. (This same report that Juan
+Fernandez had sunk was current in Australia when I arrived there three
+months later.)</p>
+
+<p>I had already prepared a pot of coffee and a plate of doughnuts,
+which, after some words of civility, the islanders stood up to and
+discussed with a will, after which they took the <i>Spray</i> in tow of
+their boat and made toward the island with her at the rate of a good
+three knots. The man they called king took the helm, and with whirling
+it up and down he so rattled the <i>Spray</i> that I thought she would
+never carry herself straight again. The others pulled away lustily
+with their oars. The king, I soon learned, was king only by courtesy.
+Having lived longer on the island than any other man in the
+world,&mdash;thirty years,&mdash;he was so dubbed. Juan Fernandez was then under
+the administration of a governor of Swedish nobility, so I was told. I
+was also told that his daughter could ride the wildest goat on the
+island. The governor, at the time of my visit, was away at Valparaiso
+with his family, to place his children at school. The king had been
+away once for a year or two, and in Rio de Janeiro had married a
+Brazilian woman who followed his fortunes to the far-off island. He
+was himself a Portuguese and a native of the Azores. He had sailed in
+New Bedford whale-ships and had steered a boat. All this I learned,
+and more too, before we reached the anchorage. The sea-breeze, coming
+in before long, filled the <i>Spray's</i> sails, and the experienced
+Portuguese mariner piloted her to a safe berth in the bay, where she
+was moored to a buoy abreast the settlement.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h3>
+
+<p>The islanders at Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts&mdash;The
+beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm&mdash;The mountain monument to
+Alexander Selkirk&mdash;Robinson Crusoe's cave&mdash;A stroll with the children
+of the island&mdash;Westward ho! with a friendly gale&mdash;A month's free
+sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides&mdash;Sighting the
+Marquesas&mdash;Experience in reckoning.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> being secured, the islanders returned to the coffee and
+doughnuts, and I was more than flattered when they did not slight my
+buns, as the professor had done in the Strait of Magellan. Between
+buns and doughnuts there was little difference except in name. Both
+had been fried in tallow, which was the strong point in both, for
+there was nothing on the island fatter than a goat, and a goat is but
+a lean beast, to make the best of it. So with a view to business I
+hooked my steelyards to the boom at once, ready to weigh out tallow,
+there being no customs officer to say, "Why do you do so?" and before
+the sun went down the islanders had learned the art of making buns and
+doughnuts. I did not charge a high price for what I sold, but the
+ancient and curious coins I got in payment, some of them from the
+wreck of a galleon sunk in the bay no one knows when, I sold afterward
+to antiquarians for more than face-value. In this way I made a
+reasonable profit. I brought away money of all denominations from the
+island, and nearly all there was, so far as I could find out.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_house" id="the_house"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 313px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_139_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_139.jpg" width="313" height="248" alt="The house of the king." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The house of the king.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Juan Fernandez, as a place of call, is a lovely spot. The hills are
+well wooded, the valleys fertile, and pouring down through many
+ravines are streams of pure water. There are no serpents on the
+island, and no wild beasts other than pigs and goats, of which I saw a
+number, with possibly a dog or two. The people lived without the use
+of rum or beer of any sort. There was not a police officer or a lawyer
+among them. The domestic economy of the island was simplicity itself.
+The fashions of Paris did not affect the inhabitants; each dressed
+according to his own taste. Although there was no doctor, the people
+were all healthy, and the children were all beautiful. There were
+about forty-five souls on the island all told. The adults were mostly
+from the mainland of South America. One lady there, from Chile, who
+made a flying-jib for the <i>Spray</i>, taking her pay in tallow, would be
+called a belle at Newport. Blessed island of Juan Fernandez! Why
+Alexander Selkirk ever left you was more than I could make out.</p>
+
+<p><a name="robinson_crusoe" id="robinson_crusoe"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 341px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_140_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_140.jpg" width="341" height="325" alt="Robinson Crusoe&#39;s cave." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Robinson Crusoe&#39;s cave.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A large ship which had arrived some time before, on fire, had been
+stranded at the head of the bay, and as the sea smashed her to pieces
+on the rocks, after the fire was drowned, the islanders picked up the
+timbers and utilized them in the construction of houses, which
+naturally presented a ship-like appearance. The house of the king of
+Juan Fernandez, Manuel Carroza by name, besides resembling the ark,
+wore a polished brass knocker on its only door, which was painted
+green. In front of this gorgeous entrance was a flag-mast all ataunto,
+and near it a smart whale-boat painted red and blue, the delight of
+the king's old age.</p>
+
+<p>I of course made a pilgrimage to the old lookout place at the top of
+the mountain, where Selkirk spent many days peering into the distance
+for the ship which came at last. From a tablet fixed into the face of
+the rock I copied these words, inscribed in Arabic capitals:</p>
+
+<p class="c">IN MEMORY<br />
+OF<br />
+ALEXANDER SELKIRK,<br />
+MARINER,<br /></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p>A native of Largo, in the county of Fife, Scotland, who lived on
+this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. He
+was landed from the <i>Cinque Ports</i> galley, 96 tons, 18 guns, A. D.
+1704, and was taken off in the <i>Duke</i>, privateer, 12th February,
+1709. He died Lieutenant of H. M. S. <i>Weymouth</i>, A. D. 1723,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>
+aged 47. This tablet is erected near Selkirk's lookout, by
+Commodore Powell and the officers of H. M. S. <i>Topaze</i>, A. D. 1868. </p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, in the "Century Magazine" for July,
+1899, shows that the tablet is in error as to Selkirk's death. It should
+be 1721</p></div>
+
+<p>The cave in which Selkirk dwelt while on the island is at the head of
+the bay now called Robinson Crusoe Bay. It is around a bold headland
+west of the present anchorage and landing. Ships have anchored there,
+but it affords a very indifferent berth. Both of these anchorages are
+exposed to north winds, which, however, do not reach home with much
+violence. The holding-ground being good in the first-named bay to the
+eastward, the anchorage there may be considered safe, although the
+undertow at times makes it wild riding.</p>
+
+<p>I visited Robinson Crusoe Bay in a boat, and with some difficulty
+landed through the surf near the cave, which I entered. I found it dry
+and inhabitable. It is located in a beautiful nook sheltered by high
+mountains from all the severe storms that sweep over the island, which
+are not many; for it lies near the limits of the trade-wind regions,
+being in latitude 35 &frac12; degrees. The island is about fourteen miles
+in length, east and west, and eight miles in width; its height is over
+three thousand feet. Its distance from Chile, to which country it
+belongs, is about three hundred and forty miles.</p>
+
+<p>Juan Fernandez was once a convict station. A number of caves in which
+the prisoners were kept, damp, unwholesome dens, are no longer in use,
+and no more prisoners are sent to the island.</p>
+
+<p>The pleasantest day I spent on the island, if not the pleasantest on
+my whole voyage, was my last day on shore,&mdash;but by no means because it
+was the last,&mdash;when the children of the little community, one and all,
+went out with me to gather wild fruits for the voyage. We found
+quinces, peaches, and figs, and the children gathered a basket of
+each. It takes very little to please children, and these little ones,
+never hearing a word in their lives except Spanish, made the hills
+ring with mirth at the sound of words in English. They asked me the
+names of all manner of things on the island. We came to a wild
+fig-tree loaded with fruit, of which I gave them the English name.
+"Figgies, figgies!" they cried, while they picked till their baskets
+were full. But when I told them that the <i>cabra</i> they pointed out was
+only a goat, they screamed with laughter, and rolled on the grass in
+wild delight to think that a man had come to their island who would
+call a cabra a goat.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_man_cabra" id="the_man_cabra"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_143_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_143.jpg" width="356" height="417" alt="The man who called a cabra a goat." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The man who called a cabra a goat.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first child born on Juan Fernandez, I was told, had become a
+beautiful woman and was now a mother. Manuel Carroza and the good soul
+who followed him here from Brazil had laid away their only child, a
+girl, at the age of seven, in the little churchyard on the point. In
+the same half-acre were other mounds among the rough lava rocks, some
+marking the burial-place of native-born children, some the
+resting-places of seamen from passing ships, landed here to end days
+of sickness and get into a sailors' heaven.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest drawback I saw in the island was the want of a school. A
+class there would necessarily be small, but to some kind soul who
+loved teaching and quietude life on Juan Fernandez would, for a
+limited time, be one of delight.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of May 5, 1896, I sailed from Juan Fernandez, having
+feasted on many things, but on nothing sweeter than the adventure
+itself of a visit to the home and to the very cave of Robinson Crusoe.
+From the island the <i>Spray</i> bore away to the north, passing the island
+of St. Felix before she gained the trade-winds, which seemed slow in
+reaching their limits.</p>
+
+<p>If the trades were tardy, however, when they did come they came with a
+bang, and made up for lost time; and the <i>Spray</i>, under reefs,
+sometimes one, sometimes two, flew before a gale for a great many
+days, with a bone in her mouth, toward the Marquesas, in the west,
+which, she made on the forty-third day out, and still kept on sailing.
+My time was all taken up those days&mdash;not by standing at the helm; no
+man, I think, could stand or sit and steer a vessel round the world: I
+did better than that; for I sat and read my books, mended my clothes,
+or cooked my meals and ate them in peace. I had already found that it
+was not good to be alone, and so I made companionship with what there
+was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own
+insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all
+else. Nothing could be easier or more restful than my voyage in the
+trade-winds.</p>
+
+<p>I sailed with a free wind day after day, marking the position of my
+ship on the chart with considerable precision; but this was done by
+intuition, I think, more than by slavish calculations. For one whole
+month my vessel held her course true; I had not, the while, so much as
+a light in the binnacle. The Southern Cross I saw every night abeam.
+The sun every morning came up astern; every evening it went down
+ahead. I wished for no other compass to guide me, for these were true.
+If I doubted my reckoning after a long time at sea I verified it by
+reading the clock aloft made by the Great Architect, and it was right.</p>
+
+<p>There was no denying that the comical side of the strange life
+appeared. I awoke, sometimes, to find the sun already shining into my
+cabin. I heard water rushing by, with only a thin plank between me and
+the depths, and I said, "How is this?" But it was all right; it was my
+ship on her course, sailing as no other ship had ever sailed before in
+the world. The rushing water along her side told me that she was
+sailing at full speed. I knew that no human hand was at the helm; I
+knew that all was well with "the hands" forward, and that there was no
+mutiny on board.</p>
+
+<p>The phenomena of ocean meteorology were interesting studies even here
+in the trade-winds. I observed that about every seven days the wind
+freshened and drew several points farther than usual from the
+direction of the pole; that is, it went round from east-southeast to
+south-southeast, while at the same time a heavy swell rolled up from
+the southwest. All this indicated that gales were going on in the
+anti-trades. The wind then hauled day after day as it moderated, till
+it stood again at the normal point, east-southeast. This is more or
+less the constant state of the winter trades in latitude 12 degrees
+S., where I "ran down the longitude" for weeks. The sun, we all know,
+is the creator of the trade-winds and of the wind system over all the
+earth. But ocean meteorology is, I think, the most fascinating of all.
+From Juan Fernandez to the Marquesas I experienced six changes of
+these great palpitations of sea-winds and of the sea itself, the
+effect of far-off gales. To know the laws that govern the winds, and
+to know that you know them, will give you an easy mind on your voyage
+round the world; otherwise you may tremble at the appearance of every
+cloud. What is true of this in the trade-winds is much more so in the
+variables, where changes run more to extremes.</p>
+
+<p>To cross the Pacific Ocean, even under the most favorable
+circumstances, brings you for many days close to nature, and you
+realize the vastness of the sea. Slowly but surely the mark of my
+little ship's course on the track-chart reached out on the ocean and
+across it, while at her utmost speed she marked with her keel still
+slowly the sea that carried her. On the forty-third day from land,&mdash;a
+long time to be at sea alone,&mdash;the sky being beautifully clear and the
+moon being "in distance" with the sun, I threw up my sextant for
+sights. I found from the result of three observations, after long
+wrestling with lunar tables, that her longitude by observation agreed
+within five miles of that by dead-reckoning.</p>
+
+<p>This was wonderful; both, however, might be in error, but somehow I
+felt confident that both were nearly true, and that in a few hours
+more I should see land; and so it happened, for then I made the island
+of Nukahiva, the southernmost of the Marquesas group, clear-cut and
+lofty. The verified longitude when abreast was somewhere between the
+two reckonings; this was extraordinary. All navigators will tell you
+that from one day to another a ship may lose or gain more than five
+miles in her sailing-account, and again, in the matter of lunars, even
+expert lunarians are considered as doing clever work when they average
+within eight miles of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>I hope I am making it clear that I do not lay claim to cleverness or
+to slavish calculations in my reckonings. I think I have already
+stated that I kept my longitude, at least, mostly by intuition. A
+rotator log always towed astern, but so much has to be allowed for
+currents and for drift, which the log never shows, that it is only an
+approximation, after all, to be corrected by one's own judgment from
+data of a thousand voyages; and even then the master of the ship, if
+he be wise, cries out for the lead and the lookout.</p>
+
+<p>Unique was my experience in nautical astronomy from the deck of the
+<i>Spray</i>&mdash;so much so that I feel justified in briefly telling it here.
+The first set of sights, just spoken of, put her many hundred miles
+west of my reckoning by account. I knew that this could not be
+correct. In about an hour's time I took another set of observations
+with the utmost care; the mean result of these was about the same as
+that of the first set. I asked myself why, with my boasted
+self-dependence, I had not done at least better than this. Then I went
+in search of a discrepancy in the tables, and I found it. In the
+tables I found that the column of figures from which I had got an
+important logarithm was in error. It was a matter I could prove beyond
+a doubt, and it made the difference as already stated. The tables
+being corrected, I sailed on with self-reliance unshaken, and with my
+tin clock fast asleep. The result of these observations naturally
+tickled my vanity, for I knew that it was something to stand on a
+great ship's deck and with two assistants take lunar observations
+approximately near the truth. As one of the poorest of American
+sailors, I was proud of the little achievement alone on the sloop,
+even by chance though it may have been.</p>
+
+<p>I was <i>en rapport</i> now with my surroundings, and was carried on a vast
+stream where I felt the buoyancy of His hand who made all the worlds.
+I realized the mathematical truth of their motions, so well known that
+astronomers compile tables of their positions through the years and
+the days, and the minutes of a day, with such precision that one
+coming along over the sea even five years later may, by their aid,
+find the standard time of any given meridian on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>To find local time is a simpler matter. The difference between local
+and standard time is longitude expressed in time&mdash;four minutes, we all
+know, representing one degree. This, briefly, is the principle on
+which longitude is found independent of chronometers. The work of the
+lunarian, though seldom practised in these days of chronometers, is
+beautifully edifying, and there is nothing in the realm of navigation
+that lifts one's heart up more in adoration.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h3>
+
+<p>Seventy-two days without a port&mdash;Whales and birds&mdash;A peep into the
+<i>Spray's</i> galley&mdash;Flying-fish for breakfast&mdash;A welcome at Apia&mdash;A
+visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson&mdash;At Vailima&mdash;Samoan
+hospitality&mdash;Arrested for fast riding&mdash;An amusing
+merry-go-round&mdash;Teachers and pupils of Papauta College&mdash;At the mercy
+of sea-nymphs.</p>
+
+<p>To be alone forty-three days would seem a long time, but in reality,
+even here, winged moments flew lightly by, and instead of my hauling
+in for Nukahiva, which I could have made as well as not, I kept on for
+Samoa, where I wished to make my next landing. This occupied
+twenty-nine days more, making seventy-two days in all. I was not
+distressed in any way during that time. There was no end of
+companionship; the very coral reefs kept me company, or gave me no
+time to feel lonely, which is the same thing, and there were many of
+them now in my course to Samoa.</p>
+
+<p>First among the incidents of the voyage from Juan Fernandez to Samoa
+(which were not many) was a narrow escape from collision with a great
+whale that was absent-mindedly plowing the ocean at night while I was
+below. The noise from his startled snort and the commotion he made in
+the sea, as he turned to clear my vessel, brought me on deck in time
+to catch a wetting from the water he threw up with his flukes. The
+monster was apparently frightened. He headed quickly for the east; I
+kept on going west. Soon another whale passed, evidently a companion,
+following in its wake. I saw no more on this part of the voyage, nor
+did I wish to.</p>
+
+<p><a name="meeting_with" id="meeting_with"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 366px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_151_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_151.jpg" width="366" height="238" alt="Meeting with the whale" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Meeting with the whale</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Hungry sharks came about the vessel often when she neared islands or
+coral reefs. I own to a satisfaction in shooting them as one would a
+tiger. Sharks, after all, are the tigers of the sea. Nothing is
+more dreadful to the mind of a sailor, I think, than a possible
+encounter with a hungry shark.</p>
+
+<p>A number of birds were always about; occasionally one poised on the
+mast to look the <i>Spray</i> over, wondering, perhaps, at her odd wings,
+for she now wore her Fuego mainsail, which, like Joseph's coat, was
+made of many pieces. Ships are less common on the Southern seas than
+formerly. I saw not one in the many days crossing the Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>My diet on these long passages usually consisted of potatoes and salt
+cod and biscuits, which I made two or three times a week. I had always
+plenty of coffee, tea, sugar, and flour. I carried usually a good
+supply of potatoes, but before reaching Samoa I had a mishap which
+left me destitute of this highly prized sailors' luxury. Through
+meeting at Juan Fernandez the Yankee Portuguese named Manuel Carroza,
+who nearly traded me out of my boots, I ran out of potatoes in
+mid-ocean, and was wretched thereafter. I prided myself on being
+something of a trader; but this Portuguese from the Azores by way of
+New Bedford, who gave me new potatoes for the older ones I had got
+from the <i>Colombia</i>, a bushel or more of the best, left me no ground
+for boasting. He wanted mine, he said, "for changee the seed." When I
+got to sea I found that his tubers were rank and unedible, and full of
+fine yellow streaks of repulsive appearance. I tied the sack up and
+returned to the few left of my old stock, thinking that maybe when I
+got right hungry the island potatoes would improve in flavor. Three
+weeks later I opened the bag again, and out flew millions of winged
+insects! Manuel's potatoes had all turned to moths. I tied them up
+quickly and threw all into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Manuel had a large crop of potatoes on hand, and as a hint to
+whalemen, who are always eager to buy vegetables, he wished me to
+report whales off the island of Juan Fernandez, which I have already
+done, and big ones at that, but they were a long way off.</p>
+
+<p>Taking things by and large, as sailors say, I got on fairly well in
+the matter of provisions even on the long voyage across the Pacific. I
+found always some small stores to help the fare of luxuries; what I
+lacked of fresh meat was made up in fresh fish, at least while in the
+trade-winds, where flying-fish crossing on the wing at night would hit
+the sails and fall on deck, sometimes two or three of them, sometimes
+a dozen. Every morning except when the moon was large I got a
+bountiful supply by merely picking them up from the lee scuppers. All
+tinned meats went begging.</p>
+
+<p>On the 16th of July, after considerable care and some skill and hard
+work, the <i>Spray</i> cast anchor at Apia, in the kingdom of Samoa, about
+noon. My vessel being moored, I spread an awning, and instead of going
+at once on shore I sat under it till late in the evening, listening
+with delight to the musical voices of the Samoan men and women.</p>
+
+<p>A canoe coming down the harbor, with three young women in it, rested
+her paddles abreast the sloop. One of the fair crew, hailing with the
+naive salutation, "Talofa lee" ("Love to you, chief"), asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Schoon come Melike?"</p>
+
+<p>"Love to you," I answered, and said, "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You man come 'lone?"</p>
+
+<p>Again I answered, "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe that. You had other mans, and you eat 'em."</p>
+
+<p>At this sally the others laughed. "What for you come long way?" they
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"To hear you ladies sing," I replied.</p>
+
+<p><a name="first_exchange" id="first_exchange"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_154_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_154.jpg" width="358" height="300" alt="First exchange of courtesies in Samoa." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">First exchange of courtesies in Samoa.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Oh, talofa lee!" they all cried, and sang on. Their voices filled the
+air with music that rolled across to the grove of tall palms on the
+other side of the harbor and back. Soon after this six young men came
+down in the United States consul-general's boat, singing in parts and
+beating time with their oars. In my interview with them I came off
+better than with the damsels in the canoe. They bore an invitation
+from General Churchill for me to come and dine at the consulate. There
+was a lady's hand in things about the consulate at Samoa. Mrs.
+Churchill picked the crew for the general's boat, and saw to it that
+they wore a smart uniform and that they could sing the Samoan
+boatsong, which in the first week Mrs. Churchill herself could sing
+like a native girl.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning bright and early Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson came to the
+<i>Spray</i> and invited me to Vailima the following day. I was of course
+thrilled when I found myself, after so many days of adventure, face to
+face with this bright woman, so lately the companion of the author who
+had delighted me on the voyage. The kindly eyes, that looked me
+through and through, sparkled when we compared notes of adventure. I
+marveled at some of her experiences and escapes. She told me that,
+along with her husband, she had voyaged in all manner of rickety craft
+among the islands of the Pacific, reflectively adding, "Our tastes
+were similar."</p>
+
+<p>Following the subject of voyages, she gave me the four beautiful
+volumes of sailing directories for the Mediterranean, writing on the
+fly-leaf of the first:</p>
+
+<p>To CAPTAIN SLOCUM. These volumes have been read and re-read many times
+by my husband, and I am very sure that he would be pleased that they
+should be passed on to the sort of seafaring man that he liked above
+all others. FANNY V. DE G. STEVENSON.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stevenson also gave me a great directory of the Indian Ocean. It
+was not without a feeling of reverential awe that I received the books
+so nearly direct from the hand of Tusitala, "who sleeps in the
+forest." Aolele, the <i>Spray</i> will cherish your gift.</p>
+
+<p><a name="vailima" id="vailima"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 297px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_156_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_156.jpg" width="297" height="193" alt="Vailima, the home of Robert Louis Stevenson." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Vailima, the home of Robert Louis Stevenson.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The novelist's stepson, Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, walked through the Vailima
+mansion with me and bade me write my letters at the old desk. I
+thought it would be presumptuous to do that; it was sufficient for me
+to enter the hall on the floor of which the "Writer of Tales,"
+according to the Samoan custom, was wont to sit.</p>
+
+<p>Coming through the main street of Apia one day, with my hosts, all
+bound for the <i>Spray</i>, Mrs. Stevenson on horseback, I walking by her
+side, and Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne close in our wake on bicycles, at a
+sudden turn in the road we found ourselves mixed with a remarkable
+native procession, with a somewhat primitive band of music, in front
+of us, while behind was a festival or a funeral, we could not tell
+which. Several of the stoutest men carried bales and bundles on poles.
+Some were evidently bales of tapa-cloth. The burden of one set of
+poles, heavier than the rest, however, was not so easily made out. My
+curiosity was whetted to know whether it was a roast pig or something
+of a gruesome nature, and I inquired about it. "I don't know," said
+Mrs. Stevenson, "whether this is a wedding or a funeral. Whatever it
+is, though, captain, our place seems to be at the head of it."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> being in the stream, we boarded her from the beach
+abreast, in the little razeed Gloucester dory, which had been painted
+a smart green. Our combined weight loaded it gunwale to the water, and
+I was obliged to steer with great care to avoid swamping. The
+adventure pleased Mrs. Stevenson greatly, and as we paddled along she
+sang, "They went to sea in a pea-green boat." I could understand her
+saying of her husband and herself, "Our tastes were similar."</p>
+
+<p>As I sailed farther from the center of civilization I heard less and
+less of what would and what would not pay. Mrs. Stevenson, in speaking
+of my voyage, did not once ask me what I would make out of it. When I
+came to a Samoan village, the chief did not ask the price of gin, or
+say, "How much will you pay for roast pig?" but, "Dollar, dollar,"
+said he; "white man know only dollar."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind dollar. The <i>tapo</i> has prepared ava; let us drink and
+rejoice." The tapo is the virgin hostess of the village; in this
+instance it was Taloa, daughter of the chief. "Our taro is good; let
+us eat. On the tree there is fruit. Let the day go by; why should we
+mourn over that? There are millions of days coming. The breadfruit is
+yellow in the sun, and from the cloth-tree is Taloa's gown. Our house,
+which is good, cost but the labor of building it, and there is no lock
+on the door."</p>
+
+<p>While the days go thus in these Southern islands we at the North are
+struggling for the bare necessities of life.</p>
+
+<p>For food the islanders have only to put out their hand and take what
+nature has provided for them; if they plant a banana-tree, their only
+care afterward is to see that too many trees do not grow. They have
+great reason to love their country and to fear the white man's yoke,
+for once harnessed to the plow, their life would no longer be a poem.</p>
+
+<p>The chief of the village of Caini, who was a tall and dignified Tonga
+man, could be approached only through an interpreter and talking man.
+It was perfectly natural for him to inquire the object of my visit,
+and I was sincere when I told him that my reason for casting anchor in
+Samoa was to see their fine men, and fine women, too. After a
+considerable pause the chief said: "The captain has come a long way to
+see so little; but," he added, "the tapo must sit nearer the captain."
+"Yack," said Taloa, who had so nearly learned to say yes in English,
+and suiting the action to the word, she hitched a peg nearer, all
+hands sitting in a circle upon mats. I was no less taken with the
+chiefs eloquence than delighted with the simplicity of all he said.
+About him there was nothing pompous; he might have been taken for a
+great scholar or statesman, the least assuming of the men I met on the
+voyage. As for Taloa, a sort of Queen of the May, and the other tapo
+girls, well, it is wise to learn as soon as possible the manners and
+customs of these hospitable people, and meanwhile not to mistake for
+over-familiarity that which is intended as honor to a guest. I was
+fortunate in my travels in the islands, and saw nothing to shake one's
+faith in native virtue.</p>
+
+<p>To the unconventional mind the punctilious etiquette of Samoa is
+perhaps a little painful. For instance, I found that in partaking of
+ava, the social bowl, I was supposed to toss a little of the beverage
+over my shoulder, or pretend to do so, and say, "Let the gods drink,"
+and then drink it all myself; and the dish, invariably a
+cocoanut-shell, being empty, I might not pass it politely as we would
+do, but politely throw it twirling across the mats at the tapo.</p>
+
+<p>My most grievous mistake while at the islands was made on a nag,
+which, inspired by a bit of good road, must needs break into a smart
+trot through a village. I was instantly hailed by the chief's deputy,
+who in an angry voice brought me to a halt. Perceiving that I was in
+trouble, I made signs for pardon, the safest thing to do, though I did
+not know what offense I had committed. My interpreter coming up,
+however, put me right, but not until a long palaver had ensued. The
+deputy's hail, liberally translated, was: "Ahoy, there, on the frantic
+steed! Know you not that it is against the law to ride thus through
+the village of our fathers?" I made what apologies I could, and
+offered to dismount and, like my servant, lead my nag by the bridle.
+This, the interpreter told me, would also be a grievous wrong, and so
+I again begged for pardon. I was summoned to appear before a chief;
+but my interpreter, being a wit as well as a bit of a rogue, explained
+that I was myself something of a chief, and should not be detained,
+being on a most important mission. In my own behalf I could only say
+that I was a stranger, but, pleading all this, I knew I still deserved
+to be roasted, at which the chief showed a fine row of teeth and
+seemed pleased, but allowed me to pass on.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_course" id="the_spray_course"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 532px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_160a_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_160a.jpg" width="532" height="210" alt="The Spray&#39;s course fromthe Strait of Magellan to Torres Strait." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray&#39;s course from the Strait of Magellan to Torres Strait.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 528px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_160b_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_160b.jpg" width="528" height="160" alt="The Spray&#39;s course from Australia to South Africa." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray&#39;s course from Australia to South Africa.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The chief of the Tongas and his family at Caini, returning my visit,
+brought presents of tapa-cloth and fruits. Taloa, the princess,
+brought a bottle of cocoanut-oil for my hair, which another man might
+have regarded as coming late.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to entertain on the <i>Spray</i> after the royal manner
+in which I had been received by the chief. His fare had included all
+that the land could afford, fruits, fowl, fishes, and flesh, a hog
+having been roasted whole. I set before them boiled salt pork and salt
+beef, with which I was well supplied, and in the evening took them all
+to a new amusement in the town, a rocking-horse merry-go-round, which
+they called a "kee-kee," meaning theater; and in a spirit of justice
+they pulled off the horses' tails, for the proprietors of the show,
+two hard-fisted countrymen of mine, I grieve to say, unceremoniously
+hustled them off for a new set, almost at the first spin. I was not a
+little proud of my Tonga friends; the chief, finest of them all,
+carried a portentous club. As for the theater, through the greed of
+the proprietors it was becoming unpopular, and the representatives of
+the three great powers, in want of laws which they could enforce,
+adopted a vigorous foreign policy, taxing it twenty-five per cent, on
+the gate-money. This was considered a great stroke of legislative
+reform!</p>
+
+<p>It was the fashion of the native visitors to the <i>Spray</i> to come over
+the bows, where they could reach the head-gear and climb aboard with
+ease, and on going ashore to jump off the stern and swim away; nothing
+could have been more delightfully simple. The modest natives wore
+<i>lava-lava</i> bathing-dresses, a native cloth from the bark of the
+mulberry-tree, and they did no harm to the <i>Spray</i>. In summer-land
+Samoa their coming and going was only a merry every-day scene.  One
+day the head teachers of Papauta College, Miss Schultze and Miss
+Moore, came on board with their ninety-seven young women students.
+They were all dressed in white, and each wore a red rose, and of
+course came in boats or canoes in the cold-climate style. A merrier
+bevy of girls it would be difficult to find. As soon as they got on
+deck, by request of one of the teachers, they sang "The Watch on the
+Rhine," which I had never heard before. "And now," said they all,
+"let's up anchor and away." But I had no inclination to sail from
+Samoa so soon. On leaving the <i>Spray</i> these accomplished young women
+each seized a palm-branch or paddle, or whatever else would serve the
+purpose, and literally paddled her own canoe. Each could have swum as
+readily, and would have done so, I dare say, had it not been for the
+holiday muslin.</p>
+
+<p>It was not uncommon at Apia to see a young woman swimming alongside a
+small canoe with a passenger for the <i>Spray</i>. Mr. Trood, an old Eton
+boy, came in this manner to see me, and he exclaimed, "Was ever king
+ferried in such state?" Then, suiting his action to the sentiment, he
+gave the damsel pieces of silver till the natives watching on shore
+yelled with envy. My own canoe, a small dugout, one day when it had
+rolled over with me, was seized by a party of fair bathers, and before
+I could get my breath, almost, was towed around and around the
+<i>Spray</i>, while I sat in the bottom of it, wondering what they would do
+next. But in this case there were six of them, three on a side, and I
+could not help myself. One of the sprites, I remember, was a young
+English lady, who made more sport of it than any of the others.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h3>
+
+<p>Samoan royalty&mdash;King Malietoa&mdash;Good-by to friends at Vailima&mdash;Leaving
+Fiji to the south&mdash;Arrival at Newcastle, Australia&mdash;The yachts of
+Sydney&mdash;A ducking on the <i>Spray</i>&mdash;Commodore Foy presents the sloop
+with a new suit of sails&mdash;On to Melbourne&mdash;A shark that proved to be
+valuable&mdash;A change of course&mdash;The "Rain of Blood"&mdash;In Tasmania.</p>
+
+<p>At Apia I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. A. Young, the father of the
+late Queen Margaret, who was Queen of Manua from 1891 to 1895. Her
+grandfather was an English sailor who married a princess. Mr. Young is
+now the only survivor of the family, two of his children, the last of
+them all, having been lost in an island trader which a few months
+before had sailed, never to return. Mr. Young was a Christian
+gentleman, and his daughter Margaret was accomplished in graces that
+would become any lady. It was with pain that I saw in the newspapers a
+sensational account of her life and death, taken evidently from a
+paper in the supposed interest of a benevolent society, but without
+foundation in fact. And the startling head-lines saying, "Queen
+Margaret of Manua is dead," could hardly be called news in 1898, the
+queen having then been dead three years.</p>
+
+<p>While hobnobbing, as it were, with royalty, I called on the king
+himself, the late Malietoa. King Malietoa was a great ruler; he never
+got less than forty-five dollars a month for the job, as he told me
+himself, and this amount had lately been raised, so that he could live
+on the fat of the land and not any longer be called "Tin-of-salmon
+Malietoa" by graceless beach-combers.</p>
+
+<p>As my interpreter and I entered the front door of the palace, the
+king's brother, who was viceroy, sneaked in through a taro-patch by
+the back way, and sat cowering by the door while I told my story to
+the king. Mr. W&mdash;-of New York, a gentleman interested in missionary
+work, had charged me, when I sailed, to give his remembrance to the
+king of the Cannibal Islands, other islands of course being meant; but
+the good King Malietoa, notwithstanding that his people have not eaten
+a missionary in a hundred years, received the message himself, and
+seemed greatly pleased to hear so directly from the publishers of the
+"Missionary Review," and wished me to make his compliments in return.
+His Majesty then excused himself, while I talked with his daughter,
+the beautiful Faamu-Sami (a name signifying "To make the sea burn"),
+and soon reappeared in the full-dress uniform of the German
+commander-in-chief, Emperor William himself; for, stupidly enough, I
+had not sent my credentials ahead that the king might be in full
+regalia to receive me. Calling a few days later to say good-by to
+Faamu-Sami, I saw King Malietoa for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>Of the landmarks in the pleasant town of Apia, my memory rests first
+on the little school just back of the London Missionary Society
+coffee-house and reading-rooms, where Mrs. Bell taught English to
+about a hundred native children, boys and girls. Brighter children you
+will not find anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, children," said Mrs. Bell, when I called one day, "let us show
+the captain that we know something about the Cape Horn he passed in
+the <i>Spray</i>" at which a lad of nine or ten years stepped nimbly
+forward and read Basil Hall's fine description of the great cape, and
+read it well. He afterward copied the essay for me in a clear hand.</p>
+
+<p>Calling to say good-by to my friends at Vailima, I met Mrs. Stevenson
+in her Panama hat, and went over the estate with her. Men were at work
+clearing the land, and to one of them she gave an order to cut a
+couple of bamboo-trees for the <i>Spray</i> from a clump she had planted
+four years before, and which had grown to the height of sixty feet. I
+used them for spare spars, and the butt of one made a serviceable
+jib-boom on the homeward voyage. I had then only to take ava with the
+family and be ready for sea. This ceremony, important among Samoans,
+was conducted after the native fashion. A Triton horn was sounded to
+let us know when the beverage was ready, and in response we all
+clapped hands. The bout being in honor of the <i>Spray</i>, it was my turn
+first, after the custom of the country, to spill a little over my
+shoulder; but having forgotten the Samoan for "Let the gods drink," I
+repeated the equivalent in Russian and Chinook, as I remembered a word
+in each, whereupon Mr. Osbourne pronounced me a confirmed Samoan. Then
+I said "Tofah!" to my good friends of Samoa, and all wishing the
+<i>Spray</i> <i>bon voyage</i>, she stood out of the harbor August 20, 1896, and
+continued on her course. A sense of loneliness seized upon me as the
+islands faded astern, and as a remedy for it I crowded on sail for
+lovely Australia, which was not a strange land to me; but for long
+days in my dreams Vailima stood before the prow.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> had barely cleared the islands when a sudden burst of the
+trades brought her down to close reefs, and she reeled off one hundred
+and eighty-four miles the first day, of which I counted forty miles of
+current in her favor. Finding a rough sea, I swung her off free and
+sailed north of the Horn Islands, also north of Fiji instead of south,
+as I had intended, and coasted down the west side of the archipelago.
+Thence I sailed direct for New South Wales, passing south of New
+Caledonia, and arrived at Newcastle after a passage of forty-two days,
+mostly of storms and gales.</p>
+
+<p>One particularly severe gale encountered near New Caledonia foundered
+the American clipper-ship <i>Patrician</i> farther south. Again, nearer the
+coast of Australia, when, however, I was not aware that the gale was
+extraordinary, a French mail-steamer from New Caledonia for Sydney,
+blown considerably out of her course, on her arrival reported it an
+awful storm, and to inquiring friends said: "Oh, my! we don't know
+what has become of the little sloop <i>Spray</i>. We saw her in the thick
+of the storm." The <i>Spray</i> was all right, lying to like a duck. She
+was under a goose's wing mainsail, and had had a dry deck while the
+passengers on the steamer, I heard later, were up to their knees in
+water in the saloon. When their ship arrived at Sydney they gave the
+captain a purse of gold for his skill and seamanship in bringing them
+safe into port. The captain of the <i>Spray</i> got nothing of this sort.
+In this gale I made the land about Seal Rocks, where the steamship
+<i>Catherton</i>, with many lives, was lost a short time before. I was many
+hours off the rocks, beating back and forth, but weathered them at
+last.</p>
+
+<p>I arrived at Newcastle in the teeth of a gale of wind. It was a stormy
+season. The government pilot, Captain Cumming, met me at the harbor
+bar, and with the assistance of a steamer carried my vessel to a safe
+berth. Many visitors came on board, the first being the United States
+consul, Mr. Brown. Nothing was too good for the <i>Spray</i> here. All
+government dues were remitted, and after I had rested a few days a
+port pilot with a tug carried her to sea again, and she made along the
+coast toward the harbor of Sydney, where she arrived on the following
+day, October 10, 1896.</p>
+
+<p>I came to in a snug cove near Manly for the night, the Sydney harbor
+police-boat giving me a pluck into anchorage while they gathered data
+from an old scrap-book of mine, which seemed to interest them. Nothing
+escapes the vigilance of the New South Wales police; their reputation
+is known the world over. They made a shrewd guess that I could give
+them some useful information, and they were the first to meet me. Some
+one said they came to arrest me, and&mdash;well, let it go at that.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_accident" id="the_accident"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 357px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_169_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_169.jpg" width="357" height="502" alt="The accident at Sydney." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The accident at Sydney.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Summer was approaching, and the harbor of Sydney was blooming with
+yachts. Some of them came down to the weather-beaten <i>Spray</i> and
+sailed round her at Shelcote, where she took a berth for a few days.
+At Sydney I was at once among friends. The <i>Spray</i> remained at the
+various watering-places in the great port for several weeks, and was
+visited by many agreeable people, frequently by officers of H.M.S.
+<i>Orlando</i> and their friends. Captain Fisher, the commander, with a
+party of young ladies from the city and gentlemen belonging to his
+ship, came one day to pay me a visit in the midst of a deluge of rain.
+I never saw it rain harder even in Australia. But they were out for
+fun, and rain could not dampen their feelings, however hard it
+poured. But, as ill luck would have it, a young gentleman of another
+party on board, in the full uniform of a very great yacht club, with
+brass buttons enough to sink him, stepping quickly to get out of the
+wet, tumbled holus-bolus, head and heels, into a barrel of water I had
+been coopering, and being a short man, was soon out of sight, and
+nearly drowned before he was rescued. It was the nearest to a casualty
+on the <i>Spray</i> in her whole course, so far as I know. The young man
+having come on board with compliments made the mishap most
+embarrassing. It had been decided by his club that the <i>Spray</i> could
+not be officially recognized, for the reason that she brought no
+letters from yacht-clubs in America, and so I say it seemed all the
+more embarrassing and strange that I should have caught at least one
+of the members, in a barrel, and, too, when I was not fishing for
+yachtsmen.</p>
+
+<p>The typical Sydney boat is a handy sloop of great beam and enormous
+sail-carrying power; but a capsize is not uncommon, for they carry
+sail like vikings. In Sydney I saw all manner of craft, from the smart
+steam-launch and sailing-cutter to the smaller sloop and canoe
+pleasuring on the bay. Everybody owned a boat. If a boy in Australia
+has not the means to buy him a boat he builds one, and it is usually
+one not to be ashamed of. The <i>Spray</i> shed her Joseph's coat, the
+Fuego mainsail, in Sydney, and wearing a new suit, the handsome
+present of Commodore Foy, she was flagship of the Johnstone's Bay
+Flying Squadron when the circumnavigators of Sydney harbor sailed in
+their annual regatta. They "recognized" the <i>Spray</i> as belonging to "a
+club of her own," and with more Australian sentiment than
+fastidiousness gave her credit for her record.</p>
+
+<p>Time flew fast those days in Australia, and it was December 6,1896,
+when the <i>Spray</i> sailed from Sydney. My intention was now to sail
+around Cape Leeuwin direct for Mauritius on my way home, and so I
+coasted along toward Bass Strait in that direction.</p>
+
+<p>There was little to report on this part of the voyage, except
+changeable winds, "busters," and rough seas. The 12th of December,
+however, was an exceptional day, with a fine coast wind, northeast.
+The <i>Spray</i> early in the morning passed Twofold Bay and later Cape
+Bundooro in a smooth sea with land close aboard. The lighthouse on the
+cape dipped a flag to the <i>Spray's</i> flag, and children on the
+balconies of a cottage near the shore waved handkerchiefs as she
+passed by. There were only a few people all told on the shore, but the
+scene was a happy one. I saw festoons of evergreen in token of
+Christmas, near at hand. I saluted the merrymakers, wishing them a
+"Merry Christmas." and could hear them say, "I wish you the same."</p>
+
+<p>From Cape Bundooro I passed by Cliff Island in Bass Strait, and
+exchanged signals with the light-keepers while the <i>Spray</i> worked up
+under the island. The wind howled that day while the sea broke over
+their rocky home.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later, December 17, the <i>Spray</i> came in close under
+Wilson's Promontory, again seeking shelter. The keeper of the light at
+that station, Mr. J. Clark, came on board and gave me directions for
+Waterloo Bay, about three miles to leeward, for which I bore up at
+once, finding good anchorage there in a sandy cove protected from all
+westerly and northerly winds.</p>
+
+<p>Anchored here was the ketch <i>Secret</i>, a fisherman, and the <i>Mary</i> of
+Sydney, a steam ferry-boat fitted for whaling. The captain of the
+<i>Mary</i> was a genius, and an Australian genius at that, and smart. His
+crew, from a sawmill up the coast, had not one of them seen a live
+whale when they shipped; but they were boatmen after an Australian's
+own heart, and the captain had told them that to kill a whale was no
+more than to kill a rabbit. They believed him, and that settled it. As
+luck would have it, the very first one they saw on their cruise,
+although an ugly humpback, was a dead whale in no time, Captain Young,
+the master of the <i>Mary</i>, killing the monster at a single thrust of a
+harpoon. It was taken in tow for Sydney, where they put it on
+exhibition. Nothing but whales interested the crew of the gallant
+<i>Mary</i>, and they spent most of their time here gathering fuel along
+shore for a cruise on the grounds off Tasmania. Whenever the word
+"whale" was mentioned in the hearing of these men their eyes glistened
+with excitement.</p>
+
+<p><a name="captain_slocum_working" id="captain_slocum_working"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 365px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_173_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_173.jpg" width="365" height="353" alt="Captain Slocum working the Spray out of the Yarrow
+River, a part of Melbourne harbor." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Captain Slocum working the Spray out of the Yarrow
+River, a part of Melbourne harbor.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We spent three days in the quiet cove, listening to the wind outside.
+Meanwhile Captain Young and I explored the shores, visited abandoned
+miners' pits, and prospected for gold ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>Our vessels, parting company the morning they sailed, stood away like
+sea-birds each on its own course. The wind for a few days was
+moderate, and, with unusual luck of fine weather, the <i>Spray</i> made
+Melbourne Heads on the 22d of December, and, taken in tow by the
+steam-tug Racer, was brought into port.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas day was spent at a berth in the river Yarrow, but I lost
+little time in shifting to St. Kilda, where I spent nearly a month.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> paid no port charges in Australia or anywhere else on the
+voyage, except at Pernambuco, till she poked her nose into the
+custom-house at Melbourne, where she was charged tonnage dues; in this
+instance, sixpence a ton on the gross. The collector exacted six
+shillings and sixpence, taking off nothing for the fraction under
+thirteen tons, her exact gross being 12.70 tons. I squared the matter
+by charging people sixpence each for coming on board, and when this
+business got dull I caught a shark and charged them sixpence each to
+look at that. The shark was twelve feet six inches in length, and
+carried a progeny of twenty-six, not one of them less than two feet in
+length. A slit of a knife let them out in a canoe full of water,
+which, changed constantly, kept them alive one whole day. In less than
+an hour from the time I heard of the ugly brute it was on deck and on
+exhibition, with rather more than the amount of the <i>Spray's</i> tonnage
+dues already collected. Then I hired a good Irishman, Tom Howard by
+name,&mdash;who knew all about sharks, both on the land and in the sea, and
+could talk about them,&mdash;to answer questions and lecture. When I found
+that I could not keep abreast of the questions I turned the
+responsibility over to him.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_shark" id="the_shark"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 532px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_175_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_175.jpg" width="532" height="372" alt="The shark on the deck of the Spray." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The shark on the deck of the Spray.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Returning from the bank, where I had been to deposit money early in
+the day, I found Howard in the midst of a very excited crowd, telling
+imaginary habits of the fish. It was a good show; the people wished to
+see it, and it was my wish that they should; but owing to his
+over-stimulated enthusiasm, I was obliged to let Howard resign. The
+income from the show and the proceeds of the tallow I had gathered in
+the Strait of Magellan, the last of which I had disposed of to a
+German soap-boiler at Samoa, put me in ample funds.</p>
+
+<p>January 24, 1897, found the <i>Spray</i> again in tow of the tug <i>Racer</i>,
+leaving Hobson's Bay after a pleasant time in Melbourne and St. Kilda,
+which had been protracted by a succession of southwest winds that
+seemed never-ending.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer months, that is, December, January, February, and
+sometimes March, east winds are prevalent through Bass Strait and
+round Cape Leeuwin; but owing to a vast amount of ice drifting up from
+the Antarctic, this was all changed now and emphasized with much bad
+weather, so much so that I considered it impracticable to pursue the
+course farther. Therefore, instead of thrashing round cold and stormy
+Cape Leeuwin, I decided to spend a pleasanter and more profitable time
+in Tasmania, waiting for the season for favorable winds through Torres
+Strait, by way of the Great Barrier Reef, the route I finally decided
+on. To sail this course would be taking advantage of anticyclones,
+which never fail, and besides it would give me the chance to put foot
+on the shores of Tasmania, round which I had sailed years before.</p>
+
+<p>I should mention that while I was at Melbourne there occurred one of
+those extraordinary storms sometimes called "rain of blood," the first
+of the kind in many years about Australia. The "blood" came from a
+fine brick-dust matter afloat in the air from the deserts. A
+rain-storm setting in brought down this dust simply as mud; it fell in
+such quantities that a bucketful was collected from the sloop's
+awnings, which were spread at the time. When the wind blew hard and I
+was obliged to furl awnings, her sails, unprotected on the booms, got
+mud-stained from clue to earing.</p>
+
+<p>The phenomena of dust-storms, well understood by scientists, are not
+uncommon on the coast of Africa. Reaching some distance out over the
+sea, they frequently cover the track of ships, as in the case of the
+one through which the <i>Spray</i> passed in the earlier part of her
+voyage. Sailors no longer regard them with superstitious fear, but our
+credulous brothers on the land cry out "Rain of blood!" at the first
+splash of the awful mud.</p>
+
+<p>The rip off Port Phillip Heads, a wild place, was rough when the
+<i>Spray</i> entered Hobson's Bay from the sea, and was rougher when she
+stood out. But, with sea-room and under sail, she made good weather
+immediately after passing it. It was only a few hours' sail to
+Tasmania across the strait, the wind being fair and blowing hard. I
+carried the St. Kilda shark along, stuffed with hay, and disposed of
+it to Professor Porter, the curator of the Victoria Museum of
+Launceston, which is at the head of the Tamar. For many a long day to
+come may be seen there the shark of St. Kilda. Alas! the good but
+mistaken people of St. Kilda, when the illustrated journals with
+pictures of my shark reached their news-stands, flew into a passion,
+and swept all papers containing mention of fish into the fire; for St.
+Kilda was a watering-place&mdash;and the idea of a shark <i>there</i>! But my
+show went on.</p>
+
+<p><a name="on_board" id="on_board"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 505px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_178_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_178.jpg" width="505" height="340" alt="On board at St. Kilda. Retracing on the chart the
+course of the Spray from Boston." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">On board at St. Kilda. Retracing on the chart the
+course of the Spray from Boston.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> was berthed on the beach at a small jetty at Launceston
+while the tide driven in by the gale that brought her up the river was
+unusually high; and she lay there hard and fast, with not enough water
+around her at any time after to wet one's feet till she was ready to
+sail; then, to float her, the ground was dug from under her keel.</p>
+
+<p>In this snug place I left her in charge of three children, while I
+made journeys among the hills and rested my bones, for the coming
+voyage, on the moss-covered rocks at the gorge hard by, and among the
+ferns I found wherever I went. My vessel was well taken care of. I
+never returned without finding that the decks had been washed and that
+one of the children, my nearest neighbor's little girl from across the
+road, was at the gangway attending to visitors, while the others, a
+brother and sister, sold marine curios such as were in the cargo, on
+"ship's account." They were a bright, cheerful crew, and people came a
+long way to hear them tell the story of the voyage, and of the
+monsters of the deep "the captain had slain." I had only to keep
+myself away to be a hero of the first water; and it suited me very
+well to do so and to rusticate in the forests and among the streams.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h3>
+
+<p>A testimonial from a lady&mdash;Cruising round Tasmania&mdash;The skipper
+delivers his first lecture on the voyage&mdash;Abundant provisions-An
+inspection of the <i>Spray</i> for safety at Devonport&mdash;Again at
+Sydney&mdash;Northward bound for Torres Strait&mdash;An amateur
+shipwreck&mdash;Friends on the Australian coast&mdash;Perils of a coral sea.</p>
+
+<p>February 1,1897, on returning to my vessel I found waiting for me the
+letter of sympathy which I subjoin:</p>
+
+<p>A lady sends Mr. Slocum the inclosed five-pound note as a token of her
+appreciation of his bravery in crossing the wide seas on so small a
+boat, and all alone, without human sympathy to help when danger
+threatened. All success to you.</p>
+
+<p>To this day I do not know who wrote it or to whom I am indebted for
+the generous gift it contained. I could not refuse a thing so kindly
+meant, but promised myself to pass it on with interest at the first
+opportunity, and this I did before leaving Australia.</p>
+
+<p>The season of fair weather around the north of Australia being yet a
+long way off, I sailed to other ports in Tasmania, where it is fine
+the year round, the first of these being Beauty Point, near which are
+Beaconsfield and the great Tasmania gold-mine, which I visited in
+turn. I saw much gray, uninteresting rock being hoisted out of the
+mine there, and hundreds of stamps crushing it into powder. People
+told me there was gold in it, and I believed what they said.</p>
+
+<p>I remember Beauty Point for its shady forest and for the road among
+the tall gum-trees. While there the governor of New South Wales, Lord
+Hampden, and his family came in on a steam-yacht, sight-seeing. The
+<i>Spray</i>, anchored near the landing-pier, threw her bunting out, of
+course, and probably a more insignificant craft bearing the Stars and
+Stripes was never seen in those waters. However, the governor's party
+seemed to know why it floated there, and all about the <i>Spray</i>, and
+when I heard his Excellency say, "Introduce me to the captain," or
+"Introduce the captain to me," whichever it was, I found myself at
+once in the presence of a gentleman and a friend, and one greatly
+interested in my voyage. If any one of the party was more interested
+than the governor himself, it was the Honorable Margaret, his
+daughter. On leaving, Lord and Lady Hampden promised to rendezvous
+with me on board the <i>Spray</i> at the Paris Exposition in 1900. "If we
+live," they said, and I added, for my part, "Dangers of the seas
+excepted."</p>
+
+<p>From Beauty Point the <i>Spray</i> visited Georgetown, near the mouth of
+the river Tamar. This little settlement, I believe, marks the place
+where the first footprints were made by whites in Tasmania, though it
+never grew to be more than a hamlet.</p>
+
+<p>Considering that I had seen something of the world, and finding people
+here interested in adventure, I talked the matter over before my first
+audience in a little hall by the country road. A piano having been
+brought in from a neighbor's, I was helped out by the severe thumping
+it got, and by a "Tommy Atkins" song from a strolling comedian. People
+came from a great distance, and the attendance all told netted the
+house about three pounds sterling. The owner of the hall, a kind lady
+from Scotland, would take no rent, and so my lecture from the start
+was a success.</p>
+
+<p>From this snug little place I made sail for Devonport, a thriving
+place on the river Mersey, a few hours' sail westward along the coast,
+and fast becoming the most important port in Tasmania. Large steamers
+enter there now and carry away great cargoes of farm produce, but the
+<i>Spray</i> was the first vessel to bring the Stars and Stripes to the
+port, the harbor-master, Captain Murray, told me, and so it is written
+in the port records. For the great distinction the <i>Spray</i> enjoyed
+many civilities while she rode comfortably at anchor in her
+port-duster awning that covered her from stem to stern.</p>
+
+<p>From the magistrate's house, "Malunnah," on the point, she was saluted
+by the Jack both on coming in and on going out, and dear Mrs.
+Aikenhead, the mistress of Malunnah, supplied the <i>Spray</i> with jams
+and jellies of all sorts, by the case, prepared from the fruits of her
+own rich garden&mdash;enough to last all the way home and to spare. Mrs.
+Wood, farther up the harbor, put up bottles of raspberry wine for me.
+At this point, more than ever before, I was in the land of good cheer.
+Mrs. Powell sent on board chutney prepared "as we prepare it in
+India." Fish, and game were plentiful here, and the voice of the
+gobbler was heard, and from Pardo, farther up the country, came an
+enormous cheese; and yet people inquire: "What did you live on? What
+did you eat?"</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_port" id="the_spray_port"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 359px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_183_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_183.jpg" width="359" height="354" alt="The Spray in her port duster at Devonport, Tasmania,
+February 22, 1897." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray in her port duster at Devonport, Tasmania,
+February 22, 1897.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I was haunted by the beauty of the landscape all about, of the natural
+ferneries then disappearing, and of the domed forest-trees on the
+slopes, and was fortunate in meeting a gentleman intent on preserving
+in art the beauties of his country. He presented me with many
+reproductions from his collection of pictures, also many originals, to
+show to my friends.</p>
+
+<p>By another gentleman I was charged to tell the glories of Tasmania in
+every land and on every occasion. This was Dr. McCall, M. L. C. The
+doctor gave me useful hints on lecturing. It was not without
+misgivings, however, that I filled away on this new course, and I am
+free to say that it is only by the kindness of sympathetic audiences
+that my oratorical bark was held on even keel. Soon after my first
+talk the kind doctor came to me with words of approval. As in many
+other of my enterprises, I had gone about it at once and without
+second thought. "Man, man," said he, "great nervousness is only a sign
+of brain, and the more brain a man has the longer it takes him to get
+over the affliction; but," he added reflectively, "you will get over
+it." However, in my own behalf I think it only fair to say that I am
+not yet entirely cured.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> was hauled out on the marine railway at Devonport and
+examined carefully top and bottom, but was found absolutely free from
+the destructive teredo, and sound in all respects. To protect her
+further against the ravage of these insects the bottom was coated once
+more with copper paint, for she would have to sail through the Coral
+and Arafura seas before refitting again. Everything was done to fit
+her for all the known dangers. But it was not without regret that I
+looked forward to the day of sailing from a country of so many
+pleasant associations. If there was a moment in my voyage when I could
+have given it up, it was there and then; but no vacancies for a better
+post being open, I weighed anchor April 16,1897, and again put to sea.</p>
+
+<p>The season of summer was then over; winter was rolling up from the
+south, with fair winds for the north. A foretaste of winter wind sent
+the <i>Spray</i> flying round Cape Howe and as far as Cape Bundooro farther
+along, which she passed on the following day, retracing her course
+northward. This was a fine run, and boded good for the long voyage
+home from the antipodes. My old Christmas friends on Bundooro seemed
+to be up and moving when I came the second time by their cape, and we
+exchanged signals again, while the sloop sailed along as before in a
+smooth sea and close to the shore.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was fine, with clear sky the rest of the passage to Port
+Jackson (Sydney), where the <i>Spray</i> arrived April 22, 1897, and
+anchored in Watson's Bay, near the heads, in eight fathoms of water.
+The harbor from the heads to Parramatta, up the river, was more than
+ever alive with boats and yachts of every class. It was, indeed, a
+scene of animation, hardly equaled in any other part of the world.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later the bay was flecked with tempestuous waves, and none
+but stout ships carried sail. I was in a neighboring hotel then,
+nursing a neuralgia which I had picked up alongshore, and had only
+that moment got a glance of just the stern of a large, unmanageable
+steamship passing the range of my window as she forged in by the
+point, when the bell-boy burst into my room shouting that the <i>Spray</i>
+had "gone bung." I tumbled out quickly, to learn that "bung" meant
+that a large steamship had run into her, and that it was the one of
+which I saw the stern, the other end of her having hit the <i>Spray</i>. It
+turned out, however, that no damage was done beyond the loss of an
+anchor and chain, which from the shock of the collision had parted at
+the hawse. I had nothing at all to complain of, though, in the end,
+for the captain, after he clubbed his ship, took the <i>Spray</i> in tow up
+the harbor, clear of all dangers, and sent her back again, in charge
+of an officer and three men, to her anchorage in the bay, with a
+polite note saying he would repair any damages done. But what yawing
+about she made of it when she came with a stranger at the helm! Her
+old friend the pilot of the <i>Pinta</i> would not have been guilty of such
+lubberly work. But to my great delight they got her into a berth, and
+the neuralgia left me then, or was forgotten. The captain of the
+steamer, like a true seaman, kept his word, and his agent, Mr.
+Collishaw handed me on the very next day the price of the lost anchor
+and chain, with something over for anxiety of mind. I remember that he
+offered me twelve pounds at once; but my lucky number being thirteen,
+we made the amount thirteen pounds, which squared all accounts.</p>
+
+<p>I sailed again, May 9, before a strong southwest wind, which sent the
+<i>Spray</i> gallantly on as far as Port Stevens, where it fell calm and
+then came up ahead; but the weather was fine, and so remained for many
+days, which was a great change from the state of the weather
+experienced here some months before.</p>
+
+<p>Having a full set of admiralty sheet-charts of the coast and Barrier
+Reef, I felt easy in mind. Captain Fisher, R.N., who had steamed
+through the Barrier passages in H. M. S. <i>Orlando</i>, advised me from
+the first to take this route, and I did not regret coming back to it
+now.</p>
+
+<p>The wind, for a few days after passing Port Stevens, Seal Rocks, and
+Cape Hawk, was light and dead ahead; but these points are photographed
+on my memory from the trial of beating round them some months before
+when bound the other way. But now, with a good stock of books on
+board, I fell to reading day and night, leaving this pleasant
+occupation merely to trim sails or tack, or to lie down and rest,
+while the <i>Spray</i> nibbled at the miles. I tried to compare my state
+with that of old circumnavigators, who sailed exactly over the route
+which I took from Cape Verde Islands or farther back to this point and
+beyond, but there was no comparison so far as I had got. Their
+hardships and romantic escapes&mdash;those of them who escaped death and
+worse sufferings&mdash;did not enter into my experience, sailing all alone
+around the world. For me is left to tell only of pleasant experiences,
+till finally my adventures are prosy and tame.</p>
+
+<p>I had just finished reading some of the most interesting of the old
+voyages in woe-begone ships, and was already near Port Macquarie, on my
+own cruise, when I made out, May 13, a modern dandy craft in distress,
+anchored on the coast. Standing in for her, I found that she was the
+cutter-yacht <i>Akbar</i><a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a>, which had sailed from Watson's Bay about three
+days ahead of the <i>Spray</i>, and that she had run at once into trouble. No
+wonder she did so. It was a case of babes in the wood or butterflies at
+sea. Her owner, on his maiden voyage, was all duck trousers; the
+captain, distinguished for the enormous yachtsman's cap he wore, was a
+Murrumbidgee<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> whaler before he took command of the <i>Akbar</i>; and the
+navigating officer, poor fellow, was almost as deaf as a post, and
+nearly as stiff and immovable as a post in the ground. These three jolly
+tars comprised the crew. None of them knew more about the sea or about a
+vessel than a newly born babe knows about another world. They were bound
+for New Guinea, so they said; perhaps it was as well that three
+tenderfeet so tender as those never reached that destination.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> <i>Akbar</i> was not her registered name, which need not be
+told</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> The Murrumbidgee is a small river winding among the
+mountains of Australia, and would be the last place in which to look for
+a whale.</p></div>
+
+<p><a name="is_it" id="is_it"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 259px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_188_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_188.jpg" width="259" height="459" alt="&quot;&#39;Is it a-goin&#39; to blow?&#39;&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;Is it a-goin&#39; to blow?&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The owner, whom I had met before he sailed, wanted to race the poor
+old <i>Spray</i> to Thursday Island en route. I declined the challenge,
+naturally, on the ground of the unfairness of three young yachtsmen in
+a clipper against an old sailor all alone in a craft of coarse build;
+besides that, I would not on any account race in the Coral Sea.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Spray</i> ahoy!" they all hailed now. "What's the weather goin' t' be?
+Is it a-goin' to blow? And don't you think we'd better go back t'
+r-r-refit?"</p>
+
+<p>I thought, "If ever you get back, don't refit," but I said: "Give me
+the end of a rope, and I'll tow you into yon port farther along; and
+on your lives," I urged, "do not go back round Cape Hawk, for it's
+winter to the south of it."</p>
+
+<p>They purposed making for Newcastle under jury-sails; for their
+mainsail had been blown to ribbons, even the jigger had been blown
+away, and her rigging flew at loose ends. The <i>Akbar</i>, in a word, was
+a wreck.</p>
+
+<p>"Up anchor," I shouted, "up anchor, and let me tow you into Port
+Macquarie, twelve miles north of this."</p>
+
+<p>"No," cried the owner; "we'll go back to Newcastle. We missed
+Newcastle on the way coming; we didn't see the light, and it was not
+thick, either." This he shouted very loud, ostensibly for my hearing,
+but closer even than necessary, I thought, to the ear of the
+navigating officer. Again I tried to persuade them to be towed into
+the port of refuge so near at hand. It would have cost them only the
+trouble of weighing their anchor and passing me a rope; of this I
+assured them, but they declined even this, in sheer ignorance of a
+rational course.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your depth of water?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't know; we lost our lead. All the chain is out. We sounded with
+the anchor."</p>
+
+<p>"Send your dinghy over, and I'll give you a lead."</p>
+
+<p>"We've lost our dinghy, too," they cried.</p>
+
+<p>"God is good, else you would have lost yourselves," and "Farewell" was
+all I could say.</p>
+
+<p>The trifling service proffered by the <i>Spray</i> would have saved their
+vessel.</p>
+
+<p>"Report us," they cried, as I stood on&mdash;"report us with sails blown
+away, and that we don't care a dash and are not afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is no hope for you," and again "Farewell." I promised I
+would report them, and did so at the first opportunity, and out of
+humane reasons I do so again. On the following day I spoke the
+steamship <i>Sherman,</i> bound down the coast, and reported the yacht in
+distress and that it would be an act of humanity to tow her somewhere
+away from her exposed position on an open coast. That she did not get
+a tow from the steamer was from no lack of funds to pay the bill; for
+the owner, lately heir to a few hundred pounds, had the money with
+him. The proposed voyage to New Guinea was to look that island over
+with a view to its purchase. It was about eighteen days before I heard
+of the <i>Akbar</i> again, which was on the 31st of May, when I reached
+Cooktown, on the Endeavor River, where I found this news:</p>
+
+<p>May 31, the yacht <i>Akbar,</i> from Sydney for New Guinea, three hands on
+board, lost at Crescent Head; the crew saved.</p>
+
+<p>So it took them several days to lose the yacht, after all.</p>
+
+<p>After speaking the distressed <i>Akbar</i> and the <i>Sherman</i>, the voyage
+for many days was uneventful save in the pleasant incident on May 16
+of a chat by signal with the people on South Solitary Island, a dreary
+stone heap in the ocean just off the coast of New South Wales, in
+latitude 30 degrees 12' south.</p>
+
+<p>"What vessel is that?" they asked, as the sloop came abreast of their
+island. For answer I tried them with the Stars and Stripes at the
+peak. Down came their signals at once, and up went the British ensign
+instead, which they dipped heartily. I understood from this that they
+made out my vessel and knew all about her, for they asked no more
+questions. They didn't even ask if the "voyage would pay," but they
+threw out this friendly message, "Wishing you a pleasant voyage,"
+which at that very moment I was having.</p>
+
+<p>May 19 the <i>Spray</i>, passing the Tweed River, was signaled from Danger
+Point, where those on shore seemed most anxious about the state of my
+health, for they asked if "all hands" were well, to which I could say,
+"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>On the following day the <i>Spray</i> rounded Great Sandy Cape, and, what
+is a notable event in every voyage, picked up the trade-winds, and
+these winds followed her now for many thousands of miles, never
+ceasing to blow from a moderate gale to a mild summer breeze, except
+at rare intervals.</p>
+
+<p>From the pitch of the cape was a noble light seen twenty-seven miles;
+passing from this to Lady Elliott Light, which stands on an island as
+a sentinel at the gateway of the Barrier Reef, the <i>Spray</i> was at once
+in the fairway leading north. Poets have sung of beacon-light and of
+pharos, but did ever poet behold a great light flash up before his
+path on a dark night in the midst of a coral sea? If so, he knew the
+meaning of his song.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> had sailed for hours in suspense, evidently stemming a
+current. Almost mad with doubt, I grasped the helm to throw her head
+off shore, when blazing out of the sea was the light ahead.
+"Excalibur!" cried "all hands," and rejoiced, and sailed on. The
+<i>Spray</i> was now in a protected sea and smooth water, the first she had
+dipped her keel into since leaving Gibraltar, and a change it was from
+the heaving of the misnamed "Pacific" Ocean.</p>
+
+<p>The Pacific is perhaps, upon the whole, no more boisterous than other
+oceans, though I feel quite safe in saying that it is not more pacific
+except in name. It is often wild enough in one part or another. I once
+knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed
+through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man. But where,
+after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves? At
+last here was the <i>Spray</i> in the midst of a sea of coral. The sea
+itself might be called smooth indeed, but coral rocks are always
+rough, sharp, and dangerous. I trusted now to the mercies of the Maker
+of all reefs, keeping a good lookout at the same time for perils on
+every hand.</p>
+
+<p>Lo! the Barrier Reef and the waters of many colors studded all about
+with enchanted islands! I behold among them after all many safe
+harbors, else my vision is astray. On the 24th of May, the sloop,
+having made one hundred and ten miles a day from Danger Point, now
+entered Whitsunday Pass, and that night sailed through among the
+islands. When the sun rose next morning I looked back and regretted
+having gone by while it was dark, for the scenery far astern was
+varied and charming.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h3>
+
+<p>Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland&mdash;A lecture&mdash;Reminiscences of
+Captain Cook&mdash;Lecturing for charity at Cooktown&mdash;A happy escape from a
+coral reef&mdash;Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island&mdash;An American
+pearl-fisherman&mdash;Jubilee at Thursday Island&mdash;A new ensign for the
+<i>Spray</i>&mdash;Booby Island&mdash;Across the Indian Ocean&mdash;Christmas Island.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 26th Gloucester Island was close aboard, and the
+<i>Spray</i> anchored in the evening at Port Denison, where rests, on a
+hill, the sweet little town of Bowen, the future watering place and
+health-resort of Queensland. The country all about here had a
+healthful appearance.</p>
+
+<p>The harbor was easy of approach, spacious and safe, and afforded
+excellent holding-ground. It was quiet in Bowen when the <i>Spray</i>
+arrived, and the good people with an hour to throw away on the second
+evening of her arrival came down to the School of Arts to talk about
+the voyage, it being the latest event. It was duly advertised in the
+two little papers, "Boomerang" and "Nully Nully," in the one the day
+before the affair came off, and in the other the day after, which was
+all the same to the editor, and, for that matter, it was the same to
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this, circulars were distributed with a flourish, and the
+"best bellman" in Australia was employed. But I could have keelhauled
+the wretch, bell and all, when he came to the door of the little hotel
+where my prospective audience and I were dining, and with his
+clattering bell and fiendish yell made noises that would awake the
+dead, all over the voyage of the <i>Spray</i> from "Boston to Bowen, the
+two Hubs in the cart-wheels of creation," as the "Boomerang" afterward
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Myles, magistrate, harbor-master, land commissioner, gold warden,
+etc., was chairman, and introduced me, for what reason I never knew,
+except to embarrass me with a sense of vain ostentation and embitter
+my life, for Heaven knows I had met every person in town the first
+hour ashore. I knew them all by name now, and they all knew me.
+However, Mr. Myles was a good talker. Indeed, I tried to induce him to
+go on and tell the story while I showed the pictures, but this he
+refused to do. I may explain that it was a talk illustrated by
+stereopticon. The views were good, but the lantern, a thirty-shilling
+affair, was wretched, and had only an oil-lamp in it.</p>
+
+<p>I sailed early the next morning before the papers came out, thinking
+it best to do so. They each appeared with a favorable column, however,
+of what they called a lecture, so I learned afterward, and they had a
+kind word for the bellman besides.</p>
+
+<p>From Port Denison the sloop ran before the constant trade-wind, and
+made no stop at all, night or day, till she reached Cooktown, on the
+Endeavor River, where she arrived Monday, May 31, 1897, before a
+furious blast of wind encountered that day fifty miles down the coast.
+On this parallel of latitude is the high ridge and backbone of the
+tradewinds, which about Cooktown amount often to a hard gale.</p>
+
+<p>I had been charged to navigate the route with extra care, and to feel
+my way over the ground. The skilled officer of the royal navy who
+advised me to take the Barrier Reef passage wrote me that H. M. S.
+<i>Orlando</i> steamed nights as well as days through it, but that I, under
+sail, would jeopardize my vessel on coral reefs if I undertook to do
+so.</p>
+
+<p>Confidentially, it would have been no easy matter finding anchorage
+every night. The hard work, too, of getting the sloop under way every
+morning was finished, I had hoped, when she cleared the Strait of
+Magellan. Besides that, the best of admiralty charts made it possible
+to keep on sailing night and day. Indeed, with a fair wind, and in the
+clear weather of that season, the way through the Barrier Reef
+Channel, in all sincerity, was clearer than a highway in a busy city,
+and by all odds less dangerous. But to any one contemplating the
+voyage I would say, beware of reefs day or night, or, remaining on the
+land, be wary still.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>Spray</i> came flying into port like a bird," said the longshore
+daily papers of Cooktown the morning after she arrived; "and it seemed
+strange," they added, "that only one man could be seen on board
+working the craft." The <i>Spray</i> was doing her best, to be sure, for it
+was near night, and she was in haste to find a perch before dark.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_sydney" id="the_spray_sydney"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_197_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_197.jpg" width="344" height="374" alt="The Spray leaving Sydney, Australia, in the new suit
+of sails given by Commodore Foy of Australia. (From a photograph.)" title="" /></a>
+<br />
+<span class="caption">The Spray leaving Sydney, Australia, in the new suit
+of sails given by Commodore Foy of Australia. (From a photograph.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tacking inside of all the craft in port, I moored her at sunset nearly
+abreast the Captain Cook monument, and next morning went ashore to
+feast my eyes on the very stones the great navigator had seen, for I
+was now on a seaman's consecrated ground. But there seemed a question
+in Cooktown's mind as to the exact spot where his ship, the
+<i>Endeavor</i>, hove down for repairs on her memorable voyage around the
+world. Some said it was not at all at the place where the monument now
+stood. A discussion of the subject was going on one morning where I
+happened to be, and a young lady present, turning to me as one of some
+authority in nautical matters, very flatteringly asked my opinion.
+Well, I could see no reason why Captain Cook, if he made up his mind
+to repair his ship inland, couldn't have dredged out a channel to the
+place where the monument now stood, if he had a dredging-machine with
+him, and afterward fill it up again; for Captain Cook could do 'most
+anything, and nobody ever said that he hadn't a dredger along. The
+young lady seemed to lean to my way of thinking, and following up the
+story of the historical voyage, asked if I had visited the point
+farther down the harbor where the great circumnavigator was murdered.
+This took my breath, but a bright school-boy coming along relieved my
+embarrassment, for, like all boys, seeing that information was wanted,
+he volunteered to supply it. Said he: "Captain Cook wasn't murdered
+'ere at all, ma'am; 'e was killed in Hafrica: a lion et 'im."</p>
+
+<p>Here I was reminded of distressful days gone by. I think it was in
+1866 that the old steamship <i>Soushay</i>, from Batavia for Sydney, put in
+at Cooktown for scurvy-grass, as I always thought, and "incidentally"
+to land mails. On her sick-list was my fevered self; and so I didn't
+see the place till I came back on the <i>Spray</i> thirty-one years later.
+And now I saw coming into port the physical wrecks of miners from New
+Guinea, destitute and dying. Many had died on the way and had been
+buried at sea. He would have been a hardened wretch who could look on
+and not try to do something for them.</p>
+
+<p>The sympathy of all went out to these sufferers, but the little town
+was already straitened from a long run on its benevolence. I thought
+of the matter, of the lady's gift to me at Tasmania, which I had
+promised myself I would keep only as a loan, but found now, to my
+embarrassment, that I had invested the money. However, the good
+Cooktown people wished to hear a story of the sea, and how the crew of
+the <i>Spray</i> fared when illness got aboard of her. Accordingly the
+little Presbyterian church on the hill was opened for a conversation;
+everybody talked, and they made a roaring success of it. Judge
+Chester, the magistrate, was at the head of the gam, and so it was
+bound to succeed. He it was who annexed the island of New Guinea to
+Great Britain. "While I was about it," said he, "I annexed the
+blooming lot of it." There was a ring in the statement pleasant to the
+ear of an old voyager. However, the Germans made such a row over the
+judge's mainsail haul that they got a share in the venture.</p>
+
+<p>Well, I was now indebted to the miners of Cooktown for the great
+privilege of adding a mite to a worthy cause, and to Judge Chester all
+the town was indebted for a general good time. The matter standing so,
+I sailed on June 6,1897, heading away for the north as before.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at a very inviting anchorage about sundown, the 7th, I came
+to, for the night, abreast the Claremont light-ship. This was the only
+time throughout the passage of the Barrier Reef Channel that the
+<i>Spray</i> anchored, except at Port Denison and at Endeavor River. On the
+very night following this, however (the 8th), I regretted keenly, for
+an instant, that I had not anchored before dark, as I might have done
+easily under the lee of a coral reef. It happened in this way. The
+<i>Spray</i> had just passed M Reef light-ship, and left the light dipping
+astern, when, going at full speed, with sheets off, she hit the M Reef
+itself on the north end, where I expected to see a beacon.</p>
+
+<p>She swung off quickly on her heel, however, and with one more bound on
+a swell cut across the shoal point so quickly that I hardly knew how
+it was done. The beacon wasn't there; at least, I didn't see it. I
+hadn't time to look for it after she struck, and certainly it didn't
+much matter then whether I saw it or not.</p>
+
+<p>But this gave her a fine departure for Cape Greenville, the next point
+ahead. I saw the ugly boulders under the sloop's keel as she flashed
+over them, and I made a mental note of it that the letter M, for which
+the reef was named, was the thirteenth one in our alphabet, and that
+thirteen, as noted years before, was still my lucky number. The
+natives of Cape Greenville are notoriously bad, and I was advised to
+give them the go-by. Accordingly, from M Reef I steered outside of the
+adjacent islands, to be on the safe side. Skipping along now, the
+<i>Spray</i> passed Home Island, off the pitch of the cape, soon after
+midnight, and squared away on a westerly course. A short time later
+she fell in with a steamer bound south, groping her way in the dark
+and making the night dismal with her own black smoke.</p>
+
+<p>From Home Island I made for Sunday Island, and bringing that abeam,
+shortened sail, not wishing to make Bird Island, farther along, before
+daylight, the wind being still fresh and the islands being low, with
+dangers about them. Wednesday, June 9, 1897, at daylight, Bird Island
+was dead ahead, distant two and a half miles, which I considered near
+enough. A strong current was pressing the sloop forward. I did not
+shorten sail too soon in the night! The first and only Australian
+canoe seen on the voyage was encountered here standing from the
+mainland, with a rag of sail set, bound for this island.</p>
+
+<p>A long, slim fish that leaped on board in the night was found on deck
+this morning. I had it for breakfast. The spry chap was no larger
+around than a herring, which it resembled in every respect, except
+that it was three times as long; but that was so much the better, for
+I am rather fond of fresh herring, anyway. A great number of
+fisher-birds were about this day, which was one of the pleasantest on
+God's earth. The <i>Spray</i>, dancing over the waves, entered Albany Pass
+as the sun drew low in the west over the hills of Australia.</p>
+
+<p>At 7:30 P.M. the <i>Spray</i>, now through the pass, came to anchor in a
+cove in the mainland, near a pearl-fisherman, called the <i>Tarawa</i>,
+which was at anchor, her captain from the deck of his vessel directing
+me to a berth. This done, he at once came on board to clasp hands. The
+<i>Tarawa</i> was a Californian, and Captain Jones, her master, was an
+American.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning Captain Jones brought on board two pairs of
+exquisite pearl shells, the most perfect ones I ever saw. They were
+probably the best he had, for Jones was the heart-yarn of a sailor. He
+assured me that if I would remain a few hours longer some friends from
+Somerset, near by, would pay us all a visit, and one of the crew,
+sorting shells on deck, "guessed" they would. The mate "guessed" so,
+too. The friends came, as even the second mate and cook had "guessed"
+they would. They were Mr. Jardine, stockman, famous throughout the
+land, and his family. Mrs. Jardine was the niece of King Malietoa, and
+cousin to the beautiful Faamu-Sami ("To make the sea burn"), who
+visited the <i>Spray</i> at Apia. Mr. Jardine was himself a fine specimen
+of a Scotsman. With his little family about him, he was content to
+live in this remote place, accumulating the comforts of life.</p>
+
+<p>The fact of the <i>Tarawa</i> having been built in America accounted for
+the crew, boy Jim and all, being such good guessers. Strangely enough,
+though, Captain Jones himself, the only American aboard, was never
+heard to guess at all.</p>
+
+<p>After a pleasant chat and good-by to the people of the <i>Tarawa,</i> and
+to Mr. and Mrs. Jardine, I again weighed anchor and stood across for
+Thursday Island, now in plain view, mid-channel in Torres Strait,
+where I arrived shortly after noon. Here the <i>Spray</i> remained over
+until June 24. Being the only American representative in port, this
+tarry was imperative, for on the 22d was the Queen's diamond jubilee.
+The two days over were, as sailors say, for "coming up."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I spent pleasant days about the island. Mr. Douglas,
+resident magistrate, invited me on a cruise in his steamer one day
+among the islands in Torres Strait. This being a scientific expedition
+in charge of Professor Mason Bailey, botanist, we rambled over Friday
+and Saturday islands, where I got a glimpse of botany. Miss Bailey,
+the professor's daughter, accompanied the expedition, and told me of
+many indigenous plants with long names.</p>
+
+<p>The 22d was the great day on Thursday Island, for then we had not only
+the jubilee, but a jubilee with a grand corroboree in it, Mr. Douglas
+having brought some four hundred native warriors and their wives and
+children across from the mainland to give the celebration the true
+native touch, for when they do a thing on Thursday Island they do it
+with a roar. The corroboree was, at any rate, a howling success. It
+took place at night, and the performers, painted in fantastic colors,
+danced or leaped about before a blazing fire. Some were rigged and
+painted like birds and beasts, in which the emu and kangaroo were well
+represented. One fellow leaped like a frog. Some had the human
+skeleton painted on their bodies, while they jumped about
+threateningly, spear in hand, ready to strike down some imaginary
+enemy. The kangaroo hopped and danced with natural ease and grace,
+making a fine figure. All kept time to music, vocal and instrumental,
+the instruments (save the mark!) being bits of wood, which they beat
+one against the other, and saucer-like bones, held in the palm of the
+hands, which they knocked together, making a dull sound. It was a show
+at once amusing, spectacular, and hideous.</p>
+
+<p>The warrior aborigines that I saw in Queensland were for the most part
+lithe and fairly well built, but they were stamped always with
+repulsive features, and their women were, if possible, still more ill
+favored.</p>
+
+<p>I observed that on the day of the jubilee no foreign flag was waving
+in the public grounds except the Stars and Stripes, which along with
+the Union Jack guarded the gateway, and floated in many places, from
+the tiniest to the standard size. Speaking to Mr. Douglas, I ventured
+a remark on this compliment to my country. "Oh," said he, "this is a
+family affair, and we do not consider the Stars and Stripes a foreign
+flag." The <i>Spray</i> of course flew her best bunting, and hoisted the
+Jack as well as her own noble flag as high as she could.</p>
+
+<p>On June 24 the <i>Spray</i>, well fitted in every way, sailed for the long
+voyage ahead, down the Indian Ocean. Mr. Douglas gave her a flag as
+she was leaving his island. The <i>Spray</i> had now passed nearly all the
+dangers of the Coral Sea and Torres Strait, which, indeed, were not a
+few; and all ahead from this point was plain sailing and a straight
+course. The trade-wind was still blowing fresh, and could be safely
+counted on now down to the coast of Madagascar, if not beyond that,
+for it was still early in the season.</p>
+
+<p>I had no wish to arrive off the Cape of Good Hope before midsummer,
+and it was now early winter. I had been off that cape once in July,
+which was, of course, midwinter there. The stout ship I then commanded
+encountered only fierce hurricanes, and she bore them ill. I wished
+for no winter gales now. It was not that I feared them more, being in
+the <i>Spray</i> instead of a large ship, but that I preferred fine weather
+in any case. It is true that one may encounter heavy gales off the
+Cape of Good Hope at any season of the year, but in the summer they
+are less frequent and do not continue so long. And so with time enough
+before me to admit of a run ashore on the islands en route, I shaped
+the course now for Keeling Cocos, atoll islands, distant twenty-seven
+hundred miles. Taking a departure from Booby Island, which the sloop
+passed early in the day, I decided to sight Timor on the way, an
+island of high mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Booby Island I had seen before, but only once, however, and that was
+when in the steamship <i>Soushay</i>, on which I was "hove-down" in a
+fever. When she steamed along this way I was well enough to crawl on
+deck to look at Booby Island. Had I died for it, I would have seen
+that island. In those days passing ships landed stores in a cave on
+the island for shipwrecked and distressed wayfarers. Captain Airy of
+the <i>Soushay</i>, a good man, sent a boat to the cave with his
+contribution to the general store. The stores were landed in safety,
+and the boat, returning, brought back from the improvised post-office
+there a dozen or more letters, most of them left by whalemen, with the
+request that the first homeward-bound ship would carry them along and
+see to their mailing, which had been the custom of this strange postal
+service for many years. Some of the letters brought back by our boat
+were directed to New Bedford, and some to Fairhaven, Massachusetts.</p>
+
+<p>There is a light to-day on Booby Island, and regular packet
+communication with the rest of the world, and the beautiful
+uncertainty of the fate of letters left there is a thing of the past.
+I made no call at the little island, but standing close in, exchanged
+signals with the keeper of the light. Sailing on, the sloop was at
+once in the Arafura Sea, where for days she sailed in water milky
+white and green and purple. It was my good fortune to enter the sea on
+the last quarter of the moon, the advantage being that in the dark
+nights I witnessed the phosphorescent light effect at night in its
+greatest splendor. The sea, where the sloop disturbed it, seemed all
+ablaze, so that by its light I could see the smallest articles on
+deck, and her wake was a path of fire.</p>
+
+<p>On the 25th of June the sloop was already clear of all the shoals and
+dangers, and was sailing on a smooth sea as steadily as before, but
+with speed somewhat slackened. I got out the flying-jib made at Juan
+Fernandez, and set it as a spinnaker from the stoutest bamboo that
+Mrs. Stevenson had given me at Samoa. The spinnaker pulled like a
+sodger, and the bamboo holding its own, the <i>Spray</i> mended her pace.</p>
+
+<p>Several pigeons flying across to-day from Australia toward the islands
+bent their course over the <i>Spray</i>. Smaller birds were seen flying in
+the opposite direction. In the part of the Arafura that I came to
+first, where it was shallow, sea-snakes writhed about on the surface
+and tumbled over and over in the waves. As the sloop sailed farther
+on, where the sea became deep, they disappeared. In the ocean, where
+the water is blue, not one was ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>In the days of serene weather there was not much to do but to read and
+take rest on the <i>Spray</i>, to make up as much as possible for the rough
+time off Cape Horn, which was not yet forgotten, and to forestall the
+Cape of Good Hope by a store of ease. My sea journal was now much the
+same from day to day-something like this of June 26 and 27, for
+example:</p>
+
+<p>June 26, in the morning, it is a bit squally; later in, the day
+blowing a steady breeze.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">On the log at noon is</td> <td align="right">130</td><td align="center">miles</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left"><i>Subtract</i> correction for slip</td><td align="right">10</td><td align="center">"</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tp" align="right">120</td><td class="tp" align="center">"</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left"><i>Add</i> for current</td><td align="right">10</td><td align="center">"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" class="tp" >130</td><td align="center" class="tp">"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Latitude by observation at noon, 10 degrees 23' S.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Longitude as per mark on the chart.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>There wasn't much brain-work in that log, I'm sure. June 27 makes a
+better showing, when all is told:</p>
+
+<p>First of all, to-day, was a flying-fish on deck; fried it in butter.</p>
+
+<p>133 miles on the log.</p>
+
+<p>For slip, off, and for current, on, as per guess, about equal&mdash;let it
+go at that.
+</p>
+<p>Latitude by observation at noon, 10 degrees 25' S.
+</p>
+
+<p>For several days now the <i>Spray</i> sailed west on the parallel of 10
+degrees 25' S., as true as a hair. If she deviated at all from that,
+through the day or night,&mdash;and this may have happened,&mdash;she was back,
+strangely enough, at noon, at the same latitude. But the greatest
+science was in reckoning the longitude. My tin clock and only
+timepiece had by this time lost its minute-hand, but after I boiled
+her she told the hours, and that was near enough on a long stretch.</p>
+
+<p>On the 2d of July the great island of Timor was in view away to the
+nor'ard. On the following day I saw Dana Island, not far off, and a
+breeze came up from the land at night, fragrant of the spices or what
+not of the coast.</p>
+
+<p>On the 11th, with all sail set and with the spinnaker still abroad,
+Christmas Island, about noon, came into view one point on the
+starboard bow. Before night it was abeam and distant two and a half
+miles. The surface of the island appeared evenly rounded from the sea
+to a considerable height in the center. In outline it was as smooth as
+a fish, and a long ocean swell, rolling up, broke against the sides,
+where it lay like a monster asleep, motionless on the sea. It seemed
+to have the proportions of a whale, and as the sloop sailed along its
+side to the part where the head would be, there was a nostril, even,
+which was a blow-hole through a ledge of rock where every wave that
+dashed threw up a shaft of water, lifelike and real.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a long time since I last saw this island; but I remember
+my temporary admiration for the captain of the ship I was then in, the
+<i>Tawfore</i>, when he sang out one morning from the quarter-deck, well
+aft, "Go aloft there, one of ye, with a pair of eyes, and see
+Christmas Island." Sure enough, there the island was in sight from the
+royal-yard. Captain M&mdash;&mdash;had thus made a great hit, and he never got
+over it. The chief mate, terror of us ordinaries in the ship, walking
+never to windward of the captain, now took himself very humbly to
+leeward altogether. When we arrived at Hong-Kong there was a letter in
+the ship's mail for me. I was in the boat with the captain some hours
+while he had it. But do you suppose he could hand a letter to a
+seaman? No, indeed; not even to an ordinary seaman. When we got to the
+ship he gave it to the first mate; the first mate gave it to the
+second mate, and he laid it, michingly, on the capstan-head, where I
+could get it.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h3>
+
+<p>A call for careful navigation&mdash;Three hours' steering in twenty-three
+days&mdash;Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands&mdash;A curious chapter of
+social history&mdash;A welcome from the children of the islands&mdash;Cleaning
+and painting the <i>Spray</i> on the beach&mdash;A Mohammedan blessing for a pot
+of jam&mdash;Keeling as a paradise&mdash;A risky adventure in a small boat&mdash;Away
+to Rodriguez&mdash;Taken for Antichrist&mdash;The governor calms the fears of
+the people&mdash;A lecture&mdash;A convent in the hills.</p>
+
+<p>To the Keeling Cocos Islands was now only five hundred and fifty
+miles; but even in this short run it was necessary to be extremely
+careful in keeping a true course else I would miss the atoll.</p>
+
+<p>On the 12th, some hundred miles southwest of Christmas Island, I saw
+anti-trade clouds flying up from the southwest very high over the
+regular winds, which weakened now for a few days, while a swell
+heavier than usual set in also from the southwest. A winter gale was
+going on in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope. Accordingly, I
+steered higher to windward, allowing twenty miles a day while this
+went on, for change of current; and it was not too much, for on that
+course I made the Keeling Islands right ahead. The first unmistakable
+sign of the land was a visit one morning from a white tern that
+fluttered very knowingly about the vessel, and then took itself off
+westward with a businesslike air in its wing. The tern is called by
+the islanders the "pilot of Keeling Cocos." Farther on I came among a
+great number of birds fishing, and fighting over whatever they caught.
+My reckoning was up, and springing aloft, I saw from half-way up the
+mast cocoanut-trees standing out of the water ahead. I expected to see
+this; still, it thrilled me as an electric shock might have done. I
+slid down the mast, trembling under the strangest sensations; and not
+able to resist the impulse, I sat on deck and gave way to my emotions.
+To folks in a parlor on shore this may seem weak indeed, but I am
+telling the story of a voyage alone.</p>
+
+<p>I didn't touch the helm, for with the current and heave of the sea the
+sloop found herself at the end of the run absolutely in the fairway of
+the channel. You couldn't have beaten it in the navy! Then I trimmed
+her sails by the wind, took the helm, and flogged her up the couple of
+miles or so abreast the harbor landing, where I cast anchor at 3:30
+P.M., July 17,1897, twenty-three days from Thursday Island. The
+distance run was twenty-seven hundred miles as the crow flies. This
+would have been a fair Atlantic voyage. It was a delightful sail!
+During those twenty-three days I had not spent altogether more than
+three hours at the helm, including the time occupied in beating into
+Keeling harbor. I just lashed the helm and let her go; whether the
+wind was abeam or dead aft, it was all the same: she always sailed on
+her course. No part of the voyage up to this point, taking it by and
+large, had been so finished as this.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Mr. Andrew J. Leach, reporting, July 21, 1897, through
+Governor Kynnersley of Singapore, to Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial
+Secretary, said concerning the <i>Iphegenia's</i> visit to the atoll: "As we
+left the ocean depths of deepest blue and entered the coral circle, the
+contrast was most remarkable. The brilliant colors of the waters,
+transparent to a depth of over thirty feet, now purple, now of the
+bluest sky-blue, and now green, with the white crests of the waves
+flashing tinder a brilliant sun, the encircling ... palm-clad islands,
+the gaps between which were to the south undiscernible, the white sand
+shores and the whiter gaps where breakers appeared, and, lastly, the
+lagoon itself, seven or eight miles across from north to south, and five
+to six from east to west, presented a sight never to be forgotten. After
+some little delay, Mr. Sidney Ross, the eldest son of Mr. George Ross,
+came off to meet us, and soon after, accompanied by the doctor and
+another officer, we went ashore." "On reaching the landing-stage, we
+found, hauled up for cleaning, etc., the <i>Spray</i> of Boston, a yawl of
+12.70 tons gross, the property of Captain Joshua Slocum. He arrived at
+the island on the 17th of July, twenty-three days out from Thursday
+Island. This extraordinary solitary traveler left Boston some two years
+ago single-handed, crossed to Gibraltar, sailed down to Cape Horn,
+passed through the Strait of Magellan to the Society Islands, thence to
+Australia, and through the Torres Strait to Thursday Island."</p></div>
+
+<p>The Keeling Cocos Islands, according to Admiral Fitzroy, R. N., lie
+between the latitudes of 11 degrees 50' and 12 degrees 12' S., and the
+longitudes of 96 degrees 51' and 96 degrees 58' E. They were
+discovered in 1608-9 by Captain William Keeling, then in the service
+of the East India Company. The southern group consists of seven or
+eight islands and islets on the atoll, which is the skeleton of what
+some day, according to the history of coral reefs, will be a
+continuous island. North Keeling has no harbor, is seldom visited, and
+is of no importance. The South Keelings are a strange little world,
+with a romantic history all their own. They have been visited
+occasionally by the floating spar of some hurricane-swept ship, or by
+a tree that has drifted all the way from Australia, or by an
+ill-starred ship cast away, and finally by man. Even a rock once
+drifted to Keeling, held fast among the roots of a tree.</p>
+
+<p>After the discovery of the islands by Captain Keeling, their first
+notable visitor was Captain John Clunis-Ross, who in 1814 touched in
+the ship <i>Borneo</i> on a voyage to India. Captain Ross returned two
+years later with his wife and family and his mother-in-law, Mrs.
+Dymoke, and eight sailor-artisans, to take possession of the islands,
+but found there already one Alexander Hare, who meanwhile had marked
+the little atoll as a sort of Eden for a seraglio of Malay women which
+he moved over from the coast of Africa. It was Ross's own brother,
+oddly enough, who freighted Hare and his crowd of women to the
+islands, not knowing of Captain John's plans to occupy the little
+world. And so Hare was there with his outfit, as if he had come to
+stay.</p>
+
+<p>On his previous visit, however, Ross had nailed the English Jack to a
+mast on Horsburg Island, one of the group. After two years shreds of
+it still fluttered in the wind, and his sailors, nothing loath, began
+at once the invasion of the new kingdom to take possession of it,
+women and all. The force of forty women, with only one man to command
+them, was not equal to driving eight sturdy sailors back into the sea.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> In the accounts given in Findlay's "Sailing Directory" of
+some of the events there is a chronological discrepancy. I follow the
+accounts gathered from the old captain's grandsons and from records on
+the spot.</p></div>
+
+<p>From this time on Hare had a hard time of it. He and Ross did not get
+on well as neighbors. The islands were too small and too near for
+characters so widely different. Hare had "oceans of money," and might
+have lived well in London; but he had been governor of a wild colony
+in Borneo, and could not confine himself to the tame life that prosy
+civilization affords. And so he hung on to the atoll with his forty
+women, retreating little by little before Ross and his sturdy crew,
+till at last he found himself and his harem on the little island known
+to this day as Prison Island, where, like Bluebeard, he confined his
+wives in a castle. The channel between the islands was narrow, the
+water was not deep, and the eight Scotch sailors wore long boots. Hare
+was now dismayed. He tried to compromise with rum and other luxuries,
+but these things only made matters worse. On the day following the
+first St. Andrew's celebration on the island, Hare, consumed with
+rage, and no longer on speaking terms with the captain, dashed off a
+note to him, saying: "Dear Ross: I thought when I sent rum and roast
+pig to your sailors that they would stay away from my flower-garden."
+In reply to which the captain, burning with indignation, shouted from
+the center of the island, where he stood, "Ahoy, there, on Prison
+Island! You Hare, don't you know that rum and roast pig are not a
+sailor's heaven?" Hare said afterward that one might have heard the
+captain's roar across to Java.</p>
+
+<p>The lawless establishment was soon broken up by the women deserting
+Prison Island and putting themselves under Ross's protection. Hare
+then went to Batavia, where he met his death.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_ashore" id="the_spray_ashore"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_215_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_215.jpg" width="362" height="410" alt="The Spray ashore for &quot;boot-topping&quot; at the Keeling
+Islands. (From a photograph.)" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray ashore for &quot;boot-topping&quot; at the Keeling
+Islands. (From a photograph.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>My first impression upon landing was that the crime of infanticide had
+not reached the islands of Keeling Cocos. "The children have all come
+to welcome you," explained Mr. Ross, as they mustered at the jetty by
+hundreds, of all ages and sizes. The people of this country were all
+rather shy, but, young or old, they never passed one or saw one
+passing their door without a salutation. In their musical voices they
+would say, "Are you walking?" ("Jalan, jalan?") "Will you come along?"
+one would answer.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time after I arrived the children regarded the "one-man
+ship" with suspicion and fear. A native man had been blown away to sea
+many years before, and they hinted to one another that he might have
+been changed from black to white, and returned in the sloop. For some
+time every movement I made was closely watched. They were particularly
+interested in what I ate. One day, after I had been "boot-topping" the
+sloop with a composition of coal-tar and other stuff, and while I was
+taking my dinner, with the luxury of blackberry jam, I heard a
+commotion, and then a yell and a stampede, as the children ran away
+yelling: "The captain is eating coal-tar! The captain is eating
+coal-tar!" But they soon found out that this same "coal-tar" was very
+good to eat, and that I had brought a quantity of it. One day when I
+was spreading a sea-biscuit thick with it for a wide-awake youngster,
+I heard them whisper, "Chut-chut!" meaning that a shark had bitten my
+hand, which they observed was lame. Thenceforth they regarded me as a
+hero, and I had not fingers enough for the little bright-eyed tots
+that wanted to cling to them and follow me about. Before this, when I
+held out my hand and said, "Come!" they would shy off for the nearest
+house, and say, "Dingin" ("It's cold"), or "Ujan" ("It's going to
+rain"). But it was now accepted that I was not the returned spirit of
+the lost black, and I had plenty of friends about the island, rain or
+shine.</p>
+
+<p>One day after this, when I tried to haul the sloop and found her fast
+in the sand, the children all clapped their hands and cried that a
+<i>kpeting</i> (crab) was holding her by the keel; and little Ophelia, ten
+or twelve years of age, wrote in the <i>Spray's</i> log-book:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">A hundred men with might and main</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the windlass hove, yeo ho!</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The cable only came in twain;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The ship she would not go;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">For, child, to tell the strangest thing,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The keel was held by a great kpeting.</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>This being so or not, it was decided that the Mohammedan priest, Sama
+the Emim, for a pot of jam, should ask Mohammed to bless the voyage
+and make the crab let go the sloop's keel, which it did, if it had
+hold, and she floated on the very next tide.</p>
+
+<p>On the 22d of July arrived H.M.S. <i>Iphegenia,</i> with Mr. Justice Andrew
+J. Leech and court officers on board, on a circuit of inspection among
+the Straits Settlements, of which Keeling Cocos was a dependency, to
+hear complaints and try cases by law, if any there were to try. They
+found the <i>Spray</i> hauled ashore and tied to a cocoanut-tree. But at
+the Keeling Islands there had not been a grievance to complain of
+since the day that Hare migrated, for the Rosses have always treated
+the islanders as their own family.</p>
+
+<p>If there is a paradise on this earth it is Keeling. There was not a
+case for a lawyer, but something had to be done, for here were two
+ships in port, a great man-of-war and the <i>Spray.</i> Instead of a
+lawsuit a dance was got up, and all the officers who could leave their
+ship came ashore. Everybody on the island came, old and young, and the
+governor's great hall was filled with people. All that could get on
+their feet danced, while the babies lay in heaps in the corners of the
+room, content to look on. My little friend Ophelia danced with the
+judge. For music two fiddles screeched over and over again the good
+old tune, "We won't go home till morning." And we did not.</p>
+
+<p>The women at the Keelings do not do all the drudgery, as in many
+places visited on the voyage. It would cheer the heart of a Fuegian
+woman to see the Keeling lord of creation up a cocoanut-tree. Besides
+cleverly climbing the trees, the men of Keeling build exquisitely
+modeled canoes. By far the best workmanship in boat-building I saw on
+the voyage was here. Many finished mechanics dwelt under the palms at
+Keeling, and the hum of the band-saw and the ring of the anvil were
+heard from morning till night. The first Scotch settlers left there
+the strength of Northern blood and the inheritance of steady habits.
+No benevolent society has ever done so much for any islanders as the
+noble Captain Ross, and his sons, who have followed his example of
+industry and thrift.</p>
+
+<p>Admiral Fitzroy of the <i>Beagle</i>, who visited here, where many
+things are reversed, spoke of "these singular though small islands,
+where crabs eat cocoanuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men ride
+on turtles, and shells are dangerous man-traps," adding that the
+greater part of the sea-fowl roost on branches, and many rats make
+their nests in the tops of palm-trees.</p>
+
+<p>My vessel being refitted, I decided to load her with the famous
+mammoth tridaena shell of Keeling, found in the bayou near by. And
+right here, within sight of the village, I came near losing "the crew
+of the <i>Spray</i>"&mdash;not from putting my foot in a man-trap shell,
+however, but from carelessly neglecting to look after the details of a
+trip across the harbor in a boat. I had sailed over oceans; I have
+since completed a course over them all, and sailed round the whole
+world without so nearly meeting a fatality as on that trip across a
+lagoon, where I trusted all to some one else, and he, weak mortal that
+he was, perhaps trusted all to me. However that may be, I found myself
+with a thoughtless African negro in a rickety bateau that was fitted
+with a rotten sail, and this blew away in mid-channel in a squall,
+that sent us drifting helplessly to sea, where we should have been
+incontinently lost. With the whole ocean before us to leeward, I was
+dismayed to see, while we drifted, that there was not a paddle or an
+oar in the boat! There was an anchor, to be sure, but not enough rope
+to tie a cat, and we were already in deep water. By great good
+fortune, however, there was a pole. Plying this as a paddle with the
+utmost energy, and by the merest accidental flaw in the wind to favor
+us, the trap of a boat was worked into shoal water, where we could
+touch bottom and push her ashore. With Africa, the nearest coast to
+leeward, three thousand miles away, with not so much as a drop of
+water in the boat, and a lean and hungry negro&mdash;well, cast the lot as
+one might, the crew of the <i>Spray</i> in a little while would have been
+hard to find. It is needless to say that I took no more such chances.
+The tridacna were afterward procured in a safe boat, thirty of them
+taking the place of three tons of cement ballast, which I threw
+overboard to make room and give buoyancy.</p>
+
+<p><a name="captain_slocum_drifting" id="captain_slocum_drifting"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 249px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_220_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_220.jpg" width="249" height="439" alt="Captain Slocum drifting out to sea." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Captain Slocum drifting out to sea.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On August 22, the kpeting, or whatever else it was that held the sloop
+in the islands, let go its hold, and she swung out to sea under all
+sail, heading again for home. Mounting one or two heavy rollers on the
+fringe of the atoll, she cleared the flashing reefs. Long before dark
+Keeling Cocos, with its thousand souls, as sinless in their lives as
+perhaps it is possible for frail mortals to be, was left out of sight,
+astern. Out of sight, I say, except in my strongest affection.</p>
+
+<p>The sea was rugged, and the <i>Spray</i> washed heavily when hauled on the
+wind, which course I took for the island of Rodriguez, and which
+brought the sea abeam. The true course for the island was west by
+south, one quarter south, and the distance was nineteen hundred miles;
+but I steered considerably to the windward of that to allow for the
+heave of the sea and other leeward effects. My sloop on this course
+ran under reefed sails for days together. I naturally tired of the
+never-ending motion of the sea, and, above all, of the wetting I got
+whenever I showed myself on deck. Under these heavy weather conditions
+the <i>Spray</i> seemed to lag behind on her course; at least, I attributed
+to these conditions a discrepancy in the log, which by the fifteenth
+day out from Keeling amounted to one hundred and fifty miles between
+the rotator and the mental calculations I had kept of what she should
+have gone, and so I kept an eye lifting for land. I could see about
+sundown this day a bunch of clouds that stood in one spot, right
+ahead, while the other clouds floated on; this was a sign of
+something. By midnight, as the sloop sailed on, a black object
+appeared where I had seen the resting clouds. It was still a long way
+off, but there could be no mistaking this: it was the high island of
+Rodriguez. I hauled in the patent log, which I was now towing more
+from habit than from necessity, for I had learned the <i>Spray</i> and her
+ways long before this. If one thing was clearer than another in her
+voyage, it was that she could be trusted to come out right and in
+safety, though at the same time I always stood ready to give her the
+benefit of even the least doubt. The officers who are over-sure, and
+"know it all like a book," are the ones, I have observed, who wreck
+the most ships and lose the most lives. The cause of the discrepancy
+in the log was one often met with, namely, coming in contact with some
+large fish; two out of the four blades of the rotator were crushed or
+bent, the work probably of a shark. Being sure of the sloop's
+position, I lay down to rest and to think, and I felt better for it.
+By daylight the island was abeam, about three miles away. It wore a
+hard, weather-beaten appearance there, all alone, far out in the
+Indian Ocean, like land adrift. The windward side was uninviting, but
+there was a good port to leeward, and I hauled in now close on the
+wind for that. A pilot came out to take me into the inner harbor,
+which was reached through a narrow channel among coral reefs.</p>
+
+<p>It was a curious thing that at all of the islands some reality was
+insisted on as unreal, while improbabilities were clothed as hard
+facts; and so it happened here that the good abbe, a few days before,
+had been telling his people about the coming of Antichrist, and when
+they saw the <i>Spray</i> sail into the harbor, all feather-white before a
+gale of wind, and run all standing upon the beach, and with only one
+man aboard, they cried, "May the Lord help us, it is he, and he has
+come in a boat!" which I say would have been the most improbable way
+of his coming. Nevertheless, the news went flying through the place.
+The governor of the island, Mr. Roberts, came down immediately to see
+what it was all about, for the little town was in a great commotion.
+One elderly woman, when she heard of my advent, made for her house and
+locked herself in. When she heard that I was actually coming up the
+street she barricaded her doors, and did not come out while I was on
+the island, a period of eight days. Governor Roberts and his family
+did not share the fears of their people, but came on board at the
+jetty, where the sloop was berthed, and their example induced others
+to come also. The governor's young boys took charge of the <i>Spray's</i>
+dinghy at once, and my visit cost his Excellency, besides great
+hospitality to me, the building of a boat for them like the one
+belonging to the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My first day at this Land of Promise was to me like a fairy-tale. For
+many days I had studied the charts and counted the time of my arrival
+at this spot, as one might his entrance to the Islands of the Blessed,
+looking upon it as the terminus of the last long run, made irksome by
+the want of many things with which, from this time on, I could keep
+well supplied. And behold, here was the sloop, arrived, and made
+securely fast to a pier in Rodriguez. On the first evening ashore, in
+the land of napkins and cut glass, I saw before me still the ghosts of
+hempen towels and of mugs with handles knocked off. Instead of tossing
+on the sea, however, as I might have been, here was I in a bright
+hall, surrounded by sparkling wit, and dining with the governor of the
+island! "Aladdin," I cried, "where is your lamp? My fisherman's
+lantern, which I got at Gloucester, has shown me better things than
+your smoky old burner ever revealed."</p>
+
+<p>The second day in port was spent in receiving visitors. Mrs. Roberts
+and her children came first to "shake hands," they said, "with the
+<i>Spray.</i>" No one was now afraid to come on board except the poor old
+woman, who still maintained that the <i>Spray</i> had Antichrist in the
+hold, if, indeed, he had not already gone ashore. The governor
+entertained that evening, and kindly invited the "destroyer of the
+world" to speak for himself. This he did, elaborating most effusively
+on the dangers of the sea (which, after the manner of many of our
+frailest mortals, he would have had smooth had he made it); also by
+contrivances of light and darkness he exhibited on the wall pictures
+of the places and countries visited on the voyage (nothing like the
+countries, however, that he would have made), and of the people seen,
+savage and other, frequently groaning, "Wicked world! Wicked world!"
+When this was finished his Excellency the governor, speaking words of
+thankfulness, distributed pieces of gold.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day I accompanied his Excellency and family on a
+visit to San Gabriel, which was up the country among the hills. The
+good abbe of San Gabriel entertained us all royally at the convent,
+and we remained his guests until the following day. As I was leaving
+his place, the abbe said, "Captain, I embrace you, and of whatever
+religion you may be, my wish is that you succeed in making your
+voyage, and that our Saviour the Christ be always with you!" To this
+good man's words I could only say, "My dear abbe, had all religionists
+been so liberal there would have been less bloodshed in the world."</p>
+
+<p>At Rodriguez one may now find every convenience for filling pure and
+wholesome water in any quantity, Governor Roberts having built a
+reservoir in the hills, above the village, and laid pipes to the
+jetty, where, at the time of my visit, there were five and a half feet
+at high tide. In former years well-water was used, and more or less
+sickness occurred from it. Beef may be had in any quantity on the
+island, and at a moderate price. Sweet potatoes were plentiful and
+cheap; the large sack of them that I bought there for about four
+shillings kept unusually well. I simply stored them in the sloop's dry
+hold. Of fruits, pomegranates were most plentiful; for two shillings I
+obtained a large sack of them, as many as a donkey could pack from the
+orchard, which, by the way, was planted by nature herself.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h3>
+
+<p>A clean bill of health at Mauritius&mdash;Sailing the voyage over again in
+the opera-house&mdash;A newly discovered plant named in honor of the
+<i>Spray's</i> skipper&mdash;A party of young ladies out for a sail&mdash;A bivouac
+on deck&mdash;A warm reception at Durban&mdash;A friendly cross-examination by
+Henry M. Stanley&mdash;Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the
+earth&mdash;Leaving South Africa.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_mauritius" id="the_spray_mauritius"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_227_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_227.jpg" width="356" height="398" alt="The Spray at Mauritius." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray at Mauritius.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the 16th of September, after eight restful days at Rodriguez, the
+mid-ocean land of plenty, I set sail, and on the 19th arrived at
+Mauritius, anchoring at quarantine about noon. The sloop was towed in
+later on the same day by the doctor's launch, after he was satisfied
+that I had mustered all the crew for inspection. Of this he seemed in
+doubt until he examined the papers, which called for a crew of one all
+told from port to port, throughout the voyage. Then finding that I had
+been well enough to come thus far alone, he gave me pratique without
+further ado. There was still another official visit for the <i>Spray</i> to
+pass farther in the harbor. The governor of Rodriguez, who had most
+kindly given me, besides a regular mail, private letters of
+introduction to friends, told me I should meet, first of all, Mr.
+Jenkins of the postal service, a good man. "How do you do, Mr.
+Jenkins?" cried I, as his boat swung alongside. "You don't know me,"
+he said. "Why not?" I replied. "From where is the sloop?" "From around
+the world," I again replied, very solemnly. "And alone?" "Yes; why
+not?" "And you know me?" "Three thousand years ago," cried I, "when
+you and I had a warmer job than we have now" (even this was hot). "You
+were then Jenkinson, but if you have changed your name I don't blame
+you for that." Mr. Jenkins, forbearing soul, entered into the spirit
+of the jest, which served the <i>Spray</i> a good turn, for on the strength
+of this tale it got out that if any one should go on board after dark
+the devil would get him at once. And so I could leave the <i>Spray</i>
+without the fear of her being robbed at night. The cabin, to be sure,
+was broken into, but it was done in daylight, and the thieves got no
+more than a box of smoked herrings before "Tom" Ledson, one of the
+port officials, caught them red-handed, as it were, and sent them to
+jail. This was discouraging to pilferers, for they feared Ledson more
+than they feared Satan himself. Even Mamode Hajee Ayoob, who was the
+day-watchman on board,&mdash;till an empty box fell over in the cabin and
+frightened him out of his wits,&mdash;could not be hired to watch nights,
+or even till the sun went down. "Sahib," he cried, "there is no need
+of it," and what he said was perfectly true.</p>
+
+<p>At Mauritius, where I drew a long breath, the <i>Spray</i> rested her
+wings, it being the season of fine weather. The hardships of the
+voyage, if there had been any, were now computed by officers of
+experience as nine tenths finished, and yet somehow I could not forget
+that the United States was still a long way off.</p>
+
+<p>The kind people of Mauritius, to make me richer and happier, rigged up
+the opera-house, which they had named the "<i>Ship Pantai</i>."<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> All decks
+and no bottom was this ship, but she was as stiff as a church. They gave
+me free use of it while I talked over the <i>Spray's</i> adventures. His
+Honor the mayor introduced me to his Excellency the governor from the
+poop-deck of the <i>Pantai.</i> In this way I was also introduced again to
+our good consul, General John P. Campbell, who had already introduced me
+to his Excellency, I was becoming well acquainted, and was in for it now
+to sail the voyage over again. How I got through the story I hardly
+know. It was a hot night, and I could have choked the tailor who made
+the coat I wore for this occasion. The kind governor saw that I had done
+my part trying to rig like a man ashore, and he invited me to Government
+House at Reduit, where I found myself among friends.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> Guinea-hen</p></div>
+
+<p>It was winter still off stormy Cape of Good Hope, but the storms might
+whistle there. I determined to see it out in milder Mauritius,
+visiting Rose Hill, Curipepe, and other places on the island. I spent
+a day with the elder Mr. Roberts, father of Governor Roberts of
+Rodriguez, and with his friends the Very Reverend Fathers O'Loughlin
+and McCarthy. Returning to the <i>Spray</i> by way of the great flower
+conservatory near Moka, the proprietor, having only that morning
+discovered a new and hardy plant, to my great honor named it "Slocum,"
+which he said Latinized it at once, saving him some trouble on the
+twist of a word; and the good botanist seemed pleased that I had come.
+How different things are in different countries! In Boston,
+Massachusetts, at that time, a gentleman, so I was told, paid thirty
+thousand dollars to have a flower named after his wife, and it was not
+a big flower either, while "Slocum," which came without the asking,
+was bigger than a mangel-wurzel!</p>
+
+<p>I was royally entertained at Moka, as well as at Reduit and other
+places&mdash;once by seven young ladies, to whom I spoke of my inability to
+return their hospitality except in my own poor way of taking them on a
+sail in the sloop. "The very thing! The very thing!" they all cried.
+"Then please name the time," I said, as meek as Moses. "To-morrow!"
+they all cried. "And, aunty, we may go, mayn't we, and we'll be real
+good for a whole week afterward, aunty! Say yes, aunty dear!" All this
+after saying "To-morrow"; for girls in Mauritius are, after all, the
+same as our girls in America; and their dear aunt said "Me, too" about
+the same as any really good aunt might say in my own country.</p>
+
+<p>I was then in a quandary, it having recurred to me that on the very
+"to-morrow" I was to dine with the harbor-master, Captain Wilson.
+However, I said to myself, "The <i>Spray</i> will run out quickly into
+rough seas; these young ladies will have <i>mal de mer</i> and a good time,
+and I'll get in early enough to be at the dinner, after all." But not
+a bit of it. We sailed almost out of sight of Mauritius, and they just
+stood up and laughed at seas tumbling aboard, while I was at the helm
+making the worst weather of it I could, and spinning yarns to the aunt
+about sea-serpents and whales. But she, dear lady, when I had finished
+with stories of monsters, only hinted at a basket of provisions they
+had brought along, enough to last a week, for I had told them about my
+wretched steward.</p>
+
+<p>The more the <i>Spray</i> tried to make these young ladies seasick, the
+more they all clapped their hands and said, "How lovely it is!" and
+"How beautifully she skims over the sea!" and "How beautiful our
+island appears from the distance!" and they still cried, "Go on!" We
+were fifteen miles or more at sea before they ceased the eager cry,
+"Go on!" Then the sloop swung round, I still hoping to be back to Port
+Louis in time to keep my appointment. The <i>Spray</i> reached the island
+quickly, and flew along the coast fast enough; but I made a mistake in
+steering along the coast on the way home, for as we came abreast of
+Tombo Bay it enchanted my crew. "Oh, let's anchor here!" they cried.
+To this no sailor in the world would have said nay. The sloop came to
+anchor, ten minutes later, as they wished, and a young man on the
+cliff abreast, waving his hat, cried, "<i>Vive la Spray!</i>" My passengers
+said, "Aunty, mayn't we have a swim in the surf along the shore?" Just
+then the harbor-master's launch hove in sight, coming out to meet us;
+but it was too late to get the sloop into Port Louis that night. The
+launch was in time, however, to land my fair crew for a swim; but they
+were determined not to desert the ship. Meanwhile I prepared a roof
+for the night on deck with the sails, and a Bengali man-servant
+arranged the evening meal. That night the <i>Spray</i> rode in Tombo Bay
+with her precious freight. Next morning bright and early, even before
+the stars were gone, I awoke to hear praying on deck.</p>
+
+<p>The port officers' launch reappeared later in the morning, this time
+with Captain Wilson himself on board, to try his luck in getting the
+<i>Spray</i> into port, for he had heard of our predicament. It was worth
+something to hear a friend tell afterward how earnestly the good
+harbor-master of Mauritius said, "I'll find the <i>Spray</i> and I'll get
+her into port." A merry crew he discovered on her. They could hoist
+sails like old tars, and could trim them, too. They could tell all
+about the ship's "hoods," and one should have seen them clap a bonnet
+on the jib. Like the deepest of deep-water sailors, they could heave
+the lead, and&mdash;as I hope to see Mauritius again!&mdash;any of them could
+have put the sloop in stays. No ship ever had a fairer crew.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage was the event of Port Louis; such a thing as young ladies
+sailing about the harbor, even, was almost unheard of before.</p>
+
+<p>While at Mauritius the <i>Spray</i> was tendered the use of the military
+dock free of charge, and was thoroughly refitted by the port
+authorities. My sincere gratitude is also due other friends for
+many things needful for the voyage put on board, including bags of
+sugar from some of the famous old plantations.</p>
+
+<p>The favorable season now set in, and thus well equipped, on the 26th
+of October, the <i>Spray</i> put to sea. As I sailed before a light wind
+the island receded slowly, and on the following day I could still see
+the Puce Mountain near Moka. The <i>Spray</i> arrived next day off Galets,
+Reunion, and a pilot came out and spoke her. I handed him a Mauritius
+paper and continued on my voyage; for rollers were running heavily at
+the time, and it was not practicable to make a landing. From Reunion I
+shaped a course direct for Cape St. Mary, Madagascar.</p>
+
+<p>The sloop was now drawing near the limits of the trade-wind, and the
+strong breeze that had carried her with free sheets the many thousands
+of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia, fell lighter each day until
+October 30, when it was altogether calm, and a motionless sea held her
+in a hushed world. I furled the sails at evening, sat down on deck,
+and enjoyed the vast stillness of the night.</p>
+
+<p>October 31 a light east-northeast breeze sprang up, and the sloop
+passed Cape St. Mary about noon. On the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of
+November, in the Mozambique Channel, she experienced a hard gale of
+wind from the southwest. Here the <i>Spray</i> suffered as much as she did
+anywhere, except off Cape Horn. The thunder and lightning preceding
+this gale were very heavy. From this point until the sloop arrived off
+the coast of Africa, she encountered a succession of gales of wind,
+which drove her about in many directions, but on the 17th of November
+she arrived at Port Natal.</p>
+
+<p>This delightful place is the commercial center of the "Garden Colony,"
+Durban itself, the city, being the continuation of a garden. The
+signalman from the bluff station reported the <i>Spray</i> fifteen miles
+off. The wind was freshening, and when she was within eight miles he
+said: "The <i>Spray</i> is shortening sail; the mainsail was reefed and set
+in ten minutes. One man is doing all the work."</p>
+
+<p>This item of news was printed three minutes later in a Durban morning
+journal, which was handed to me when I arrived in port. I could not
+verify the time it had taken to reef the sail, for, as I have already
+said, the minute-hand of my timepiece was gone. I only knew that I
+reefed as quickly as I could.</p>
+
+<p>The same paper, commenting on the voyage, said: "Judging from the
+stormy weather which has prevailed off this coast during the past few
+weeks, the <i>Spray</i> must have had a very stormy voyage from Mauritius
+to Natal." Doubtless the weather would have been called stormy by
+sailors in any ship, but it caused the <i>Spray</i> no more inconvenience
+than the delay natural to head winds generally.</p>
+
+<p>The question of how I sailed the sloop alone, often asked, is best
+answered, perhaps, by a Durban newspaper. I would shrink from
+repeating the editor's words but for the reason that undue estimates
+have been made of the amount of skill and energy required to sail a
+sloop of even the <i>Spray's</i> small tonnage. I heard a man who called
+himself a sailor say that "it would require three men to do what it
+was claimed" that I did alone, and what I found perfectly easy to do
+over and over again; and I have heard that others made similar
+nonsensical remarks, adding that I would work myself to death. But
+here is what the Durban paper said:</p>
+
+<p>[Citation: As briefly noted yesterday, the <i>Spray</i>, with a crew of one
+man, arrived at this port yesterday afternoon on her cruise round the
+world. The <i>Spray</i> made quite an auspicious entrance to Natal. Her
+commander sailed his craft right up the channel past the main wharf,
+and dropped his anchor near the old <i>Forerunner</i> in the creek, before
+any one had a chance to get on board. The <i>Spray</i> was naturally an
+object of great curiosity to the Point people, and her arrival was
+witnessed by a large crowd. The skilful manner in which Captain Slocum
+steered his craft about the vessels which were occupying the waterway
+was a treat to witness.]</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> was not sailing in among greenhorns when she came to
+Natal. When she arrived off the port the pilot-ship, a fine, able
+steam-tug, came out to meet her, and led the way in across the bar,
+for it was blowing a smart gale and was too rough for the sloop to be
+towed with safety. The trick of going in I learned by watching the
+steamer; it was simply to keep on the windward side of the channel and
+take the combers end on.</p>
+
+<p><a name="captain_joshua" id="captain_joshua"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 201px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_235_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_235.jpg" width="201" height="225" alt="Captain Joshua Slocum." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Captain Joshua Slocum.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I found that Durban supported two yacht-clubs, both of them full of
+enterprise. I met all the members of both clubs, and sailed in the
+crack yacht <i>Florence</i> of the Royal Natal, with Captain Spradbrow and
+the Right Honorable Harry Escombe, premier of the colony. The yacht's
+center-board plowed furrows through the mud-banks, which, according to
+Mr. Escombe, Spradbrow afterward planted with potatoes. The
+<i>Florence</i>, however, won races while she tilled the skipper's land.
+After our sail on the <i>Florence</i> Mr. Escombe offered to sail the
+<i>Spray</i> round the Cape of Good Hope for me, and hinted at his famous
+cribbage-board to while away the hours. Spradbrow, in retort, warned
+me of it. Said he, "You would be played out of the sloop before you
+could round the cape." By others it was not thought probable that the
+premier of Natal would play cribbage off the Cape of Good Hope to win
+even the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was a matter of no small pride to me in South Africa to find that
+American humor was never at a discount, and one of the best American
+stories I ever heard was told by the premier. At Hotel Royal one day,
+dining with Colonel Saunderson, M. P., his son, and Lieutenant
+Tipping, I met Mr. Stanley. The great explorer was just from Pretoria,
+and had already as good as flayed President Krüger with his trenchant
+pen. But that did not signify, for everybody has a whack at Oom Paul,
+and no one in the world seems to stand the joke better than he, not
+even the Sultan of Turkey himself. The colonel introduced me to the
+explorer, and I hauled close to the wind, to go slow, for Mr. Stanley
+was a nautical man once himself,&mdash;on the Nyanza, I think,&mdash;and of
+course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his
+experience. He looked me over carefully, and said, "What an example of
+patience!" "Patience is all that is required," I ventured to reply. He
+then asked if my vessel had water-tight compartments. I explained that
+she was all water-tight and all compartment. "What if she should
+strike a rock?" he asked. "Compartments would not save her if she
+should hit the rocks lying along her course," said I; adding, "she
+must be kept away from the rocks." After a considerable pause Mr.
+Stanley asked, "What if a swordfish should pierce her hull with its
+sword?" Of course I had thought of that as one of the dangers of the
+sea, and also of the chance of being struck by lightning. In the case
+of the swordfish, I ventured to say that "the first thing would be to
+secure the sword." The colonel invited me to dine with the party on
+the following day, that we might go further into this matter, and so I
+had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Stanley a second time, but got no more
+hints in navigation from the famous explorer.</p>
+
+<p>It sounds odd to hear scholars and statesmen say the world is flat;
+but it is a fact that three Boers favored by the opinion of President
+Krüger prepared a work to support that contention. While I was at
+Durban they came from Pretoria to obtain data from me, and they seemed
+annoyed when I told them that they could not prove it by my
+experience. With the advice to call up some ghost of the dark ages for
+research, I went ashore, and left these three wise men poring over the
+<i>Spray's</i> track on a chart of the world, which, however, proved
+nothing to them, for it was on Mercator's projection, and behold, it
+was "flat." The next morning I met one of the party in a clergyman's
+garb, carrying a large Bible, not different from the one I had read.
+He tackled me, saying, "If you respect the Word of God, you must admit
+that the world is flat." "If the Word of God stands on a flat world&mdash;"
+I began. "What!" cried he, losing himself in a passion, and making as
+if he would run me through with an assagai. "What!" he shouted in
+astonishment and rage, while I jumped aside to dodge the imaginary
+weapon. Had this good but misguided fanatic been armed with a real
+weapon, the crew of the <i>Spray</i> would have died a martyr there and
+then. The next day, seeing him across the street, I bowed and made
+curves with my hands. He responded with a level, swimming movement of
+his hands, meaning "the world is flat." A pamphlet by these Transvaal
+geographers, made up of arguments from sources high and low to prove
+their theory, was mailed to me before I sailed from Africa on my last
+stretch around the globe.</p>
+
+<p>While I feebly portray the ignorance of these learned men, I have
+great admiration for their physical manhood. Much that I saw first and
+last of the Transvaal and the Boers was admirable. It is well known
+that they are the hardest of fighters, and as generous to the fallen
+as they are brave before the foe. Real stubborn bigotry with them is
+only found among old fogies, and will die a natural death, and that,
+too, perhaps long before we ourselves are entirely free from bigotry.
+Education in the Transvaal is by no means neglected, English as well
+as Dutch being taught to all that can afford both; but the tariff duty
+on English school-books is heavy, and from necessity the poorer people
+stick to the Transvaal Dutch and their flat world, just as in Samoa
+and other islands a mistaken policy has kept the natives down to
+Kanaka.</p>
+
+<p>I visited many public schools at Durban, and had the pleasure of
+meeting many bright children.</p>
+
+<p>But all fine things must end, and December 14, 1897, the "crew" of the
+<i>Spray</i>, after having a fine time in Natal, swung the sloop's dinghy
+in on deck, and sailed with a morning land-wind, which carried her
+clear of the bar, and again she was "off on her alone," as they say in
+Australia.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h3>
+
+<p>Rounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time&mdash;A rough Christmas&mdash;The
+<i>Spray</i> ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town&mdash;A railway trip
+to the Transvaal&mdash;President Krüger's odd definition of the <i>Spray's</i>
+voyage&mdash;His terse sayings&mdash;Distinguished guests on the
+<i>Spray</i>&mdash;Cocoanut fiber as a padlock&mdash;Courtesies from the admiral of
+the Queen's navy&mdash;Off for St. Helena&mdash;Land in sight.</p>
+
+<p>The Cape of Good Hope was now the most prominent point to pass. From
+Table Bay I could count on the aid of brisk trades, and then the
+<i>Spray</i> would soon be at home. On the first day out from Durban it
+fell calm, and I sat thinking about these things and the end of the
+voyage. The distance to Table Bay, where I intended to call, was about
+eight hundred miles over what might prove a rough sea. The early
+Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than
+sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far
+as Algoa Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small
+island, now called Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross,
+and swore they would cut the captain's throat if he attempted to sail
+farther. Beyond this they thought was the edge of the world, which
+they too believed was flat; and fearing that their ship would sail
+over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their commander, to
+retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year later,
+we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape of
+Storms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered
+Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the
+way to India was easy.</p>
+
+<p>Gales of wind sweeping round the cape even now were frequent enough,
+one occurring, on an average, every thirty-six hours; but one gale was
+much the same as another, with no more serious result than to blow the
+<i>Spray</i> along on her course when it was fair, or to blow her back
+somewhat when it was ahead. On Christmas, 1897, I came to the pitch of
+the cape. On this day the <i>Spray</i> was trying to stand on her head, and
+she gave me every reason to believe that she would accomplish the feat
+before night. She began very early in the morning to pitch and toss
+about in a most unusual manner, and I have to record that, while I was
+at the end of the bowsprit reefing the jib, she ducked me under water
+three times for a Christmas box. I got wet and did not like it a bit:
+never in any other sea was I put under more than once in the same
+short space of time, say three minutes. A large English steamer
+passing ran up the signal, "Wishing you a Merry Christmas." I think
+the captain was a humorist; his own ship was throwing her propeller
+out of water.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later, the <i>Spray</i>, having recovered the distance lost in the
+gale, passed Cape Agulhas in company with the steamship <i>Scotsman</i>,
+now with a fair wind. The keeper of the light on Agulhas exchanged
+signals with the <i>Spray</i> as she passed, and afterward wrote me at New
+York congratulations on the completion of the voyage. He seemed to
+think the incident of two ships of so widely different types passing
+his cape together worthy of a place on canvas, and he went about
+having the picture made. So I gathered from his letter. At lonely
+stations like this hearts grow responsive and sympathetic, and even
+poetic. This feeling was shown toward the <i>Spray</i> along many a rugged
+coast, and reading many a kind signal thrown out to her gave one a
+grateful feeling for all the world.</p>
+
+<p>One more gale of wind came down upon the <i>Spray</i> from the west after
+she passed Cape Agulhas, but that one she dodged by getting into
+Simons Bay. When it moderated she beat around the Cape of Good Hope,
+where they say the <i>Flying Dutchman</i> is still sailing. The voyage then
+seemed as good as finished; from this time on I knew that all, or
+nearly all, would be plain sailing.</p>
+
+<p>Here I crossed the dividing-line of weather. To the north it was clear
+and settled, while south it was humid and squally, with, often enough,
+as I have said, a treacherous gale. From the recent hard weather the
+<i>Spray</i> ran into a calm under Table Mountain, where she lay quietly
+till the generous sun rose over the land and drew a breeze in from the
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>The steam-tug <i>Alert</i>, then out looking for ships, came to the <i>Spray</i>
+off the Lion's Rump, and in lieu of a larger ship towed her into port.
+The sea being smooth, she came to anchor in the bay off the city of
+Cape Town, where she remained a day, simply to rest clear of the
+bustle of commerce. The good harbor-master sent his steam-launch to
+bring the sloop to a berth in dock at once, but I preferred to remain
+for one day alone, in the quiet of a smooth sea, enjoying the
+retrospect of the passage of the two great capes. On the following
+morning the <i>Spray</i> sailed into the Alfred Dry-docks, where she
+remained for about three months in the care of the port authorities,
+while I traveled the country over from Simons Town to Pretoria, being
+accorded by the colonial government a free railroad pass over all the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>The trip to Kimberley, Johannesburg, and Pretoria was a pleasant one.
+At the last-named place I met Mr. Krüger, the Transvaal president. His
+Excellency received me cordially enough; but my friend Judge Beyers,
+the gentleman who presented me, by mentioning that I was on a voyage
+around the world, unwittingly gave great offense to the venerable
+statesman, which we both regretted deeply. Mr. Krüger corrected the
+judge rather sharply, reminding him that the world is flat. "You don't
+mean <i>round</i> the world," said the president; "it is impossible! You
+mean <i>in</i> the world. Impossible!" he said, "impossible!" and not
+another word did he utter either to the judge or to me. The judge
+looked at me and I looked at the judge, who should have known his
+ground, so to speak, and Mr. Krüger glowered at us both. My friend the
+judge seemed embarrassed, but I was delighted; the incident pleased me
+more than anything else that could have happened. It was a nugget of
+information quarried out of Oom Paul, some of whose sayings are
+famous. Of the English he said, "They took first my coat and then my
+trousers." He also said, "Dynamite is the corner-stone of the South
+African Republic." Only unthinking people call President Krüger dull.</p>
+
+<p><a name="cartoon_printed" id="cartoon_printed"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 502px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_244_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_244.jpg" width="502" height="335" alt="Cartoon printed in the Cape Town &quot;Owl&quot; of March 5,
+1898, in connection with an item about Captain Slocum&#39;s trip to
+Pretoria." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Cartoon printed in the Cape Town &quot;Owl&quot; of March 5,
+1898, in connection with an item about Captain Slocum&#39;s trip to
+Pretoria.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Soon after my arrival at the cape, Mr. Krüger's friend Colonel
+Saunderson,<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> who had arrived from Durban some time before, invited me
+to Newlands Vineyard, where I met many agreeable people. His Excellency
+Sir Alfred Milner, the governor, found time to come aboard with a party.
+The governor, after making a survey of the deck, found a seat on a box
+in my cabin; Lady Muriel sat on a keg, and Lady Saunderson sat by the
+skipper at the wheel, while the colonel, with his kodak, away in the
+dinghy, took snap shots of the sloop and her distinguished visitors. Dr.
+David Gill, astronomer royal, who was of the party, invited me the next
+day to the famous Cape Observatory. An hour with Dr. Gill was an hour
+among the stars. His discoveries in stellar photography are well known.
+He showed me the great astronomical clock of the observatory, and I
+showed him the tin clock on the <i>Spray</i>, and we went over the subject of
+standard time at sea, and how it was found from the deck of the little
+sloop without the aid of a clock of any kind. Later it was advertised
+that Dr. Gill would preside at a talk about the voyage of the <i>Spray</i>:
+that alone secured for me a full house. The hall was packed, and many
+were not able to get in. This success brought me sufficient money for
+all my needs in port and for the homeward voyage.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Colonel Saunderson was Mr. Krüger's very best friend,
+inasmuch as he advised the president to avast mounting guns.</p></div>
+
+<p>After visiting Kimberley and Pretoria, and finding the <i>Spray</i> all
+right in the docks, I returned to Worcester and Wellington, towns
+famous for colleges and seminaries, passed coming in, still traveling
+as the guest of the colony. The ladies of all these institutions of
+learning wished to know how one might sail round the world alone,
+which I thought augured of sailing-mistresses in the future instead of
+sailing-masters. It will come to that yet if we men-folk keep on
+saying we "can't."</p>
+
+<p>On the plains of Africa I passed through hundreds of miles of rich but
+still barren land, save for scrub-bushes, on which herds of sheep were
+browsing. The bushes grew about the length of a sheep apart, and they,
+I thought, were rather long of body; but there was still room for all.
+My longing for a foothold on land seized upon me here, where so much
+of it lay waste; but instead of remaining to plant forests and reclaim
+vegetation, I returned again to the <i>Spray</i> at the Alfred Docks, where
+I found her waiting for me, with everything in order, exactly as I had
+left her.</p>
+
+<p>I have often been asked how it was that my vessel and all
+appurtenances were not stolen in the various ports where I left her
+for days together without a watchman in charge. This is just how it
+was: The <i>Spray</i> seldom fell among thieves. At the Keeling Islands, at
+Rodriguez, and at many such places, a wisp of cocoanut fiber in the
+door-latch, to indicate that the owner was away, secured the goods
+against even a longing glance. But when I came to a great island
+nearer home, stout locks were needed; the first night in port things
+which I had always left uncovered disappeared, as if the deck on which
+they were stowed had been swept by a sea.</p>
+
+<p><a name="captain_slocum_milner" id="captain_slocum_milner"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_247_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_247.jpg" width="356" height="385" alt="Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (with the tall hat),
+and Colonel Saunderson, M. P., on the bow of the Spray at Cape
+Town." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (with the tall hat),
+and Colonel Saunderson, M. P., on the bow of the Spray at Cape
+Town.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A pleasant visit from Admiral Sir Harry Rawson of the Royal Navy and
+his family brought to an end the <i>Spray's</i> social relations with the
+Cape of Good Hope. The admiral, then commanding the South African
+Squadron, and now in command of the great Channel fleet, evinced the
+greatest interest in the diminutive <i>Spray</i> and her behavior off Cape
+Horn, where he was not an entire stranger. I have to admit that I was
+delighted with the trend of Admiral Rawson's questions, and that I
+profited by some of his suggestions, notwithstanding the wide
+difference in our respective commands.</p>
+
+<p>On March 26, 1898, the <i>Spray</i> sailed from South Africa, the land of
+distances and pure air, where she had spent a pleasant and profitable
+time. The steam-tug <i>Tigre</i> towed her to sea from her wonted berth at
+the Alfred Docks, giving her a good offing. The light morning breeze,
+which scantily filled her sails when the tug let go the tow-line, soon
+died away altogether, and left her riding over a heavy swell, in full
+view of Table Mountain and the high peaks of the Cape of Good Hope.
+For a while the grand scenery served to relieve the monotony. One of
+the old circumnavigators (Sir Francis Drake, I think), when he first
+saw this magnificent pile, sang, "'T is the fairest thing and the
+grandest cape I've seen in the whole circumference of the earth."</p>
+
+<p>The view was certainly fine, but one has no wish to linger long to
+look in a calm at anything, and I was glad to note, finally, the short
+heaving sea, precursor of the wind which followed on the second day.
+Seals playing about the <i>Spray</i> all day, before the breeze came,
+looked with large eyes when, at evening, she sat no longer like a lazy
+bird with folded wings. They parted company now, and the <i>Spray</i> soon
+sailed the highest peaks of the mountains out of sight, and the world
+changed from a mere panoramic view to the light of a homeward-bound
+voyage. Porpoises and dolphins, and such other fishes as did not mind
+making a hundred and fifty miles a day, were her companions now for
+several days. The wind was from the southeast; this suited the <i>Spray</i>
+well, and she ran along steadily at her best speed, while I dipped
+into the new books given me at the cape, reading day and night. March
+30 was for me a fast-day in honor of them. I read on, oblivious of
+hunger or wind or sea, thinking that all was going well, when suddenly
+a comber rolled over the stern and slopped saucily into the cabin,
+wetting the very book I was reading. Evidently it was time to put in a
+reef, that she might not wallow on her course.</p>
+
+<p><a name="reading_day" id="reading_day"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_249_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_249.jpg" width="353" height="413" alt="&quot;Reading day and night.&quot;" title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">&quot;Reading day and night.&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>March 31 the fresh southeast wind had come to stay. The <i>Spray</i> was
+running under a single-reefed mainsail, a whole jib, and a flying-jib
+besides, set on the Vailima bamboo, while I was reading Stevenson's
+delightful "Inland Voyage." The sloop was again doing her work
+smoothly, hardly rolling at all, but just leaping along among the
+white horses, a thousand gamboling porpoises keeping her company on
+all sides. She was again among her old friends the flying-fish,
+interesting denizens of the sea. Shooting out of the waves like
+arrows, and with outstretched wings, they sailed on the wind in
+graceful curves; then falling till again they touched the crest of the
+waves to wet their delicate wings and renew the flight. They made
+merry the livelong day. One of the joyful sights on the ocean of a
+bright day is the continual flight of these interesting fish.</p>
+
+<p>One could not be lonely in a sea like this. Moreover, the reading of
+delightful adventures enhanced the scene. I was now in the <i>Spray</i> and
+on the Oise in the <i>Arethusa</i> at one and the same time. And so the
+<i>Spray</i> reeled off the miles, showing a good run every day till April
+11, which came almost before I knew it. Very early that morning I was
+awakened by that rare bird, the booby, with its harsh quack, which I
+recognized at once as a call to go on deck; it was as much as to say,
+"Skipper, there's land in sight." I tumbled out quickly, and sure
+enough, away ahead in the dim twilight, about twenty miles off, was
+St. Helena.</p>
+
+<p>My first impulse was to call out, "Oh, what a speck in the sea!" It is
+in reality nine miles in length and two thousand eight hundred and
+twenty-three feet in height. I reached for a bottle of port-wine out
+of the locker, and took a long pull from it to the health of my
+invisible helmsman&mdash;the pilot of the <i>Pinta</i>.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h3>
+
+<p>In the isle of Napoleon's exile&mdash;Two lectures&mdash;A guest in the
+ghost-room at Plantation House&mdash;An excursion to historic
+Longwood&mdash;Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it&mdash;The <i>Spray's</i>
+ill luck with animals&mdash;A prejudice against small dogs&mdash;A rat, the
+Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket&mdash;Ascension Island.</p>
+
+<p>It was about noon when the <i>Spray</i> came to anchor off Jamestown, and
+"all hands" at once went ashore to pay respects to his Excellency the
+governor of the island, Sir R. A. Sterndale. His Excellency, when I
+landed, remarked that it was not often, nowadays, that a
+circumnavigator came his way, and he cordially welcomed me, and
+arranged that I should tell about the voyage, first at Garden Hall to
+the people of Jamestown, and then at Plantation House&mdash;the governor's
+residence, which is in the hills a mile or two back&mdash;to his Excellency
+and the officers of the garrison and their friends. Mr. Poole, our
+worthy consul, introduced me at the castle, and in the course of his
+remarks asserted that the sea-serpent was a Yankee.</p>
+
+<p>Most royally was the crew of the <i>Spray</i> entertained by the governor.
+I remained at Plantation House a couple of days, and one of the rooms
+in the mansion, called the "west room," being haunted, the butler, by
+command of his Excellency, put me up in that&mdash;like a prince. Indeed,
+to make sure that no mistake had been made, his Excellency came later
+to see that I was in the right room, and to tell me all about the
+ghosts he had seen or heard of. He had discovered all but one, and
+wishing me pleasant dreams, he hoped I might have the honor of a visit
+from the unknown one of the west room. For the rest of the chilly
+night I kept the candle burning, and often looked from under the
+blankets, thinking that maybe I should meet the great Napoleon face to
+face; but I saw only furniture, and the horseshoe that was nailed over
+the door opposite my bed.</p>
+
+<p>St. Helena has been an island of tragedies&mdash;tragedies that have been
+lost sight of in wailing over the Corsican. On the second day of my
+visit the governor took me by carriage-road through the turns over the
+island. At one point of our journey the road, in winding around spurs
+and ravines, formed a perfect W within the distance of a few rods. The
+roads, though tortuous and steep, were fairly good, and I was struck
+with the amount of labor it must have cost to build them. The air on
+the heights was cool and bracing. It is said that, since hanging for
+trivial offenses went out of fashion, no one has died there, except
+from falling over the cliffs in old age, or from being crushed by
+stones rolling on them from the steep mountains! Witches at one time
+were persistent at St. Helena, as with us in America in the days of
+Cotton Mather. At the present day crime is rare in the island. While I
+was there, Governor Sterndale, in token of the fact that not one
+criminal case had come to court within the year, was presented with a
+pair of white gloves by the officers of justice.</p>
+
+<p>Returning from the governor's house to Jamestown, I drove with Mr.
+Clark, a countryman of mine, to "Longwood," the home of Napoleon. M.
+Morilleau, French consular agent in charge, keeps the place
+respectable and the buildings in good repair. His family at Longwood,
+consisting of wife and grown daughters, are natives of courtly and
+refined manners, and spend here days, months, and years of
+contentment, though they have never seen the world beyond the horizon
+of St. Helena.</p>
+
+<p>On the 20th of April the <i>Spray</i> was again ready for sea. Before going
+on board I took luncheon with the governor and his family at the
+castle. Lady Sterndale had sent a large fruit-cake, early in the
+morning, from Plantation House, to be taken along on the voyage. It
+was a great high-decker, and I ate sparingly of it, as I thought, but
+it did not keep as I had hoped it would. I ate the last of it along
+with my first cup of coffee at Antigua, West Indies, which, after all,
+was quite a record. The one my own sister made me at the little island
+in the Bay of Fundy, at the first of the voyage, kept about the same
+length of time, namely, forty-two days.</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon a royal mail was made up for Ascension, the island next
+on my way. Then Mr. Poole and his daughter paid the <i>Spray</i> a farewell
+visit, bringing me a basket of fruit. It was late in the evening
+before the anchor was up, and I bore off for the west, loath to leave
+my new friends. But fresh winds filled the sloop's sails once more,
+and I watched the beacon-light at Plantation House, the governor's
+parting signal for the <i>Spray</i>, till the island faded in the darkness
+astern and became one with the night, and by midnight the light itself
+had disappeared below the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>When morning came there was no land in sight, but the day went on the
+same as days before, save for one small incident. Governor Sterndale
+had given me a bag of coffee in the husk, and Clark, the American, in
+an evil moment, had put a goat on board, "to butt the sack and hustle
+the coffee-beans out of the pods." He urged that the animal, besides
+being useful, would be as companionable as a dog. I soon found that my
+sailing-companion, this sort of dog with horns, had to be tied up
+entirely. The mistake I made was that I did not chain him to the mast
+instead of tying him with grass ropes less securely, and this I
+learned to my cost. Except for the first day, before the beast got his
+sea-legs on, I had no peace of mind. After that, actuated by a spirit
+born, maybe, of his pasturage, this incarnation of evil threatened to
+devour everything from flying-jib to stern-davits. He was the worst
+pirate I met on the whole voyage. He began depredations by eating my
+chart of the West Indies, in the cabin, one day, while I was about my
+work for'ard, thinking that the critter was securely tied on deck by
+the pumps. Alas! there was not a rope in the sloop proof against that
+goat's awful teeth!</p>
+
+<p>It was clear from the very first that I was having no luck with
+animals on board. There was the tree-crab from the Keeling Islands. No
+sooner had it got a claw through its prison-box than my sea-jacket,
+hanging within reach, was torn to ribbons. Encouraged by this success,
+it smashed the box open and escaped into my cabin, tearing up things
+generally, and finally threatening my life in the dark. I had hoped to
+bring the creature home alive, but this did not prove feasible. Next
+the goat devoured my straw hat, and so when I arrived in port I had
+nothing to wear ashore on my head. This last unkind stroke decided his
+fate. On the 27th of April the <i>Spray</i> arrived at Ascension, which is
+garrisoned by a man-of-war crew, and the boatswain of the island came
+on board. As he stepped out of his boat the mutinous goat climbed into
+it, and defied boatswain and crew. I hired them to land the wretch at
+once, which they were only too willing to do, and there he fell into
+the hands of a most excellent Scotchman, with the chances that he
+would never get away. I was destined to sail once more into the depths
+of solitude, but these experiences had no bad effect upon me; on the
+contrary, a spirit of charity and even benevolence grew stronger in my
+nature through the meditations of these supreme hours on the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In the loneliness of the dreary country about Cape Horn I found myself
+in no mood to make one life less in the world, except in self-defense,
+and as I sailed this trait of the hermit character grew till the
+mention of killing food-animals was revolting to me. However well I
+may have enjoyed a chicken stew afterward at Samoa, a new self
+rebelled at the thought suggested there of carrying chickens to be
+slain for my table on the voyage, and Mrs. Stevenson, hearing my
+protest, agreed with me that to kill the companions of my voyage and
+eat them would be indeed next to murder and cannibalism.</p>
+
+<p>As to pet animals, there was no room for a noble large dog on the
+<i>Spray</i> on so long a voyage, and a small cur was for many years
+associated in my mind with hydrophobia. I witnessed once the death of
+a sterling young German from that dreadful disease, and about the same
+time heard of the death, also by hydrophobia, of the young gentleman
+who had just written a line of insurance in his company's books for
+me. I have seen the whole crew of a ship scamper up the rigging to
+avoid a dog racing about the decks in a fit. It would never do, I
+thought, for the crew of the <i>Spray</i> to take a canine risk, and with
+these just prejudices indelibly stamped on my mind, I have, I am
+afraid, answered impatiently too often the query, "Didn't you have a
+dog!" with, "I and the dog wouldn't have been very long in the same
+boat, in any sense." A cat would have been a harmless animal, I dare
+say, but there was nothing for puss to do on board, and she is an
+unsociable animal at best. True, a rat got into my vessel at the
+Keeling Cocos Islands, and another at Rodriguez, along with a centiped
+stowed away in the hold; but one of them I drove out of the ship, and
+the other I caught. This is how it was: for the first one with
+infinite pains I made a trap, looking to its capture and destruction;
+but the wily rodent, not to be deluded, took the hint and got ashore
+the day the thing was completed.</p>
+
+<p>It is, according to tradition, a most reassuring sign to find rats
+coming to a ship, and I had a mind to abide the knowing one of
+Rodriguez; but a breach of discipline decided the matter against him.
+While I slept one night, my ship sailing on, he undertook to walk over
+me, beginning at the crown of my head, concerning which I am always
+sensitive. I sleep lightly. Before his impertinence had got him even
+to my nose I cried "Rat!" had him by the tail, and threw him out of
+the companionway into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>As for the centiped, I was not aware of its presence till the wretched
+insect, all feet and venom, beginning, like the rat, at my head,
+wakened me by a sharp bite on the scalp. This also was more than I
+could tolerate. After a few applications of kerosene the poisonous
+bite, painful at first, gave me no further inconvenience.</p>
+
+<p>From this on for a time no living thing disturbed my solitude; no
+insect even was present in my vessel, except the spider and his wife,
+from Boston, now with a family of young spiders. Nothing, I say, till
+sailing down the last stretch of the Indian Ocean, where mosquitos
+came by hundreds from rain-water poured out of the heavens. Simply a
+barrel of rain-water stood on deck five days, I think, in the sun,
+then music began. I knew the sound at once; it was the same as heard
+from Alaska to New Orleans.</p>
+
+<p>Again at Cape Town, while dining out one day, I was taken with the
+song of a cricket, and Mr. Branscombe, my host, volunteered to capture
+a pair of them for me. They were sent on board next day in a box
+labeled, "Pluto and Scamp." Stowing them away in the binnacle in their
+own snug box, I left them there without food till I got to sea&mdash;a few
+days. I had never heard of a cricket eating anything. It seems that
+Pluto was a cannibal, for only the wings of poor Scamp were visible
+when I opened the lid, and they lay broken on the floor of the
+prison-box. Even with Pluto it had gone hard, for he lay on his back
+stark and stiff, never to chirrup again.</p>
+
+<p>Ascension Island, where the goat was marooned, is called the Stone
+Frigate, R. N, and is rated "tender" to the South African Squadron. It
+lies in 7 degrees 35' south latitude and 14 degrees 25' west
+longitude, being in the very heart of the southeast trade-winds and
+about eight hundred and forty miles from the coast of Liberia. It is a
+mass of volcanic matter, thrown up from the bed of the ocean to the
+height of two thousand eight hundred and eighteen feet at the highest
+point above sea-level. It is a strategic point, and belonged to Great
+Britain before it got cold. In the limited but rich soil at the top of
+the island, among the clouds, vegetation has taken root, and a little
+scientific farming is carried on under the supervision of a gentleman
+from Canada. Also a few cattle and sheep are pastured there for the
+garrison mess. Water storage is made on a large scale. In a word, this
+heap of cinders and lava rock is stored and fortified, and would stand
+a siege.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon after the <i>Spray</i> arrived I received a note from Captain
+Blaxland, the commander of the island, conveying his thanks for the
+royal mail brought from St. Helena, and inviting me to luncheon with
+him and his wife and sister at headquarters, not far away. It is
+hardly necessary to say that I availed myself of the captain's
+hospitality at once. A carriage was waiting at the jetty when I
+landed, and a sailor, with a broad grin, led the horse carefully up
+the hill to the captain's house, as if I were a lord of the admiralty,
+and a governor besides; and he led it as carefully down again when I
+returned. On the following day I visited the summit among the clouds,
+the same team being provided, and the same old sailor leading the
+horse. There was probably not a man on the island at that moment
+better able to walk than I. The sailor knew that. I finally suggested
+that we change places. "Let me take the bridle," I said, "and keep the
+horse from bolting." "Great Stone Frigate!" he exclaimed, as he burst
+into a laugh, "this 'ere 'oss wouldn't bolt no faster nor a turtle. If
+I didn't tow 'im 'ard we'd never get into port." I walked most of the
+way over the steep grades, whereupon my guide, every inch a sailor,
+became my friend. Arriving at the summit of the island, I met Mr.
+Schank, the farmer from Canada, and his sister, living very cozily in
+a house among the rocks, as snug as conies, and as safe. He showed me
+over the farm, taking me through a tunnel which led from one field to
+the other, divided by an inaccessible spur of mountain. Mr. Schank
+said that he had lost many cows and bullocks, as well as sheep, from
+breakneck over the steep cliffs and precipices. One cow, he said,
+would sometimes hook another right over a precipice to destruction,
+and go on feeding unconcernedly. It seemed that the animals on the
+island farm, like mankind in the wide world, found it all too small.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th of April, while I was ashore, rollers came in which
+rendered launching a boat impossible. However, the sloop being
+securely moored to a buoy in deep water outside of all breakers, she
+was safe, while I, in the best of quarters, listened to well-told
+stories among the officers of the Stone Frigate. On the evening of the
+29th, the sea having gone down, I went on board and made preparations
+to start again on my voyage early next day, the boatswain of the
+island and his crew giving me a hearty handshake as I embarked at the
+jetty.</p>
+
+<p>For reasons of scientific interest, I invited in mid-ocean the most
+thorough investigation concerning the crew-list of the <i>Spray</i>. Very
+few had challenged it, and perhaps few ever will do so henceforth; but
+for the benefit of the few that may, I wished to clench beyond doubt
+the fact that it was not at all necessary in the expedition of a sloop
+around the world to have more than one man for the crew, all told, and
+that the <i>Spray</i> sailed with only one person on board. And so, by
+appointment, Lieutenant Eagles, the executive officer, in the morning,
+just as I was ready to sail, fumigated the sloop, rendering it
+impossible for a person to live concealed below, and proving that only
+one person was on board when she arrived. A certificate to this
+effect, besides the official documents from the many consulates,
+health offices, and customhouses, will seem to many superfluous; but
+this story of the voyage may find its way into hands unfamiliar with
+the business of these offices and of their ways of seeing that a
+vessel's papers, and, above all, her bills of health, are in order.</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant's certificate being made out, the <i>Spray</i>, nothing
+loath, now filled away clear of the sea-beaten rocks, and the
+trade-winds, comfortably cool and bracing, sent her flying along on
+her course. On May 8, 1898, she crossed the track, homeward bound,
+that she had made October 2, 1895, on the voyage out. She passed
+Fernando de Noronha at night, going some miles south of it, and so I
+did not see the island. I felt a contentment in knowing that the
+<i>Spray</i> had encircled the globe, and even as an adventure alone I was
+in no way discouraged as to its utility, and said to myself, "Let what
+will happen, the voyage is now on record." A period was made.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h3>
+
+<p>In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil&mdash;All at sea
+regarding the Spanish-American war&mdash;An exchange of signals with the
+battle-ship <i>Oregon</i>&mdash;Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
+Island&mdash;Reappearance to the <i>Spray</i> of the north star&mdash;The light on
+Trinidad&mdash;A charming introduction to Grenada&mdash;Talks to friendly
+auditors.</p>
+
+<p>On May 10 there was a great change in the condition of the sea; there
+could be no doubt of my longitude now, if any had before existed in my
+mind. Strange and long-forgotten current ripples pattered against the
+sloop's sides in grateful music; the tune arrested the oar, and I sat
+quietly listening to it while the <i>Spray</i> kept on her course. By these
+current ripples I was assured that she was now off St. Roque and had
+struck the current which sweeps around that cape. The trade-winds, we
+old sailors say, produce this current, which, in its course from this
+point forward, is governed by the coastline of Brazil, Guiana,
+Venezuela, and, as some would say, by the Monroe Doctrine.</p>
+
+<p>The trades had been blowing fresh for some time, and the current, now
+at its height, amounted to forty miles a day. This, added to the
+sloop's run by the log, made the handsome day's work of one hundred
+and eighty miles on several consecutive days, I saw nothing of the
+coast of Brazil, though I was not many leagues off and was always in
+the Brazil current.</p>
+
+<p>I did not know that war with Spain had been declared, and that I might
+be liable, right there, to meet the enemy and be captured. Many had
+told me at Cape Town that, in their opinion, war was inevitable, and
+they said: "The Spaniard will get you! The Spaniard will get you!" To
+all this I could only say that, even so, he would not get much. Even
+in the fever-heat over the disaster to the <i>Maine</i> I did not think
+there would be war; but I am no politician. Indeed, I had hardly given
+the matter a serious thought when, on the 14th of May, just north of
+the equator, and near the longitude of the river Amazon, I saw first a
+mast, with the Stars and Stripes floating from it, rising astern as if
+poked up out of the sea, and then rapidly appearing on the horizon,
+like a citadel, the <i>Oregon!</i> As she came near I saw that the great
+ship was flying the signals "C B T," which read, "Are there any
+men-of-war about?" Right under these flags, and larger than the
+<i>Spray's</i> mainsail, so it appeared, was the yellowest Spanish flag I
+ever saw. It gave me nightmare some time after when I reflected on it
+in my dreams.</p>
+
+<p><a name="the_spray_oregon" id="the_spray_oregon"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 505px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_265_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_265.jpg" width="505" height="362" alt="The Spray passed by the Oregon." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray passed by the Oregon.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I did not make out the <i>Oregon's</i> signals till she passed ahead, where
+I could read them better, for she was two miles away, and I had no
+binoculars. When I had read her flags I hoisted the signal "No," for I
+had not seen any Spanish men-of-war; I had not been looking for any.
+My final signal, "Let us keep together for mutual protection," Captain
+Clark did not seem to regard as necessary. Perhaps my small flags were
+not made out; anyhow, the <i>Oregon</i> steamed on with a rush, looking for
+Spanish men-of-war, as I learned afterward. The <i>Oregon's</i> great flag
+was dipped beautifully three times to the <i>Spray's</i> lowered flag as
+she passed on. Both had crossed the line only a few hours before. I
+pondered long that night over the probability of a war risk now coming
+upon the <i>Spray</i> after she had cleared all, or nearly all, the dangers
+of the sea, but finally a strong hope mastered my fears.</p>
+
+<p>On the 17th of May, the <i>Spray</i>, coming out of a storm at daylight,
+made Devil's Island, two points on the lee bow, not far off. The wind
+was still blowing a stiff breeze on shore. I could clearly see the
+dark-gray buildings on the island as the sloop brought it abeam. No
+flag or sign of life was seen on the dreary place.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day a French bark on the port tack, making for Cayenne,
+hove in sight, close-hauled on the wind. She was falling to leeward
+fast, The <i>Spray</i> was also closed-hauled, and was lugging on sail to
+secure an offing on the starboard tack, a heavy swell in the night
+having thrown her too near the shore, and now I considered the matter
+of supplicating a change of wind. I had already enjoyed my share of
+favoring breezes over the great oceans, and I asked myself if it would
+be right to have the wind turned now all into my sails while the
+Frenchman was bound the other way. A head current, which he stemmed,
+together with a scant wind, was bad enough for him. And so I could
+only say, in my heart, "Lord, let matters stand as they are, but do
+not help the Frenchman any more just now, for what would suit him well
+would ruin me!"</p>
+
+<p>I remembered that when a lad I heard a captain often say in meeting that
+in answer to a prayer of his own the wind changed from southeast to
+northwest, entirely to his satisfaction. He was a good man, but did this
+glorify the Architect&mdash;the Ruler of the winds and the waves? Moreover,
+it was not a trade-wind, as I remember it, that changed for him, but one
+of the variables which will change when you ask it, if you ask long
+enough. Again, this man's brother maybe was not bound the opposite way,
+well content with a fair wind himself, which made all the difference in
+the world.<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> The Bishop of Melbourne (commend me to his teachings)
+refused to set aside a day of prayer for rain, recommending his people
+to husband water when the rainy season was on. In like manner, a
+navigator husbands the wind, keeping a weather-gage where practicable.</p></div>
+
+<p>On May 18,1898, is written large in the <i>Spray's</i> log-book: "To-night,
+in latitude 7 degrees 13' N., for the first time in nearly three years
+I see the north star." The <i>Spray</i> on the day following logged one
+hundred and forty-seven miles. To this I add thirty-five miles for
+current sweeping her onward. On the 20th of May, about sunset, the
+island of Tobago, off the Orinoco, came into view, bearing west by
+north, distant twenty-two miles. The <i>Spray</i> was drawing rapidly
+toward her home destination. Later at night, while running free along
+the coast of Tobago, the wind still blowing fresh, I was startled by
+the sudden flash of breakers on the port bow and not far off. I luffed
+instantly offshore, and then tacked, heading in for the island.
+Finding myself, shortly after, close in with the land, I tacked again
+offshore, but without much altering the bearings of the danger. Sail
+whichever way I would, it seemed clear that if the sloop weathered the
+rocks at all it would be a close shave, and I watched with anxiety,
+while beating against the current, always losing ground. So the matter
+stood hour after hour, while I watched the flashes of light thrown up
+as regularly as the beats of the long ocean swells, and always they
+seemed just a little nearer. It was evidently a coral reef,&mdash;of this I
+had not the slightest doubt,&mdash;and a bad reef at that. Worse still,
+there might be other reefs ahead forming a bight into which the
+current would sweep me, and where I should be hemmed in and finally
+wrecked. I had not sailed these waters since a lad, and lamented the
+day I had allowed on board the goat that ate my chart. I taxed my
+memory of sea lore, of wrecks on sunken reefs, and of pirates harbored
+among coral reefs where other ships might not come, but nothing that I
+could think of applied to the island of Tobago, save the one wreck of
+Robinson Crusoe's ship in the fiction, and that gave me little
+information about reefs. I remembered only that in Crusoe's case he
+kept his powder dry. "But there she booms again," I cried, "and how
+close the flash is now! Almost aboard was that last breaker! But
+you'll go by, <i>Spray</i>, old girl! 'T is abeam now! One surge more! and
+oh, one more like that will clear your ribs and keel!" And I slapped
+her on the transom, proud of her last noble effort to leap clear of
+the danger, when a wave greater than the rest threw her higher than
+before, and, behold, from the crest of it was revealed at once all
+there was of the reef. I fell back in a coil of rope, speechless and
+amazed, not distressed, but rejoiced. Aladdin's lamp! My fisherman's
+own lantern! It was the great revolving light on the island of
+Trinidad, thirty miles away, throwing flashes over the waves, which
+had deceived me! The orb of the light was now dipping on the horizon,
+and how glorious was the sight of it! But, dear Father Neptune, as I
+live, after a long life at sea, and much among corals, I would have
+made a solemn declaration to that reef! Through all the rest of the
+night I saw imaginary reefs, and not knowing what moment the sloop
+might fetch up on a real one, I tacked off and on till daylight, as
+nearly as possible in the same track, all for the want of a chart. I
+could have nailed the St. Helena goat's pelt to the deck.</p>
+
+<p>My course was now for Grenada, to which I carried letters from
+Mauritius. About midnight of the 22d of May I arrived at the island,
+and cast anchor in the roads off the town of St. George, entering the
+inner harbor at daylight on the morning of the 23d, which made
+forty-two days' sailing from the Cape of Good Hope, It was a good run,
+and I doffed my cap again to the pilot of the <i>Pinta</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Bruce, in a note to the <i>Spray</i> at Port Louis, said Grenada was a
+lovely island, and she wished the sloop might call there on the voyage
+home. When the <i>Spray</i> arrived, I found that she had been fully
+expected. "How so?" I asked. "Oh, we heard that you were at
+Mauritius," they said, "and from Mauritius, after meeting Sir Charles
+Bruce, our old governor, we knew you would come to Grenada." This was
+a charming introduction, and it brought me in contact with people
+worth knowing.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> sailed from Grenada on the 28th of May, and coasted along
+under the lee of the Antilles, arriving at the island of Dominica on
+the 30th, where, for the want of knowing better, I cast anchor at the
+quarantine ground; for I was still without a chart of the islands, not
+having been able to get one even at Grenada. Here I not only met with
+further disappointment in the matter, but was threatened with a fine
+for the mistake I made in the anchorage. There were no ships either at
+the quarantine or at the commercial roads, and I could not see that it
+made much difference where I anchored. But a negro chap, a sort of
+deputy harbormaster, coming along, thought it did, and he ordered me
+to shift to the other anchorage, which, in truth, I had already
+investigated and did not like, because of the heavier roll there from
+the sea. And so instead of springing to the sails at once to shift, I
+said I would leave outright as soon as I could procure a chart, which
+I begged he would send and get for me. "But I say you mus' move befo'
+you gets anyt'ing't all," he insisted, and raising his voice so that
+all the people alongshore could hear him, he added, "An' jes now!"
+Then he flew into a towering passion when they on shore snickered to
+see the crew of the <i>Spray</i> sitting calmly by the bulwark instead of
+hoisting sail. "I tell you dis am quarantine" he shouted, very much
+louder than before. "That's all right, general," I replied; "I want to
+be quarantined anyhow." "That's right, boss," some one on the beach
+cried, "that's right; you get quarantined," while others shouted to
+the deputy to "make de white trash move 'long out o' dat." They were
+about equally divided on the island for and against me. The man who
+had made so much fuss over the matter gave it up when he found that I
+wished to be quarantined, and sent for an all-important half-white,
+who soon came alongside, starched from clue to earing. He stood in the
+boat as straight up and down as a fathom of pump-water&mdash;a marvel of
+importance. "Charts!" cried I, as soon as his shirt-collar appeared
+over the sloop's rail; "have you any charts?" "No, sah," he replied
+with much-stiffened dignity; "no, sah; cha'ts do'sn't grow on dis
+island." Not doubting the information, I tripped anchor immediately,
+as I had intended to do from the first, and made all sail for St.
+John, Antigua, where I arrived on the 1st of June, having sailed with
+great caution in midchannel all the way.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i>, always in good company, now fell in with the port
+officers' steam-launch at the harbor entrance, having on board Sir
+Francis Fleming, governor of the Leeward Islands, who, to the delight
+of "all hands," gave the officer in charge instructions to tow my ship
+into port. On the following day his Excellency and Lady Fleming, along
+with Captain Burr, R. N., paid me a visit. The court-house was
+tendered free to me at Antigua, as was done also at Grenada, and at
+each place a highly intelligent audience filled the hall to listen to
+a talk about the seas the <i>Spray</i> had crossed, and the countries she
+had visited.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h3>
+
+<p>Clearing for home&mdash;In the calm belt&mdash;A sea covered with sargasso&mdash;The
+jibstay parts in a gale&mdash;Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island&mdash;A
+change of plan&mdash;Arrival at Newport&mdash;End of a cruise of over forty-six
+thousand miles&mdash;The <i>Spray</i> again at Fairhaven.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of June, 1898, the <i>Spray</i> cleared from the United States
+consulate, and her license to sail single-handed, even round the
+world, was returned to her for the last time. The United States
+consul, Mr. Hunt, before handing the paper to me, wrote on it, as
+General Roberts had done at Cape Town, a short commentary on the
+voyage. The document, by regular course, is now lodged in the Treasury
+Department at Washington, D. C.</p>
+
+<p>On June 5, 1898, the <i>Spray</i> sailed for a home port, heading first
+direct for Cape Hatteras. On the 8th of June she passed under the sun
+from south to north; the sun's declination on that day was 22 degrees
+54', and the latitude of the <i>Spray</i> was the same just before noon.
+Many think it is excessively hot right under the sun. It is not
+necessarily so. As a matter of fact the thermometer stands at a
+bearable point whenever there is a breeze and a ripple on the sea,
+even exactly under the sun. It is often hotter in cities and on sandy
+shores in higher latitudes.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i> was booming joyously along for home now, making her usual
+good time, when of a sudden she struck the horse latitudes, and her
+sail flapped limp in a calm. I had almost forgotten this calm belt, or
+had come to regard it as a myth. I now found it real, however, and
+difficult to cross. This was as it should have been, for, after all of
+the dangers of the sea, the dust-storm on the coast of Africa, the
+"rain of blood" in Australia, and the war risk when nearing home, a
+natural experience would have been missing had the calm of the horse
+latitudes been left out. Anyhow, a philosophical turn of thought now
+was not amiss, else one's patience would have given out almost at the
+harbor entrance. The term of her probation was eight days. Evening
+after evening during this time I read by the light of a candle on
+deck. There was no wind at all, and the sea became smooth and
+monotonous. For three days I saw a full-rigged ship on the horizon,
+also becalmed.</p>
+
+<p>Sargasso, scattered over the sea in bunches, or trailed curiously
+along down the wind in narrow lanes, now gathered together in great
+fields, strange sea-animals, little and big, swimming in and out, the
+most curious among them being a tiny seahorse which I captured and
+brought home preserved in a bottle. But on the 18th of June a gale
+began to blow from the southwest, and the sargasso was dispersed again
+in windrows and lanes.</p>
+
+<p>On this day there was soon wind enough and to spare. The same might
+have been said of the sea. The <i>Spray</i> was in the midst of the
+turbulent Gulf Stream itself. She was jumping like a porpoise over the
+uneasy waves. As if to make up for lost time, she seemed to touch only
+the high places. Under a sudden shock and strain her rigging began to
+give out. First the main-sheet strap was carried away, and then the
+peak halyard-block broke from the gaff. It was time to reef and refit,
+and so when "all hands" came on deck I went about doing that.</p>
+
+<p>The 19th of June was fine, but on the morning of the 20th another gale
+was blowing, accompanied by cross-seas that tumbled about and shook
+things up with great confusion. Just as I was thinking about taking in
+sail the jibstay broke at the masthead, and fell, jib and all, into
+the sea. It gave me the strangest sensation to see the bellying sail
+fall, and where it had been suddenly to see only space. However, I was
+at the bows, with presence of mind to gather it in on the first wave
+that rolled up, before it was torn or trailed under the sloop's
+bottom. I found by the amount of work done in three minutes' or less
+time that I had by no means grown stiff-jointed on the voyage; anyhow,
+scurvy had not set in, and being now within a few degrees of home, I
+might complete the voyage, I thought, without the aid of a doctor.
+Yes, my health was still good, and I could skip about the decks in a
+lively manner, but could I climb? The great King Neptune tested me
+severely at this time, for the stay being gone, the mast itself
+switched about like a reed, and was not easy to climb; but a
+gun-tackle purchase was got up, and the stay set taut from the
+masthead, for I had spare blocks and rope on board with which to rig
+it, and the jib, with a reef in it, was soon pulling again like a
+"sodger" for home. Had the <i>Spray's</i> mast not been well stepped,
+however, it would have been "John Walker" when the stay broke. Good
+work in the building of my vessel stood me always in good stead.</p>
+
+<p>On the 23d of June I was at last tired, tired, tired of baffling
+squalls and fretful cobble-seas. I had not seen a vessel for days and
+days, where I had expected the company of at least a schooner now and
+then. As to the whistling of the wind through the rigging, and the
+slopping of the sea against the sloop's sides, that was well enough in
+its way, and we could not have got on without it, the <i>Spray</i> and I;
+but there was so much of it now, and it lasted so long! At noon of
+that day a winterish storm was upon us from the nor'west. In the Gulf
+Stream, thus late in June, hailstones were pelting the <i>Spray</i>, and
+lightning was pouring down from the clouds, not in flashes alone, but
+in almost continuous streams. By slants, however, day and night I
+worked the sloop in toward the coast, where, on the 25th of June, off
+Fire Island, she fell into the tornado which, an hour earlier, had
+swept over New York city with lightning that wrecked buildings and
+sent trees flying about in splinters; even ships at docks had parted
+their moorings and smashed into other ships, doing great damage. It
+was the climax storm of the voyage, but I saw the unmistakable
+character of it in time to have all snug aboard and receive it under
+bare poles. Even so, the sloop shivered when it struck her, and she
+heeled over unwillingly on her beam ends; but rounding to, with a
+sea-anchor ahead, she righted and faced out the storm. In the midst of
+the gale I could do no more than look on, for what is a man in a storm
+like this? I had seen one electric storm on the voyage, off the coast
+of Madagascar, but it was unlike this one. Here the lightning kept on
+longer, and thunderbolts fell in the sea all about. Up to this time I
+was bound for New York; but when all was over I rose, made sail, and
+hove the sloop round from starboard to port tack, to make for a quiet
+harbor to think the matter over; and so, under short sail, she reached
+in for the coast of Long Island, while I sat thinking and watching the
+lights of coasting-vessels which now began to appear in sight.
+Reflections of the voyage so nearly finished stole in upon me now;
+many tunes I had hummed again and again came back once more. I found
+myself repeating fragments of a hymn often sung by a dear Christian
+woman of Fairhaven when I was rebuilding the <i>Spray</i>. I was to hear
+once more and only once, in profound solemnity, the metaphorical hymn:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">By waves and wind I'm tossed and driven.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>And again:</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">But still my little ship outbraves</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">The blust'ring winds and stormy waves.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>After this storm I saw the pilot of the <i>Pinta</i> no more.</p>
+
+<p>The experiences of the voyage of the <i>Spray</i>, reaching over three
+years, had been to me like reading a book, and one that was more and
+more interesting as I turned the pages, till I had come now to the
+last page of all, and the one more interesting than any of the rest.</p>
+
+<p>When daylight came I saw that the sea had changed color from dark
+green to light. I threw the lead and got soundings in thirteen
+fathoms. I made the land soon after, some miles east of Fire Island,
+and sailing thence before a pleasant breeze along the coast, made for
+Newport. The weather after the furious gale was remarkably fine. The
+<i>Spray</i> rounded Montauk Point early in the afternoon; Point Judith was
+abeam at dark; she fetched in at Beavertail next. Sailing on, she had
+one more danger to pass&mdash;Newport harbor was mined. The <i>Spray</i> hugged
+the rocks along where neither friend nor foe could come if drawing
+much water, and where she would not disturb the guard-ship in the
+channel. It was close work, but it was safe enough so long as she
+hugged the rocks close, and not the mines. Flitting by a low point
+abreast of the guard-ship, the dear old <i>Dexter</i>, which I knew well,
+some one on board of her sang out, "There goes a craft!" I threw up a
+light at once and heard the hail, "<i>Spray</i>, ahoy!" It was the voice of
+a friend, and I knew that a friend would not fire on the <i>Spray</i>. I
+eased off the main-sheet now, and the <i>Spray</i> swung off for the
+beacon-lights of the inner harbor. At last she reached port in safety,
+and there at 1 a.m. on June 27, 1898, cast anchor, after the cruise of
+more than forty-six thousand miles round the world, during an absence
+of three years and two months, with two days over for coming up.</p>
+
+<p>Was the crew well? Was I not? I had profited in many ways by the
+voyage. I had even gained flesh, and actually weighed a pound more
+than when I sailed from Boston. As for aging, why, the dial of my life
+was turned back till my friends all said, "Slocum is young again." And
+so I was, at least ten years younger than the day I felled the first
+tree for the construction of the <i>Spray</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My ship was also in better condition than when she sailed from Boston
+on her long voyage. She was still as sound as a nut, and as tight as
+the best ship afloat. She did not leak a drop&mdash;not one drop! The pump,
+which had been little used before reaching Australia, had not been
+rigged since that at all.</p>
+
+<p>The first name on the <i>Spray's</i> visitors' book in the home port was
+written by the one who always said, "The <i>Spray</i> will come back." The
+<i>Spray</i> was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around to her
+birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, farther along. I had myself a
+desire to return to the place of the very beginning whence I had, as I
+have said, renewed my age. So on July 3, with a fair wind, she waltzed
+beautifully round the coast and up the Acushnet River to Fairhaven,
+where I secured her to the cedar spile driven in the bank to hold her
+when she was launched. I could bring her no nearer home.</p>
+
+<p>If the <i>Spray</i> discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that
+there were no more continents to be discovered; she did not seek new
+worlds, or sail to powwow about the dangers of the seas. The sea has
+been much maligned. To find one's way to lands already discovered is a
+good thing, and the <i>Spray</i> made the discovery that even the worst sea
+is not so terrible to a well-appointed ship. No king, no country, no
+treasury at all, was taxed for the voyage of the <i>Spray</i>, and she
+accomplished all that she undertook to do.</p>
+
+<p><a name="new_york" id="new_york"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 364px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_279_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_279.jpg" width="364" height="557" alt="The Spray in the storm of New York." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">The Spray in the storm of New York.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>To succeed, however, in anything at all, one should go understandingly
+about his work and be prepared for every emergency. I see, as I look
+back over my own small achievement, a kit of not too elaborate
+carpenters' tools, a tin clock, and some carpet-tacks, not a great
+many, to facilitate the enterprise as already mentioned in the story.
+But above all to be taken into account were some years of schooling,
+where I studied with diligence Neptune's laws, and these laws I tried
+to obey when I sailed overseas; it was worth the while.</p>
+
+<p>And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed
+scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I
+have endeavored to tell just the story of the adventure itself. This,
+in my own poor way, having been done, I now moor ship, weather-bitt
+cables, and leave the sloop <i>Spray</i>, for the present, safe in port.</p>
+
+<h3><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX</h3>
+
+<p><a name="again_tied" id="again_tied"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 352px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_282_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_282.jpg" width="352" height="568" alt="Again tied to the old stake at Fairhaven." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Again tied to the old stake at Fairhaven.</span>
+</div>
+
+<h3>APPENDIX</h3>
+
+<p class="c">LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"</p>
+
+<p>Her pedigree so far as known&mdash;The Lines of the <i>Spray</i>&mdash;Her
+self-steering qualities&mdash;Sail-plan and steering-gear&mdash;An unprecedented
+feat&mdash;A final word of cheer to would-be navigators.</p>
+
+<p>From a feeling of diffidence toward sailors of great experience, I
+refrained, in the preceding chapters as prepared for serial
+publication in the "Century Magazine," from entering fully into the
+details of the <i>Spray's</i> build, and of the primitive methods employed
+to sail her. Having had no yachting experience at all, I had no means
+of knowing that the trim vessels seen in our harbors and near the land
+could not all do as much, or even more, than the <i>Spray</i>, sailing, for
+example, on a course with the helm lashed.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware that no other vessel had sailed in this manner around the
+globe, but would have been loath to say that another could not do it,
+or that many men had not sailed vessels of a certain rig in that
+manner as far as they wished to go. I was greatly amused, therefore,
+by the flat assertions of an expert that it could not be done.</p>
+
+<p><a name="plan_of_after_cabin" id="plan_of_after_cabin"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 371px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_284_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_284.jpg" width="371" height="354" alt="Plan of the after cabin of the Spray." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Plan of the after cabin of the Spray.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>Spray</i>, as I sailed her, was entirely a new boat, built over from
+a sloop which bore the same name, and which, tradition said, had first
+served as an oysterman, about a hundred years ago, on the coast of
+Delaware. There was no record in the custom-house of where she was
+built. She was once owned at Noank, Connecticut, afterward in New
+Bedford and when Captain Eben Pierce presented her to me, at the end
+of her natural life, she stood, as I have already described, propped
+up in a field at Fairhaven. Her lines were supposed to be those of a
+North Sea fisherman. In rebuilding timber by timber and plank by
+plank, I added to her free-board twelve inches amidships, eighteen
+inches forward, and fourteen inches aft, thereby increasing her sheer,
+and making her, as I thought, a better deep-water ship. I will not
+repeat the history of the rebuilding of the <i>Spray</i>, which I have
+detailed in my first chapter, except to say that, when finished, her
+dimensions were thirty-six feet nine inches over all, fourteen feet
+two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her
+tonnage being nine tons net, and twelve and seventy one-hundredths
+tons gross.</p>
+
+<p>I gladly produce the lines of the <i>Spray</i>, with such hints as my
+really limited fore-and-aft sailing will allow, my seafaring life
+having been spent mostly in barks and ships. No pains have been spared
+to give them accurately. The <i>Spray</i> was taken from New York to
+Bridgeport, Connecticut, and, under the supervision of the Park City
+Yacht Club, was hauled out of water and very carefully measured in
+every way to secure a satisfactory result. Captain Robins produced the
+model. Our young yachtsmen, pleasuring in the "lilies of the sea,"
+very naturally will not think favorably of my craft. They have a right
+to their opinion, while I stick to mine. They will take exceptions to
+her short ends, the advantage of these being most apparent in a heavy
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>Some things about the <i>Spray's</i> deck might be fashioned differently
+without materially affecting the vessel. I know of no good reason why
+for a party-boat a cabin trunk might not be built amidships instead of
+far aft, like the one on her, which leaves a very narrow space between
+the wheel and the line of the companionway. Some even say that I might
+have improved the shape of her stern. I do not know about that. The
+water leaves her run sharp after bearing her to the last inch, and no
+suction is formed by undue cutaway.</p>
+
+<p>Smooth-water sailors say, "Where is her overhang?" They never crossed
+the Gulf Stream in a nor'easter, and they do not know what is best in
+all weathers. For your life, build no fantail overhang on a craft
+going offshore. As a sailor judges his prospective ship by a "blow of
+the eye" when he takes interest enough to look her over at all, so I
+judged the <i>Spray</i>, and I was not deceived.</p>
+
+<p>In a sloop-rig the <i>Spray</i> made that part of her voyage reaching from
+Boston through the Strait of Magellan, during which she experienced
+the greatest variety of weather conditions. The yawl-rig then adopted
+was an improvement only in that it reduced the size of a rather heavy
+mainsail and slightly improved her steering qualities on the wind.
+When the wind was aft the jigger was not in use; invariably it was
+then furled. With her boom broad off and with the wind two points on
+the quarter the <i>Spray</i> sailed her truest course. It never took long
+to find the amount of helm, or angle of rudder, required to hold her
+on her course, and when that was found I lashed the wheel with it at
+that angle. The mainsail then drove her, and the main-jib, with its
+sheet boused flat amidships or a little to one side or the other,
+added greatly to the steadying power. Then if the wind was even strong
+or squally I would sometimes set a flying-jib also, on a pole rigged
+out on the bowsprit, with, the sheets hauled flat amidships, which was
+a safe thing to do, even in a gale of wind. A stout downhaul on the
+gaff was a necessity, because without it the mainsail might not have
+come down when I wished to lower it in a breeze. The amount of helm
+required varied according to the amount of wind and its direction.
+These points are quickly gathered from practice.</p>
+
+<p><a name="deck_plan" id="deck_plan"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 625px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_287_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_287.jpg" width="625" height="211" alt="Deck-plan of the Spray." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Deck-plan of the Spray.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Briefly I have to say that when close-hauled in a light wind under all
+sail she required little or no weather helm. As the wind increased I
+would go on deck, if below, and turn the wheel up a spoke more or
+less, relash it, or, as sailors say, put it in a becket, and then
+leave it as before.</p>
+
+<p><a name="sail_plan" id="sail_plan"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 90%;">
+<a href="images/illpg_288_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_288.jpg" width="520" height="331" alt="Sail-Plan of the Spray The solid lines represent the
+sail-plan of the Spray on starting for the long voyage. With it she
+crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, and then crossed again southwest to
+Brazil. In South American waters the bowsprit and boom were shortened
+and the jigger-sail added to form the yawl-rig with which the rest of
+the trip was made, the sail-plan of which is indicated by the dotted
+lines The extreme sail forward is a flying jib occasionally used, set
+to a bamboo stick fastened to the bowsprit. The manner of setting and
+bracing the jigger-mast is not indicated in this drawing, but may be
+partly observed in the plans on pages 287 and 289." title="" /></a>
+<br /><span class="caption">Sail-Plan of the Spray The solid lines represent the
+sail-plan of the Spray on starting for the long voyage. With it she
+crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, and then crossed again southwest to
+Brazil. In South American waters the bowsprit and boom were shortened
+and the jigger-sail added to form the yawl-rig with which the rest of
+the trip was made, the sail-plan of which is indicated by the dotted
+lines The extreme sail forward is a flying jib occasionally used, set
+to a bamboo stick fastened to the bowsprit. The manner of setting and
+bracing the jigger-mast is not indicated in this drawing, but may be
+partly observed in the plans on pages 287 and 289.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>To answer the questions that might be asked to meet every contingency
+would be a pleasure, but it would overburden my book. I can only say
+here that much comes to one in practice, and that, with such as love
+sailing, mother-wit is the best teacher, after experience.
+Labor-saving appliances? There were none. The sails were hoisted by
+hand; the halyards were rove through ordinary ships' blocks with
+common patent rollers. Of course the sheets were all belayed aft.</p>
+
+<p><a name="steering-gear" id="steering-gear"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 90%;">
+<a href="images/illpg_289_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_289.jpg" width="356" height="256" alt="Steering-gear of the Spray. The dotted lines are the
+ropes used to lash the wheel. In practice the loose ends were belayed,
+one over the other, around the top spokes of the wheel." title="" /></a>
+<br /><span class="caption">Steering-gear of the Spray. The dotted lines are the
+ropes used to lash the wheel. In practice the loose ends were belayed,
+one over the other, around the top spokes of the wheel.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The windlass used was in the shape of a winch, or crab, I think it is
+called. I had three anchors, weighing forty pounds, one hundred
+pounds, and one hundred and eighty pounds respectively. The windlass
+and the forty-pound anchor, and the "fiddle-head," or carving, on the
+end of the cutwater, belonged to the original <i>Spray</i>. The ballast,
+concrete cement, was stanchioned down securely. There was no iron or
+lead or other weight on the keel.</p>
+
+<p>If I took measurements by rule I did not set them down, and after
+sailing even the longest voyage in her I could not tell offhand the
+length of her mast, boom, or gaff. I did not know the center of effort
+in her sails, except as it hit me in practice at sea, nor did I care a
+rope yarn about it. Mathematical calculations, however, are all right
+in a good boat, and the <i>Spray</i> could have stood them. She was easily
+balanced and easily kept in trim.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the oldest and ablest shipmasters have asked how it was
+possible for her to hold a true course before the wind, which was just
+what the <i>Spray</i> did for weeks together. One of these gentlemen, a
+highly esteemed shipmaster and friend, testified as government expert
+in a famous murder trial in Boston, not long since, that a ship would
+not hold her course long enough for the steersman to leave the helm to
+cut the captain's throat. Ordinarily it would be so. One might say
+that with a square-rigged ship it would always be so. But the <i>Spray</i>,
+at the moment of the tragedy in question, was sailing around the globe
+with no one at the helm, except at intervals more or less rare.
+However, I may say here that this would have had no bearing on the
+murder case in Boston. In all probability Justice laid her hand on the
+true rogue. In other words, in the case of a model and rig similar to
+that of the tragedy ship, I should myself testify as did the nautical
+experts at the trial.</p>
+
+<p><a name="body-plan" id="body-plan"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_291_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_291.jpg" width="350" height="214" alt="Body-plan of the Spray." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Body-plan of the Spray.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But see the run the <i>Spray</i> made from Thursday Island to the Keeling
+Cocos Islands, twenty-seven hundred miles distant, in twenty-three
+days, with no one at the helm in that time, save for about one hour,
+from land to land. No other ship in the history of the world ever
+performed, under similar circumstances, the feat on so long and
+continuous a voyage. It was, however, a delightful midsummer sail. No
+one can know the pleasure of sailing free over the great oceans save
+those who have had the experience. It is not necessary, in order to
+realize the utmost enjoyment of going around the globe, to sail alone,
+yet for once and the first time there was a great deal of fun in it.
+My friend the government expert, and saltest of salt sea-captains,
+standing only yesterday on the deck of the <i>Spray</i>, was convinced of
+her famous qualities, and he spoke enthusiastically of selling his
+farm on Cape Cod and putting to sea again.</p>
+
+<p>To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough
+usage are for the most part exaggerations, as also are the stories of
+sea danger. I had a fair schooling in the so-called "hard ships" on
+the hard Western Ocean, and in the years there I do not remember
+having once been "called out of my name." Such recollections have
+endeared the sea to me. I owe it further to the officers of all the
+ships I ever sailed in as boy and man to say that not one ever lifted
+so much as a finger to me. I did not live among angels, but among men
+who could be roused. My wish was, though, to please the officers of my
+ship wherever I was, and so I got on. Dangers there are, to be sure,
+on the sea as well as on the land, but the intelligence and skill God
+gives to man reduce these to a minimum. And here comes in again the
+skilfully modeled ship worthy to sail the seas.</p>
+
+<p>To face the elements is, to be sure, no light matter when the sea is
+in its grandest mood. You must then know the sea, and know that you
+know it, and not forget that it was made to be sailed over.</p>
+
+<p>I have given in the plans of the <i>Spray</i> the dimensions of such a ship
+as I should call seaworthy in all conditions of weather and on all
+seas. It is only right to say, though, that to insure a reasonable
+measure of success, experience should sail with the ship. But in order
+to be a successful navigator or sailor it is not necessary to hang a
+tar-bucket about one's neck. On the other hand, much thought
+concerning the brass buttons one should wear adds nothing to the
+safety of the ship.</p>
+
+<p><a name="lines_of" id="lines_of"></a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 622px;">
+<a href="images/illpg_293_lg.jpg">
+<img src="images/illpg_293.jpg" width="622" height="289" alt="Lines of the Spray." title="" /></a>
+<span class="caption">Lines of the Spray.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I may some day see reason to modify the model of the dear old <i>Spray</i>,
+but out of my limited experience I strongly recommend her wholesome
+lines over those of pleasure-fliers for safety. Practice in a craft
+such as the <i>Spray</i> will teach young sailors and fit them for the more
+important vessels. I myself learned more seamanship, I think, on the
+<i>Spray</i> than on any other ship I ever sailed, and as for patience, the
+greatest of all the virtues, even while sailing through the reaches of
+the Strait of Magellan, between the bluff mainland and dismal Fuego,
+where through intricate sailing I was obliged to steer, I learned to
+sit by the wheel, content to make ten miles a day beating against the
+tide, and when a month at that was all lost, I could find some old
+tune to hum while I worked the route all over again, beating as
+before. Nor did thirty hours at the wheel, in storm, overtax my human
+endurance, and to clap a hand to an oar and pull into or out of port
+in a calm was no strange experience for the crew of the <i>Spray</i>. The
+days passed happily with me wherever my ship sailed.</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Sailing Alone Around The World, by Joshua Slocum
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sailing Alone Around The World
+
+Author: Joshua Slocum
+
+Illustrator: Thomas Fogarty
+             George Varian
+
+Posting Date: October 12, 2010
+Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6317]
+[This file was first posted on November 25, 2002]
+[Last updated: January 20, 2018]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD
+
+[Illustration: The "Spray" from a photograph taken in Australian
+waters.]
+
+
+
+
+
+SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD
+
+By Captain Joshua Slocum
+
+Illustrated by THOMAS FOGARTY AND GEORGE VARIAN
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+TO THE ONE WHO SAID: "THE 'SPRAY' WILL COME BACK."
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities--Youthful fondness for
+the sea--Master of the ship _Northern Light_--Loss of the
+_Aquidneck_--Return home from Brazil in the canoe _Liberdade_--The
+gift of a "ship"--The rebuilding of the _Spray_--Conundrums in regard
+to finance and calking--The launching of the _Spray_.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Failure as a fisherman--A voyage around the world projected--From
+Boston to Gloucester--Fitting out for the ocean voyage--Half of a dory
+for a ship's boat--The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia--A shaking
+up in home waters--Among old friends.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Good-by to the American coast--Off Sable Island in a fog--In the open
+sea--The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage--The first
+fit of loneliness--The _Spray_ encounters _La Vaguisa_--A bottle of
+wine from the Spaniard--A bout of words with the captain of the
+_Java_--The steamship _Olympia_ spoken--Arrival at the Azores.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Squally weather in the Azores--High living--Delirious from cheese and
+plums--The pilot of the _Pinta_--At Gibraltar--Compliments exchanged
+with the British navy--A picnic on the Morocco shore.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug--The
+_Spray's_ course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn--Chased by a
+Moorish pirate--A comparison with Columbus--The Canary Islands--The
+Cape Verde Islands--Sea life--Arrival at Pernambuco--A bill against
+the Brazilian government--Preparing for the stormy weather of the cape.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+Departure from Rio de Janeiro--The _Spray_ ashore on the sands of
+Uruguay--A narrow escape from shipwreck--The boy who found a
+sloop--The _Spray_ floated but somewhat damaged--Courtesies from the
+British consul at Maldonado--A warm greeting at Montevideo--An
+excursion to Buenos Aires--Shortening the mast and bowsprit.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires--An outburst of emotion at the mouth
+of the Plate--Submerged by a great wave--A stormy entrance to the
+strait--Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks--Off
+Cape Froward--Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay--A miss-shot for
+"Black Pedro"--Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island
+Cove--Animal life.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+From Cape Pillar into the Pacific--Driven by a tempest toward Cape
+Horn--Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure--Reaching the strait
+again by way of Cockburn Channel--Some savages find the
+carpet-tacks--Danger from firebrands--A series of fierce
+williwaws--Again sailing westward.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Repairing the _Spray's_ sails--Savages and an obstreperous anchor--A
+spider-fight--An encounter with Black Pedro--A visit to the steamship
+_Colombia_--On the defensive against a fleet of canoes--A record of
+voyages through the strait--A chance cargo of tallow.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm--A defective sheet-rope places
+the _Spray_ in peril--The _Spray_ as a target for a Fuegian arrow--The
+island of Alan Erric--Again in the open Pacific--The run to the island
+of Juan Fernandez--An absentee king--At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The islanders of Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts--The
+beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm--The mountain monument to
+Alexander Selkirk--Robinson Crusoe's cave--A stroll with the children
+of the island--Westward ho! with a friendly gale--A month's free
+sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides--Sighting the
+Marquesas--Experience in reckoning.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Seventy-two days without a port--Whales and birds--A peep into the
+_Spray's_ galley--Flying-fish for breakfast--A welcome at Apia--A
+visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson--At Vailima--Samoan
+hospitality--Arrested for fast riding--An amusing
+merry-go-round--Teachers and pupils of Papauta College--At the mercy
+of sea-nymphs.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Samoan royalty--King Malietoa--Good-by to friends at Vailima--Leaving
+Fiji to the south--Arrival at Newcastle, Australia--The yachts of
+Sydney--A ducking on the _Spray_--Commodore Foy presents the sloop
+with a new suit of sails--On to Melbourne--A shark that proved to be
+valuable--A change of course-The "Rain of Blood"--In Tasmania.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A testimonial from a lady--Cruising round Tasmania--The skipper
+delivers his first lecture on the voyage--Abundant provisions--An
+inspection of the _Spray_ for safety at Devonport--Again at
+Sydney--Northward bound for Torres Strait--An amateur
+shipwreck--Friends on the Australian coast--Perils of a coral sea.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland--A lecture--Reminiscences of
+Captain Cook--Lecturing for charity at Cooktown--A happy escape from a
+coral reef--Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island--An American
+pearl-fisherman--Jubilee at Thursday Island--A new ensign for the
+_Spray_--Booby Island--Across the Indian Ocean--Christmas Island.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A call for careful navigation--Three hours' steering in twenty-three
+days--Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands--A curious chapter of
+social history--A welcome from the children of the islands--Cleaning
+and painting the _Spray_ on the beach--A Mohammedan blessing for a pot
+of jam--Keeling as a paradise--A risky adventure in a small boat--Away
+to Rodriguez--Taken for Antichrist--The governor calms the fears of
+the people--A lecture--A convent in the hills.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A clean bill of health at Mauritius--Sailing the voyage over again in
+the opera-house--A newly discovered plant named in honor of the
+_Spray's_ skipper--A party of young ladies out for a sail--A bivouac
+on deck--A warm reception at Durban--A friendly cross-examination by
+Henry M. Stanley--Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the
+earth--Leaving South Africa.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Bounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time--A rough Christmas--The
+_Spray_ ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town--A railway trip
+to the Transvaal--President Kruger's odd definition of the _Spray's_
+voyage--His terse sayings--Distinguished guests on the
+_Spray_--Cocoanut fiber as a padlock--Courtesies from the admiral of
+the Queen's navy--Off for St. Helena--Land in sight.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+In the isle of Napoleon's exile--Two lectures--A guest in the
+ghost-room at Plantation House--An excursion to historic
+Longwood--Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it--The _Spray's_
+ill luck with animals--A prejudice against small dogs--A rat, the
+Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket--Ascension Island.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil--All at sea
+regarding the Spanish-American war--An exchange of signals with the
+battle-ship _Oregon_--Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
+Island--Reappearance to the _Spray_ of the north star--The light on
+Trinidad--A charming introduction to Grenada--Talks to friendly
+auditors.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Clearing for home--In the calm belt--A sea covered with sargasso--The
+jibstay parts in a gale--Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island--A
+change of plan--Arrival at Newport--End of a cruise of over forty-six
+thousand miles--The _Spray_ again at Fairhaven.
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+Her pedigree so far as known--The lines of the _Spray_--Her
+self-steering qualities--Sail-plan and steering-gear--An unprecedented
+feat--A final word of cheer to would-be navigators.
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+THE "Spray" Frontispiece FROM a photograph taken in Australian waters.
+
+THE "Northern Light," CAPTAIN JOSHUA SLOCUM, BOUND FOR LIVERPOOL, 1885
+
+CROSS-SECTION OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+"IT'LL CRAWL"
+
+"NO DORG NOR NO CAT"
+
+THE DEACON'S DREAM
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM'S CHRONOMETER
+
+"GOOD EVENING, SIR"
+
+HE ALSO SENT HIS CARD
+
+CHART OF THE "SPRAY'S" COURSE AROUND THE WORLD--APRIL 24, 1895, TO
+JULY 3, 1898
+
+THE ISLAND OF PICO
+
+CHART OF THE "SPRAY'S" ATLANTIC VOYAGES FROM BOSTON TO GIBRALTAR,
+THENCE TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN, IN 1895, AND FINALLY HOMEWARD BOUND
+FROM THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN 1898
+
+THE APPARITION AT THE WHEEL
+
+COMING TO ANCHOR AT GIBRALTAR
+
+THE "SPRAY" AT ANCHOR OFF GIBRALTAR
+
+CHASED BY PIRATES
+
+I SUDDENLY REMEMBERED THAT I COULD NOT SWIM
+
+A DOUBLE SURPRISE
+
+AT THE SIGN OF THE COMET
+
+A GREAT WAVE OFF THE PATAGONIAN COAST
+
+ENTRANCE TO THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
+
+THE COURSE OF THE "SPRAY" THROUGH THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
+
+THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T SHIP WITHOUT ANOTHER "MON AND A DOOG"
+
+A FUEGIAN GIRL
+
+LOOKING WEST FROM FORTESCUE BAY, WHERE THE "SPRAY" WAS CHASED BY
+INDIANS
+
+A BRUSH WITH FUEGIANS
+
+A BIT OF FRIENDLY ASSISTANCE
+
+CAPE PILLAR
+
+THEY HOWLED LIKE A PACK OF HOUNDS
+
+A GLIMPSE OF SANDY POINT (PUNTA ARENAS) IN THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN
+
+"YAMMERSCHOONER!"
+
+A CONTRAST IN LIGHTING--THE ELECTRIC LIGHTS OF THE "COLOMBIA" AND THE
+CANOE FIRES OF THE FORTESCUE INDIANS
+
+RECORDS OF PASSAGES THROUGH THE STRAIT AT THE HEAD OF BORGIA BAY
+
+SALVING WRECKAGE
+
+THE FIRST SHOT UNCOVERED THREE FUEGIANS
+
+THE "SPRAY" APPROACHING JUAN FERNANDEZ, ROBINSON CRUSOE'S ISLAND
+
+THE HOUSE OF THE KING
+
+ROBINSON CRUSOE'S CAVE
+
+THE MAN WHO CALLED A CABRA A GOAT
+
+MEETING WITH THE WHALE
+
+FIRST EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES IN SAMOA
+
+VAILIMA, THE HOME OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
+
+THE "SPRAY'S" COURSE FROM AUSTRALIA TO SOUTH AFRICA
+
+THE ACCIDENT AT SYDNEY
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM WORKING THE "SPRAY" OUT OF THE YARROW RIVER, A PART OF
+MELBOURNE HARBOR
+
+THE SHARK ON THE DECK OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+ON BOARD AT ST. KILDA. RETRACING ON THE CHART THE COURSE OF THE
+"SPRAY" FROM BOSTON
+
+THE "SPRAY" IN HER PORT DUSTER AT DEVONPORT, TASMANIA, FEBRUARY 22,
+1897
+
+"IS IT A-GOIN' TO BLOW?"
+
+THE "SPRAY" LEAVING SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, IN THE NEW SUIT OF SAILS GIVEN
+BY COMMODORE FOY OF AUSTRALIA
+
+THE "SPRAY" ASHORE FOR "BOOT-TOPPING" AT THE KEELING ISLANDS
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM DRIFTING OUT TO SEA
+
+THE "SPRAY" AT MAURITIUS
+
+CAPTAIN JOSHUA SLOCUM
+
+CARTOON PRINTED IN THE CAPE TOWN "OWL" OF MARCH 5, 1898, IN CONNECTION
+WITH AN ITEM ABOUT CAPTAIN SLOCUM'S TRIP TO PRETORIA
+
+CAPTAIN SLOCUM, SIR ALFRED MILNER (WITH THE TALL HAT), AND COLONEL
+SAUNDERSON, M. P., ON THE BOW OF THE "SPRAY" AT CAPE TOWN
+
+THE SPRAY IN THE STORM OF NEW YORK.
+
+READING DAY AND NIGHT THE "SPRAY"
+
+PASSED BY THE "OREGON"
+
+AGAIN TIED TO THE OLD STAKE AT FAIRHAVEN
+
+PLAN OF THE AFTER CABIN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+DECK-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+STEERING-GEAR OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+BODY-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+LINES OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:]
+
+SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities--Youthful fondness for
+the sea--Master of the ship _Northern Light_--Loss of the
+_Aquidneck_--Return home from Brazil in the canoe _Liberdade_--The
+gift of a "ship"--The rebuilding of the _Spray_-Conundrums in regard
+to finance and calking--The launching of the _Spray_.
+
+In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge
+called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and
+the fertile Annapolis valley on the other. On the northern slope of
+the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-timbers,
+of which many vessels of all classes have been built. The people of
+this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the
+world's commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the
+birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia. I was born in
+a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though
+I am a citizen of the United States--a naturalized Yankee, if it may
+be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the
+word. On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should
+be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to
+whittle models of boats and contemplate voyages. My father was the
+sort of man who, if wrecked on a desolate island, would find his way
+home, if he had a jack-knife and could find a tree. He was a good
+judge of a boat, but the old clay farm which some calamity made his
+was an anchor to him. He was not afraid of a capful of wind, and he
+never took a back seat at a camp-meeting or a good, old-fashioned
+revival.
+
+As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first. At the age
+of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay,
+with chances greatly in favor of being drowned. When a lad I filled
+the important post of cook on a fishing-schooner; but I was not long in
+the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff,
+and "chucked me out" before I had a chance to shine as a culinary
+artist. The next step toward the goal of happiness found me before the
+mast in a full-rigged ship bound on a foreign voyage. Thus I came
+"over the bows," and not in through the cabin windows, to the command
+of a ship.
+
+My best command was that of the magnificent ship _Northern Light_, of
+which I was part-owner. I had a right to be proud of her, for at that
+time--in the eighties--she was the finest American sailing-vessel
+afloat. Afterward I owned and sailed the _Aquidneck_, a little bark
+which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of
+beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of
+steamers, I had been nearly twenty years a shipmaster when I quit her
+deck on the coast of Brazil, where she was wrecked. My home voyage to
+New York with my family was made in the canoe _Liberdade_, without
+accident.
+
+[Illustration: Drawn by W. Taber. The _Northern Light_, Captain Joshua
+Slocum, bound for Liverpool, 1885.]
+
+My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as freighter and trader
+principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice
+Islands. Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to coil up
+one's ropes on land, the customs and ways of which I had finally
+almost forgotten. And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last
+they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old
+sailor to do? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as
+perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else. Next in
+attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building. I longed to be
+master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I
+accomplished my desire. From the decks of stout ships in the worst
+gales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of ship safest
+for all weather and all seas. Thus the voyage which I am now to
+narrate was a natural outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of
+my lifelong experience.
+
+One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, where I had been cast up from
+old ocean, so to speak, a year or two before, I was cogitating whether
+I should apply for a command, and again eat my bread and butter on the
+sea, or go to work at the shipyard, when I met an old acquaintance, a
+whaling-captain, who said: "Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a
+ship. But," he added, "she wants some repairs." The captain's terms,
+when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me. They included
+all the assistance I would require to fit the craft for sea. I was
+only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not
+obtain work in the shipyard without first paying fifty dollars to a
+society, and as for a ship to command--there were not enough ships to
+go round. Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for
+coal-barges, and were being ignominiously towed by the nose from port
+to port, while many worthy captains addressed themselves to Sailors'
+Snug Harbor.
+
+The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found
+that my friend had something of a joke on me. For seven years the joke
+had been on him. The "ship" proved to be a very antiquated sloop
+called the _Spray,_ which the neighbors declared had been built in the
+year 1. She was affectionately propped up in a field, some distance
+from salt water, and was covered with canvas. The people of Fairhaven,
+I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant. For seven years they had
+asked, "I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old
+_Spray?"_ The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange:
+at last some one had come and was actually at work on the old _Spray._
+"Breaking her up, I s'pose?" "No; going to rebuild her." Great was the
+amazement. "Will it pay?" was the question which for a year or more I
+answered by declaring that I would make it pay.
+
+My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard,
+for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for the
+frame of the new vessel. I rigged a steam-box and a pot for a boiler.
+The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and
+steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured
+till set. Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor,
+and the neighbors made the work sociable. It was a great day in the
+_Spray_ shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new
+keel. Whaling-captains came from far to survey it. With one voice they
+pronounced it "A 1," and in their opinion "fit to smash ice." The
+oldest captain shook my hand warmly when the breast-hooks were put in,
+declaring that he could see no reason why the _Spray_ should not "cut
+in bow-head" yet off the coast of Greenland. The much-esteemed
+stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak. It
+afterward split a coral patch in two at the Keeling Islands, and did
+not receive a blemish. Better timber for a ship than pasture white oak
+never grew. The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this
+wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required. It was hard
+upon March when I began work in earnest; the weather was cold; still,
+there were plenty of inspectors to back me with advice. When a
+whaling-captain hove in sight I just rested on my adz awhile and
+"gammed" with him.
+
+New Bedford, the home of whaling-captains, is connected with Fairhaven
+by a bridge, and the walking is good. They never "worked along up" to
+the shipyard too often for me. It was the charming tales about arctic
+whaling that inspired me to put a double set of breast-hooks in the
+_Spray_, that she might shunt ice.
+
+The seasons came quickly while I worked. Hardly were the ribs of the
+sloop up before apple-trees were in bloom. Then the daisies and the
+cherries came soon after. Close by the place where the old _Spray_ had
+now dissolved rested the ashes of John Cook, a revered Pilgrim father.
+So the new _Spray_ rose from hallowed ground. From the deck of the new
+craft I could put out my hand and pick cherries that grew over the
+little grave. The planks for the new vessel, which I soon came to put
+on, were of Georgia pine an inch and a half thick. The operation of
+putting them on was tedious, but, when on, the calking was easy. The
+outward edges stood slightly open to receive the calking, but the
+inner edges were so close that I could not see daylight between them.
+All the butts were fastened by through bolts, with screw-nuts
+tightening them to the timbers, so that there would be no complaint
+from them. Many bolts with screw-nuts were used in other parts of the
+construction, in all about a thousand. It was my purpose to make my
+vessel stout and strong.
+
+[Illustration: Cross-section of the _Spray_.]
+
+Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the _Jane_ repaired all out of the
+old until she is entirely new is still the _Jane_. The _Spray_ changed
+her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old
+died or the new took birth, and it was no matter. The bulwarks I built
+up of white-oak stanchions fourteen inches high, and covered with
+seven-eighth-inch white pine. These stanchions, mortised through a
+two-inch covering-board, I calked with thin cedar wedges. They have
+remained perfectly tight ever since. The deck I made of
+one-and-a-half-inch by three-inch white pine spiked to beams, six by
+six inches, of yellow or Georgia pine, placed three feet apart. The
+deck-inclosures were one over the aperture of the main hatch, six feet
+by six, for a cooking-galley, and a trunk farther aft, about ten feet
+by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these rose about three feet above the
+deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head-room. In
+the spaces along the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a
+berth to sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not forgetting a
+place for the medicine-chest. In the midship hold, that is, the space
+between cabin and galley, under the deck, was room for provision of
+water, salt beef, etc., ample for many months.
+
+The hull of my vessel being now put together as strongly as wood and
+iron could make her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I set
+about "calking ship." Grave fears were entertained by some that at
+this point I should fail. I myself gave some thought to the
+advisability of a "professional calker." The very first blow I struck
+on the cotton with the calking-iron, which I thought was right, many
+others thought wrong. "It'll crawl!" cried a man from Marion, passing
+with a basket of clams on his back. "It'll crawl!" cried another from
+West Island, when he saw me driving cotton into the seams. Bruno
+simply wagged his tail. Even Mr. Ben J----, a noted authority on
+whaling-ships, whose mind, however, was said to totter, asked rather
+confidently if I did not think "it would crawl." "How fast will it
+crawl?" cried my old captain friend, who had been towed by many a
+lively sperm-whale. "Tell us how fast," cried he, "that we may get
+into port in time."
+
+[Illustration: "'It'll crawl'"]
+
+However, I drove a thread of oakum on top of the cotton, as from the
+first I had intended to do. And Bruno again wagged his tail. The
+cotton never "crawled." When the calking was finished, two coats of
+copper paint were slapped on the bottom, two of white lead on the
+topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then shipped and painted, and on
+the following day the _Spray_ was launched. As she rode at her
+ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan.
+
+The _Spray's_ dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine
+inches long, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet
+two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and
+twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross.
+
+Then the mast, a smart New Hampshire spruce, was fitted, and likewise
+all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise. Sails were
+bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce and me, across
+Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip--all right. The only thing that now
+worried my friends along the beach was, "Will she pay?" The cost of my
+new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thirteen months of my own
+labor. I was several months more than that at Fairhaven, for I got
+work now and then on an occasional whale-ship fitting farther down the
+harbor, and that kept me the overtime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Failure as a fisherman--A voyage around the world projected--From
+Boston to Gloucester--Fitting out for the ocean voyage--Half of a dory
+for a ship's boat--The run from Gloucester to Nova Scotia--A shaking
+up in home waters--Among old friends.
+
+I spent a season in my new craft fishing on the coast, only to find
+that I had not the cunning properly to bait a hook. But at last the
+time arrived to weigh anchor and get to sea in earnest. I had resolved
+on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April
+24,1895, was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away
+from Boston, where the _Spray_ had been moored snugly all winter. The
+twelve-o'clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead
+under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port
+tack, then coming about she stood seaward, with her boom well off to
+port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on
+the outer pier at East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by,
+her flag at the peak throwing its folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat
+high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt that
+there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an
+adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood. I had taken
+little advice from any one, for I had a right to my own opinions in
+matters pertaining to the sea. That the best of sailors might do worse
+than even I alone was borne in upon me not a league from Boston docks,
+where a great steamship, fully manned, officered, and piloted, lay
+stranded and broken. This was the _Venetian._ She was broken
+completely in two over a ledge. So in the first hour of my lone voyage
+I had proof that the _Spray_ could at least do better than this
+full-handed steamship, for I was already farther on my voyage than
+she. "Take warning, _Spray,_ and have a care," I uttered aloud to my
+bark, passing fairylike silently down the bay.
+
+The wind freshened, and the _Spray_ rounded Deer Island light at the
+rate of seven knots.
+
+Passing it, she squared away direct for Gloucester to procure there
+some fishermen's stores. Waves dancing joyously across Massachusetts
+Bay met her coming out of the harbor to dash them into myriads of
+sparkling gems that hung about her at every surge. The day was
+perfect, the sunlight clear and strong. Every particle of water thrown
+into the air became a gem, and the _Spray,_ bounding ahead, snatched
+necklace after necklace from the sea, and as often threw them away. We
+have all seen miniature rainbows about a ship's prow, but the _Spray_
+flung out a bow of her own that day, such as I had never seen before.
+Her good angel had embarked on the voyage; I so read it in the sea.
+
+Bold Nahant was soon abeam, then Marblehead was put astern. Other
+vessels were outward bound, but none of them passed the _Spray_ flying
+along on her course. I heard the clanking of the dismal bell on
+Norman's Woe as we went by; and the reef where the schooner _Hesperus_
+struck I passed close aboard. The "bones" of a wreck tossed up lay
+bleaching on the shore abreast. The wind still freshening, I settled
+the throat of the mainsail to ease the sloop's helm, for I could
+hardly hold her before it with the whole mainsail set. A schooner
+ahead of me lowered all sail and ran into port under bare poles, the
+wind being fair. As the _Spray_ brushed by the stranger, I saw that
+some of his sails were gone, and much broken canvas hung in his
+rigging, from the effects of a squall.
+
+I made for the cove, a lovely branch of Gloucester's fine harbor,
+again to look the _Spray_ over and again to weigh the voyage, and my
+feelings, and all that. The bay was feather-white as my little vessel
+tore in, smothered in foam. It was my first experience of coming into
+port alone, with a craft of any size, and in among shipping. Old
+fishermen ran down to the wharf for which the _Spray_ was heading,
+apparently intent upon braining herself there. I hardly know how a
+calamity was averted, but with my heart in my mouth, almost, I let go
+the wheel, stepped quickly forward, and downed the jib. The sloop
+naturally rounded in the wind, and just ranging ahead, laid her cheek
+against a mooring-pile at the windward corner of the wharf, so
+quietly, after all, that she would not have broken an egg. Very
+leisurely I passed a rope around the post, and she was moored. Then a
+cheer went up from the little crowd on the wharf. "You couldn't 'a'
+done it better," cried an old skipper, "if you weighed a ton!" Now, my
+weight was rather less than the fifteenth part of a ton, but I said
+nothing, only putting on a look of careless indifference to say for
+me, "Oh, that's nothing"; for some of the ablest sailors in the world
+were looking at me, and my wish was not to appear green, for I had a
+mind to stay in Gloucester several days. Had I uttered a word it
+surely would have betrayed me, for I was still quite nervous and short
+of breath.
+
+I remained in Gloucester about two weeks, fitting out with the various
+articles for the voyage most readily obtained there. The owners of the
+wharf where I lay, and of many fishing-vessels, put on board dry cod
+galore, also a barrel of oil to calm the waves. They were old skippers
+themselves, and took a great interest in the voyage. They also made
+the _Spray_ a present of a "fisherman's own" lantern, which I found
+would throw a light a great distance round. Indeed, a ship that would
+run another down having such a good light aboard would be capable of
+running into a light-ship. A gaff, a pugh, and a dip-net, all of which
+an old fisherman declared I could not sail without, were also put
+aboard. Then, top, from across the cove came a case of copper paint, a
+famous antifouling article, which stood me in good stead long after. I
+slapped two coats of this paint on the bottom of the _Spray_ while she
+lay a tide or so on the hard beach.
+
+For a boat to take along, I made shift to cut a castaway dory in two
+athwartships, boarding up the end where it was cut. This half-dory I
+could hoist in and out by the nose easily enough, by hooking the
+throat-halyards into a strop fitted for the purpose. A whole dory
+would be heavy and awkward to handle alone. Manifestly there was not
+room on deck for more than the half of a boat, which, after all, was
+better than no boat at all, and was large enough for one man. I
+perceived, moreover, that the newly arranged craft would answer for a
+washing-machine when placed athwartships, and also for a bath-tub.
+Indeed, for the former office my razeed dory gained such a reputation
+on the voyage that my washerwoman at Samoa would not take no for an
+answer. She could see with one eye that it was a new invention which
+beat any Yankee notion ever brought by missionaries to the islands,
+and she had to have it.
+
+The want of a chronometer for the voyage was all that now worried me.
+In our newfangled notions of navigation it is supposed that a mariner
+cannot find his way without one; and I had myself drifted into this
+way of thinking. My old chronometer, a good one, had been long in
+disuse. It would cost fifteen dollars to clean and rate it. Fifteen
+dollars! For sufficient reasons I left that timepiece at home, where
+the Dutchman left his anchor. I had the great lantern, and a lady in
+Boston sent me the price of a large two-burner cabin lamp, which
+lighted the cabin at night, and by some small contriving served for a
+stove through the day.
+
+Being thus refitted I was once more ready for sea, and on May 7 again
+made sail. With little room in which to turn, the _Spray_, in
+gathering headway, scratched the paint off an old, fine-weather craft
+in the fairway, being puttied and painted for a summer voyage. "Who'll
+pay for that?" growled the painters. "I will," said I. "With the
+main-sheet," echoed the captain of the _Bluebird_, close by, which was
+his way of saying that I was off. There was nothing to pay for above
+five cents' worth of paint, maybe, but such a din was raised between
+the old "hooker" and the _Bluebird_, which now took up my case, that
+the first cause of it was forgotten altogether. Anyhow, no bill was
+sent after me.
+
+The weather was mild on the day of my departure from Gloucester. On
+the point ahead, as the _Spray_ stood out of the cove, was a lively
+picture, for the front of a tall factory was a flutter of
+handkerchiefs and caps. Pretty faces peered out of the windows from
+the top to the bottom of the building, all smiling _bon voyage_. Some
+hailed me to know where away and why alone. Why? When I made as if to
+stand in, a hundred pairs of arms reached out, and said come, but the
+shore was dangerous! The sloop worked out of the bay against a light
+southwest wind, and about noon squared away off Eastern Point,
+receiving at the same time a hearty salute--the last of many
+kindnesses to her at Gloucester. The wind freshened off the point, and
+skipping along smoothly, the _Spray_ was soon off Thatcher's Island
+lights. Thence shaping her course east, by compass, to go north of
+Cashes Ledge and the Amen Rocks, I sat and considered the matter all
+over again, and asked myself once more whether it were best to sail
+beyond the ledge and rocks at all. I had only said that I would sail
+round the world in the _Spray_, "dangers of the sea excepted," but I
+must have said it very much in earnest. The "charter-party" with
+myself seemed to bind me, and so I sailed on. Toward night I hauled
+the sloop to the wind, and baiting a hook, sounded for bottom-fish, in
+thirty fathoms of water, on the edge of Cashes Ledge. With fair
+success I hauled till dark, landing on deck three cod and two
+haddocks, one hake, and, best of all, a small halibut, all plump and
+spry. This, I thought, would be the place to take in a good stock of
+provisions above what I already had; so I put out a sea-anchor that
+would hold her head to windward. The current being southwest, against
+the wind, I felt quite sure I would find the _Spray_ still on the bank
+or near it in the morning. Then "stradding" the cable and putting my
+great lantern in the rigging, I lay down, for the first time at sea
+alone, not to sleep, but to doze and to dream.
+
+I had read somewhere of a fishing-schooner hooking her anchor into a
+whale, and being towed a long way and at great speed. This was exactly
+what happened to the _Spray_--in my dream! I could not shake it off
+entirely when I awoke and found that it was the wind blowing and the
+heavy sea now running that had disturbed my short rest. A scud was
+flying across the moon. A storm was brewing; indeed, it was already
+stormy. I reefed the sails, then hauled in my sea-anchor, and setting
+what canvas the sloop could carry, headed her away for Monhegan light,
+which she made before daylight on the morning of the 8th. The wind
+being free, I ran on into Round Pond harbor, which is a little port
+east from Pemaquid. Here I rested a day, while the wind rattled among
+the pine-trees on shore. But the following day was fine enough, and I
+put to sea, first writing up my log from Cape Ann, not omitting a full
+account of my adventure with the whale.
+
+[Illustration: "'No dorg nor no cat.'"]
+
+The _Spray_, heading east, stretched along the coast among many
+islands and over a tranquil sea. At evening of this day, May 10, she
+came up with a considerable island, which I shall always think of as
+the Island of Frogs, for the _Spray_ was charmed by a million voices.
+From the Island of Frogs we made for the Island of Birds, called
+Gannet Island, and sometimes Gannet Rock, whereon is a bright,
+intermittent light, which flashed fitfully across the _Spray's_ deck
+as she coasted along under its light and shade. Thence shaping a
+course for Briar's Island, I came among vessels the following
+afternoon on the western fishing-grounds, and after speaking a
+fisherman at anchor, who gave me a wrong course, the _Spray_ sailed
+directly over the southwest ledge through the worst tide-race in the
+Bay of Fundy, and got into Westport harbor in Nova Scotia, where I had
+spent eight years of my life as a lad.
+
+The fisherman may have said "east-southeast," the course I was
+steering when I hailed him; but I thought he said "east-northeast,"
+and I accordingly changed it to that. Before he made up his mind to
+answer me at all, he improved the occasion of his own curiosity to
+know where I was from, and if I was alone, and if I didn't have "no
+dorg nor no cat." It was the first time in all my life at sea that I
+had heard a hail for information answered by a question. I think the
+chap belonged to the Foreign Islands. There was one thing I was sure
+of, and that was that he did not belong to Briar's Island, because he
+dodged a sea that slopped over the rail, and stopping to brush the
+water from his face, lost a fine cod which he was about to ship. My
+islander would not have done that. It is known that a Briar Islander,
+fish or no fish on his hook, never flinches from a sea. He just tends
+to his lines and hauls or "saws." Nay, have I not seen my old friend
+Deacon W. D---, a good man of the island, while listening to a sermon
+in the little church on the hill, reach out his hand over the door of
+his pew and "jig" imaginary squid in the aisle, to the intense delight
+of the young people, who did not realize that to catch good fish one
+must have good bait, the thing most on the deacon's mind.
+
+[Illustration: The deacon's dream.]
+
+I was delighted to reach Westport. Any port at all would have been
+delightful after the terrible thrashing I got in the fierce sou'west
+rip, and to find myself among old schoolmates now was charming. It was
+the 13th of the month, and 13 is my lucky number--a fact registered
+long before Dr. Nansen sailed in search of the north pole with his
+crew of thirteen. Perhaps he had heard of my success in taking a most
+extraordinary ship successfully to Brazil with that number of crew.
+The very stones on Briar's Island I was glad to see again, and I knew
+them all. The little shop round the corner, which for thirty-five
+years I had not seen, was the same, except that it looked a deal
+smaller. It wore the same shingles--I was sure of it; for did not I
+know the roof where we boys, night after night, hunted for the skin of
+a black cat, to be taken on a dark night, to make a plaster for a poor
+lame man? Lowry the tailor lived there when boys were boys. In his day
+he was fond of the gun. He always carried his powder loose in the tail
+pocket of his coat. He usually had in his mouth a short dudeen; but in
+an evil moment he put the dudeen, lighted, in the pocket among the
+powder. Mr. Lowry was an eccentric man.
+
+At Briar's Island I overhauled the _Spray_ once more and tried her
+seams, but found that even the test of the sou'west rip had started
+nothing. Bad weather and much head wind prevailing outside, I was in
+no hurry to round Cape Sable. I made a short excursion with some
+friends to St. Mary's Bay, an old cruising-ground, and back to the
+island. Then I sailed, putting into Yarmouth the following day on
+account of fog and head wind. I spent some days pleasantly enough in
+Yarmouth, took in some butter for the voyage, also a barrel of
+potatoes, filled six barrels of water, and stowed all under deck. At
+Yarmouth, too, I got my famous tin clock, the only timepiece I carried
+on the whole voyage. The price of it was a dollar and a half, but on
+account of the face being smashed the merchant let me have it for a
+dollar.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum's chronometer.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Good-by to the American coast--Off Sable Island in a fog--In the open
+sea--The man in the moon takes an interest in the voyage--The first
+fit of loneliness--The _Spray_ encounters _La Vaguisa_--A bottle of
+wine from the Spaniard--A bout of words with the captain of the
+_Java_--The steamship _Olympia_ spoken--Arrival at the Azores.
+
+I now stowed all my goods securely, for the boisterous Atlantic was
+before me, and I sent the topmast down, knowing that the _Spray_ would
+be the wholesomer with it on deck. Then I gave the lanyards a pull and
+hitched them afresh, and saw that the gammon was secure, also that the
+boat was lashed, for even in summer one may meet with bad weather in
+the crossing.
+
+In fact, many weeks of bad weather had prevailed. On July 1, however,
+after a rude gale, the wind came out nor'west and clear, propitious
+for a good run. On the following day, the head sea having gone down, I
+sailed from Yarmouth, and let go my last hold on America. The log of
+my first day on the Atlantic in the _Spray_ reads briefly: "9:30 A.M.
+sailed from Yarmouth. 4:30 P.M. passed Cape Sable; distance, three
+cables from the land. The sloop making eight knots. Fresh breeze N.W."
+Before the sun went down I was taking my supper of strawberries and
+tea in smooth water under the lee of the east-coast land, along which
+the _Spray_ was now leisurely skirting.
+
+At noon on July 3 Ironbound Island was abeam. The _Spray_ was again at
+her best. A large schooner came out of Liverpool, Nova Scotia, this
+morning, steering eastward. The _Spray_ put her hull down astern in
+five hours. At 6:45 P.M. I was in close under Chebucto Head light,
+near Halifax harbor. I set my flag and squared away, taking my
+departure from George's Island before dark to sail east of Sable
+Island. There are many beacon lights along the coast. Sambro, the Rock
+of Lamentations, carries a noble light, which, however, the liner
+_Atlantic_, on the night of her terrible disaster, did not see. I
+watched light after light sink astern as I sailed into the unbounded
+sea, till Sambro, the last of them all, was below the horizon. The
+_Spray_ was then alone, and sailing on, she held her course. July 4,
+at 6 A.M., I put in double reefs, and at 8:30 A.M. turned out all
+reefs. At 9:40 P.M. I raised the sheen only of the light on the west
+end of Sable Island, which may also be called the Island of Tragedies.
+The fog, which till this moment had held off, now lowered over the sea
+like a pall. I was in a world of fog, shut off from the universe. I
+did not see any more of the light. By the lead, which I cast often, I
+found that a little after midnight I was passing the east point of the
+island, and should soon be clear of dangers of land and shoals. The
+wind was holding free, though it was from the foggy point,
+south-southwest. It is said that within a few years Sable Island has
+been reduced from forty miles in length to twenty, and that of three
+lighthouses built on it since 1880, two have been washed away and the
+third will soon be engulfed.
+
+[Illustration: "'Good evening, sir.'"]
+
+On the evening of July 5 the _Spray_, after having steered all day
+over a lumpy sea, took it into her head to go without the helmsman's
+aid. I had been steering southeast by south, but the wind hauling
+forward a bit, she dropped into a smooth lane, heading southeast, and
+making about eight knots, her very best work. I crowded on sail to
+cross the track of the liners without loss of time, and to reach as
+soon as possible the friendly Gulf Stream. The fog lifting before
+night, I was afforded a look at the sun just as it was touching the
+sea. I watched it go down and out of sight. Then I turned my face
+eastward, and there, apparently at the very end of the bowsprit, was
+the smiling full moon rising out of the sea. Neptune himself coming
+over the bows could not have startled me more. "Good evening, sir," I
+cried; "I'm glad to see you." Many a long talk since then I have had
+with the man in the moon; he had my confidence on the voyage.
+
+About midnight the fog shut down again denser than ever before. One
+could almost "stand on it." It continued so for a number of days, the
+wind increasing to a gale. The waves rose high, but I had a good ship.
+Still, in the dismal fog I felt myself drifting into loneliness, an
+insect on a straw in the midst of the elements. I lashed the helm, and
+my vessel held her course, and while she sailed I slept.
+
+During these days a feeling of awe crept over me. My memory worked
+with startling power. The ominous, the insignificant, the great, the
+small, the wonderful, the commonplace--all appeared before my mental
+vision in magical succession. Pages of my history were recalled which
+had been so long forgotten that they seemed to belong to a previous
+existence. I heard all the voices of the past laughing, crying,
+telling what I had heard them tell in many corners of the earth.
+
+The loneliness of my state wore off when the gale was high and I found
+much work to do. When fine weather returned, then came the sense of
+solitude, which I could not shake off. I used my voice often, at first
+giving some order about the affairs of a ship, for I had been told
+that from disuse I should lose my speech. At the meridian altitude of
+the sun I called aloud, "Eight bells," after the custom on a ship at
+sea. Again from my cabin I cried to an imaginary man at the helm, "How
+does she head, there?" and again, "Is she on her course?" But getting
+no reply, I was reminded the more palpably of my condition. My voice
+sounded hollow on the empty air, and I dropped the practice. However,
+it was not long before the thought came to me that when I was a lad I
+used to sing; why not try that now, where it would disturb no one? My
+musical talent had never bred envy in others, but out on the Atlantic,
+to realize what it meant, you should have heard me sing. You should
+have seen the porpoises leap when I pitched my voice for the waves and
+the sea and all that was in it. Old turtles, with large eyes, poked
+their heads up out of the sea as I sang "Johnny Boker," and "We'll Pay
+Darby Doyl for his Boots," and the like. But the porpoises were, on
+the whole, vastly more appreciative than the turtles; they jumped a
+deal higher. One day when I was humming a favorite chant, I think it
+was "Babylon's a-Fallin'," a porpoise jumped higher than the bowsprit.
+Had the _Spray_ been going a little faster she would have scooped
+him in. The sea-birds sailed around rather shy.
+
+July 10, eight days at sea, the _Spray_ was twelve hundred miles east
+of Cape Sable. One hundred and fifty miles a day for so small a vessel
+must be considered good sailing. It was the greatest run the _Spray_
+ever made before or since in so few days. On the evening of July 14,
+in better humor than ever before, all hands cried, "Sail ho!" The sail
+was a barkantine, three points on the weather bow, hull down. Then
+came the night. My ship was sailing along now without attention to the
+helm. The wind was south; she was heading east. Her sails were trimmed
+like the sails of the nautilus. They drew steadily all night. I went
+frequently on deck, but found all well. A merry breeze kept on from
+the south. Early in the morning of the 15th the _Spray_ was close
+aboard the stranger, which proved to be _La Vaguisa_ of Vigo,
+twenty-three days from Philadelphia, bound for Vigo. A lookout from
+his masthead had spied the _Spray_ the evening before. The captain,
+when I came near enough, threw a line to me and sent a bottle of wine
+across slung by the neck, and very good wine it was. He also sent his
+card, which bore the name of Juan Gantes. I think he was a good man,
+as Spaniards go. But when I asked him to report me "all well" (the
+_Spray_ passing him in a lively manner), he hauled his shoulders much
+above his head; and when his mate, who knew of my expedition, told him
+that I was alone, he crossed himself and made for his cabin. I did not
+see him again. By sundown he was as far astern as he had been ahead
+the evening before.
+
+[Illustration: "He also sent his card."]
+
+There was now less and less monotony. On July 16 the wind was
+northwest and clear, the sea smooth, and a large bark, hull down, came
+in sight on the lee bow, and at 2:30 P.M. I spoke the stranger. She
+was the bark _Java_ of Glasgow, from Peru for Queenstown for orders.
+Her old captain was bearish, but I met a bear once in Alaska that
+looked pleasanter. At least, the bear seemed pleased to meet me, but
+this grizzly old man! Well, I suppose my hail disturbed his siesta,
+and my little sloop passing his great ship had somewhat the effect on
+him that a red rag has upon a bull. I had the advantage over heavy
+ships, by long odds, in the light winds of this and the two previous
+days. The wind was light; his ship was heavy and foul, making poor
+headway, while the _Spray_, with a great mainsail bellying even to
+light winds, was just skipping along as nimbly as one could wish. "How
+long has it been calm about here?" roared the captain of the _Java_,
+as I came within hail of him. "Dunno, cap'n," I shouted back as loud
+as I could bawl. "I haven't been here long." At this the mate on the
+forecastle wore a broad grin. "I left Cape Sable fourteen days ago," I
+added. (I was now well across toward the Azores.) "Mate," he roared to
+his chief officer--"mate, come here and listen to the Yankee's yarn.
+Haul down the flag, mate, haul down the flag!" In the best of humor,
+after all, the _Java_ surrendered to the _Spray_.
+
+[Illustration: Chart of the _Spray's_ course around the world--April
+24, 1895, to July 3, 1898]
+
+The acute pain of solitude experienced at first never returned. I had
+penetrated a mystery, and, by the way, I had sailed through a fog. I
+had met Neptune in his wrath, but he found that I had not treated him
+with contempt, and so he suffered me to go on and explore.
+
+In the log for July 18 there is this entry: "Fine weather, wind
+south-southwest. Porpoises gamboling all about. The S.S. _Olympia_
+passed at 11:30 A.M., long. W. 34 degrees 50'."
+
+"It lacks now three minutes of the half-hour," shouted the captain, as
+he gave me the longitude and the time. I admired the businesslike air
+of the _Olympia_; but I have the feeling still that the captain was
+just a little too precise in his reckoning. That may be all well
+enough, however, where there is plenty of sea-room. But
+over-confidence, I believe, was the cause of the disaster to the liner
+_Atlantic_, and many more like her. The captain knew too well where he
+was. There were no porpoises at all skipping along with the _Olympia_!
+Porpoises always prefer sailing-ships. The captain was a young man, I
+observed, and had before him, I hope, a good record.
+
+Land ho! On the morning of July 19 a mystic dome like a mountain of
+silver stood alone in the sea ahead. Although the land was completely
+hidden by the white, glistening haze that shone in the sun like
+polished silver, I felt quite sure that it was Flores Island. At
+half-past four P.M. it was abeam. The haze in the meantime had
+disappeared. Flores is one hundred and seventy-four miles from Fayal,
+and although it is a high island, it remained many years undiscovered
+after the principal group of the islands had been colonized.
+
+Early on the morning of July 20 I saw Pico looming above the clouds on
+the starboard bow. Lower lands burst forth as the sun burned away the
+morning fog, and island after island came into view. As I approached
+nearer, cultivated fields appeared, "and oh, how green the corn!" Only
+those who have seen the Azores from the deck of a vessel realize the
+beauty of the mid-ocean picture.
+
+[Illustration: The island of Pico.]
+
+At 4:30 P.M. I cast anchor at Fayal, exactly eighteen days from Cape
+Sable. The American consul, in a smart boat, came alongside before the
+_Spray_ reached the breakwater, and a young naval officer, who feared
+for the safety of my vessel, boarded, and offered his services as
+pilot. The youngster, I have no good reason to doubt, could have
+handled a man-of-war, but the _Spray_ was too small for the amount of
+uniform he wore. However, after fouling all the craft in port and
+sinking a lighter, she was moored without much damage to herself. This
+wonderful pilot expected a "gratification," I understood, but whether
+for the reason that his government, and not I, would have to pay the
+cost of raising the lighter, or because he did not sink the _Spray_, I
+could never make out. But I forgive him.
+
+It was the season for fruit when I arrived at the Azores, and there
+was soon more of all kinds of it put on board than I knew what to do
+with. Islanders are always the kindest people in the world, and I met
+none anywhere kinder than the good hearts of this place. The people of
+the Azores are not a very rich community. The burden of taxes is
+heavy, with scant privileges in return, the air they breathe being
+about the only thing that is not taxed. The mother-country does not
+even allow them a port of entry for a foreign mail service. A packet
+passing never so close with mails for Horta must deliver them first in
+Lisbon, ostensibly to be fumigated, but really for the tariff from the
+packet. My own letters posted at Horta reached the United States six
+days behind my letter from Gibraltar, mailed thirteen days later.
+
+The day after my arrival at Horta was the feast of a great saint.
+Boats loaded with people came from other islands to celebrate at
+Horta, the capital, or Jerusalem, of the Azores. The deck of the
+_Spray_ was crowded from morning till night with men, women, and
+children. On the day after the feast a kind-hearted native harnessed a
+team and drove me a day over the beautiful roads all about Fayal,
+"because," said he, in broken English, "when I was in America and
+couldn't speak a word of English, I found it hard till I met some one
+who seemed to have time to listen to my story, and I promised my good
+saint then that if ever a stranger came to my country I would try to
+make him happy." Unfortunately, this gentleman brought along an
+interpreter, that I might "learn more of the country." The fellow was
+nearly the death of me, talking of ships and voyages, and of the boats
+he had steered, the last thing in the world I wished to hear. He had
+sailed out of New Bedford, so he said, for "that Joe Wing they call
+'John.'" My friend and host found hardly a chance to edge in a word.
+Before we parted my host dined me with a cheer that would have
+gladdened the heart of a prince, but he was quite alone in his house.
+"My wife and children all rest there," said he, pointing to the
+churchyard across the way. "I moved to this house from far off," he
+added, "to be near the spot, where I pray every morning."
+
+I remained four days at Fayal, and that was two days more than I had
+intended to stay. It was the kindness of the islanders and their
+touching simplicity which detained me. A damsel, as innocent as an
+angel, came alongside one day, and said she would embark on the
+_Spray_ if I would land her at Lisbon. She could cook flying-fish, she
+thought, but her forte was dressing _bacalhao_. Her brother Antonio,
+who served as interpreter, hinted that, anyhow, he would like to make
+the trip. Antonio's heart went out to one John Wilson, and he was
+ready to sail for America by way of the two capes to meet his friend.
+"Do you know John Wilson of Boston?" he cried. "I knew a John Wilson,"
+I said, "but not of Boston." "He had one daughter and one son," said
+Antonio, by way of identifying his friend. If this reaches the right
+John Wilson, I am told to say that "Antonio of Pico remembers him."
+
+[Illustration: Chart of the _Spray's_ Atlantic voyages from Boston to
+Gibraltar, thence to the Strait of Magellan, in 1895, and finally
+homeward bound from the Cape of Good Hope in 1898.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Squally weather in the Azores--High living--Delirious from cheese and
+plums--The pilot of the _Pinta_--At Gibraltar--Compliments exchanged
+with the British navy--A picnic on the Morocco shore.
+
+I set sail from Horta early on July 24. The southwest wind at the time
+was light, but squalls came up with the sun, and I was glad enough to
+get reefs in my sails before I had gone a mile. I had hardly set the
+mainsail, double-reefed, when a squall of wind down the mountains
+struck the sloop with such violence that I thought her mast would go.
+However, a quick helm brought her to the wind. As it was, one of the
+weather lanyards was carried away and the other was stranded. My tin
+basin, caught up by the wind, went flying across a French school-ship
+to leeward. It was more or less squally all day, sailing along under
+high land; but rounding close under a bluff, I found an opportunity to
+mend the lanyards broken in the squall. No sooner had I lowered my
+sails when a four-oared boat shot out from some gully in the rocks,
+with a customs officer on board, who thought he had come upon a
+smuggler. I had some difficulty in making him comprehend the true
+case. However, one of his crew, a sailorly chap, who understood how
+matters were, while we palavered jumped on board and rove off the new
+lanyards I had already prepared, and with a friendly hand helped me
+"set up the rigging." This incident gave the turn in my favor. My
+story was then clear to all. I have found this the way of the world.
+Let one be without a friend, and see what will happen!
+
+Passing the island of Pico, after the rigging was mended, the _Spray_
+stretched across to leeward of the island of St. Michael's, which she
+was up with early on the morning of July 26, the wind blowing hard.
+Later in the day she passed the Prince of Monaco's fine steam-yacht
+bound to Fayal, where, on a previous voyage, the prince had slipped
+his cables to "escape a reception" which the padres of the island
+wished to give him. Why he so dreaded the "ovation" I could not make
+out. At Horta they did not know. Since reaching the islands I had
+lived most luxuriously on fresh bread, butter, vegetables, and fruits
+of all kinds. Plums seemed the most plentiful on the _Spray_, and
+these I ate without stint. I had also a Pico white cheese that General
+Manning, the American consul-general, had given me, which I supposed
+was to be eaten, and of this I partook with the plums. Alas! by
+night-time I was doubled up with cramps. The wind, which was already a
+smart breeze, was increasing somewhat, with a heavy sky to the
+sou'west. Reefs had been turned out, and I must turn them in again
+somehow. Between cramps I got the mainsail down, hauled out the
+earings as best I could, and tied away point by point, in the double
+reef. There being sea-room, I should, in strict prudence, have made
+all snug and gone down at once to my cabin. I am a careful man at sea,
+but this night, in the coming storm, I swayed up my sails, which,
+reefed though they were, were still too much in such heavy weather;
+and I saw to it that the sheets were securely belayed. In a word, I
+should have laid to, but did not. I gave her the double-reefed
+mainsail and whole jib instead, and set her on her course. Then I went
+below, and threw myself upon the cabin floor in great pain. How long I
+lay there I could not tell, for I became delirious. When I came to, as
+I thought, from my swoon, I realized that the sloop was plunging into
+a heavy sea, and looking out of the companionway, to my amazement I
+saw a tall man at the helm. His rigid hand, grasping the spokes of the
+wheel, held them as in a vise. One may imagine my astonishment. His
+rig was that of a foreign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was
+cockbilled over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy black
+whiskers. He would have been taken for a pirate in any part of the
+world. While I gazed upon his threatening aspect I forgot the storm,
+and wondered if he had come to cut my throat. This he seemed to
+divine. "Senor," said he, doffing his cap, "I have come to do you no
+harm." And a smile, the faintest in the world, but still a smile,
+played on his face, which seemed not unkind when he spoke. "I have
+come to do you no harm. I have sailed free," he said, "but was never
+worse than a _contrabandista_. I am one of Columbus's crew," he
+continued. "I am the pilot of the Pinta come to aid you. Lie quiet,
+senor captain," he added, "and I will guide your ship to-night. You
+have a _calentura_, but you will be all right tomorrow." I thought
+what a very devil he was to carry sail. Again, as if he read my mind,
+he exclaimed: "Yonder is the _Pinta_ ahead; we must overtake her. Give
+her sail; give her sail! _Vale, vale, muy vale!_" Biting off a large
+quid of black twist, he said: "You did wrong, captain, to mix cheese
+with plums. White cheese is never safe unless you know whence it
+comes. _Quien sabe_, it may have been from _leche de Capra_ and
+becoming capricious--"
+
+[Illustration: The apparition at the wheel.]
+
+"Avast, there!" I cried. "I have no mind for moralizing."
+
+I made shift to spread a mattress and lie on that instead of the hard
+floor, my eyes all the while fastened on my strange guest, who,
+remarking again that I would have "only pains and calentura," chuckled
+as he chanted a wild song:
+
+  High are the waves, fierce, gleaming,
+    High is the tempest roar!
+  High the sea-bird screaming!
+    High the Azore!
+
+I suppose I was now on the mend, for I was peevish, and complained: "I
+detest your jingle. Your Azore should be at roost, and would have been
+were it a respectable bird!" I begged he would tie a rope-yarn on the
+rest of the song, if there was any more of it. I was still in agony.
+Great seas were boarding the _Spray_, but in my fevered brain I
+thought they were boats falling on deck, that careless draymen were
+throwing from wagons on the pier to which I imagined the _Spray_ was
+now moored, and without fenders to breast her off. "You'll smash your
+boats!" I called out again and again, as the seas crashed on the cabin
+over my head. "You'll smash your boats, but you can't hurt the
+_Spray_. She is strong!" I cried.
+
+I found, when my pains and calentura had gone, that the deck, now as
+white as a shark's tooth from seas washing over it, had been swept of
+everything movable. To my astonishment, I saw now at broad day that
+the _Spray_ was still heading as I had left her, and was going like a
+racehorse. Columbus himself could not have held her more exactly on
+her course. The sloop had made ninety miles in the night through a
+rough sea. I felt grateful to the old pilot, but I marveled some that
+he had not taken in the jib. The gale was moderating, and by noon the
+sun was shining. A meridian altitude and the distance on the patent
+log, which I always kept towing, told me that she had made a true
+course throughout the twenty-four hours. I was getting much better
+now, but was very weak, and did not turn out reefs that day or the
+night following, although the wind fell light; but I just put my wet
+clothes out in the sun when it was shining, and lying down there
+myself, fell asleep. Then who should visit me again but my old friend
+of the night before, this time, of course, in a dream. "You did well
+last night to take my advice," said he, "and if you would, I should
+like to be with you often on the voyage, for the love of adventure
+alone." Finishing what he had to say, he again doffed his cap and
+disappeared as mysteriously as he came, returning, I suppose, to the
+phantom _Pinta_. I awoke much refreshed, and with the feeling that I
+had been in the presence of a friend and a seaman of vast experience.
+I gathered up my clothes, which by this time were dry, then, by
+inspiration, I threw overboard all the plums in the vessel.
+
+July 28 was exceptionally fine. The wind from the northwest was light
+and the air balmy. I overhauled my wardrobe, and bent on a white shirt
+against nearing some coasting-packet with genteel folk on board. I
+also did some washing to get the salt out of my clothes. After it all
+I was hungry, so I made a fire and very cautiously stewed a dish of
+pears and set them carefully aside till I had made a pot of delicious
+coffee, for both of which I could afford sugar and cream. But the
+crowning dish of all was a fish-hash, and there was enough of it for
+two. I was in good health again, and my appetite was simply ravenous.
+While I was dining I had a large onion over the double lamp stewing
+for a luncheon later in the day. High living to-day!
+
+In the afternoon the _Spray_ came upon a large turtle asleep on the
+sea. He awoke with my harpoon through his neck, if he awoke at all. I
+had much difficulty in landing him on deck, which I finally
+accomplished by hooking the throat-halyards to one of his flippers,
+for he was about as heavy as my boat. I saw more turtles, and I rigged
+a burton ready with which to hoist them in; for I was obliged to lower
+the mainsail whenever the halyards were used for such purposes, and it
+was no small matter to hoist the large sail again. But the
+turtle-steak was good. I found no fault with the cook, and it was the
+rule of the voyage that the cook found no fault with me. There was
+never a ship's crew so well agreed. The bill of fare that evening was
+turtle-steak, tea and toast, fried potatoes, stewed onions; with
+dessert of stewed pears and cream.
+
+Sometime in the afternoon I passed a barrel-buoy adrift, floating
+light on the water. It was painted red, and rigged with a signal-staff
+about six feet high. A sudden change in the weather coming on, I got
+no more turtle or fish of any sort before reaching port. July 31 a
+gale sprang up suddenly from the north, with heavy seas, and I
+shortened sail. The _Spray_ made only fifty-one miles on her course
+that day. August 1 the gale continued, with heavy seas. Through the
+night the sloop was reaching, under close-reefed mainsail and bobbed
+jib. At 3 P.M. the jib was washed off the bowsprit and blown to rags
+and ribbons. I bent the "jumbo" on a stay at the night-heads. As for
+the jib, let it go; I saved pieces of it, and, after all, I was in
+want of pot-rags.
+
+On August 3 the gale broke, and I saw many signs of land. Bad weather
+having made itself felt in the galley, I was minded to try my hand at
+a loaf of bread, and so rigging a pot of fire on deck by which to bake
+it, a loaf soon became an accomplished fact. One great feature about
+ship's cooking is that one's appetite on the sea is always good--a
+fact that I realized when I cooked for the crew of fishermen in the
+before-mentioned boyhood days. Dinner being over, I sat for hours
+reading the life of Columbus, and as the day wore on I watched the
+birds all flying in one direction, and said, "Land lies there."
+
+Early the next morning, August 4, I discovered Spain. I saw fires on
+shore, and knew that the country was inhabited. The _Spray_ continued
+on her course till well in with the land, which was that about
+Trafalgar. Then keeping away a point, she passed through the Strait of
+Gibraltar, where she cast anchor at 3 P. M. of the same day, less than
+twenty-nine days from Cape Sable. At the finish of this preliminary
+trip I found myself in excellent health, not overworked or cramped,
+but as well as ever in my life, though I was as thin as a reef-point.
+
+[Illustration: Coming to anchor at Gibraltar.]
+
+Two Italian barks, which had been close alongside at daylight, I saw
+long after I had anchored, passing up the African side of the strait.
+The _Spray_ had sailed them both hull down before she reached Tarifa.
+So far as I know, the _Spray_ beat everything going across the
+Atlantic except the steamers.
+
+All was well, but I had forgotten to bring a bill of health from
+Horta, and so when the fierce old port doctor came to inspect there
+was a row. That, however, was the very thing needed. If you want to
+get on well with a true Britisher you must first have a deuce of a row
+with him. I knew that well enough, and so I fired away, shot for shot,
+as best I could. "Well, yes," the doctor admitted at last, "your crew
+are healthy enough, no doubt, but who knows the diseases of your last
+port?"--a reasonable enough remark. "We ought to put you in the fort,
+sir!" he blustered; "but never mind. Free pratique, sir! Shove off,
+cockswain!" And that was the last I saw of the port doctor.
+
+But on the following morning a steam-launch, much longer than the
+_Spray_, came alongside,--or as much of her as could get
+alongside,--with compliments from the senior naval officer, Admiral
+Bruce, saying there was a berth for the _Spray_ at the arsenal. This
+was around at the new mole. I had anchored at the old mole, among the
+native craft, where it was rough and uncomfortable. Of course I was
+glad to shift, and did so as soon as possible, thinking of the great
+company the _Spray_ would be in among battle-ships such as the
+_Collingwood_, _Balfleur_, and _Cormorant_, which were at that time
+stationed there, and on board all of which I was entertained, later,
+most royally.
+
+"'Put it thar!' as the Americans say," was the salute I got from
+Admiral Bruce, when I called at the admiralty to thank him for his
+courtesy of the berth, and for the use of the steam-launch which towed
+me into dock. "About the berth, it is all right if it suits, and we'll
+tow you out when you are ready to go. But, say, what repairs do you
+want? Ahoy the _Hebe_, can you spare your sailmaker? The _Spray_ wants
+a new jib. Construction and repair, there! will you see to the
+_Spray_? Say, old man, you must have knocked the devil out of her
+coming over alone in twenty-nine days! But we'll make it smooth for
+you here!" Not even her Majesty's ship the _Collingwood_ was better
+looked after than the _Spray_ at Gibraltar.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ at anchor off Gibraltar.]
+
+Later in the day came the hail: "_Spray_ ahoy! Mrs. Bruce would like
+to come on board and shake hands with the _Spray_. Will it be
+convenient to-day!" "Very!" I joyfully shouted.
+
+On the following day Sir F. Carrington, at the time governor of
+Gibraltar, with other high officers of the garrison, and all the
+commanders of the battle-ships, came on board and signed their names
+in the _Spray's_ log-book. Again there was a hail, "_Spray_ ahoy!"
+"Hello!" "Commander Reynolds's compliments. You are invited on board
+H.M.S. _Collingwood_, 'at home' at 4:30 P.M. Not later than 5:30 P.M."
+I had already hinted at the limited amount of my wardrobe, and that I
+could never succeed as a dude. "You are expected, sir, in a stovepipe
+hat and a claw-hammer coat!" "Then I can't come." "Dash it! come in
+what you have on; that is what we mean." "Aye, aye, sir!" The
+_Collingwood's_ cheer was good, and had I worn a silk hat as high as
+the moon I could not have had a better time or been made more at home.
+An Englishman, even on his great battle-ship, unbends when the
+stranger passes his gangway, and when he says "at home" he means it.
+
+That one should like Gibraltar would go without saying. How could one
+help loving so hospitable a place? Vegetables twice a week and milk
+every morning came from the palatial grounds of the admiralty.
+"_Spray_ ahoy!" would hail the admiral. "_Spray_ ahoy!" "Hello!"
+"To-morrow is your vegetable day, sir." "Aye, aye, sir!"
+
+I rambled much about the old city, and a gunner piloted me through the
+galleries of the rock as far as a stranger is permitted to go. There
+is no excavation in the world, for military purposes, at all
+approaching these of Gibraltar in conception or execution. Viewing the
+stupendous works, it became hard to realize that one was within the
+Gibraltar of his little old Morse geography.
+
+Before sailing I was invited on a picnic with the governor, the
+officers of the garrison, and the commanders of the war-ships at the
+station; and a royal affair it was. Torpedo-boat No. 91, going
+twenty-two knots, carried our party to the Morocco shore and back. The
+day was perfect--too fine, in fact, for comfort on shore, and so no
+one landed at Morocco. No. 91 trembled like an aspen-leaf as she raced
+through the sea at top speed. Sublieutenant Boucher, apparently a mere
+lad, was in command, and handled his ship with the skill of an older
+sailor. On the following day I lunched with General Carrington, the
+governor, at Line Wall House, which was once the Franciscan convent.
+In this interesting edifice are preserved relics of the fourteen
+sieges which Gibraltar has seen. On the next day I supped with the
+admiral at his residence, the palace, which was once the convent of
+the Mercenaries. At each place, and all about, I felt the friendly
+grasp of a manly hand, that lent me vital strength to pass the coming
+long days at sea. I must confess that the perfect discipline, order,
+and cheerfulness at Gibraltar were only a second wonder in the great
+stronghold. The vast amount of business going forward caused no more
+excitement than the quiet sailing of a well-appointed ship in a smooth
+sea. No one spoke above his natural voice, save a boatswain's mate now
+and then. The Hon. Horatio J. Sprague, the venerable United States
+consul at Gibraltar, honored the _Spray_ with a visit on Sunday,
+August 24, and was much pleased to find that our British cousins had
+been so kind to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Sailing from Gibraltar with the assistance of her Majesty's tug--The
+_Spray's_ course changed from the Suez Canal to Cape Horn--Chased by a
+Moorish pirate--A comparison with Columbus--The Canary Islands-The
+Cape Verde Islands--Sea life--Arrival at Pernambuco--A bill against
+the Brazilian government--Preparing for the stormy weather of the
+cape.
+
+Monday, August 25, the _Spray_ sailed from Gibraltar, well repaid for
+whatever deviation she had made from a direct course to reach the
+place. A tug belonging to her Majesty towed the sloop into the steady
+breeze clear of the mount, where her sails caught a volant wind, which
+carried her once more to the Atlantic, where it rose rapidly to a
+furious gale. My plan was, in going down this coast, to haul offshore,
+well clear of the land, which hereabouts is the home of pirates; but I
+had hardly accomplished this when I perceived a felucca making out of
+the nearest port, and finally following in the wake of the _Spray_.
+Now, my course to Gibraltar had been taken with a view to proceed up
+the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal, down the Red Sea, and
+east about, instead of a western route, which I finally adopted. By
+officers of vast experience in navigating these seas, I was influenced
+to make the change. Longshore pirates on both coasts being numerous, I
+could not afford to make light of the advice. But here I was, after
+all, evidently in the midst of pirates and thieves! I changed my
+course; the felucca did the same, both vessels sailing very fast, but
+the distance growing less and less between us. The _Spray_ was doing
+nobly; she was even more than at her best; but, in spite of all I
+could do, she would broach now and then. She was carrying too much
+sail for safety. I must reef or be dismasted and lose all, pirate or
+no pirate. I must reef, even if I had to grapple with him for my life.
+
+I was not long in reefing the mainsail and sweating it up--probably
+not more than fifteen minutes; but the felucca had in the meantime so
+shortened the distance between us that I now saw the tuft of hair on
+the heads of the crew,--by which, it is said, Mohammed will pull the
+villains up into heaven,--and they were coming on like the wind. From
+what I could clearly make out now, I felt them to be the sons of
+generations of pirates, and I saw by their movements that they were
+now preparing to strike a blow. The exultation on their faces,
+however, was changed in an instant to a look of fear and rage. Their
+craft, with too much sail on, broached to on the crest of a great
+wave. This one great sea changed the aspect of affairs suddenly as the
+flash of a gun. Three minutes later the same wave overtook the _Spray_
+and shook her in every timber. At the same moment the sheet-strop
+parted, and away went the main-boom, broken short at the rigging.
+Impulsively I sprang to the jib-halyards and down-haul, and instantly
+downed the jib. The head-sail being off, and the helm put hard down,
+the sloop came in the wind with a bound. While shivering there, but a
+moment though it was, I got the mainsail down and secured inboard,
+broken boom and all. How I got the boom in before the sail was torn I
+hardly know; but not a stitch of it was broken. The mainsail being
+secured, I hoisted away the jib, and, without looking round, stepped
+quickly to the cabin and snatched down my loaded rifle and cartridges
+at hand; for I made mental calculations that the pirate would by this
+time have recovered his course and be close aboard, and that when I
+saw him it would be better for me to be looking at him along the
+barrel of a gun. The piece was at my shoulder when I peered into the
+mist, but there was no pirate within a mile. The wave and squall that
+carried away my boom dismasted the felucca outright. I perceived his
+thieving crew, some dozen or more of them, struggling to recover their
+rigging from the sea. Allah blacken their faces!
+
+I sailed comfortably on under the jib and forestaysail, which I now
+set. I fished the boom and furled the sail snug for the night; then
+hauled the sloop's head two points offshore to allow for the set of
+current and heavy rollers toward the land. This gave me the wind three
+points on the starboard quarter and a steady pull in the headsails. By
+the time I had things in this order it was dark, and a flying-fish had
+already fallen on deck. I took him below for my supper, but found
+myself too tired to cook, or even to eat a thing already prepared. I
+do not remember to have been more tired before or since in all my life
+than I was at the finish of that day. Too fatigued to sleep, I rolled
+about with the motion of the vessel till near midnight, when I made
+shift to dress my fish and prepare a dish of tea. I fully realized
+now, if I had not before, that the voyage ahead would call for
+exertions ardent and lasting. On August 27 nothing could be seen of
+the Moor, or his country either, except two peaks, away in the east
+through the clear atmosphere of morning. Soon after the sun rose even
+these were obscured by haze, much to my satisfaction.
+
+[Illustration: Chased by pirates.]
+
+The wind, for a few days following my escape from the pirates, blew a
+steady but moderate gale, and the sea, though agitated into long
+rollers, was not uncomfortably rough or dangerous, and while sitting
+in my cabin I could hardly realize that any sea was running at all, so
+easy was the long, swinging motion of the sloop over the waves. All
+distracting uneasiness and excitement being now over, I was once more
+alone with myself in the realization that I was on the mighty sea and
+in the hands of the elements. But I was happy, and was becoming more
+and more interested in the voyage.
+
+Columbus, in the _Santa Maria_, sailing these seas more than four
+hundred years before, was not so happy as I, nor so sure of success in
+what he had undertaken. His first troubles at sea had already begun.
+His crew had managed, by foul play or otherwise, to break the ship's
+rudder while running before probably just such a gale as the _Spray_
+had passed through; and there was dissension on the _Santa Maria_,
+something that was unknown on the _Spray_.
+
+After three days of squalls and shifting winds I threw myself down to
+rest and sleep, while, with helm lashed, the sloop sailed steadily on
+her course.
+
+September 1, in the early morning, land-clouds rising ahead told of
+the Canary Islands not far away. A change in the weather came next
+day: storm-clouds stretched their arms across the sky; from the east,
+to all appearances, might come a fierce harmattan, or from the south
+might come the fierce hurricane. Every point of the compass threatened
+a wild storm. My attention was turned to reefing sails, and no time
+was to be lost over it, either, for the sea in a moment was confusion
+itself, and I was glad to head the sloop three points or more away
+from her true course that she might ride safely over the waves. I was
+now scudding her for the channel between Africa and the island of
+Fuerteventura, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, for which I was
+on the lookout. At 2 P.M., the weather becoming suddenly fine, the
+island stood in view, already abeam to starboard, and not more than
+seven miles off. Fuerteventura is twenty-seven hundred feet high, and
+in fine weather is visible many leagues away.
+
+The wind freshened in the night, and the _Spray_ had a fine run
+through the channel. By daylight, September 3, she was twenty-five
+miles clear of all the islands, when a calm ensued, which was the
+precursor of another gale of wind that soon came on, bringing with it
+dust from the African shore. It howled dismally while it lasted, and
+though it was not the season of the harmattan, the sea in the course
+of an hour was discolored with a reddish-brown dust. The air remained
+thick with flying dust all the afternoon, but the wind, veering
+northwest at night, swept it back to land, and afforded the _Spray_
+once more a clear sky. Her mast now bent under a strong, steady
+pressure, and her bellying sail swept the sea as she rolled scuppers
+under, courtesying to the waves. These rolling waves thrilled me as
+they tossed my ship, passing quickly under her keel. This was grand
+sailing.
+
+September 4, the wind, still fresh, blew from the north-northeast, and
+the sea surged along with the sloop. About noon a steamship, a
+bullock-droger, from the river Plate hove in sight, steering
+northeast, and making bad weather of it. I signaled her, but got no
+answer. She was plunging into the head sea and rolling in a most
+astonishing manner, and from the way she yawed one might have said
+that a wild steer was at the helm.
+
+On the morning of September 6 I found three flying-fish on deck, and a
+fourth one down the fore-scuttle as close as possible to the
+frying-pan. It was the best haul yet, and afforded me a sumptuous
+breakfast and dinner.
+
+The _Spray_ had now settled down to the tradewinds and to the business
+of her voyage. Later in the day another droger hove in sight, rolling
+as badly as her predecessor. I threw out no flag to this one, but got
+the worst of it for passing under her lee. She was, indeed, a stale
+one! And the poor cattle, how they bellowed! The time was when ships
+passing one another at sea backed their topsails and had a "gam," and
+on parting fired guns; but those good old days have gone. People have
+hardly time nowadays to speak even on the broad ocean, where news is
+news, and as for a salute of guns, they cannot afford the powder.
+There are no poetry-enshrined freighters on the sea now; it is a prosy
+life when we have no time to bid one another good morning.
+
+My ship, running now in the full swing of the trades, left me days to
+myself for rest and recuperation. I employed the time in reading and
+writing, or in whatever I found to do about the rigging and the sails
+to keep them all in order. The cooking was always done quickly, and
+was a small matter, as the bill of fare consisted mostly of
+flying-fish, hot biscuits and butter, potatoes, coffee and
+cream--dishes readily prepared.
+
+On September 10 the _Spray_ passed the island of St. Antonio, the
+northwesternmost of the Cape Verdes, close aboard. The landfall was
+wonderfully true, considering that no observations for longitude had
+been made. The wind, northeast, as the sloop drew by the island, was
+very squally, but I reefed her sails snug, and steered broad from the
+highland of blustering St. Antonio. Then leaving the Cape Verde
+Islands out of sight astern, I found myself once more sailing a lonely
+sea and in a solitude supreme all around. When I slept I dreamed that
+I was alone. This feeling never left me; but, sleeping or waking, I
+seemed always to know the position of the sloop, and I saw my vessel
+moving across the chart, which became a picture before me.
+
+One night while I sat in the cabin under this spell, the profound
+stillness all about was broken by human voices alongside! I sprang
+instantly to the deck, startled beyond my power to tell. Passing close
+under lee, like an apparition, was a white bark under full sail. The
+sailors on board of her were hauling on ropes to brace the yards,
+which just cleared the sloop's mast as she swept by. No one hailed
+from the white-winged flier, but I heard some one on board say that he
+saw lights on the sloop, and that he made her out to be a fisherman. I
+sat long on the starlit deck that night, thinking of ships, and
+watching the constellations on their voyage.
+
+On the following day, September 13, a large four-masted ship passed
+some distance to windward, heading north.
+
+The sloop was now rapidly drawing toward the region of doldrums, and
+the force of the trade-winds was lessening. I could see by the ripples
+that a counter-current had set in. This I estimated to be about
+sixteen miles a day. In the heart of the counter-stream the rate was
+more than that setting eastward.
+
+September 14 a lofty three-masted ship, heading north, was seen from
+the masthead. Neither this ship nor the one seen yesterday was within
+signal distance, yet it was good even to see them. On the following
+day heavy rain-clouds rose in the south, obscuring the sun; this was
+ominous of doldrums. On the 16th the _Spray_ entered this gloomy
+region, to battle with squalls and to be harassed by fitful calms; for
+this is the state of the elements between the northeast and the
+southeast trades, where each wind, struggling in turn for mastery,
+expends its force whirling about in all directions. Making this still
+more trying to one's nerve and patience, the sea was tossed into
+confused cross-lumps and fretted by eddying currents. As if something
+more were needed to complete a sailor's discomfort in this state, the
+rain poured down in torrents day and night. The _Spray_ struggled and
+tossed for ten days, making only three hundred miles on her course in
+all that time. I didn't say anything!
+
+On September 23 the fine schooner _Nantasket_ of Boston, from Bear
+River, for the river Plate, lumber-laden, and just through the
+doldrums, came up with the _Spray_, and her captain passing a few
+words, she sailed on. Being much fouled on the bottom by shell-fish,
+she drew along with her fishes which had been following the _Spray_,
+which was less provided with that sort of food. Fishes will always
+follow a foul ship. A barnacle-grown log adrift has the same
+attraction for deep-sea fishes. One of this little school of deserters
+was a dolphin that had followed the _Spray_ about a thousand miles,
+and had been content to eat scraps of food thrown overboard from my
+table; for, having been wounded, it could not dart through the sea to
+prey on other fishes. I had become accustomed to seeing the dolphin,
+which I knew by its scars, and missed it whenever it took occasional
+excursions away from the sloop. One day, after it had been off some
+hours, it returned in company with three yellowtails, a sort of cousin
+to the dolphin. This little school kept together, except when in
+danger and when foraging about the sea. Their lives were often
+threatened by hungry sharks that came round the vessel, and more than
+once they had narrow escapes. Their mode of escape interested me
+greatly, and I passed hours watching them. They would dart away, each
+in a different direction, so that the wolf of the sea, the shark,
+pursuing one, would be led away from the others; then after a while
+they would all return and rendezvous under one side or the other of
+the sloop. Twice their pursuers were diverted by a tin pan, which I
+towed astern of the sloop, and which was mistaken for a bright fish;
+and while turning, in the peculiar way that sharks have when about to
+devour their prey, I shot them through the head.
+
+Their precarious life seemed to concern the yellowtails very little,
+if at all. All living beings, without doubt, are afraid of death.
+Nevertheless, some of the species I saw huddle together as though they
+knew they were created for the larger fishes, and wished to give the
+least possible trouble to their captors. I have seen, on the other
+hand, whales swimming in a circle around a school of herrings, and
+with mighty exertion "bunching" them together in a whirlpool set in
+motion by their flukes, and when the small fry were all whirled nicely
+together, one or the other of the leviathans, lunging through the
+center with open jaws, take in a boat-load or so at a single mouthful.
+Off the Cape of Good Hope I saw schools of sardines or other small
+fish being treated in this way by great numbers of cavally-fish. There
+was not the slightest chance of escape for the sardines, while the
+cavally circled round and round, feeding from the edge of the mass. It
+was interesting to note how rapidly the small fry disappeared; and
+though it was repeated before my eyes over and over, I could hardly
+perceive the capture of a single sardine, so dexterously was it done.
+
+Along the equatorial limit of the southeast trade winds the air was
+heavily charged with electricity, and there was much thunder and
+lightning. It was hereabout I remembered that, a few years before, the
+American ship _Alert_ was destroyed by lightning. Her people, by
+wonderful good fortune, were rescued on the same day and brought to
+Pernambuco, where I then met them.
+
+On September 25, in the latitude of 5 degrees N., longitude 26 degrees
+30' W., I spoke the ship _North Star_ of London. The great ship was
+out forty-eight days from Norfolk, Virginia, and was bound for Rio,
+where we met again about two months later. The _Spray_ was now thirty
+days from Gibraltar.
+
+The _Spray's_ next companion of the voyage was a swordfish, that swam
+alongside, showing its tall fin out of the water, till I made a stir
+for my harpoon, when it hauled its black flag down and disappeared.
+September 30, at half-past eleven in the morning, the _Spray_ crossed
+the equator in longitude 29 degrees 30' W. At noon she was two miles
+south of the line. The southeast trade-winds, met, rather light, in
+about 4 degrees N., gave her sails now a stiff full sending her
+handsomely over the sea toward the coast of Brazil, where on October
+5, just north of Olinda Point, without further incident, she made the
+land, casting anchor in Pernambuco harbor about noon: forty days from
+Gibraltar, and all well on board. Did I tire of the voyage in all that
+time? Not a bit of it! I was never in better trim in all my life, and
+was eager for the more perilous experience of rounding the Horn.
+
+It was not at all strange in a life common to sailors that, having
+already crossed the Atlantic twice and being now half-way from Boston
+to the Horn, I should find myself still among friends. My
+determination to sail westward from Gibraltar not only enabled me to
+escape the pirates of the Red Sea, but, in bringing me to Pernambuco,
+landed me on familiar shores. I had made many voyages to this and
+other ports in Brazil. In 1893 I was employed as master to take the
+famous Ericsson ship _Destroyer_ from New York to Brazil to go against
+the rebel Mello and his party. The _Destroyer_, by the way, carried a
+submarine cannon of enormous length.
+
+In the same expedition went the _Nictheroy_, the ship purchased by the
+United States government during the Spanish war and renamed the
+_Buffalo_. The _Destroyer_ was in many ways the better ship of the
+two, but the Brazilians in their curious war sank her themselves at
+Bahia. With her sank my hope of recovering wages due me; still, I
+could but try to recover, for to me it meant a great deal. But now
+within two years the whirligig of time had brought the Mello party
+into power, and although it was the legal government which had
+employed me, the so-called "rebels" felt under less obligation to me
+than I could have wished.
+
+During these visits to Brazil I had made the acquaintance of Dr.
+Perera, owner and editor of "El Commercio Jornal," and soon after the
+_Spray_ was safely moored in Upper Topsail Reach, the doctor, who is a
+very enthusiastic yachtsman, came to pay me a visit and to carry me up
+the waterway of the lagoon to his country residence. The approach to
+his mansion by the waterside was guarded by his armada, a fleet of
+boats including a Chinese sampan, a Norwegian pram, and a Cape Ann
+dory, the last of which he obtained from the _Destroyer_. The doctor
+dined me often on good Brazilian fare, that I might, as he said,
+"salle gordo" for the voyage; but he found that even on the best I
+fattened slowly.
+
+Fruits and vegetables and all other provisions necessary for the
+voyage having been taken in, on the 23d of October I unmoored and made
+ready for sea. Here I encountered one of the unforgiving Mello faction
+in the person of the collector of customs, who charged the _Spray_
+tonnage dues when she cleared, notwithstanding that she sailed with a
+yacht license and should have been exempt from port charges. Our
+consul reminded the collector of this and of the fact--without much
+diplomacy, I thought--that it was I who brought the _Destroyer_ to
+Brazil. "Oh, yes," said the bland collector; "we remember it very
+well," for it was now in a small way his turn.
+
+Mr. Lungrin, a merchant, to help me out of the trifling difficulty,
+offered to freight the _Spray_ with a cargo of gunpowder for Bahia,
+which would have put me in funds; and when the insurance companies
+refused to take the risk on cargo shipped on a vessel manned by a crew
+of only one, he offered to ship it without insurance, taking all the
+risk himself. This was perhaps paying me a greater compliment than I
+deserved. The reason why I did not accept the business was that in so
+doing I found that I should vitiate my yacht license and run into more
+expense for harbor dues around the world than the freight would amount
+to. Instead of all this, another old merchant friend came to my
+assistance, advancing the cash direct.
+
+While at Pernambuco I shortened the boom, which had been broken when
+off the coast of Morocco, by removing the broken piece, which took
+about four feet off the inboard end; I also refitted the jaws. On
+October 24,1895, a fine day even as days go in Brazil, the _Spray_
+sailed, having had abundant good cheer. Making about one hundred miles
+a day along the coast, I arrived at Rio de Janeiro November 5, without
+any event worth mentioning, and about noon cast anchor near
+Villaganon, to await the official port visit. On the following day I
+bestirred myself to meet the highest lord of the admiralty and the
+ministers, to inquire concerning the matter of wages due me from the
+beloved _Destroyer_. The high official I met said: "Captain, so far as
+we are concerned, you may have the ship, and if you care to accept her
+we will send an officer to show you where she is." I knew well enough
+where she was at that moment. The top of her smoke-stack being awash
+in Bahia, it was more than likely that she rested on the bottom there.
+I thanked the kind officer, but declined his offer.
+
+The _Spray_, with a number of old shipmasters on board, sailed about
+the harbor of Rio the day before she put to sea. As I had decided to
+give the _Spray_ a yawl rig for the tempestuous waters of Patagonia, I
+here placed on the stern a semicircular brace to support a jigger
+mast. These old captains inspected the _Spray's_ rigging, and each one
+contributed something to her outfit. Captain Jones, who had acted as
+my interpreter at Rio, gave her an anchor, and one of the steamers
+gave her a cable to match it. She never dragged Jones's anchor once on
+the voyage, and the cable not only stood the strain on a lee shore,
+but when towed off Cape Horn helped break combing seas astern that
+threatened to board her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Departure from Rio de Janeiro--The _Spray_ ashore on the sands of
+Uruguay--A narrow escape from shipwreck--The boy who found a
+sloop--The _Spray_ floated but somewhat damaged--Courtesies from the
+British consul at Maldonado--A warm greeting at Montevideo--An
+excursion to Buenos Aires--Shortening the mast and bowsprit.
+
+On November 28 the _Spray_ sailed from Rio de Janeiro, and first of
+all ran into a gale of wind, which tore up things generally along the
+coast, doing considerable damage to shipping. It was well for her,
+perhaps, that she was clear of the land. Coasting along on this part
+of the voyage, I observed that while some of the small vessels I
+fell in with were able to outsail the _Spray_ by day, they fell astern
+of her by night. To the _Spray_ day and night were the same; to the
+others clearly there was a difference. On one of the very fine days
+experienced after leaving Rio, the steamship _South Wales_ spoke the
+_Spray_ and unsolicited gave the longitude by chronometer as 48
+degrees W., "as near as I can make it," the captain said. The _Spray_,
+with her tin clock, had exactly the same reckoning. I was feeling at
+ease in my primitive method of navigation, but it startled me not a
+little to find my position by account verified by the ship's
+chronometer. On December 5 a barkantine hove in sight, and for several
+days the two vessels sailed along the coast together. Right here a
+current was experienced setting north, making it necessary to hug the
+shore, with which the _Spray_ became rather familiar. Here I confess a
+weakness: I hugged the shore entirely too close. In a word, at
+daybreak on the morning of December 11 the _Spray_ ran hard and fast
+on the beach. This was annoying; but I soon found that the sloop was
+in no great danger. The false appearance of the sand-hills under a
+bright moon had deceived me, and I lamented now that I had trusted to
+appearances at all. The sea, though moderately smooth, still carried a
+swell which broke with some force on the shore. I managed to launch my
+small dory from the deck, and ran out a kedge-anchor and warp; but it
+was too late to kedge the sloop off, for the tide was falling and she
+had already sewed a foot. Then I went about "laying out" the larger
+anchor, which was no easy matter, for my only life-boat, the frail
+dory, when the anchor and cable were in it, was swamped at once in the
+surf, the load being too great for her. Then I cut the cable and made
+two loads of it instead of one. The anchor, with forty fathoms bent
+and already buoyed, I now took and succeeded in getting through the
+surf; but my dory was leaking fast, and by the time I had rowed far
+enough to drop the anchor she was full to the gunwale and sinking.
+There was not a moment to spare, and I saw clearly that if I failed
+now all might be lost. I sprang from the oars to my feet, and lifting
+the anchor above my head, threw it clear just as she was turning over.
+I grasped her gunwale and held on as she turned bottom up, for I
+suddenly remembered that I could not swim. Then I tried to right her,
+but with too much eagerness, for she rolled clean over, and left me as
+before, clinging to her gunwale, while my body was still in the water.
+Giving a moment to cool reflection, I found that although the wind was
+blowing moderately toward the land, the current was carrying me to
+sea, and that something would have to be done. Three times I had been
+under water, in trying to right the dory, and I was just saying, "Now
+I lay me," when I was seized by a determination to try yet once more,
+so that no one of the prophets of evil I had left behind me could say,
+"I told you so." Whatever the danger may have been, much or little, I
+can truly say that the moment was the most serene of my life.
+
+[Illustration: "I suddenly remembered that I could not swim."]
+
+After righting the dory for the fourth time, I finally succeeded by
+the utmost care in keeping her upright while I hauled myself into her
+and with one of the oars, which I had recovered, paddled to the shore,
+somewhat the worse for wear and pretty full of salt water. The
+position of my vessel, now high and dry, gave me anxiety. To get her
+afloat again was all I thought of or cared for. I had little
+difficulty in carrying the second part of my cable out and securing it
+to the first, which I had taken the precaution to buoy before I put it
+into the boat. To bring the end back to the sloop was a smaller matter
+still, and I believe I chuckled above my sorrows when I found that in
+all the haphazard my judgment or my good genius had faithfully stood
+by me. The cable reached from the anchor in deep water to the sloop's
+windlass by just enough to secure a turn and no more. The anchor had
+been dropped at the right distance from the vessel. To heave all taut
+now and wait for the coming tide was all I could do.
+
+I had already done enough work to tire a stouter man, and was only too
+glad to throw myself on the sand above the tide and rest; for the sun
+was already up, and pouring a generous warmth over the land. While my
+state could have been worse, I was on the wild coast of a foreign
+country, and not entirely secure in my property, as I soon found out.
+I had not been long on the shore when I heard the patter, patter of a
+horse's feet approaching along the hard beach, which ceased as it came
+abreast of the sand-ridge where I lay sheltered from the wind. Looking
+up cautiously, I saw mounted on a nag probably the most astonished boy
+on the whole coast. He had found a sloop! "It must be mine," he
+thought, "for am I not the first to see it on the beach?" Sure enough,
+there it was all high and dry and painted white. He trotted his horse
+around it, and finding no owner, hitched the nag to the sloop's
+bobstay and hauled as though he would take her home; but of course she
+was too heavy for one horse to move. With my skiff, however, it was
+different; this he hauled some distance, and concealed behind a dune
+in a bunch of tall grass. He had made up his mind, I dare say, to
+bring more horses and drag his bigger prize away, anyhow, and was
+starting off for the settlement a mile or so away for the
+reinforcement when I discovered myself to him, at which he seemed
+displeased and disappointed. "Buenos dias, muchacho," I said. He
+grunted a reply, and eyed me keenly from head to foot. Then bursting
+into a volley of questions,--more than six Yankees could ask,--he
+wanted to know, first, where my ship was from, and how many days she
+had been coming. Then he asked what I was doing here ashore so early
+in the morning. "Your questions are easily answered," I replied; "my
+ship is from the moon, it has taken her a month to come, and she is
+here for a cargo of boys." But the intimation of this enterprise, had
+I not been on the alert, might have cost me dearly; for while I spoke
+this child of the campo coiled his lariat ready to throw, and instead
+of being himself carried to the moon, he was apparently thinking of
+towing me home by the neck, astern of his wild cayuse, over the fields
+of Uruguay.
+
+The exact spot where I was stranded was at the Castillo Chicos, about
+seven miles south of the dividing-line of Uruguay and Brazil, and of
+course the natives there speak Spanish. To reconcile my early visitor,
+I told him that I had on my ship biscuits, and that I wished to trade
+them for butter and milk. On hearing this a broad grin lighted up his
+face, and showed that he was greatly interested, and that even in
+Uruguay a ship's biscuit will cheer the heart of a boy and make him
+your bosom friend. The lad almost flew home, and returned quickly with
+butter, milk, and eggs. I was, after all, in a land of plenty. With
+the boy came others, old and young, from neighboring ranches, among
+them a German settler, who was of great assistance to me in many ways.
+
+[Illustration: A double surprise.]
+
+A coast-guard from Fort Teresa, a few miles away, also came, "to
+protect your property from the natives of the plains," he said. I took
+occasion to tell him, however, that if he would look after the people
+of his own village, I would take care of those from the plains,
+pointing, as I spoke, to the nondescript "merchant" who had already
+stolen my revolver and several small articles from my cabin, which by
+a bold front I had recovered. The chap was not a native Uruguayan.
+Here, as in many other places that I visited, the natives themselves
+were not the ones discreditable to the country.
+
+Early in the day a despatch came from the port captain of Montevideo,
+commanding the coastguards to render the _Spray_ every assistance.
+This, however, was not necessary, for a guard was already on the
+alert, and making all the ado that would become the wreck of a steamer
+with a thousand emigrants aboard. The same messenger brought word from
+the port captain that he would despatch a steam-tug to tow the _Spray_
+to Montevideo. The officer was as good as his word; a powerful tug
+arrived on the following day; but, to make a long story short, with
+the help of the German and one soldier and one Italian, called "Angel
+of Milan," I had already floated the sloop and was sailing for port
+with the boom off before a fair wind. The adventure cost the _Spray_
+no small amount of pounding on the hard sand; she lost her shoe and
+part of her false keel, and received other damage, which, however, was
+readily mended afterward in dock.
+
+On the following day I anchored at Maldonado. The British consul, his
+daughter, and another young lady came on board, bringing with them a
+basket of fresh eggs, strawberries, bottles of milk, and a great loaf
+of sweet bread. This was a good landfall, and better cheer than I had
+found at Maldonado once upon a time when I entered the port with a
+stricken crew in my bark, the _Aquidneck_.
+
+In the waters of Maldonado Bay a variety of fishes abound, and
+fur-seals in their season haul out on the island abreast the bay to
+breed. Currents on this coast are greatly affected by the prevailing
+winds, and a tidal wave higher than that ordinarily produced by the
+moon is sent up the whole shore of Uruguay before a southwest gale, or
+lowered by a northeaster, as may happen. One of these waves having
+just receded before the northeast wind which brought the _Spray_ in
+left the tide now at low ebb, with oyster-rocks laid bare for some
+distance along the shore. Other shellfish of good flavor were also
+plentiful, though small in size. I gathered a mess of oysters and
+mussels here, while a native with hook and line, and with mussels for
+bait, fished from a point of detached rocks for bream, landing several
+good-sized ones.
+
+The fisherman's nephew, a lad about seven years old, deserves mention
+as the tallest blasphemer, for a short boy, that I met on the voyage.
+He called his old uncle all the vile names under the sun for not
+helping him across the gully. While he swore roundly in all the moods
+and tenses of the Spanish language, his uncle fished on, now and then
+congratulating his hopeful nephew on his accomplishment. At the end of
+his rich vocabulary the urchin sauntered off into the fields, and
+shortly returned with a bunch of flowers, and with all smiles handed
+them to me with the innocence of an angel. I remembered having seen
+the same flower on the banks of the river farther up, some years
+before. I asked the young pirate why he had brought them to me. Said
+he, "I don't know; I only wished to do so." Whatever the influence was
+that put so amiable a wish in this wild pampa boy, it must be
+far-reaching, thought I, and potent, seas over.
+
+Shortly after, the _Spray_ sailed for Montevideo, where she arrived on
+the following day and was greeted by steam-whistles till I felt
+embarrassed and wished that I had arrived unobserved. The voyage so
+far alone may have seemed to the Uruguayans a feat worthy of some
+recognition; but there was so much of it yet ahead, and of such an
+arduous nature, that any demonstration at this point seemed, somehow,
+like boasting prematurely.
+
+The _Spray_ had barely come to anchor at Montevideo when the agents of
+the Royal Mail Steamship Company, Messrs. Humphreys & Co., sent word
+that they would dock and repair her free of expense and give me twenty
+pounds sterling, which, they did to the letter, and more besides. The
+calkers at Montevideo paid very careful attention to the work of
+making the sloop tight. Carpenters mended the keel and also the
+life-boat (the dory), painting it till I hardly knew it from a
+butterfly.
+
+Christmas of 1895 found the _Spray_ refitted even to a wonderful
+makeshift stove which was contrived from a large iron drum of some
+sort punched full of holes to give it a draft; the pipe reached
+straight up through the top of the forecastle. Now, this was not a
+stove by mere courtesy. It was always hungry, even for green wood; and
+in cold, wet days off the coast of Tierra del Fuego it stood me in
+good stead. Its one door swung on copper hinges, which one of the yard
+apprentices, with laudable pride, polished till the whole thing
+blushed like the brass binnacle of a P. & O. steamer.
+
+The _Spray_ was now ready for sea. Instead of proceeding at once on
+her voyage, however, she made an excursion up the river, sailing
+December 29. An old friend of mine, Captain Howard of Cape Cod and of
+River Plate fame, took the trip in her to Buenos Aires, where she
+arrived early on the following day, with a gale of wind and a current
+so much in her favor that she outdid herself. I was glad to have a
+sailor of Howard's experience on board to witness her performance of
+sailing with no living being at the helm. Howard sat near the binnacle
+and watched the compass while the sloop held her course so steadily
+that one would have declared that the card was nailed fast. Not a
+quarter of a point did she deviate from her course. My old friend had
+owned and sailed a pilot-sloop on the river for many years, but this
+feat took the wind out of his sails at last, and he cried, "I'll be
+stranded on Chico Bank if ever I saw the like of it!" Perhaps he had
+never given his sloop a chance to show what she could do. The point I
+make for the _Spray_ here, above all other points, is that she sailed
+in shoal water and in a strong current, with other difficult and
+unusual conditions. Captain Howard took all this into account.
+
+In all the years away from his native home Howard had not forgotten
+the art of making fish chowders; and to prove this he brought along
+some fine rockfish and prepared a mess fit for kings. When the savory
+chowder was done, chocking the pot securely between two boxes on the
+cabin floor, so that it could not roll over, we helped ourselves and
+swapped yarns over it while the _Spray_ made her own way through the
+darkness on the river. Howard told me stories about the Fuegian
+cannibals as she reeled along, and I told him about the pilot of the
+_Pinta_ steering my vessel through the storm off the coast of the
+Azores, and that I looked for him at the helm in a gale such as this.
+I do not charge Howard with superstition,--we are none of us
+superstitious,--but when I spoke about his returning to Montevideo on
+the _Spray_ he shook his head and took a steam-packet instead.
+
+I had not been in Buenos Aires for a number of years. The place where
+I had once landed from packets, in a cart, was now built up with
+magnificent docks. Vast fortunes had been spent in remodeling the
+harbor; London bankers could tell you that. The port captain, after
+assigning the _Spray_ a safe berth, with his compliments, sent me word
+to call on him for anything I might want while in port, and I felt
+quite sure that his friendship was sincere. The sloop was well cared
+for at Buenos Aires; her dockage and tonnage dues were all free, and
+the yachting fraternity of the city welcomed her with a good will. In
+town I found things not so greatly changed as about the docks, and I
+soon felt myself more at home.
+
+From Montevideo I had forwarded a letter from Sir Edward Hairby to the
+owner of the "Standard," Mr. Mulhall, and in reply to it was assured
+of a warm welcome to the warmest heart, I think, outside of Ireland.
+Mr. Mulhall, with a prancing team, came down to the docks as soon as
+the _Spray_ was berthed, and would have me go to his house at once,
+where a room was waiting. And it was New Year's day, 1896. The course
+of the Spray had been followed in the columns of the "Standard."
+
+Mr. Mulhall kindly drove me to see many improvements about the city,
+and we went in search of some of the old landmarks. The man who sold
+"lemonade" on the plaza when first I visited this wonderful city I
+found selling lemonade still at two cents a glass; he had made a
+fortune by it. His stock in trade was a wash-tub and a neighboring
+hydrant, a moderate supply of brown sugar, and about six lemons that
+floated on the sweetened water. The water from time to time was
+renewed from the friendly pump, but the lemon "went on forever," and
+all at two cents a glass.
+
+[Illustration: At the sign of the comet.]
+
+But we looked in vain for the man who once sold whisky and coffins in
+Buenos Aires; the march of civilization had crushed him--memory only
+clung to his name. Enterprising man that he was, I fain would have
+looked him up. I remember the tiers of whisky-barrels, ranged on end,
+on one side of the store, while on the other side, and divided by a
+thin partition, were the coffins in the same order, of all sizes and
+in great numbers. The unique arrangement seemed in order, for as a
+cask was emptied a coffin might be filled. Besides cheap whisky and
+many other liquors, he sold "cider," which he manufactured from
+damaged Malaga raisins. Within the scope of his enterprise was also
+the sale of mineral waters, not entirely blameless of the germs of
+disease. This man surely catered to all the tastes, wants, and
+conditions of his customers.
+
+Farther along in the city, however, survived the good man who wrote on
+the side of his store, where thoughtful men might read and learn:
+"This wicked world will be destroyed by a comet! The owner of this
+store is therefore bound to sell out at any price and avoid the
+catastrophe." My friend Mr. Mulhall drove me round to view the fearful
+comet with streaming tail pictured large on the trembling merchant's
+walls.
+
+I unshipped the sloop's mast at Buenos Aires and shortened it by seven
+feet. I reduced the length of the bowsprit by about five feet, and
+even then I found it reaching far enough from home; and more than
+once, when on the end of it reefing the jib, I regretted that I had
+not shortened it another foot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+Weighing anchor at Buenos Aires--An outburst of emotion at the mouth
+of the Plate--Submerged by a great wave--A stormy entrance to the
+strait--Captain Samblich's happy gift of a bag of carpet-tacks--Off
+Cape Froward--Chased by Indians from Fortescue Bay--A miss-shot for
+"Black Pedro"--Taking in supplies of wood and water at Three Island
+Cove--Animal life.
+
+On January 26, 1896, the _Spray_, being refitted and well provisioned
+in every way, sailed from Buenos Aires. There was little wind at the
+start; the surface of the great river was like a silver disk, and I
+was glad of a tow from a harbor tug to clear the port entrance. But a
+gale came up soon after, and caused an ugly sea, and instead of being
+all silver, as before, the river was now all mud. The Plate is a
+treacherous place for storms. One sailing there should always be on
+the alert for squalls. I cast anchor before dark in the best lee I
+could find near the land, but was tossed miserably all night,
+heartsore of choppy seas. On the following morning I got the sloop
+under way, and with reefed sails worked her down the river against a
+head wind. Standing in that night to the place where pilot Howard
+joined me for the up-river sail, I took a departure, shaping my course
+to clear Point Indio on the one hand, and the English Bank on the
+other.
+
+[Illustration: A great wave off the Patagonian coast]
+
+I had not for many years been south of these regions. I will not say
+that I expected all fine sailing on the course for Cape Horn direct,
+but while I worked at the sails and rigging I thought only of onward
+and forward. It was when I anchored in the lonely places that a
+feeling of awe crept over me. At the last anchorage on the monotonous
+and muddy river, weak as it may seem, I gave way to my feelings. I
+resolved then that I would anchor no more north of the Strait of
+Magellan.
+
+On the 28th of January the _Spray_ was clear of Point Indio, English
+Bank, and all the other dangers of the River Plate. With a fair wind
+she then bore away for the Strait of Magellan, under all sail,
+pressing farther and farther toward the wonderland of the South, till
+I forgot the blessings of our milder North.
+
+My ship passed in safety Bahia Blanca, also the Gulf of St. Matias and
+the mighty Gulf of St. George. Hoping that she might go clear of the
+destructive tide-races, the dread of big craft or little along this
+coast, I gave all the capes a berth of about fifty miles, for these
+dangers extend many miles from the land. But where the sloop avoided
+one danger she encountered another. For, one day, well off the
+Patagonian coast, while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a
+tremendous wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled
+down upon her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to
+get all sail down and myself up on the peak halliards, out of danger,
+when I saw the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me. The
+mountain of water submerged my vessel. She shook in every timber and
+reeled under the weight of the sea, but rose quickly out of it, and
+rode grandly over the rollers that followed. It may have been a minute
+that from my hold in the rigging I could see no part of the _Spray's_
+hull. Perhaps it was even less time than that, but it seemed a long
+while, for under great excitement one lives fast, and in a few seconds
+one may think a great deal of one's past life. Not only did the past,
+with electric speed, flash before me, but I had time while in my
+hazardous position for resolutions for the future that would take a
+long time to fulfil. The first one was, I remember, that if the
+_Spray_ came through this danger I would dedicate my best energies
+to building a larger ship on her lines, which I hope yet to do. Other
+promises, less easily kept, I should have made under protest. However,
+the incident, which filled me with fear, was only one more test of the
+_Spray's_ seaworthiness. It reassured me against rude Cape Horn.
+
+From the time the great wave swept over the _Spray_ until she reached
+Cape Virgins nothing occurred to move a pulse and set blood in motion.
+On the contrary, the weather became fine and the sea smooth and life
+tranquil. The phenomenon of mirage frequently occurred. An albatross
+sitting on the water one day loomed up like a large ship; two
+fur-seals asleep on the surface of the sea appeared like great whales,
+and a bank of haze I could have sworn was high land. The kaleidescope
+then changed, and on the following day I sailed in a world peopled by
+dwarfs.
+
+[Illustration: Entrance to the Strait of Magellan.]
+
+On February 11 the _Spray_ rounded Cape Virgins and entered the Strait
+of Magellan. The scene was again real and gloomy; the wind, northeast,
+and blowing a gale, sent feather-white spume along the coast; such a
+sea ran as would swamp an ill-appointed ship. As the sloop neared the
+entrance to the strait I observed that two great tide-races made
+ahead, one very close to the point of the land and one farther
+offshore. Between the two, in a sort of channel, through combers, went
+the _Spray_ with close-reefed sails. But a rolling sea followed her a
+long way in, and a fierce current swept around the cape against her;
+but this she stemmed, and was soon chirruping under the lee of Cape
+Virgins and running every minute into smoother water. However, long
+trailing kelp from sunken rocks waved forebodingly under her keel, and
+the wreck of a great steamship smashed on the beach abreast gave a
+gloomy aspect to the scene.
+
+I was not to be let off easy. The Virgins would collect tribute even
+from the _Spray_ passing their promontory. Fitful rain-squalls from
+the northwest followed the northeast gale. I reefed the sloop's sails,
+and sitting in the cabin to rest my eyes, I was so strongly impressed
+with what in all nature I might expect that as I dozed the very air I
+breathed seemed to warn me of danger. My senses heard "_Spray_ ahoy!"
+shouted in warning. I sprang to the deck, wondering who could be there
+that knew the _Spray_ so well as to call out her name passing in the
+dark; for it was now the blackest of nights all around, except away in
+the southwest, where the old familiar white arch, the terror of Cape
+Horn, rapidly pushed up by a southwest gale. I had only a moment to
+douse sail and lash all solid when it struck like a shot from a
+cannon, and for the first half-hour it was something to be remembered
+by way of a gale. For thirty hours it kept on blowing hard. The sloop
+could carry no more than a three-reefed mainsail and forestaysail;
+with these she held on stoutly and was not blown out of the strait. In
+the height of the squalls in this gale she doused all sail, and this
+occurred often enough.
+
+After this gale followed only a smart breeze, and the _Spray_, passing
+through the narrows without mishap, cast anchor at Sandy Point on
+February 14, 1896.
+
+[Illustration: The course of the _Spray_ through the Strait of
+Magellan.]
+
+Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) is a Chilean coaling-station, and boasts
+about two thousand inhabitants, of mixed nationality, but mostly
+Chileans. What with sheep-farming, gold-mining, and hunting, the
+settlers in this dreary land seemed not the worst off in the world.
+But the natives, Patagonian and Fuegian, on the other hand, were as
+squalid as contact with unscrupulous traders could make them. A large
+percentage of the business there was traffic in "fire-water." If there
+was a law against selling the poisonous stuff to the natives, it was
+not enforced. Fine specimens of the Patagonian race, looking smart in
+the morning when they came into town, had repented before night of
+ever having seen a white man, so beastly drunk were they, to say
+nothing about the peltry of which they had been robbed.
+
+The port at that time was free, but a customhouse was in course of
+construction, and when it is finished, port and tariff dues are to be
+collected. A soldier police guarded the place, and a sort of vigilante
+force besides took down its guns now and then; but as a general thing,
+to my mind, whenever an execution was made they killed the wrong man.
+Just previous to my arrival the governor, himself of a jovial turn of
+mind, had sent a party of young bloods to foray a Fuegian settlement
+and wipe out what they could of it on account of the recent massacre
+of a schooner's crew somewhere else. Altogether the place was quite
+newsy and supported two papers--dailies, I think. The port captain, a
+Chilean naval officer, advised me to ship hands to fight Indians in
+the strait farther west, and spoke of my stopping until a gunboat
+should be going through, which would give me a tow. After canvassing
+the place, however, I found only one man willing to embark, and he on
+condition that I should ship another "mon and a doog." But as no one
+else was willing to come along, and as I drew the line at dogs, I said
+no more about the matter, but simply loaded my guns. At this point in
+my dilemma Captain Pedro Samblich, a good Austrian of large
+experience, coming along, gave me a bag of carpet-tacks, worth more
+than all the fighting men and dogs of Tierra del Fuego. I protested
+that I had no use for carpet-tacks on board. Samblich smiled at my
+want of experience, and maintained stoutly that I would have use for
+them. "You must use them with discretion," he said; "that is to say,
+don't step on them yourself." With this remote hint about the use of
+the tacks I got on all right, and saw the way to maintain clear decks
+at night without the care of watching.
+
+[Illustration: The man who wouldn't ship without another "mon and a
+doog."]
+
+Samblich was greatly interested in my voyage, and after giving me the
+tacks he put on board bags of biscuits and a large quantity of smoked
+venison. He declared that my bread, which was ordinary sea-biscuits
+and easily broken, was not nutritious as his, which was so hard that I
+could break it only with a stout blow from a maul. Then he gave me,
+from his own sloop, a compass which was certainly better than mine,
+and offered to unbend her mainsail for me if I would accept it. Last of
+all, this large-hearted man brought out a bottle of Fuegian gold-dust
+from a place where it had been _cached_ and begged me to help myself
+from it, for use farther along on the voyage. But I felt sure of
+success without this draft on a friend, and I was right. Samblich's
+tacks, as it turned out, were of more value than gold.
+
+[Illustration: A Fuegian Girl.]
+
+The port captain finding that I was resolved to go, even alone, since
+there was no help for it, set up no further objections, but advised
+me, in case the savages tried to surround me with their canoes, to
+shoot straight, and begin to do it in time, but to avoid killing them
+if possible, which I heartily agreed to do. With these simple
+injunctions the officer gave me my port clearance free of charge, and
+I sailed on the same day, February 19, 1896. It was not without
+thoughts of strange and stirring adventure beyond all I had yet
+encountered that I now sailed into the country and very core of the
+savage Fuegians.
+
+A fair wind from Sandy Point brought me on the first day to St.
+Nicholas Bay, where, so I was told, I might expect to meet savages;
+but seeing no signs of life, I came to anchor in eight fathoms of
+water, where I lay all night under a high mountain. Here I had my
+first experience with the terrific squalls, called williwaws, which
+extended from this point on through the strait to the Pacific. They
+were compressed gales of wind that Boreas handed down over the hills
+in chunks. A full-blown williwaw will throw a ship, even without sail
+on, over on her beam ends; but, like other gales, they cease now and
+then, if only for a short time.
+
+February 20 was my birthday, and I found myself alone, with hardly so
+much as a bird in sight, off Cape Froward, the southernmost point of
+the continent of America. By daylight in the morning I was getting my
+ship under way for the bout ahead.
+
+The sloop held the wind fair while she ran thirty miles farther on her
+course, which brought her to Fortescue Bay, and at once among the
+natives' signal-fires, which blazed up now on all sides. Clouds flew
+over the mountain from the west all day; at night my good east wind
+failed, and in its stead a gale from the west soon came on. I gained
+anchorage at twelve o'clock that night, under the lee of a little
+island, and then prepared myself a cup of coffee, of which I was
+sorely in need; for, to tell the truth, hard beating in the heavy
+squalls and against the current had told on my strength. Finding that
+the anchor held, I drank my beverage, and named the place Coffee
+Island. It lies to the south of Charles Island, with only a narrow
+channel between.
+
+[Illustration: Looking west from Fortescue Bay, where the _Spray_ was
+chased by Indians. (From a photograph.)]
+
+By daylight the next morning the _Spray_ was again under way, beating
+hard; but she came to in a cove in Charles Island, two and a half
+miles along on her course. Here she remained undisturbed two days,
+with both anchors down in a bed of kelp. Indeed, she might have
+remained undisturbed indefinitely had not the wind moderated; for
+during these two days it blew so hard that no boat could venture out
+on the strait, and the natives being away to other hunting-grounds,
+the island anchorage was safe. But at the end of the fierce wind-storm
+fair weather came; then I got my anchors, and again sailed out upon
+the strait.
+
+Canoes manned by savages from Fortescue now came in pursuit. The wind
+falling light, they gained on me rapidly till coming within hail, when
+they ceased paddling, and a bow-legged savage stood up and called to
+me, "Yammerschooner! yammerschooner!" which is their begging term. I
+said, "No!" Now, I was not for letting on that I was alone, and so I
+stepped into the cabin, and, passing through the hold, came out at the
+fore-scuttle, changing my clothes as I went along. That made two men.
+Then the piece of bowsprit which I had sawed off at Buenos Aires, and
+which I had still on board, I arranged forward on the lookout, dressed
+as a seaman, attaching a line by which I could pull it into motion.
+That made three of us, and we didn't want to "yammerschooner"; but for
+all that the savages came on faster than before. I saw that besides
+four at the paddles in the canoe nearest to me, there were others in
+the bottom, and that they were shifting hands often. At eighty yards I
+fired a shot across the bows of the nearest canoe, at which they all
+stopped, but only for a moment. Seeing that they persisted in coming
+nearer, I fired the second shot so close to the chap who wanted to
+"yammerschooner" that he changed his mind quickly enough and bellowed
+with fear, "Bueno jo via Isla," and sitting down in his canoe, he
+rubbed his starboard cat-head for some time. I was thinking of the
+good port captain's advice when I pulled the trigger, and must have
+aimed pretty straight; however, a miss was as good as a mile for Mr.
+"Black Pedro," as he it was, and no other, a leader in several bloody
+massacres. He made for the island now, and the others followed him. I
+knew by his Spanish lingo and by his full beard that he was the
+villain I have named, a renegade mongrel, and the worst murderer in
+Tierra del Fuego. The authorities had been in search of him for two
+years. The Fuegians are not bearded.
+
+So much for the first day among the savages. I came to anchor at
+midnight in Three Island Cove, about twenty miles along from Fortescue
+Bay. I saw on the opposite side of the strait signal-fires, and heard
+the barking of dogs, but where I lay it was quite deserted by natives.
+I have always taken it as a sign that where I found birds sitting
+about, or seals on the rocks, I should not find savage Indians. Seals
+are never plentiful in these waters, but in Three Island Cove I saw
+one on the rocks, and other signs of the absence of savage men.
+
+[Illustration: A brush with Fuegians]
+
+On the next day the wind was again blowing a gale, and although she
+was in the lee of the land, the sloop dragged her anchors, so that I
+had to get her under way and beat farther into the cove, where I came
+to in a landlocked pool. At another time or place this would have been
+a rash thing to do, and it was safe now only from the fact that the
+gale which drove me to shelter would keep the Indians from crossing
+the strait. Seeing this was the case, I went ashore with gun and ax on
+an island, where I could not in any event be surprised, and there
+felled trees and split about a cord of fire-wood, which loaded my
+small boat several times.
+
+While I carried the wood, though I was morally sure there were no
+savages near, I never once went to or from the skiff without my gun.
+While I had that and a clear field of over eighty yards about me I
+felt safe.
+
+The trees on the island, very scattering, were a sort of beech and a
+stunted cedar, both of which made good fuel. Even the green limbs of
+the beech, which seemed to possess a resinous quality, burned readily
+in my great drum-stove. I have described my method of wooding up in
+detail, that the reader who has kindly borne with me so far may see
+that in this, as in all other particulars of my voyage, I took great
+care against all kinds of surprises, whether by animals or by the
+elements. In the Strait of Magellan the greatest vigilance was
+necessary. In this instance I reasoned that I had all about me the
+greatest danger of the whole voyage--the treachery of cunning savages,
+for which I must be particularly on the alert.
+
+The _Spray_ sailed from Three Island Cove in the morning after the
+gale went down, but was glad to return for shelter from another sudden
+gale. Sailing again on the following day, she fetched Borgia Bay, a
+few miles on her course, where vessels had anchored from time to time
+and had nailed boards on the trees ashore with name and date of
+harboring carved or painted. Nothing else could I see to indicate that
+civilized man had ever been there. I had taken a survey of the gloomy
+place with my spy-glass, and was getting my boat out to land and take
+notes, when the Chilean gunboat _Huemel_ came in, and officers, coming
+on board, advised me to leave the place at once, a thing that required
+little eloquence to persuade me to do. I accepted the captain's kind
+offer of a tow to the next anchorage, at the place called Notch Cove,
+eight miles farther along, where I should be clear of the worst of the
+Fuegians.
+
+[Illustration: A bit of friendly assistance. (After a sketch by
+Midshipman Miguel Arenas.)]
+
+We made anchorage at the cove about dark that night, while the wind
+came down in fierce williwaws from the mountains. An instance of
+Magellan weather was afforded when the _Huemel_, a well-appointed
+gunboat of great power, after attempting on the following day to
+proceed on her voyage, was obliged by sheer force of the wind to
+return and take up anchorage again and remain till the gale abated;
+and lucky she was to get back!
+
+Meeting this vessel was a little godsend. She was commanded and
+officered by high-class sailors and educated gentlemen. An
+entertainment that was gotten up on her, impromptu, at the Notch would
+be hard to beat anywhere. One of her midshipmen sang popular songs in
+French, German, and Spanish, and one (so he said) in Russian. If the
+audience did not know the lingo of one song from another, it was no
+drawback to the merriment.
+
+I was left alone the next day, for then the _Huemel_ put out on her
+voyage the gale having abated. I spent a day taking in wood and water;
+by the end of that time the weather was fine. Then I sailed from the
+desolate place.
+
+There is little more to be said concerning the _Spray's_ first passage
+through the strait that would differ from what I have already
+recorded. She anchored and weighed many times, and beat many days
+against the current, with now and then a "slant" for a few miles, till
+finally she gained anchorage and shelter for the night at Port Tamar,
+with Cape Pillar in sight to the west. Here I felt the throb of the
+great ocean that lay before me. I knew now that I had put a world
+behind me, and that I was opening out another world ahead. I had
+passed the haunts of savages. Great piles of granite mountains of
+bleak and lifeless aspect were now astern; on some of them not even a
+speck of moss had ever grown. There was an unfinished newness all
+about the land. On the hill back of Port Tamar a small beacon had been
+thrown up, showing that some man had been there. But how could one
+tell but that he had died of loneliness and grief? In a bleak land is
+not the place to enjoy solitude.
+
+Throughout the whole of the strait west of Cape Froward I saw no
+animals except dogs owned by savages. These I saw often enough, and
+heard them yelping night and day. Birds were not plentiful. The scream
+of a wild fowl, which I took for a loon, sometimes startled me with
+its piercing cry. The steamboat duck, so called because it propels
+itself over the sea with its wings, and resembles a miniature
+side-wheel steamer in its motion, was sometimes seen scurrying on out
+of danger. It never flies, but, hitting the water instead of the air
+with its wings, it moves faster than a rowboat or a canoe. The few
+fur-seals I saw were very shy; and of fishes I saw next to none at
+all. I did not catch one; indeed, I seldom or never put a hook over
+during the whole voyage. Here in the strait I found great abundance of
+mussels of an excellent quality. I fared sumptuously on them. There
+was a sort of swan, smaller than a Muscovy duck, which might have been
+brought down with the gun, but in the loneliness of life about the
+dreary country I found myself in no mood to make one life less, except
+in self-defense.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+From Cape Pillar into the Pacific--Driven by a tempest toward Cape
+Horn--Captain Slocum's greatest sea adventure--Beaching the strait
+again by way of Cockburn Channel--Some savages find the
+carpet-tacks--Danger from firebrands--A series of fierce
+williwaws--Again sailing westward.
+
+It was the 3d of March when the _Spray_ sailed from Port Tamar direct
+for Cape Pillar, with the wind from the northeast, which I fervently
+hoped might hold till she cleared the land; but there was no such good
+luck in store. It soon began to rain and thicken in the northwest,
+boding no good. The _Spray_ reared Cape Pillar rapidly, and, nothing
+loath, plunged into the Pacific Ocean at once, taking her first bath
+of it in the gathering storm. There was no turning back even had I
+wished to do so, for the land was now shut out by the darkness of
+night. The wind freshened, and I took in a third reef. The sea was
+confused and treacherous. In such a time as this the old fisherman
+prayed, "Remember, Lord, my ship is small and thy sea is so wide!" I
+saw now only the gleaming crests of the waves. They showed white teeth
+while the sloop balanced over them. "Everything for an offing," I
+cried, and to this end I carried on all the sail she would bear. She
+ran all night with a free sheet, but on the morning of March 4 the
+wind shifted to southwest, then back suddenly to northwest, and blew
+with terrific force. The _Spray_, stripped of her sails, then bore off
+under bare poles. No ship in the world could have stood up against so
+violent a gale. Knowing that this storm might continue for many days,
+and that it would be impossible to work back to the westward along the
+coast outside of Tierra del Fuego, there seemed nothing to do but to
+keep on and go east about, after all. Anyhow, for my present safety
+the only course lay in keeping her before the wind. And so she drove
+southeast, as though about to round the Horn, while the waves rose and
+fell and bellowed their never-ending story of the sea; but the Hand
+that held these held also the _Spray_. She was running now with a
+reefed forestaysail, the sheets flat amidship. I paid out two long
+ropes to steady her course and to break combing seas astern, and I
+lashed the helm amidship. In this trim she ran before it, shipping
+never a sea. Even while the storm raged at its worst, my ship was
+wholesome and noble. My mind as to her seaworthiness was put at ease
+for aye.
+
+[Illustration: Cape Pillar.]
+
+When all had been done that I could do for the safety of the vessel, I
+got to the fore-scuttle, between seas, and prepared a pot of coffee
+over a wood fire, and made a good Irish stew. Then, as before and
+afterward on the _Spray_, I insisted on warm meals. In the tide-race
+off Cape Pillar, however, where the sea was marvelously high, uneven,
+and crooked, my appetite was slim, and for a time I postponed cooking.
+(Confidentially, I was seasick!)
+
+The first day of the storm gave the _Spray_ her actual test in the
+worst sea that Cape Horn or its wild regions could afford, and in no
+part of the world could a rougher sea be found than at this particular
+point, namely, off Cape Pillar, the grim sentinel of the Horn.
+
+Farther offshore, while the sea was majestic, there was less
+apprehension of danger. There the _Spray_ rode, now like a bird on the
+crest of a wave, and now like a waif deep down in the hollow between
+seas; and so she drove on. Whole days passed, counted as other days,
+but with always a thrill--yes, of delight.
+
+On the fourth day of the gale, rapidly nearing the pitch of Cape Horn,
+I inspected my chart and pricked off the course and distance to Port
+Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, where I might find my way and refit,
+when I saw through a rift in the clouds a high mountain, about seven
+leagues away on the port beam. The fierce edge of the gale by this
+time had blown off, and I had already bent a square-sail on the boom
+in place of the mainsail, which was torn to rags. I hauled in the
+trailing ropes, hoisted this awkward sail reefed, the forestaysail
+being already set, and under this sail brought her at once on the wind
+heading for the land, which appeared as an island in the sea. So it
+turned out to be, though not the one I had supposed.
+
+I was exultant over the prospect of once more entering the Strait of
+Magellan and beating through again into the Pacific, for it was more
+than rough on the outside coast of Tierra del Fuego. It was indeed a
+mountainous sea. When the sloop was in the fiercest squalls, with only
+the reefed forestaysail set, even that small sail shook her from
+keelson to truck when it shivered by the leech. Had I harbored the
+shadow of a doubt for her safety, it would have been that she might
+spring a leak in the garboard at the heel of the mast; but she never
+called me once to the pump. Under pressure of the smallest sail I
+could set she made for the land like a race-horse, and steering her
+over the crests of the waves so that she might not trip was nice work.
+I stood at the helm now and made the most of it.
+
+Night closed in before the sloop reached the land, leaving her feeling
+the way in pitchy darkness. I saw breakers ahead before long. At this
+I wore ship and stood offshore, but was immediately startled by the
+tremendous roaring of breakers again ahead and on the lee bow. This
+puzzled me, for there should have been no broken water where I
+supposed myself to be. I kept off a good bit, then wore round, but
+finding broken water also there, threw her head again offshore. In
+this way, among dangers, I spent the rest of the night. Hail and sleet
+in the fierce squalls cut my flesh till the blood trickled over my
+face; but what of that? It was daylight, and the sloop was in the
+midst of the Milky Way of the sea, which is northwest of Cape Horn,
+and it was the white breakers of a huge sea over sunken rocks which
+had threatened to engulf her through the night. It was Fury Island I
+had sighted and steered for, and what a panorama was before me now and
+all around! It was not the time to complain of a broken skin. What
+could I do but fill away among the breakers and find a channel between
+them, now that it was day? Since she had escaped the rocks through the
+night, surely she would find her way by daylight. This was the
+greatest sea adventure of my life. God knows how my vessel escaped.
+
+The sloop at last reached inside of small islands that sheltered her
+in smooth water. Then I climbed the mast to survey the wild scene
+astern. The great naturalist Darwin looked over this seascape from the
+deck of the _Beagle,_ and wrote in his journal, "Any landsman seeing
+the Milky Way would have nightmare for a week." He might have added,
+"or seaman" as well.
+
+The _Spray's_ good luck followed fast. I discovered, as she sailed
+along through a labyrinth of islands, that she was in the Cockburn
+Channel, which leads into the Strait of Magellan at a point opposite
+Cape Froward, and that she was already passing Thieves' Bay,
+suggestively named. And at night, March 8, behold, she was at anchor
+in a snug cove at the Turn! Every heart-beat on the _Spray_ now
+counted thanks.
+
+Here I pondered on the events of the last few days, and, strangely
+enough, instead of feeling rested from sitting or lying down, I now
+began to feel jaded and worn; but a hot meal of venison stew soon put
+me right, so that I could sleep. As drowsiness came on I sprinkled the
+deck with tacks, and then I turned in, bearing in mind the advice of
+my old friend Samblich that I was not to step on them myself. I saw to
+it that not a few of them stood "business end" up; for when the
+_Spray_ passed Thieves' Bay two canoes had put out and followed in her
+wake, and there was no disguising the fact any longer that I was
+alone.
+
+Now, it is well known that one cannot step on a tack without saying
+something about it. A pretty good Christian will whistle when he steps
+on the "commercial end" of a carpet-tack; a savage will howl and claw
+the air, and that was just what happened that night about twelve
+o'clock, while I was asleep in the cabin, where the savages thought
+they "had me," sloop and all, but changed their minds when they
+stepped on deck, for then they thought that I or somebody else had
+them. I had no need of a dog; they howled like a pack of hounds. I had
+hardly use for a gun. They jumped pell-mell, some into their canoes
+and some into the sea, to cool off, I suppose, and there was a deal of
+free language over it as they went. I fired several guns when I came
+on deck, to let the rascals know that I was home, and then I turned in
+again, feeling sure I should not be disturbed any more by people who
+left in so great a hurry.
+
+The Fuegians, being cruel, are naturally cowards; they regard a rifle
+with superstitious fear. The only real danger one could see that might
+come from their quarter would be from allowing them to surround one
+within bow-shot, or to anchor within range where they might lie in
+ambush. As for their coming on deck at night, even had I not put tacks
+about, I could have cleared them off by shots from the cabin and hold.
+I always kept a quantity of ammunition within reach in the hold and in
+the cabin and in the forepeak, so that retreating to any of these
+places I could "hold the fort" simply by shooting up through the deck.
+
+[Illustration: "They howled like a pack of hounds."]
+
+Perhaps the greatest danger to be apprehended was from the use of
+fire. Every canoe carries fire; nothing is thought of that, for it is
+their custom to communicate by smoke-signals. The harmless brand that
+lies smoldering in the bottom of one of their canoes might be ablaze
+in one's cabin if he were not on the alert. The port captain of Sandy
+Point warned me particularly of this danger. Only a short time before
+they had fired a Chilean gunboat by throwing brands in through the
+stern windows of the cabin. The _Spray_ had no openings in the cabin
+or deck, except two scuttles, and these were guarded by fastenings
+which could not be undone without waking me if I were asleep.
+
+On the morning of the 9th, after a refreshing rest and a warm
+breakfast, and after I had swept the deck of tacks, I got out what
+spare canvas there was on board, and began to sew the pieces together
+in the shape of a peak for my square-mainsail, the tarpaulin. The day
+to all appearances promised fine weather and light winds, but
+appearances in Tierra del Fuego do not always count. While I was
+wondering why no trees grew on the slope abreast of the anchorage,
+half minded to lay by the sail-making and land with my gun for some
+game and to inspect a white boulder on the beach, near the brook, a
+williwaw came down with such terrific force as to carry the _Spray_,
+with two anchors down, like a feather out of the cove and away into
+deep water. No wonder trees did not grow on the side of that hill!
+Great Boreas! a tree would need to be all roots to hold on against
+such a furious wind.
+
+From the cove to the nearest land to leeward was a long drift,
+however, and I had ample time to weigh both anchors before the sloop
+came near any danger, and so no harm came of it. I saw no more savages
+that day or the next; they probably had some sign by which they knew
+of the coming williwaws; at least, they were wise in not being afloat
+even on the second day, for I had no sooner gotten to work at
+sail-making again, after the anchor was down, than the wind, as on the
+day before, picked the sloop up and flung her seaward with a
+vengeance, anchor and all, as before. This fierce wind, usual to the
+Magellan country, continued on through the day, and swept the sloop by
+several miles of steep bluffs and precipices overhanging a bold shore
+of wild and uninviting appearance. I was not sorry to get away from
+it, though in doing so it was no Elysian shore to which I shaped my
+course. I kept on sailing in hope, since I had no choice but to go on,
+heading across for St. Nicholas Bay, where I had cast anchor February
+19. It was now the 10th of March! Upon reaching the bay the second
+time I had circumnavigated the wildest part of desolate Tierra del
+Fuego. But the _Spray_ had not yet arrived at St. Nicholas, and by the
+merest accident her bones were saved from resting there when she did
+arrive. The parting of a staysail-sheet in a williwaw, when the sea
+was turbulent and she was plunging into the storm, brought me forward
+to see instantly a dark cliff ahead and breakers so close under the
+bows that I felt surely lost, and in my thoughts cried, "Is the hand
+of fate against me, after all, leading me in the end to this dark
+spot?" I sprang aft again, unheeding the flapping sail, and threw the
+wheel over, expecting, as the sloop came down into the hollow of a
+wave, to feel her timbers smash under me on the rocks. But at the
+touch of her helm she swung clear of the danger, and in the next
+moment she was in the lee of the land.
+
+[Illustration: A glimpse of Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) in the Strait
+of Magellan.]
+
+It was the small island in the middle of the bay for which the sloop
+had been steering, and which she made with such unerring aim as nearly
+to run it down. Farther along in the bay was the anchorage, which I
+managed to reach, but before I could get the anchor down another
+squall caught the sloop and whirled her round like a top and carried
+her away, altogether to leeward of the bay. Still farther to leeward
+was a great headland, and I bore off for that. This was retracing my
+course toward Sandy Point, for the gale was from the southwest.
+
+I had the sloop soon under good control, however, and in a short time
+rounded to under the lee of a mountain, where the sea was as smooth as
+a mill-pond, and the sails flapped and hung limp while she carried her
+way close in. Here I thought I would anchor and rest till morning, the
+depth being eight fathoms very close to the shore. But it was
+interesting to see, as I let go the anchor, that it did not reach the
+bottom before another williwaw struck down from this mountain and
+carried the sloop off faster than I could pay out cable. Therefore,
+instead of resting, I had to "man the windlass" and heave up the
+anchor with fifty fathoms of cable hanging up and down in deep water.
+This was in that part of the strait called Famine Reach. Dismal Famine
+Reach! On the sloop's crab-windlass I worked the rest of the night,
+thinking how much easier it was for me when I could say, "Do that
+thing or the other," than now doing all myself. But I hove away and
+sang the old chants that I sang when I was a sailor. Within the last
+few days I had passed through much and was now thankful that my state
+was no worse.
+
+It was daybreak when the anchor was at the hawse. By this time the
+wind had gone down, and cat's-paws took the place of williwaws, while
+the sloop drifted slowly toward Sandy Point. She came within sight of
+ships at anchor in the roads, and I was more than half minded to put
+in for new sails, but the wind coming out from the northeast, which
+was fair for the other direction, I turned the prow of the _Spray_
+westward once more for the Pacific, to traverse a second time the
+second half of my first course through the strait.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Repairing the _Spray's_ sails--Savages and an obstreperous anchor-A
+spider-fight--An encounter with Black Pedro--A visit to the steamship
+_Colombia_,--On the defensive against a fleet of canoes--A record of
+voyages through the strait--A chance cargo of tallow.
+
+I was determined to rely on my own small resources to repair the
+damages of the great gale which drove me southward toward the Horn,
+after I had passed from the Strait of Magellan out into the Pacific.
+So when I had got back into the strait, by way of Cockburn Channel, I
+did not proceed eastward for help at the Sandy Point settlement, but
+turning again into the northwestward reach of the strait, set to work
+with my palm and needle at every opportunity, when at anchor and when
+sailing. It was slow work; but little by little the squaresail on the
+boom expanded to the dimensions of a serviceable mainsail with a peak
+to it and a leech besides. If it was not the best-setting sail afloat,
+it was at least very strongly made and would stand a hard blow. A
+ship, meeting the _Spray_ long afterward, reported her as wearing a
+mainsail of some improved design and patent reefer, but that was not
+the case.
+
+The _Spray_ for a few days after the storm enjoyed fine weather, and
+made fair time through the strait for the distance of twenty miles,
+which, in these days of many adversities, I called a long run. The
+weather, I say, was fine for a few days; but it brought little rest.
+Care for the safety of my vessel, and even for my own life, was in no
+wise lessened by the absence of heavy weather. Indeed, the peril was
+even greater, inasmuch as the savages on comparatively fine days
+ventured forth on their marauding excursions, and in boisterous
+weather disappeared from sight, their wretched canoes being frail and
+undeserving the name of craft at all. This being so, I now enjoyed
+gales of wind as never before, and the _Spray_ was never long without
+them during her struggles about Cape Horn. I became in a measure
+inured to the life, and began to think that one more trip through the
+strait, if perchance the sloop should be blown off again, would make me
+the aggressor, and put the Fuegians entirely on the defensive. This
+feeling was forcibly borne in on me at Snug Bay, where I anchored at
+gray morning after passing Cape Froward, to find, when broad day
+appeared, that two canoes which I had eluded by sailing all night were
+now entering the same bay stealthily under the shadow of the high
+headland. They were well manned, and the savages were well armed with
+spears and bows. At a shot from my rifle across the bows, both turned
+aside into a small creek out of range. In danger now of being flanked
+by the savages in the bush close aboard, I was obliged to hoist the
+sails, which I had barely lowered, and make across to the opposite
+side of the strait, a distance of six miles. But now I was put to my
+wit's end as to how I should weigh anchor, for through an accident to
+the windlass right here I could not budge it. However, I set all sail
+and filled away, first hauling short by hand. The sloop carried her
+anchor away, as though it was meant to be always towed in this way
+underfoot, and with it she towed a ton or more of kelp from a reef in
+the bay, the wind blowing a wholesale breeze.
+
+Meanwhile I worked till blood started from my fingers, and with one
+eye over my shoulder for savages, I watched at the same time, and sent
+a bullet whistling whenever I saw a limb or a twig move; for I kept a
+gun always at hand, and an Indian appearing then within range would
+have been taken as a declaration of war. As it was, however, my own
+blood was all that was spilt--and from the trifling accident of
+sometimes breaking the flesh against a cleat or a pin which came in
+the way when I was in haste. Sea-cuts in my hands from pulling on
+hard, wet ropes were sometimes painful and often bled freely; but
+these healed when I finally got away from the strait into fine
+weather.
+
+After clearing Snug Bay I hauled the sloop to the wind, repaired the
+windlass, and hove the anchor to the hawse, catted it, and then
+stretched across to a port of refuge under a high mountain about six
+miles away, and came to in nine fathoms close under the face of a
+perpendicular cliff. Here my own voice answered back, and I named the
+place "Echo Mountain." Seeing dead trees farther along where the shore
+was broken, I made a landing for fuel, taking, besides my ax, a rifle,
+which on these days I never left far from hand; but I saw no living
+thing here, except a small spider, which had nested in a dry log that
+I boated to the sloop. The conduct of this insect interested me now
+more than anything else around the wild place. In my cabin it met,
+oddly enough, a spider of its own size and species that had come all
+the way from Boston--a very civil little chap, too, but mighty spry.
+Well, the Fuegian threw up its antennae for a fight; but my little
+Bostonian downed it at once, then broke its legs, and pulled them off,
+one by one, so dexterously that in less than three minutes from the
+time the battle began the Fuegian spider didn't know itself from a
+fly.
+
+I made haste the following morning to be under way after a night of
+wakefulness on the weird shore. Before weighing anchor, however, I
+prepared a cup of warm coffee over a smart wood fire in my great
+Montevideo stove. In the same fire was cremated the Fuegian spider,
+slain the day before by the little warrior from Boston, which a Scots
+lady at Cape Town long after named "Bruce" upon hearing of its prowess
+at Echo Mountain. The _Spray_ now reached away for Coffee Island,
+which I sighted on my birthday, February 20,1896.
+
+[Illustration: "Yammerschooner"]
+
+There she encountered another gale, that brought her in the lee of
+great Charles Island for shelter. On a bluff point on Charles were
+signal-fires, and a tribe of savages, mustered here since my first
+trip through the strait, manned their canoes to put off for the sloop.
+It was not prudent to come to, the anchorage being within bow-shot of
+the shore, which was thickly wooded; but I made signs that one canoe
+might come alongside, while the sloop ranged about under sail in the
+lee of the land. The others I motioned to keep off, and incidentally
+laid a smart Martini-Henry rifle in sight, close at hand, on the top
+of the cabin. In the canoe that came alongside, crying their
+never-ending begging word "yammerschooner," were two squaws and one
+Indian, the hardest specimens of humanity I had ever seen in any of my
+travels. "Yammerschooner" was their plaint when they pushed off from
+the shore, and "yammerschooner" it was when they got alongside. The
+squaws beckoned for food, while the Indian, a black-visaged savage,
+stood sulkily as if he took no interest at all in the matter, but on
+my turning my back for some biscuits and jerked beef for the squaws,
+the "buck" sprang on deck and confronted me, saying in Spanish jargon
+that we had met before. I thought I recognized the tone of his
+"yammerschooner," and his full beard identified him as the Black Pedro
+whom, it was true, I had met before. "Where are the rest of the crew?"
+he asked, as he looked uneasily around, expecting hands, maybe, to
+come out of the fore-scuttle and deal him his just deserts for many
+murders. "About three weeks ago," said he, "when you passed up here, I
+saw three men on board. Where are the other two?" I answered him
+briefly that the same crew was still on board. "But," said he, "I see
+you are doing all the work," and with a leer he added, as he glanced
+at the mainsail, "hombre valiente." I explained that I did all the
+work in the day, while the rest of the crew slept, so that they would
+be fresh to watch for Indians at night. I was interested in the subtle
+cunning of this savage, knowing him, as I did, better perhaps than he
+was aware. Even had I not been advised before I sailed from Sandy
+Point, I should have measured him for an arch-villain now. Moreover,
+one of the squaws, with that spark of kindliness which is somehow
+found in the breast of even the lowest savage, warned me by a sign to
+be on my guard, or Black Pedro would do me harm. There was no need of
+the warning, however, for I was on my guard from the first, and at
+that moment held a smart revolver in my hand ready for instant
+service.
+
+"When you sailed through here before," he said, "you fired a shot at
+me," adding with some warmth that it was "muy malo." I affected not to
+understand, and said, "You have lived at Sandy Point, have you not I"
+He answered frankly, "Yes," and appeared delighted to meet one who had
+come from the dear old place. "At the mission?" I queried. "Why, yes,"
+he replied, stepping forward as if to embrace an old friend. I
+motioned him back, for I did not share his flattering humor. "And you
+know Captain Pedro Samblich?" continued I. "Yes," said the villain,
+who had killed a kinsman of Samblich--"yes, indeed; he is a great
+friend of mine." "I know it," said I. Samblich had told me to shoot
+him on sight. Pointing to my rifle on the cabin, he wanted to know how
+many times it fired. "Cuantos?" said he. When I explained to him that
+that gun kept right on shooting, his jaw fell, and he spoke of getting
+away. I did not hinder him from going. I gave the squaws biscuits and
+beef, and one of them gave me several lumps of tallow in exchange, and
+I think it worth mentioning that she did not offer me the smallest
+pieces, but with some extra trouble handed me the largest of all the
+pieces in the canoe. No Christian could have done more. Before pushing
+off from the sloop the cunning savage asked for matches, and made as
+if to reach with the end of his spear the box I was about to give him;
+but I held it toward him on the muzzle of my rifle, the one that "kept
+on shooting." The chap picked the box off the gun gingerly enough, to
+be sure, but he jumped when I said, "Quedao [Look out]," at which the
+squaws laughed and seemed not at all displeased. Perhaps the wretch
+had clubbed them that morning for not gathering mussels enough for his
+breakfast. There was a good understanding among us all.
+
+From Charles Island the _Spray_ crossed over to Fortescue Bay, where
+she anchored and spent a comfortable night under the lee of high land,
+while the wind howled outside. The bay was deserted now. They were
+Fortescue Indians whom I had seen at the island, and I felt quite sure
+they could not follow the _Spray_ in the present hard blow. Not to
+neglect a precaution, however, I sprinkled tacks on deck before I
+turned in.
+
+On the following day the loneliness of the place was broken by the
+appearance of a great steamship, making for the anchorage with a lofty
+bearing. She was no Diego craft. I knew the sheer, the model, and the
+poise. I threw out my flag, and directly saw the Stars and Stripes
+flung to the breeze from the great ship.
+
+The wind had then abated, and toward night the savages made their
+appearance from the island, going direct to the steamer to
+"yammerschooner." Then they came to the _Spray_ to beg more, or to
+steal all, declaring that they got nothing from the steamer. Black
+Pedro here came alongside again. My own brother could not have been
+more delighted to see me, and he begged me to lend him my rifle to
+shoot a guanaco for me in the morning. I assured the fellow that if I
+remained there another day I would lend him the gun, but I had no mind
+to remain. I gave him a cooper's draw-knife and some other small
+implements which would be of service in canoe-making, and bade him be
+off.
+
+Under the cover of darkness that night I went to the steamer, which I
+found to be the _Colombia,_ Captain Henderson, from New York, bound
+for San Francisco. I carried all my guns along with me, in case it
+should be necessary to fight my way back. In the chief mate of the
+_Colombia,_ Mr. Hannibal, I found an old friend, and he referred
+affectionately to days in Manila when we were there together, he in
+the _Southern Cross_ and I in the _Northern Light,_ both ships as
+beautiful as their names.
+
+The _Colombia_ had an abundance of fresh stores on board. The captain
+gave his steward some order, and I remember that the guileless young
+man asked me if I could manage, besides other things, a few cans of
+milk and a cheese. When I offered my Montevideo gold for the supplies,
+the captain roared like a lion and told me to put my money up. It was
+a glorious outfit of provisions of all kinds that I got.
+
+[Illustration: A contrast in lighting--the electric lights of the
+_Colombia_ and the canoe fires of the Fortescue Indians.]
+
+Returning to the _Spray_, where I found all secure, I prepared for an
+early start in the morning. It was agreed that the steamer should blow
+her whistle for me if first on the move. I watched the steamer, off
+and on, through the night for the pleasure alone of seeing her
+electric lights, a pleasing sight in contrast to the ordinary Fuegian
+canoe with a brand of fire in it. The sloop was the first under way,
+but the _Colombia_, soon following, passed, and saluted as she went
+by. Had the captain given me his steamer, his company would have been
+no worse off than they were two or three months later. I read
+afterward, in a late California paper, "The _Colombia_ will be a total
+loss." On her second trip to Panama she was wrecked on the rocks of
+the California coast.
+
+The _Spray_ was then beating against wind and current, as usual in the
+strait. At this point the tides from the Atlantic and the Pacific
+meet, and in the strait, as on the outside coast, their meeting makes
+a commotion of whirlpools and combers that in a gale of wind is
+dangerous to canoes and other frail craft.
+
+A few miles farther along was a large steamer ashore, bottom up.
+Passing this place, the sloop ran into a streak of light wind, and
+then--a most remarkable condition for strait weather--it fell entirely
+calm. Signal-fires sprang up at once on all sides, and then more than
+twenty canoes hove in sight, all heading for the _Spray_. As they came
+within hail, their savage crews cried, "Amigo yammerschooner," "Anclas
+aqui," "Bueno puerto aqui," and like scraps of Spanish mixed with
+their own jargon. I had no thought of anchoring in their "good port."
+I hoisted the sloop's flag and fired a gun, all of which they might
+construe as a friendly salute or an invitation to come on. They drew
+up in a semicircle, but kept outside of eighty yards, which in
+self-defense would have been the death-line.
+
+In their mosquito fleet was a ship's boat stolen probably from a
+murdered crew. Six savages paddled this rather awkwardly with the
+blades of oars which had been broken off. Two of the savages standing
+erect wore sea-boots, and this sustained the suspicion that they had
+fallen upon some luckless ship's crew, and also added a hint that they
+had already visited the _Spray's_ deck, and would now, if they could,
+try her again. Their sea-boots, I have no doubt, would have protected
+their feet and rendered carpet-tacks harmless. Paddling clumsily, they
+passed down the strait at a distance of a hundred yards from the
+sloop, in an offhand manner and as if bound to Fortescue Bay. This I
+judged to be a piece of strategy, and so kept a sharp lookout over a
+small island which soon came in range between them and the sloop,
+completely hiding them from view, and toward which the _Spray_ was now
+drifting helplessly with the tide, and with every prospect of going on
+the rocks, for there was no anchorage, at least, none that my cables
+would reach. And, sure enough, I soon saw a movement in the grass just
+on top of the island, which is called Bonet Island and is one hundred
+and thirty-six feet high. I fired several shots over the place, but
+saw no other sign of the savages. It was they that had moved the
+grass, for as the sloop swept past the island, the rebound of the tide
+carrying her clear, there on the other side was the boat, surely
+enough exposing their cunning and treachery. A stiff breeze, coming up
+suddenly, now scattered the canoes while it extricated the sloop from
+a dangerous position, albeit the wind, though friendly, was still
+ahead.
+
+The _Spray_, flogging against current and wind, made Borgia Bay on the
+following afternoon, and cast anchor there for the second time. I
+would now, if I could, describe the moonlit scene on the strait at
+midnight after I had cleared the savages and Bonet Island. A heavy
+cloud-bank that had swept across the sky then cleared away, and the
+night became suddenly as light as day, or nearly so. A high mountain
+was mirrored in the channel ahead, and the _Spray_ sailing along with
+her shadow was as two sloops on the sea.
+
+[Illustration: Records of passages through the strait at the head of
+Borgia Bay. Note.--On a small bush nearer the water there was a board
+bearing several other inscriptions, to which were added the words
+"Sloop _Spray_, March, 1896"]
+
+The sloop being moored, I threw out my skiff, and with ax and gun
+landed at the head of the cove, and filled a barrel of water from a
+stream. Then, as before, there was no sign of Indians at the place.
+Finding it quite deserted, I rambled about near the beach for an hour
+or more. The fine weather seemed, somehow, to add loneliness to the
+place, and when I came upon a spot where a grave was marked I went no
+farther. Returning to the head of the cove, I came to a sort of
+Calvary, it appeared to me, where navigators, carrying their cross,
+had each set one up as a beacon to others coming after. They had
+anchored here and gone on, all except the one under the little mound.
+One of the simple marks, curiously enough, had been left there by the
+steamship _Colimbia_, sister ship to the _Colombia_, my neighbor of
+that morning.
+
+I read the names of many other vessels; some of them I copied in my
+journal, others were illegible. Many of the crosses had decayed and
+fallen, and many a hand that put them there I had known, many a hand
+now still. The air of depression was about the place, and I hurried
+back to the sloop to forget myself again in the voyage.
+
+Early the next morning I stood out from Borgia Bay, and off Cape Quod,
+where the wind fell light, I moored the sloop by kelp in twenty
+fathoms of water, and held her there a few hours against a three-knot
+current. That night I anchored in Langara Cove, a few miles farther
+along, where on the following day I discovered wreckage and goods
+washed up from the sea. I worked all day now, salving and boating off
+a cargo to the sloop. The bulk of the goods was tallow in casks and in
+lumps from which the casks had broken away; and embedded in the
+seaweed was a barrel of wine, which I also towed alongside. I hoisted
+them all in with the throat-halyards, which I took to the windlass.
+The weight of some of the casks was a little over eight hundred
+pounds.
+
+[Illustration: Salving wreckage.]
+
+There were no Indians about Langara; evidently there had not been any
+since the great gale which had washed the wreckage on shore. Probably
+it was the same gale that drove the _Spray_ off Cape Horn, from March
+3 to 8. Hundreds of tons of kelp had been torn from beds in deep water
+and rolled up into ridges on the beach. A specimen stalk which I found
+entire, roots, leaves, and all, measured one hundred and thirty-one
+feet in length. At this place I filled a barrel of water at night, and
+on the following day sailed with a fair wind at last.
+
+I had not sailed far, however, when I came abreast of more tallow in a
+small cove, where I anchored, and boated off as before. It rained and
+snowed hard all that day, and it was no light work carrying tallow in
+my arms over the boulders on the beach. But I worked on till the
+_Spray_ was loaded with a full cargo. I was happy then in the prospect
+of doing a good business farther along on the voyage, for the habits
+of an old trader would come to the surface. I sailed from the cove
+about noon, greased from top to toe, while my vessel was tallowed from
+keelson to truck. My cabin, as well as the hold and deck, was stowed
+full of tallow, and all were thoroughly smeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Running to Port Angosto in a snow-storm--A defective sheetrope places
+the _Spray_ in peril--The _Spray_ as a target for a Fuegian arrow--The
+island of Alan Erric--Again in the open Pacific--The run to the island
+of Juan Fernandez--An absentee king--At Robinson Crusoe's anchorage.
+
+Another gale had then sprung up, but the wind was still fair, and I
+had only twenty-six miles to run for Port Angosto, a dreary enough
+place, where, however, I would find a safe harbor in which to refit
+and stow cargo. I carried on sail to make the harbor before dark, and
+she fairly flew along, all covered with snow, which fell thick and
+fast, till she looked like a white winter bird. Between the
+storm-bursts I saw the headland of my port, and was steering for it
+when a flaw of wind caught the mainsail by the lee, jibed it over, and
+dear! dear! how nearly was this the cause of disaster; for the sheet
+parted and the boom unshipped, and it was then close upon night. I
+worked till the perspiration poured from my body to get things
+adjusted and in working order before dark, and, above all, to get it
+done before the sloop drove to leeward of the port of refuge. Even
+then I did not get the boom shipped in its saddle. I was at the
+entrance of the harbor before I could get this done, and it was time
+to haul her to or lose the port; but in that condition, like a bird
+with a broken wing, she made the haven. The accident which so
+jeopardized my vessel and cargo came of a defective sheet-rope, one
+made from sisal, a treacherous fiber which has caused a deal of strong
+language among sailors.
+
+I did not run the _Spray_ into the inner harbor of Port Angosto, but
+came to inside a bed of kelp under a steep bluff on the port hand
+going in. It was an exceedingly snug nook, and to make doubly sure of
+holding on here against all williwaws I moored her with two anchors
+and secured her besides, by cables to trees. However, no wind ever
+reached there except back flaws from the mountains on the opposite
+side of the harbor. There, as elsewhere in that region, the country
+was made up of mountains. This was the place where I was to refit and
+whence I was to sail direct, once more, for Cape Pillar and the
+Pacific.
+
+I remained at Port Angosto some days, busily employed about the sloop.
+I stowed the tallow from the deck to the hold, arranged my cabin in
+better order, and took in a good supply of wood and water. I also
+mended the sloop's sails and rigging, and fitted a jigger, which
+changed the rig to a yawl, though I called the boat a sloop just the
+same, the jigger being merely a temporary affair.
+
+I never forgot, even at the busiest time of my work there, to have my
+rifle by me ready for instant use; for I was of necessity within range
+of savages, and I had seen Fuegian canoes at this place when I
+anchored in the port, farther down the reach, on the first trip
+through the strait. I think it was on the second day, while I was
+busily employed about decks, that I heard the swish of something
+through the air close by my ear, and heard a "zip"-like sound in the
+water, but saw nothing. Presently, however, I suspected that it was an
+arrow of some sort, for just then one passing not far from me struck
+the mainmast, where it stuck fast, vibrating from the shock--a Fuegian
+autograph. A savage was somewhere near, there could be no doubt about
+that. I did not know but he might be shooting at me, with a view to
+getting my sloop and her cargo; and so I threw up my old
+Martini-Henry, the rifle that kept on shooting, and the first shot
+uncovered three Fuegians, who scampered from a clump of bushes where
+they had been concealed, and made over the hills. I fired away a good
+many cartridges, aiming under their feet to encourage their climbing.
+My dear old gun woke up the hills, and at every report all three of
+the savages jumped as if shot; but they kept on, and put Fuego real
+estate between themselves and the _Spray_ as fast as their legs could
+carry them. I took care then, more than ever before, that all my
+firearms should be in order and that a supply of ammunition should
+always be ready at hand. But the savages did not return, and although
+I put tacks on deck every night, I never discovered that any more
+visitors came, and I had only to sweep the deck of tacks carefully
+every morning after.
+
+[Illustration: "The first shot uncovered three Fuegians."]
+
+As the days went by, the season became more favorable for a chance to
+clear the strait with a fair wind, and so I made up my mind after six
+attempts, being driven back each, time, to be in no further haste to
+sail. The bad weather on my last return to Port Angosto for shelter
+brought the Chilean gunboat _Condor_ and the Argentine cruiser
+_Azopardo_ into port. As soon as the latter came to anchor, Captain
+Mascarella, the commander, sent a boat to the _Spray_ with the message
+that he would take me in tow for Sandy Point if I would give up the
+voyage and return--the thing farthest from my mind. The officers of
+the _Azopardo_ told me that, coming up the strait after the _Spray_ on
+her first passage through, they saw Black Pedro and learned that he
+had visited me. The _Azopardo_, being a foreign man-of-war, had no
+right to arrest the Fuegian outlaw, but her captain blamed me for not
+shooting the rascal when he came to my sloop.
+
+I procured some cordage and other small supplies from these vessels,
+and the officers of each of them mustered a supply of warm flannels,
+of which I was most in need. With these additions to my outfit, and
+with the vessel in good trim, though somewhat deeply laden, I was well
+prepared for another bout with the Southern, misnamed Pacific, Ocean.
+
+In the first week in April southeast winds, such as appear about Cape
+Horn in the fall and winter seasons, bringing better weather than that
+experienced in the summer, began to disturb the upper clouds; a little
+more patience, and the time would come for sailing with a fair wind.
+
+At Port Angosto I met Professor Dusen of the Swedish scientific
+expedition to South America and the Pacific Islands. The professor was
+camped by the side of a brook at the head of the harbor, where there
+were many varieties of moss, in which he was interested, and where the
+water was, as his Argentine cook said, "muy rico." The professor had
+three well-armed Argentines along in his camp to fight savages. They
+seemed disgusted when I filled water at a small stream near the
+vessel, slighting their advice to go farther up to the greater brook,
+where it was "muy rico." But they were all fine fellows, though it was
+a wonder that they did not all die of rheumatic pains from living on
+wet ground.
+
+Of all the little haps and mishaps to the _Spray_ at Port Angosto, of
+the many attempts to put to sea, and of each return for shelter, it is
+not my purpose to speak. Of hindrances there were many to keep her
+back, but on the thirteenth day of April, and for the seventh and last
+time, she weighed anchor from that port. Difficulties, however,
+multiplied all about in so strange a manner that had I been given to
+superstitious fears I should not have persisted in sailing on a
+thirteenth day, notwithstanding that a fair wind blew in the offing.
+Many of the incidents were ludicrous. When I found myself, for
+instance, disentangling the sloop's mast from the branches of a tree
+after she had drifted three times around a small island, against my
+will, it seemed more than one's nerves could bear, and I had to speak
+about it, so I thought, or die of lockjaw, and I apostrophized the
+_Spray_ as an impatient farmer might his horse or his ox. "Didn't you
+know," cried I--"didn't you know that you couldn't climb a tree!" But
+the poor old _Spray_ had essayed, and successfully too, nearly
+everything else in the Strait of Magellan, and my heart softened
+toward her when I thought of what she had gone through. Moreover, she
+had discovered an island. On the charts this one that she had sailed
+around was traced as a point of land. I named it Alan Erric Island,
+after a worthy literary friend whom I had met in strange by-places,
+and I put up a sign, "Keep off the grass," which, as discoverer, was
+within my rights.
+
+Now at last the _Spray_ carried me free of Tierra del Fuego. If by a
+close shave only, still she carried me clear, though her boom actually
+hit the beacon rocks to leeward as she lugged on sail to clear the
+point. The thing was done on the 13th of April, 1896. But a close
+shave and a narrow escape were nothing new to the _Spray_.
+
+The waves doffed their white caps beautifully to her in the strait
+that day before the southeast wind, the first true winter breeze of
+the season from that quarter, and here she was out on the first of it,
+with every prospect of clearing Cape Pillar before it should shift. So
+it turned out; the wind blew hard, as it always blows about Cape Horn,
+but she had cleared the great tide-race off Cape Pillar and the
+Evangelistas, the outermost rocks of all, before the change came. I
+remained at the helm, humoring my vessel in the cross seas, for it was
+rough, and I did not dare to let her take a straight course. It was
+necessary to change her course in the combing seas, to meet them with
+what skill I could when they rolled up ahead, and to keep off when
+they came up abeam.
+
+On the following morning, April 14, only the tops of the highest
+mountains were in sight, and the _Spray_, making good headway on a
+northwest course, soon sank these out of sight. "Hurrah for the
+_Spray_!" I shouted to seals, sea-gulls, and penguins; for there were
+no other living creatures about, and she had weathered all the dangers
+of Cape Horn. Moreover, she had on her voyage round the Horn salved a
+cargo of which she had not jettisoned a pound. And why should not one
+rejoice also in the main chance coming so of itself?
+
+I shook out a reef, and set the whole jib, for, having sea-room, I
+could square away two points. This brought the sea more on her
+quarter, and she was the wholesomer under a press of sail.
+Occasionally an old southwest sea, rolling up, combed athwart her, but
+did no harm. The wind freshened as the sun rose half-mast or more, and
+the air, a bit chilly in the morning, softened later in the day; but I
+gave little thought to such things as these.
+
+One wave, in the evening, larger than others that had threatened all
+day,--one such as sailors call "fine-weather seas,"-broke over the
+sloop fore and aft. It washed over me at the helm, the last that swept
+over the _Spray_ off Cape Horn. It seemed to wash away old regrets.
+All my troubles were now astern; summer was ahead; all the world was
+again before me. The wind was even literally fair. My "trick" at the
+wheel was now up, and it was 5 p.m. I had stood at the helm since
+eleven o'clock the morning before, or thirty hours.
+
+Then was the time to uncover my head, for I sailed alone with God. The
+vast ocean was again around me, and the horizon was unbroken by land.
+A few days later the _Spray_ was under full sail, and I saw her for
+the first time with a jigger spread, This was indeed a small incident,
+but it was the incident following a triumph. The wind was still
+southwest, but it had moderated, and roaring seas had turned to
+gossiping waves that rippled and pattered against her sides as she
+rolled among them, delighted with their story. Rapid changes went on,
+those days, in things all about while she headed for the tropics. New
+species of birds came around; albatrosses fell back and became scarcer
+and scarcer; lighter gulls came in their stead, and pecked for crumbs
+in the sloop's wake.
+
+On the tenth day from Cape Pillar a shark came along, the first of its
+kind on this part of the voyage to get into trouble. I harpooned him
+and took out his ugly jaws. I had not till then felt inclined to take
+the life of any animal, but when John Shark hove in sight my sympathy
+flew to the winds. It is a fact that in Magellan I let pass many ducks
+that would have made a good stew, for I had no mind in the lonesome
+strait to take the life of any living thing.
+
+From Cape Pillar I steered for Juan Fernandez, and on the 26th of
+April, fifteen days out, made that historic island right ahead.
+
+The blue hills of Juan Fernandez, high among the clouds, could be seen
+about thirty miles off. A thousand emotions thrilled me when I saw the
+island, and I bowed my head to the deck. We may mock the Oriental
+salaam, but for my part I could find no other way of expressing
+myself.
+
+The wind being light through the day, the _Spray_ did not reach the
+island till night. With what wind there was to fill her sails she
+stood close in to shore on the northeast side, where it fell calm and
+remained so all night. I saw the twinkling of a small light farther
+along in a cove, and fired a gun, but got no answer, and soon the
+light disappeared altogether. I heard the sea booming against the
+cliffs all night, and realized that the ocean swell was still great,
+although from the deck of my little ship it was apparently small. From
+the cry of animals in the hills, which sounded fainter and fainter
+through the night, I judged that a light current was drifting the
+sloop from the land, though she seemed all night dangerously near the
+shore, for, the land being very high, appearances were deceptive.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ approaching Juan Fernandez, Robinson
+Crusoe's Island.]
+
+Soon after daylight I saw a boat putting out toward me. As it pulled
+near, it so happened that I picked up my gun, which was on the deck,
+meaning only to put it below; but the people in the boat, seeing the
+piece in my hands, quickly turned and pulled back for shore, which was
+about four miles distant. There were six rowers in her, and I observed
+that they pulled with oars in oar-locks, after the manner of trained
+seamen, and so I knew they belonged to a civilized race; but their
+opinion of me must have been anything but flattering when they mistook
+my purpose with the gun and pulled away with all their might. I made
+them understand by signs, but not without difficulty, that I did not
+intend to shoot, that I was simply putting the piece in the cabin, and
+that I wished them to return. When they understood my meaning they
+came back and were soon on board.
+
+One of the party, whom the rest called "king," spoke English; the
+others spoke Spanish. They had all heard of the voyage of the _Spray_
+through the papers of Valparaiso, and were hungry for news concerning
+it. They told me of a war between Chile and the Argentine, which I had
+not heard of when I was there. I had just visited both countries, and
+I told them that according to the latest reports, while I was in
+Chile, their own island was sunk. (This same report that Juan
+Fernandez had sunk was current in Australia when I arrived there three
+months later.)
+
+I had already prepared a pot of coffee and a plate of doughnuts,
+which, after some words of civility, the islanders stood up to and
+discussed with a will, after which they took the _Spray_ in tow of
+their boat and made toward the island with her at the rate of a good
+three knots. The man they called king took the helm, and with whirling
+it up and down he so rattled the _Spray_ that I thought she would
+never carry herself straight again. The others pulled away lustily
+with their oars. The king, I soon learned, was king only by courtesy.
+Having lived longer on the island than any other man in the
+world,--thirty years,--he was so dubbed. Juan Fernandez was then under
+the administration of a governor of Swedish nobility, so I was told. I
+was also told that his daughter could ride the wildest goat on the
+island. The governor, at the time of my visit, was away at Valparaiso
+with his family, to place his children at school. The king had been
+away once for a year or two, and in Rio de Janeiro had married a
+Brazilian woman who followed his fortunes to the far-off island. He
+was himself a Portuguese and a native of the Azores. He had sailed in
+New Bedford whale-ships and had steered a boat. All this I learned,
+and more too, before we reached the anchorage. The sea-breeze, coming
+in before long, filled the _Spray's_ sails, and the experienced
+Portuguese mariner piloted her to a safe berth in the bay, where she
+was moored to a buoy abreast the settlement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The islanders at Juan Fernandez entertained with Yankee doughnuts--The
+beauties of Robinson Crusoe's realm--The mountain monument to
+Alexander Selkirk--Robinson Crusoe's cave--A stroll with the children
+of the island--Westward ho! with a friendly gale--A month's free
+sailing with the Southern Cross and the sun for guides--Sighting the
+Marquesas--Experience in reckoning.
+
+The _Spray_ being secured, the islanders returned to the coffee and
+doughnuts, and I was more than flattered when they did not slight my
+buns, as the professor had done in the Strait of Magellan. Between
+buns and doughnuts there was little difference except in name. Both
+had been fried in tallow, which was the strong point in both, for
+there was nothing on the island fatter than a goat, and a goat is but
+a lean beast, to make the best of it. So with a view to business I
+hooked my steelyards to the boom at once, ready to weigh out tallow,
+there being no customs officer to say, "Why do you do so?" and before
+the sun went down the islanders had learned the art of making buns and
+doughnuts. I did not charge a high price for what I sold, but the
+ancient and curious coins I got in payment, some of them from the
+wreck of a galleon sunk in the bay no one knows when, I sold afterward
+to antiquarians for more than face-value. In this way I made a
+reasonable profit. I brought away money of all denominations from the
+island, and nearly all there was, so far as I could find out.
+
+[Illustration: The house of the king.]
+
+Juan Fernandez, as a place of call, is a lovely spot. The hills are
+well wooded, the valleys fertile, and pouring down through many
+ravines are streams of pure water. There are no serpents on the
+island, and no wild beasts other than pigs and goats, of which I saw a
+number, with possibly a dog or two. The people lived without the use
+of rum or beer of any sort. There was not a police officer or a lawyer
+among them. The domestic economy of the island was simplicity itself.
+The fashions of Paris did not affect the inhabitants; each dressed
+according to his own taste. Although there was no doctor, the people
+were all healthy, and the children were all beautiful. There were
+about forty-five souls on the island all told. The adults were mostly
+from the mainland of South America. One lady there, from Chile, who
+made a flying-jib for the _Spray_, taking her pay in tallow, would be
+called a belle at Newport. Blessed island of Juan Fernandez! Why
+Alexander Selkirk ever left you was more than I could make out.
+
+[Illustration: Robinson Crusoe's cave.]
+
+A large ship which had arrived some time before, on fire, had been
+stranded at the head of the bay, and as the sea smashed her to pieces
+on the rocks, after the fire was drowned, the islanders picked up the
+timbers and utilized them in the construction of houses, which
+naturally presented a ship-like appearance. The house of the king of
+Juan Fernandez, Manuel Carroza by name, besides resembling the ark,
+wore a polished brass knocker on its only door, which was painted
+green. In front of this gorgeous entrance was a flag-mast all ataunto,
+and near it a smart whale-boat painted red and blue, the delight of
+the king's old age.
+
+I of course made a pilgrimage to the old lookout place at the top of
+the mountain, where Selkirk spent many days peering into the distance
+for the ship which came at last. From a tablet fixed into the face of
+the rock I copied these words, inscribed in Arabic capitals:
+
+/*[4]
+       IN MEMORY
+           OF
+    ALEXANDER SELKIRK,
+         MARINER,
+*/
+
+/#
+     A native of Largo, in the county of Fife, Scotland, who lived on
+     this island in complete solitude for four years and four months. He
+     was landed from the <i>Cinque Ports</i> galley, 96 tons, 18 guns, A. D.
+     1704, and was taken off in the <i>Duke</i>, privateer, 12th February,
+     1709. He died Lieutenant of H. M. S. <i>Weymouth</i>, A. D. 1723,[A]
+     aged 47. This tablet is erected near Selkirk's lookout, by
+     Commodore Powell and the officers of H. M. S. <i>Topaze</i>, A. D. 1868.
+#/
+
+[A] Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, in the "Century Magazine" for July, 1899,
+shows that the tablet is in error as to Selkirk's death. It should be
+1721
+
+The cave in which Selkirk dwelt while on the island is at the head of
+the bay now called Robinson Crusoe Bay. It is around a bold headland
+west of the present anchorage and landing. Ships have anchored there,
+but it affords a very indifferent berth. Both of these anchorages are
+exposed to north winds, which, however, do not reach home with much
+violence. The holding-ground being good in the first-named bay to the
+eastward, the anchorage there may be considered safe, although the
+undertow at times makes it wild riding.
+
+I visited Robinson Crusoe Bay in a boat, and with some difficulty
+landed through the surf near the cave, which I entered. I found it dry
+and inhabitable. It is located in a beautiful nook sheltered by high
+mountains from all the severe storms that sweep over the island, which
+are not many; for it lies near the limits of the trade-wind regions,
+being in latitude 35 1/2 degrees. The island is about fourteen miles
+in length, east and west, and eight miles in width; its height is over
+three thousand feet. Its distance from Chile, to which country it
+belongs, is about three hundred and forty miles.
+
+Juan Fernandez was once a convict station. A number of caves in which
+the prisoners were kept, damp, unwholesome dens, are no longer in use,
+and no more prisoners are sent to the island.
+
+The pleasantest day I spent on the island, if not the pleasantest on
+my whole voyage, was my last day on shore,--but by no means because it
+was the last,--when the children of the little community, one and all,
+went out with me to gather wild fruits for the voyage. We found
+quinces, peaches, and figs, and the children gathered a basket of
+each. It takes very little to please children, and these little ones,
+never hearing a word in their lives except Spanish, made the hills
+ring with mirth at the sound of words in English. They asked me the
+names of all manner of things on the island. We came to a wild
+fig-tree loaded with fruit, of which I gave them the English name.
+"Figgies, figgies!" they cried, while they picked till their baskets
+were full. But when I told them that the _cabra_ they pointed out was
+only a goat, they screamed with laughter, and rolled on the grass in
+wild delight to think that a man had come to their island who would
+call a cabra a goat.
+
+[Illustration: The man who called a cabra a goat.]
+
+The first child born on Juan Fernandez, I was told, had become a
+beautiful woman and was now a mother. Manuel Carroza and the good soul
+who followed him here from Brazil had laid away their only child, a
+girl, at the age of seven, in the little churchyard on the point. In
+the same half-acre were other mounds among the rough lava rocks, some
+marking the burial-place of native-born children, some the
+resting-places of seamen from passing ships, landed here to end days
+of sickness and get into a sailors' heaven.
+
+The greatest drawback I saw in the island was the want of a school. A
+class there would necessarily be small, but to some kind soul who
+loved teaching and quietude life on Juan Fernandez would, for a
+limited time, be one of delight.
+
+On the morning of May 5, 1896, I sailed from Juan Fernandez, having
+feasted on many things, but on nothing sweeter than the adventure
+itself of a visit to the home and to the very cave of Robinson Crusoe.
+From the island the _Spray_ bore away to the north, passing the island
+of St. Felix before she gained the trade-winds, which seemed slow in
+reaching their limits.
+
+If the trades were tardy, however, when they did come they came with a
+bang, and made up for lost time; and the _Spray_, under reefs,
+sometimes one, sometimes two, flew before a gale for a great many
+days, with a bone in her mouth, toward the Marquesas, in the west,
+which, she made on the forty-third day out, and still kept on sailing.
+My time was all taken up those days--not by standing at the helm; no
+man, I think, could stand or sit and steer a vessel round the world: I
+did better than that; for I sat and read my books, mended my clothes,
+or cooked my meals and ate them in peace. I had already found that it
+was not good to be alone, and so I made companionship with what there
+was around me, sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own
+insignificant self; but my books were always my friends, let fail all
+else. Nothing could be easier or more restful than my voyage in the
+trade-winds.
+
+I sailed with a free wind day after day, marking the position of my
+ship on the chart with considerable precision; but this was done by
+intuition, I think, more than by slavish calculations. For one whole
+month my vessel held her course true; I had not, the while, so much as
+a light in the binnacle. The Southern Cross I saw every night abeam.
+The sun every morning came up astern; every evening it went down
+ahead. I wished for no other compass to guide me, for these were true.
+If I doubted my reckoning after a long time at sea I verified it by
+reading the clock aloft made by the Great Architect, and it was right.
+
+There was no denying that the comical side of the strange life
+appeared. I awoke, sometimes, to find the sun already shining into my
+cabin. I heard water rushing by, with only a thin plank between me and
+the depths, and I said, "How is this?" But it was all right; it was my
+ship on her course, sailing as no other ship had ever sailed before in
+the world. The rushing water along her side told me that she was
+sailing at full speed. I knew that no human hand was at the helm; I
+knew that all was well with "the hands" forward, and that there was no
+mutiny on board.
+
+The phenomena of ocean meteorology were interesting studies even here
+in the trade-winds. I observed that about every seven days the wind
+freshened and drew several points farther than usual from the
+direction of the pole; that is, it went round from east-southeast to
+south-southeast, while at the same time a heavy swell rolled up from
+the southwest. All this indicated that gales were going on in the
+anti-trades. The wind then hauled day after day as it moderated, till
+it stood again at the normal point, east-southeast. This is more or
+less the constant state of the winter trades in latitude 12 degrees
+S., where I "ran down the longitude" for weeks. The sun, we all know,
+is the creator of the trade-winds and of the wind system over all the
+earth. But ocean meteorology is, I think, the most fascinating of all.
+From Juan Fernandez to the Marquesas I experienced six changes of
+these great palpitations of sea-winds and of the sea itself, the
+effect of far-off gales. To know the laws that govern the winds, and
+to know that you know them, will give you an easy mind on your voyage
+round the world; otherwise you may tremble at the appearance of every
+cloud. What is true of this in the trade-winds is much more so in the
+variables, where changes run more to extremes.
+
+To cross the Pacific Ocean, even under the most favorable
+circumstances, brings you for many days close to nature, and you
+realize the vastness of the sea. Slowly but surely the mark of my
+little ship's course on the track-chart reached out on the ocean and
+across it, while at her utmost speed she marked with her keel still
+slowly the sea that carried her. On the forty-third day from land,--a
+long time to be at sea alone,--the sky being beautifully clear and the
+moon being "in distance" with the sun, I threw up my sextant for
+sights. I found from the result of three observations, after long
+wrestling with lunar tables, that her longitude by observation agreed
+within five miles of that by dead-reckoning.
+
+This was wonderful; both, however, might be in error, but somehow I
+felt confident that both were nearly true, and that in a few hours
+more I should see land; and so it happened, for then I made the island
+of Nukahiva, the southernmost of the Marquesas group, clear-cut and
+lofty. The verified longitude when abreast was somewhere between the
+two reckonings; this was extraordinary. All navigators will tell you
+that from one day to another a ship may lose or gain more than five
+miles in her sailing-account, and again, in the matter of lunars, even
+expert lunarians are considered as doing clever work when they average
+within eight miles of the truth.
+
+I hope I am making it clear that I do not lay claim to cleverness or
+to slavish calculations in my reckonings. I think I have already
+stated that I kept my longitude, at least, mostly by intuition. A
+rotator log always towed astern, but so much has to be allowed for
+currents and for drift, which the log never shows, that it is only an
+approximation, after all, to be corrected by one's own judgment from
+data of a thousand voyages; and even then the master of the ship, if
+he be wise, cries out for the lead and the lookout.
+
+Unique was my experience in nautical astronomy from the deck of the
+_Spray_--so much so that I feel justified in briefly telling it here.
+The first set of sights, just spoken of, put her many hundred miles
+west of my reckoning by account. I knew that this could not be
+correct. In about an hour's time I took another set of observations
+with the utmost care; the mean result of these was about the same as
+that of the first set. I asked myself why, with my boasted
+self-dependence, I had not done at least better than this. Then I went
+in search of a discrepancy in the tables, and I found it. In the
+tables I found that the column of figures from which I had got an
+important logarithm was in error. It was a matter I could prove beyond
+a doubt, and it made the difference as already stated. The tables
+being corrected, I sailed on with self-reliance unshaken, and with my
+tin clock fast asleep. The result of these observations naturally
+tickled my vanity, for I knew that it was something to stand on a
+great ship's deck and with two assistants take lunar observations
+approximately near the truth. As one of the poorest of American
+sailors, I was proud of the little achievement alone on the sloop,
+even by chance though it may have been.
+
+I was _en rapport_ now with my surroundings, and was carried on a vast
+stream where I felt the buoyancy of His hand who made all the worlds.
+I realized the mathematical truth of their motions, so well known that
+astronomers compile tables of their positions through the years and
+the days, and the minutes of a day, with such precision that one
+coming along over the sea even five years later may, by their aid,
+find the standard time of any given meridian on the earth.
+
+To find local time is a simpler matter. The difference between local
+and standard time is longitude expressed in time--four minutes, we all
+know, representing one degree. This, briefly, is the principle on
+which longitude is found independent of chronometers. The work of the
+lunarian, though seldom practised in these days of chronometers, is
+beautifully edifying, and there is nothing in the realm of navigation
+that lifts one's heart up more in adoration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Seventy-two days without a port--Whales and birds--A peep into the
+_Spray's_ galley--Flying-fish for breakfast--A welcome at Apia--A
+visit from Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson--At Vailima--Samoan
+hospitality--Arrested for fast riding--An amusing
+merry-go-round--Teachers and pupils of Papauta College--At the mercy
+of sea-nymphs.
+
+To be alone forty-three days would seem a long time, but in reality,
+even here, winged moments flew lightly by, and instead of my hauling
+in for Nukahiva, which I could have made as well as not, I kept on for
+Samoa, where I wished to make my next landing. This occupied
+twenty-nine days more, making seventy-two days in all. I was not
+distressed in any way during that time. There was no end of
+companionship; the very coral reefs kept me company, or gave me no
+time to feel lonely, which is the same thing, and there were many of
+them now in my course to Samoa.
+
+First among the incidents of the voyage from Juan Fernandez to Samoa
+(which were not many) was a narrow escape from collision with a great
+whale that was absent-mindedly plowing the ocean at night while I was
+below. The noise from his startled snort and the commotion he made in
+the sea, as he turned to clear my vessel, brought me on deck in time
+to catch a wetting from the water he threw up with his flukes. The
+monster was apparently frightened. He headed quickly for the east; I
+kept on going west. Soon another whale passed, evidently a companion,
+following in its wake. I saw no more on this part of the voyage, nor
+did I wish to.
+
+[Illustration: Meeting with the whale]
+
+Hungry sharks came about the vessel often when she neared islands or
+coral reefs. I own to a satisfaction in shooting them as one would a
+tiger. Sharks, after all, are the tigers of the sea. Nothing is
+more dreadful to the mind of a sailor, I think, than a possible
+encounter with a hungry shark.
+
+A number of birds were always about; occasionally one poised on the
+mast to look the _Spray_ over, wondering, perhaps, at her odd wings,
+for she now wore her Fuego mainsail, which, like Joseph's coat, was
+made of many pieces. Ships are less common on the Southern seas than
+formerly. I saw not one in the many days crossing the Pacific.
+
+My diet on these long passages usually consisted of potatoes and salt
+cod and biscuits, which I made two or three times a week. I had always
+plenty of coffee, tea, sugar, and flour. I carried usually a good
+supply of potatoes, but before reaching Samoa I had a mishap which
+left me destitute of this highly prized sailors' luxury. Through
+meeting at Juan Fernandez the Yankee Portuguese named Manuel Carroza,
+who nearly traded me out of my boots, I ran out of potatoes in
+mid-ocean, and was wretched thereafter. I prided myself on being
+something of a trader; but this Portuguese from the Azores by way of
+New Bedford, who gave me new potatoes for the older ones I had got
+from the _Colombia_, a bushel or more of the best, left me no ground
+for boasting. He wanted mine, he said, "for changee the seed." When I
+got to sea I found that his tubers were rank and unedible, and full of
+fine yellow streaks of repulsive appearance. I tied the sack up and
+returned to the few left of my old stock, thinking that maybe when I
+got right hungry the island potatoes would improve in flavor. Three
+weeks later I opened the bag again, and out flew millions of winged
+insects! Manuel's potatoes had all turned to moths. I tied them up
+quickly and threw all into the sea.
+
+Manuel had a large crop of potatoes on hand, and as a hint to
+whalemen, who are always eager to buy vegetables, he wished me to
+report whales off the island of Juan Fernandez, which I have already
+done, and big ones at that, but they were a long way off.
+
+Taking things by and large, as sailors say, I got on fairly well in
+the matter of provisions even on the long voyage across the Pacific. I
+found always some small stores to help the fare of luxuries; what I
+lacked of fresh meat was made up in fresh fish, at least while in the
+trade-winds, where flying-fish crossing on the wing at night would hit
+the sails and fall on deck, sometimes two or three of them, sometimes
+a dozen. Every morning except when the moon was large I got a
+bountiful supply by merely picking them up from the lee scuppers. All
+tinned meats went begging.
+
+On the 16th of July, after considerable care and some skill and hard
+work, the _Spray_ cast anchor at Apia, in the kingdom of Samoa, about
+noon. My vessel being moored, I spread an awning, and instead of going
+at once on shore I sat under it till late in the evening, listening
+with delight to the musical voices of the Samoan men and women.
+
+A canoe coming down the harbor, with three young women in it, rested
+her paddles abreast the sloop. One of the fair crew, hailing with the
+naive salutation, "Talofa lee" ("Love to you, chief"), asked:
+
+"Schoon come Melike?"
+
+"Love to you," I answered, and said, "Yes."
+
+"You man come 'lone?"
+
+Again I answered, "Yes."
+
+"I don't believe that. You had other mans, and you eat 'em."
+
+At this sally the others laughed. "What for you come long way?" they
+asked.
+
+"To hear you ladies sing," I replied.
+
+[Illustration: First exchange of courtesies in Samoa.]
+
+"Oh, talofa lee!" they all cried, and sang on. Their voices filled the
+air with music that rolled across to the grove of tall palms on the
+other side of the harbor and back. Soon after this six young men came
+down in the United States consul-general's boat, singing in parts and
+beating time with their oars. In my interview with them I came off
+better than with the damsels in the canoe. They bore an invitation
+from General Churchill for me to come and dine at the consulate. There
+was a lady's hand in things about the consulate at Samoa. Mrs.
+Churchill picked the crew for the general's boat, and saw to it that
+they wore a smart uniform and that they could sing the Samoan
+boatsong, which in the first week Mrs. Churchill herself could sing
+like a native girl.
+
+Next morning bright and early Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson came to the
+_Spray_ and invited me to Vailima the following day. I was of course
+thrilled when I found myself, after so many days of adventure, face to
+face with this bright woman, so lately the companion of the author who
+had delighted me on the voyage. The kindly eyes, that looked me
+through and through, sparkled when we compared notes of adventure. I
+marveled at some of her experiences and escapes. She told me that,
+along with her husband, she had voyaged in all manner of rickety craft
+among the islands of the Pacific, reflectively adding, "Our tastes
+were similar."
+
+Following the subject of voyages, she gave me the four beautiful
+volumes of sailing directories for the Mediterranean, writing on the
+fly-leaf of the first:
+
+To CAPTAIN SLOCUM. These volumes have been read and re-read many times
+by my husband, and I am very sure that he would be pleased that they
+should be passed on to the sort of seafaring man that he liked above
+all others. FANNY V. DE G. STEVENSON.
+
+Mrs. Stevenson also gave me a great directory of the Indian Ocean. It
+was not without a feeling of reverential awe that I received the books
+so nearly direct from the hand of Tusitala, "who sleeps in the
+forest." Aolele, the _Spray_ will cherish your gift.
+
+[Illustration: Vailima, the home of Robert Louis Stevenson.]
+
+The novelist's stepson, Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, walked through the Vailima
+mansion with me and bade me write my letters at the old desk. I
+thought it would be presumptuous to do that; it was sufficient for me
+to enter the hall on the floor of which the "Writer of Tales,"
+according to the Samoan custom, was wont to sit.
+
+Coming through the main street of Apia one day, with my hosts, all
+bound for the _Spray_, Mrs. Stevenson on horseback, I walking by her
+side, and Mr. and Mrs. Osbourne close in our wake on bicycles, at a
+sudden turn in the road we found ourselves mixed with a remarkable
+native procession, with a somewhat primitive band of music, in front
+of us, while behind was a festival or a funeral, we could not tell
+which. Several of the stoutest men carried bales and bundles on poles.
+Some were evidently bales of tapa-cloth. The burden of one set of
+poles, heavier than the rest, however, was not so easily made out. My
+curiosity was whetted to know whether it was a roast pig or something
+of a gruesome nature, and I inquired about it. "I don't know," said
+Mrs. Stevenson, "whether this is a wedding or a funeral. Whatever it
+is, though, captain, our place seems to be at the head of it."
+
+The _Spray_ being in the stream, we boarded her from the beach
+abreast, in the little razeed Gloucester dory, which had been painted
+a smart green. Our combined weight loaded it gunwale to the water, and
+I was obliged to steer with great care to avoid swamping. The
+adventure pleased Mrs. Stevenson greatly, and as we paddled along she
+sang, "They went to sea in a pea-green boat." I could understand her
+saying of her husband and herself, "Our tastes were similar."
+
+As I sailed farther from the center of civilization I heard less and
+less of what would and what would not pay. Mrs. Stevenson, in speaking
+of my voyage, did not once ask me what I would make out of it. When I
+came to a Samoan village, the chief did not ask the price of gin, or
+say, "How much will you pay for roast pig?" but, "Dollar, dollar,"
+said he; "white man know only dollar."
+
+"Never mind dollar. The _tapo_ has prepared ava; let us drink and
+rejoice." The tapo is the virgin hostess of the village; in this
+instance it was Taloa, daughter of the chief. "Our taro is good; let
+us eat. On the tree there is fruit. Let the day go by; why should we
+mourn over that? There are millions of days coming. The breadfruit is
+yellow in the sun, and from the cloth-tree is Taloa's gown. Our house,
+which is good, cost but the labor of building it, and there is no lock
+on the door."
+
+While the days go thus in these Southern islands we at the North are
+struggling for the bare necessities of life.
+
+For food the islanders have only to put out their hand and take what
+nature has provided for them; if they plant a banana-tree, their only
+care afterward is to see that too many trees do not grow. They have
+great reason to love their country and to fear the white man's yoke,
+for once harnessed to the plow, their life would no longer be a poem.
+
+The chief of the village of Caini, who was a tall and dignified Tonga
+man, could be approached only through an interpreter and talking man.
+It was perfectly natural for him to inquire the object of my visit,
+and I was sincere when I told him that my reason for casting anchor in
+Samoa was to see their fine men, and fine women, too. After a
+considerable pause the chief said: "The captain has come a long way to
+see so little; but," he added, "the tapo must sit nearer the captain."
+"Yack," said Taloa, who had so nearly learned to say yes in English,
+and suiting the action to the word, she hitched a peg nearer, all
+hands sitting in a circle upon mats. I was no less taken with the
+chiefs eloquence than delighted with the simplicity of all he said.
+About him there was nothing pompous; he might have been taken for a
+great scholar or statesman, the least assuming of the men I met on the
+voyage. As for Taloa, a sort of Queen of the May, and the other tapo
+girls, well, it is wise to learn as soon as possible the manners and
+customs of these hospitable people, and meanwhile not to mistake for
+over-familiarity that which is intended as honor to a guest. I was
+fortunate in my travels in the islands, and saw nothing to shake one's
+faith in native virtue.
+
+To the unconventional mind the punctilious etiquette of Samoa is
+perhaps a little painful. For instance, I found that in partaking of
+ava, the social bowl, I was supposed to toss a little of the beverage
+over my shoulder, or pretend to do so, and say, "Let the gods drink,"
+and then drink it all myself; and the dish, invariably a
+cocoanut-shell, being empty, I might not pass it politely as we would
+do, but politely throw it twirling across the mats at the tapo.
+
+My most grievous mistake while at the islands was made on a nag,
+which, inspired by a bit of good road, must needs break into a smart
+trot through a village. I was instantly hailed by the chief's deputy,
+who in an angry voice brought me to a halt. Perceiving that I was in
+trouble, I made signs for pardon, the safest thing to do, though I did
+not know what offense I had committed. My interpreter coming up,
+however, put me right, but not until a long palaver had ensued. The
+deputy's hail, liberally translated, was: "Ahoy, there, on the frantic
+steed! Know you not that it is against the law to ride thus through
+the village of our fathers?" I made what apologies I could, and
+offered to dismount and, like my servant, lead my nag by the bridle.
+This, the interpreter told me, would also be a grievous wrong, and so
+I again begged for pardon. I was summoned to appear before a chief;
+but my interpreter, being a wit as well as a bit of a rogue, explained
+that I was myself something of a chief, and should not be detained,
+being on a most important mission. In my own behalf I could only say
+that I was a stranger, but, pleading all this, I knew I still deserved
+to be roasted, at which the chief showed a fine row of teeth and
+seemed pleased, but allowed me to pass on.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray's_ course from the Strait of Magellan to
+Torres Strait.]
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray's_ course from Australia to South Africa.]
+
+The chief of the Tongas and his family at Caini, returning my visit,
+brought presents of tapa-cloth and fruits. Taloa, the princess,
+brought a bottle of cocoanut-oil for my hair, which another man might
+have regarded as coming late.
+
+It was impossible to entertain on the _Spray_ after the royal manner
+in which I had been received by the chief. His fare had included all
+that the land could afford, fruits, fowl, fishes, and flesh, a hog
+having been roasted whole. I set before them boiled salt pork and salt
+beef, with which I was well supplied, and in the evening took them all
+to a new amusement in the town, a rocking-horse merry-go-round, which
+they called a "kee-kee," meaning theater; and in a spirit of justice
+they pulled off the horses' tails, for the proprietors of the show,
+two hard-fisted countrymen of mine, I grieve to say, unceremoniously
+hustled them off for a new set, almost at the first spin. I was not a
+little proud of my Tonga friends; the chief, finest of them all,
+carried a portentous club. As for the theater, through the greed of
+the proprietors it was becoming unpopular, and the representatives of
+the three great powers, in want of laws which they could enforce,
+adopted a vigorous foreign policy, taxing it twenty-five per cent, on
+the gate-money. This was considered a great stroke of legislative
+reform!
+
+It was the fashion of the native visitors to the _Spray_ to come over
+the bows, where they could reach the head-gear and climb aboard with
+ease, and on going ashore to jump off the stern and swim away; nothing
+could have been more delightfully simple. The modest natives wore
+_lava-lava_ bathing-dresses, a native cloth from the bark of the
+mulberry-tree, and they did no harm to the _Spray_. In summer-land
+Samoa their coming and going was only a merry every-day scene.  One
+day the head teachers of Papauta College, Miss Schultze and Miss
+Moore, came on board with their ninety-seven young women students.
+They were all dressed in white, and each wore a red rose, and of
+course came in boats or canoes in the cold-climate style. A merrier
+bevy of girls it would be difficult to find. As soon as they got on
+deck, by request of one of the teachers, they sang "The Watch on the
+Rhine," which I had never heard before. "And now," said they all,
+"let's up anchor and away." But I had no inclination to sail from
+Samoa so soon. On leaving the _Spray_ these accomplished young women
+each seized a palm-branch or paddle, or whatever else would serve the
+purpose, and literally paddled her own canoe. Each could have swum as
+readily, and would have done so, I dare say, had it not been for the
+holiday muslin.
+
+It was not uncommon at Apia to see a young woman swimming alongside a
+small canoe with a passenger for the _Spray_. Mr. Trood, an old Eton
+boy, came in this manner to see me, and he exclaimed, "Was ever king
+ferried in such state?" Then, suiting his action to the sentiment, he
+gave the damsel pieces of silver till the natives watching on shore
+yelled with envy. My own canoe, a small dugout, one day when it had
+rolled over with me, was seized by a party of fair bathers, and before
+I could get my breath, almost, was towed around and around the
+_Spray_, while I sat in the bottom of it, wondering what they would do
+next. But in this case there were six of them, three on a side, and I
+could not help myself. One of the sprites, I remember, was a young
+English lady, who made more sport of it than any of the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Samoan royalty--King Malietoa--Good-by to friends at Vailima--Leaving
+Fiji to the south--Arrival at Newcastle, Australia--The yachts of
+Sydney--A ducking on the _Spray_--Commodore Foy presents the sloop
+with a new suit of sails--On to Melbourne--A shark that proved to be
+valuable--A change of course--The "Rain of Blood"--In Tasmania.
+
+At Apia I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. A. Young, the father of the
+late Queen Margaret, who was Queen of Manua from 1891 to 1895. Her
+grandfather was an English sailor who married a princess. Mr. Young is
+now the only survivor of the family, two of his children, the last of
+them all, having been lost in an island trader which a few months
+before had sailed, never to return. Mr. Young was a Christian
+gentleman, and his daughter Margaret was accomplished in graces that
+would become any lady. It was with pain that I saw in the newspapers a
+sensational account of her life and death, taken evidently from a
+paper in the supposed interest of a benevolent society, but without
+foundation in fact. And the startling head-lines saying, "Queen
+Margaret of Manua is dead," could hardly be called news in 1898, the
+queen having then been dead three years.
+
+While hobnobbing, as it were, with royalty, I called on the king
+himself, the late Malietoa. King Malietoa was a great ruler; he never
+got less than forty-five dollars a month for the job, as he told me
+himself, and this amount had lately been raised, so that he could live
+on the fat of the land and not any longer be called "Tin-of-salmon
+Malietoa" by graceless beach-combers.
+
+As my interpreter and I entered the front door of the palace, the
+king's brother, who was viceroy, sneaked in through a taro-patch by
+the back way, and sat cowering by the door while I told my story to
+the king. Mr. W---of New York, a gentleman interested in missionary
+work, had charged me, when I sailed, to give his remembrance to the
+king of the Cannibal Islands, other islands of course being meant; but
+the good King Malietoa, notwithstanding that his people have not eaten
+a missionary in a hundred years, received the message himself, and
+seemed greatly pleased to hear so directly from the publishers of the
+"Missionary Review," and wished me to make his compliments in return.
+His Majesty then excused himself, while I talked with his daughter,
+the beautiful Faamu-Sami (a name signifying "To make the sea burn"),
+and soon reappeared in the full-dress uniform of the German
+commander-in-chief, Emperor William himself; for, stupidly enough, I
+had not sent my credentials ahead that the king might be in full
+regalia to receive me. Calling a few days later to say good-by to
+Faamu-Sami, I saw King Malietoa for the last time.
+
+Of the landmarks in the pleasant town of Apia, my memory rests first
+on the little school just back of the London Missionary Society
+coffee-house and reading-rooms, where Mrs. Bell taught English to
+about a hundred native children, boys and girls. Brighter children you
+will not find anywhere.
+
+"Now, children," said Mrs. Bell, when I called one day, "let us show
+the captain that we know something about the Cape Horn he passed in
+the _Spray_" at which a lad of nine or ten years stepped nimbly
+forward and read Basil Hall's fine description of the great cape, and
+read it well. He afterward copied the essay for me in a clear hand.
+
+Calling to say good-by to my friends at Vailima, I met Mrs. Stevenson
+in her Panama hat, and went over the estate with her. Men were at work
+clearing the land, and to one of them she gave an order to cut a
+couple of bamboo-trees for the _Spray_ from a clump she had planted
+four years before, and which had grown to the height of sixty feet. I
+used them for spare spars, and the butt of one made a serviceable
+jib-boom on the homeward voyage. I had then only to take ava with the
+family and be ready for sea. This ceremony, important among Samoans,
+was conducted after the native fashion. A Triton horn was sounded to
+let us know when the beverage was ready, and in response we all
+clapped hands. The bout being in honor of the _Spray_, it was my turn
+first, after the custom of the country, to spill a little over my
+shoulder; but having forgotten the Samoan for "Let the gods drink," I
+repeated the equivalent in Russian and Chinook, as I remembered a word
+in each, whereupon Mr. Osbourne pronounced me a confirmed Samoan. Then
+I said "Tofah!" to my good friends of Samoa, and all wishing the
+_Spray_ _bon voyage_, she stood out of the harbor August 20, 1896, and
+continued on her course. A sense of loneliness seized upon me as the
+islands faded astern, and as a remedy for it I crowded on sail for
+lovely Australia, which was not a strange land to me; but for long
+days in my dreams Vailima stood before the prow.
+
+The _Spray_ had barely cleared the islands when a sudden burst of the
+trades brought her down to close reefs, and she reeled off one hundred
+and eighty-four miles the first day, of which I counted forty miles of
+current in her favor. Finding a rough sea, I swung her off free and
+sailed north of the Horn Islands, also north of Fiji instead of south,
+as I had intended, and coasted down the west side of the archipelago.
+Thence I sailed direct for New South Wales, passing south of New
+Caledonia, and arrived at Newcastle after a passage of forty-two days,
+mostly of storms and gales.
+
+One particularly severe gale encountered near New Caledonia foundered
+the American clipper-ship _Patrician_ farther south. Again, nearer the
+coast of Australia, when, however, I was not aware that the gale was
+extraordinary, a French mail-steamer from New Caledonia for Sydney,
+blown considerably out of her course, on her arrival reported it an
+awful storm, and to inquiring friends said: "Oh, my! we don't know
+what has become of the little sloop _Spray_. We saw her in the thick
+of the storm." The _Spray_ was all right, lying to like a duck. She
+was under a goose's wing mainsail, and had had a dry deck while the
+passengers on the steamer, I heard later, were up to their knees in
+water in the saloon. When their ship arrived at Sydney they gave the
+captain a purse of gold for his skill and seamanship in bringing them
+safe into port. The captain of the _Spray_ got nothing of this sort.
+In this gale I made the land about Seal Rocks, where the steamship
+_Catherton_, with many lives, was lost a short time before. I was many
+hours off the rocks, beating back and forth, but weathered them at
+last.
+
+I arrived at Newcastle in the teeth of a gale of wind. It was a stormy
+season. The government pilot, Captain Cumming, met me at the harbor
+bar, and with the assistance of a steamer carried my vessel to a safe
+berth. Many visitors came on board, the first being the United States
+consul, Mr. Brown. Nothing was too good for the _Spray_ here. All
+government dues were remitted, and after I had rested a few days a
+port pilot with a tug carried her to sea again, and she made along the
+coast toward the harbor of Sydney, where she arrived on the following
+day, October 10, 1896.
+
+I came to in a snug cove near Manly for the night, the Sydney harbor
+police-boat giving me a pluck into anchorage while they gathered data
+from an old scrap-book of mine, which seemed to interest them. Nothing
+escapes the vigilance of the New South Wales police; their reputation
+is known the world over. They made a shrewd guess that I could give
+them some useful information, and they were the first to meet me. Some
+one said they came to arrest me, and--well, let it go at that.
+
+[Illustration: The accident at Sydney.]
+
+Summer was approaching, and the harbor of Sydney was blooming with
+yachts. Some of them came down to the weather-beaten _Spray_ and
+sailed round her at Shelcote, where she took a berth for a few days.
+At Sydney I was at once among friends. The _Spray_ remained at the
+various watering-places in the great port for several weeks, and was
+visited by many agreeable people, frequently by officers of H.M.S.
+_Orlando_ and their friends. Captain Fisher, the commander, with a
+party of young ladies from the city and gentlemen belonging to his
+ship, came one day to pay me a visit in the midst of a deluge of rain.
+I never saw it rain harder even in Australia. But they were out for
+fun, and rain could not dampen their feelings, however hard it
+poured. But, as ill luck would have it, a young gentleman of another
+party on board, in the full uniform of a very great yacht club, with
+brass buttons enough to sink him, stepping quickly to get out of the
+wet, tumbled holus-bolus, head and heels, into a barrel of water I had
+been coopering, and being a short man, was soon out of sight, and
+nearly drowned before he was rescued. It was the nearest to a casualty
+on the _Spray_ in her whole course, so far as I know. The young man
+having come on board with compliments made the mishap most
+embarrassing. It had been decided by his club that the _Spray_ could
+not be officially recognized, for the reason that she brought no
+letters from yacht-clubs in America, and so I say it seemed all the
+more embarrassing and strange that I should have caught at least one
+of the members, in a barrel, and, too, when I was not fishing for
+yachtsmen.
+
+The typical Sydney boat is a handy sloop of great beam and enormous
+sail-carrying power; but a capsize is not uncommon, for they carry
+sail like vikings. In Sydney I saw all manner of craft, from the smart
+steam-launch and sailing-cutter to the smaller sloop and canoe
+pleasuring on the bay. Everybody owned a boat. If a boy in Australia
+has not the means to buy him a boat he builds one, and it is usually
+one not to be ashamed of. The _Spray_ shed her Joseph's coat, the
+Fuego mainsail, in Sydney, and wearing a new suit, the handsome
+present of Commodore Foy, she was flagship of the Johnstone's Bay
+Flying Squadron when the circumnavigators of Sydney harbor sailed in
+their annual regatta. They "recognized" the _Spray_ as belonging to "a
+club of her own," and with more Australian sentiment than
+fastidiousness gave her credit for her record.
+
+Time flew fast those days in Australia, and it was December 6,1896,
+when the _Spray_ sailed from Sydney. My intention was now to sail
+around Cape Leeuwin direct for Mauritius on my way home, and so I
+coasted along toward Bass Strait in that direction.
+
+There was little to report on this part of the voyage, except
+changeable winds, "busters," and rough seas. The 12th of December,
+however, was an exceptional day, with a fine coast wind, northeast.
+The _Spray_ early in the morning passed Twofold Bay and later Cape
+Bundooro in a smooth sea with land close aboard. The lighthouse on the
+cape dipped a flag to the _Spray's_ flag, and children on the
+balconies of a cottage near the shore waved handkerchiefs as she
+passed by. There were only a few people all told on the shore, but the
+scene was a happy one. I saw festoons of evergreen in token of
+Christmas, near at hand. I saluted the merrymakers, wishing them a
+"Merry Christmas." and could hear them say, "I wish you the same."
+
+From Cape Bundooro I passed by Cliff Island in Bass Strait, and
+exchanged signals with the light-keepers while the _Spray_ worked up
+under the island. The wind howled that day while the sea broke over
+their rocky home.
+
+A few days later, December 17, the _Spray_ came in close under
+Wilson's Promontory, again seeking shelter. The keeper of the light at
+that station, Mr. J. Clark, came on board and gave me directions for
+Waterloo Bay, about three miles to leeward, for which I bore up at
+once, finding good anchorage there in a sandy cove protected from all
+westerly and northerly winds.
+
+Anchored here was the ketch _Secret_, a fisherman, and the _Mary_ of
+Sydney, a steam ferry-boat fitted for whaling. The captain of the
+_Mary_ was a genius, and an Australian genius at that, and smart. His
+crew, from a sawmill up the coast, had not one of them seen a live
+whale when they shipped; but they were boatmen after an Australian's
+own heart, and the captain had told them that to kill a whale was no
+more than to kill a rabbit. They believed him, and that settled it. As
+luck would have it, the very first one they saw on their cruise,
+although an ugly humpback, was a dead whale in no time, Captain Young,
+the master of the _Mary_, killing the monster at a single thrust of a
+harpoon. It was taken in tow for Sydney, where they put it on
+exhibition. Nothing but whales interested the crew of the gallant
+_Mary_, and they spent most of their time here gathering fuel along
+shore for a cruise on the grounds off Tasmania. Whenever the word
+"whale" was mentioned in the hearing of these men their eyes glistened
+with excitement.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum working the _Spray_ out of the Yarrow
+River, a part of Melbourne harbor.]
+
+We spent three days in the quiet cove, listening to the wind outside.
+Meanwhile Captain Young and I explored the shores, visited abandoned
+miners' pits, and prospected for gold ourselves.
+
+Our vessels, parting company the morning they sailed, stood away like
+sea-birds each on its own course. The wind for a few days was
+moderate, and, with unusual luck of fine weather, the _Spray_ made
+Melbourne Heads on the 22d of December, and, taken in tow by the
+steam-tug Racer, was brought into port.
+
+Christmas day was spent at a berth in the river Yarrow, but I lost
+little time in shifting to St. Kilda, where I spent nearly a month.
+
+The _Spray_ paid no port charges in Australia or anywhere else on the
+voyage, except at Pernambuco, till she poked her nose into the
+custom-house at Melbourne, where she was charged tonnage dues; in this
+instance, sixpence a ton on the gross. The collector exacted six
+shillings and sixpence, taking off nothing for the fraction under
+thirteen tons, her exact gross being 12.70 tons. I squared the matter
+by charging people sixpence each for coming on board, and when this
+business got dull I caught a shark and charged them sixpence each to
+look at that. The shark was twelve feet six inches in length, and
+carried a progeny of twenty-six, not one of them less than two feet in
+length. A slit of a knife let them out in a canoe full of water,
+which, changed constantly, kept them alive one whole day. In less than
+an hour from the time I heard of the ugly brute it was on deck and on
+exhibition, with rather more than the amount of the _Spray's_ tonnage
+dues already collected. Then I hired a good Irishman, Tom Howard by
+name,--who knew all about sharks, both on the land and in the sea, and
+could talk about them,--to answer questions and lecture. When I found
+that I could not keep abreast of the questions I turned the
+responsibility over to him.
+
+[Illustration: The shark on the deck of the _Spray_.]
+
+Returning from the bank, where I had been to deposit money early in
+the day, I found Howard in the midst of a very excited crowd, telling
+imaginary habits of the fish. It was a good show; the people wished to
+see it, and it was my wish that they should; but owing to his
+over-stimulated enthusiasm, I was obliged to let Howard resign. The
+income from the show and the proceeds of the tallow I had gathered in
+the Strait of Magellan, the last of which I had disposed of to a
+German soap-boiler at Samoa, put me in ample funds.
+
+January 24, 1897, found the _Spray_ again in tow of the tug _Racer_,
+leaving Hobson's Bay after a pleasant time in Melbourne and St. Kilda,
+which had been protracted by a succession of southwest winds that
+seemed never-ending.
+
+In the summer months, that is, December, January, February, and
+sometimes March, east winds are prevalent through Bass Strait and
+round Cape Leeuwin; but owing to a vast amount of ice drifting up from
+the Antarctic, this was all changed now and emphasized with much bad
+weather, so much so that I considered it impracticable to pursue the
+course farther. Therefore, instead of thrashing round cold and stormy
+Cape Leeuwin, I decided to spend a pleasanter and more profitable time
+in Tasmania, waiting for the season for favorable winds through Torres
+Strait, by way of the Great Barrier Reef, the route I finally decided
+on. To sail this course would be taking advantage of anticyclones,
+which never fail, and besides it would give me the chance to put foot
+on the shores of Tasmania, round which I had sailed years before.
+
+I should mention that while I was at Melbourne there occurred one of
+those extraordinary storms sometimes called "rain of blood," the first
+of the kind in many years about Australia. The "blood" came from a
+fine brick-dust matter afloat in the air from the deserts. A
+rain-storm setting in brought down this dust simply as mud; it fell in
+such quantities that a bucketful was collected from the sloop's
+awnings, which were spread at the time. When the wind blew hard and I
+was obliged to furl awnings, her sails, unprotected on the booms, got
+mud-stained from clue to earing.
+
+The phenomena of dust-storms, well understood by scientists, are not
+uncommon on the coast of Africa. Reaching some distance out over the
+sea, they frequently cover the track of ships, as in the case of the
+one through which the _Spray_ passed in the earlier part of her
+voyage. Sailors no longer regard them with superstitious fear, but our
+credulous brothers on the land cry out "Rain of blood!" at the first
+splash of the awful mud.
+
+The rip off Port Phillip Heads, a wild place, was rough when the
+_Spray_ entered Hobson's Bay from the sea, and was rougher when she
+stood out. But, with sea-room and under sail, she made good weather
+immediately after passing it. It was only a few hours' sail to
+Tasmania across the strait, the wind being fair and blowing hard. I
+carried the St. Kilda shark along, stuffed with hay, and disposed of
+it to Professor Porter, the curator of the Victoria Museum of
+Launceston, which is at the head of the Tamar. For many a long day to
+come may be seen there the shark of St. Kilda. Alas! the good but
+mistaken people of St. Kilda, when the illustrated journals with
+pictures of my shark reached their news-stands, flew into a passion,
+and swept all papers containing mention of fish into the fire; for St.
+Kilda was a watering-place--and the idea of a shark _there_! But my
+show went on.
+
+[Illustration: On board at St. Kilda. Retracing on the chart the
+course of the _Spray_ from Boston.]
+
+The _Spray_ was berthed on the beach at a small jetty at Launceston
+while the tide driven in by the gale that brought her up the river was
+unusually high; and she lay there hard and fast, with not enough water
+around her at any time after to wet one's feet till she was ready to
+sail; then, to float her, the ground was dug from under her keel.
+
+In this snug place I left her in charge of three children, while I
+made journeys among the hills and rested my bones, for the coming
+voyage, on the moss-covered rocks at the gorge hard by, and among the
+ferns I found wherever I went. My vessel was well taken care of. I
+never returned without finding that the decks had been washed and that
+one of the children, my nearest neighbor's little girl from across the
+road, was at the gangway attending to visitors, while the others, a
+brother and sister, sold marine curios such as were in the cargo, on
+"ship's account." They were a bright, cheerful crew, and people came a
+long way to hear them tell the story of the voyage, and of the
+monsters of the deep "the captain had slain." I had only to keep
+myself away to be a hero of the first water; and it suited me very
+well to do so and to rusticate in the forests and among the streams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+A testimonial from a lady--Cruising round Tasmania--The skipper
+delivers his first lecture on the voyage--Abundant provisions-An
+inspection of the _Spray_ for safety at Devonport--Again at
+Sydney--Northward bound for Torres Strait--An amateur
+shipwreck--Friends on the Australian coast--Perils of a coral sea.
+
+February 1,1897, on returning to my vessel I found waiting for me the
+letter of sympathy which I subjoin:
+
+A lady sends Mr. Slocum the inclosed five-pound note as a token of her
+appreciation of his bravery in crossing the wide seas on so small a
+boat, and all alone, without human sympathy to help when danger
+threatened. All success to you.
+
+To this day I do not know who wrote it or to whom I am indebted for
+the generous gift it contained. I could not refuse a thing so kindly
+meant, but promised myself to pass it on with interest at the first
+opportunity, and this I did before leaving Australia.
+
+The season of fair weather around the north of Australia being yet a
+long way off, I sailed to other ports in Tasmania, where it is fine
+the year round, the first of these being Beauty Point, near which are
+Beaconsfield and the great Tasmania gold-mine, which I visited in
+turn. I saw much gray, uninteresting rock being hoisted out of the
+mine there, and hundreds of stamps crushing it into powder. People
+told me there was gold in it, and I believed what they said.
+
+I remember Beauty Point for its shady forest and for the road among
+the tall gum-trees. While there the governor of New South Wales, Lord
+Hampden, and his family came in on a steam-yacht, sight-seeing. The
+_Spray_, anchored near the landing-pier, threw her bunting out, of
+course, and probably a more insignificant craft bearing the Stars and
+Stripes was never seen in those waters. However, the governor's party
+seemed to know why it floated there, and all about the _Spray_, and
+when I heard his Excellency say, "Introduce me to the captain," or
+"Introduce the captain to me," whichever it was, I found myself at
+once in the presence of a gentleman and a friend, and one greatly
+interested in my voyage. If any one of the party was more interested
+than the governor himself, it was the Honorable Margaret, his
+daughter. On leaving, Lord and Lady Hampden promised to rendezvous
+with me on board the _Spray_ at the Paris Exposition in 1900. "If we
+live," they said, and I added, for my part, "Dangers of the seas
+excepted."
+
+From Beauty Point the _Spray_ visited Georgetown, near the mouth of
+the river Tamar. This little settlement, I believe, marks the place
+where the first footprints were made by whites in Tasmania, though it
+never grew to be more than a hamlet.
+
+Considering that I had seen something of the world, and finding people
+here interested in adventure, I talked the matter over before my first
+audience in a little hall by the country road. A piano having been
+brought in from a neighbor's, I was helped out by the severe thumping
+it got, and by a "Tommy Atkins" song from a strolling comedian. People
+came from a great distance, and the attendance all told netted the
+house about three pounds sterling. The owner of the hall, a kind lady
+from Scotland, would take no rent, and so my lecture from the start
+was a success.
+
+From this snug little place I made sail for Devonport, a thriving
+place on the river Mersey, a few hours' sail westward along the coast,
+and fast becoming the most important port in Tasmania. Large steamers
+enter there now and carry away great cargoes of farm produce, but the
+_Spray_ was the first vessel to bring the Stars and Stripes to the
+port, the harbor-master, Captain Murray, told me, and so it is written
+in the port records. For the great distinction the _Spray_ enjoyed
+many civilities while she rode comfortably at anchor in her
+port-duster awning that covered her from stem to stern.
+
+From the magistrate's house, "Malunnah," on the point, she was saluted
+by the Jack both on coming in and on going out, and dear Mrs.
+Aikenhead, the mistress of Malunnah, supplied the _Spray_ with jams
+and jellies of all sorts, by the case, prepared from the fruits of her
+own rich garden--enough to last all the way home and to spare. Mrs.
+Wood, farther up the harbor, put up bottles of raspberry wine for me.
+At this point, more than ever before, I was in the land of good cheer.
+Mrs. Powell sent on board chutney prepared "as we prepare it in
+India." Fish, and game were plentiful here, and the voice of the
+gobbler was heard, and from Pardo, farther up the country, came an
+enormous cheese; and yet people inquire: "What did you live on? What
+did you eat?"
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ in her port duster at Devonport, Tasmania,
+February 22, 1897.]
+
+I was haunted by the beauty of the landscape all about, of the natural
+ferneries then disappearing, and of the domed forest-trees on the
+slopes, and was fortunate in meeting a gentleman intent on preserving
+in art the beauties of his country. He presented me with many
+reproductions from his collection of pictures, also many originals, to
+show to my friends.
+
+By another gentleman I was charged to tell the glories of Tasmania in
+every land and on every occasion. This was Dr. McCall, M. L. C. The
+doctor gave me useful hints on lecturing. It was not without
+misgivings, however, that I filled away on this new course, and I am
+free to say that it is only by the kindness of sympathetic audiences
+that my oratorical bark was held on even keel. Soon after my first
+talk the kind doctor came to me with words of approval. As in many
+other of my enterprises, I had gone about it at once and without
+second thought. "Man, man," said he, "great nervousness is only a sign
+of brain, and the more brain a man has the longer it takes him to get
+over the affliction; but," he added reflectively, "you will get over
+it." However, in my own behalf I think it only fair to say that I am
+not yet entirely cured.
+
+The _Spray_ was hauled out on the marine railway at Devonport and
+examined carefully top and bottom, but was found absolutely free from
+the destructive teredo, and sound in all respects. To protect her
+further against the ravage of these insects the bottom was coated once
+more with copper paint, for she would have to sail through the Coral
+and Arafura seas before refitting again. Everything was done to fit
+her for all the known dangers. But it was not without regret that I
+looked forward to the day of sailing from a country of so many
+pleasant associations. If there was a moment in my voyage when I could
+have given it up, it was there and then; but no vacancies for a better
+post being open, I weighed anchor April 16,1897, and again put to sea.
+
+The season of summer was then over; winter was rolling up from the
+south, with fair winds for the north. A foretaste of winter wind sent
+the _Spray_ flying round Cape Howe and as far as Cape Bundooro farther
+along, which she passed on the following day, retracing her course
+northward. This was a fine run, and boded good for the long voyage
+home from the antipodes. My old Christmas friends on Bundooro seemed
+to be up and moving when I came the second time by their cape, and we
+exchanged signals again, while the sloop sailed along as before in a
+smooth sea and close to the shore.
+
+The weather was fine, with clear sky the rest of the passage to Port
+Jackson (Sydney), where the _Spray_ arrived April 22, 1897, and
+anchored in Watson's Bay, near the heads, in eight fathoms of water.
+The harbor from the heads to Parramatta, up the river, was more than
+ever alive with boats and yachts of every class. It was, indeed, a
+scene of animation, hardly equaled in any other part of the world.
+
+A few days later the bay was flecked with tempestuous waves, and none
+but stout ships carried sail. I was in a neighboring hotel then,
+nursing a neuralgia which I had picked up alongshore, and had only
+that moment got a glance of just the stern of a large, unmanageable
+steamship passing the range of my window as she forged in by the
+point, when the bell-boy burst into my room shouting that the _Spray_
+had "gone bung." I tumbled out quickly, to learn that "bung" meant
+that a large steamship had run into her, and that it was the one of
+which I saw the stern, the other end of her having hit the _Spray_. It
+turned out, however, that no damage was done beyond the loss of an
+anchor and chain, which from the shock of the collision had parted at
+the hawse. I had nothing at all to complain of, though, in the end,
+for the captain, after he clubbed his ship, took the _Spray_ in tow up
+the harbor, clear of all dangers, and sent her back again, in charge
+of an officer and three men, to her anchorage in the bay, with a
+polite note saying he would repair any damages done. But what yawing
+about she made of it when she came with a stranger at the helm! Her
+old friend the pilot of the _Pinta_ would not have been guilty of such
+lubberly work. But to my great delight they got her into a berth, and
+the neuralgia left me then, or was forgotten. The captain of the
+steamer, like a true seaman, kept his word, and his agent, Mr.
+Collishaw handed me on the very next day the price of the lost anchor
+and chain, with something over for anxiety of mind. I remember that he
+offered me twelve pounds at once; but my lucky number being thirteen,
+we made the amount thirteen pounds, which squared all accounts.
+
+I sailed again, May 9, before a strong southwest wind, which sent the
+_Spray_ gallantly on as far as Port Stevens, where it fell calm and
+then came up ahead; but the weather was fine, and so remained for many
+days, which was a great change from the state of the weather
+experienced here some months before.
+
+Having a full set of admiralty sheet-charts of the coast and Barrier
+Reef, I felt easy in mind. Captain Fisher, R.N., who had steamed
+through the Barrier passages in H. M. S. _Orlando_, advised me from
+the first to take this route, and I did not regret coming back to it
+now.
+
+The wind, for a few days after passing Port Stevens, Seal Rocks, and
+Cape Hawk, was light and dead ahead; but these points are photographed
+on my memory from the trial of beating round them some months before
+when bound the other way. But now, with a good stock of books on
+board, I fell to reading day and night, leaving this pleasant
+occupation merely to trim sails or tack, or to lie down and rest,
+while the _Spray_ nibbled at the miles. I tried to compare my state
+with that of old circumnavigators, who sailed exactly over the route
+which I took from Cape Verde Islands or farther back to this point and
+beyond, but there was no comparison so far as I had got. Their
+hardships and romantic escapes--those of them who escaped death and
+worse sufferings--did not enter into my experience, sailing all alone
+around the world. For me is left to tell only of pleasant experiences,
+till finally my adventures are prosy and tame.
+
+I had just finished reading some of the most interesting of the old
+voyages in woe-begone ships, and was already near Port Macquarie, on my
+own cruise, when I made out, May 13, a modern dandy craft in distress,
+anchored on the coast. Standing in for her, I found that she was the
+cutter-yacht _Akbar_[B], which had sailed from Watson's Bay about three
+days ahead of the _Spray_, and that she had run at once into trouble. No
+wonder she did so. It was a case of babes in the wood or butterflies at
+sea. Her owner, on his maiden voyage, was all duck trousers; the
+captain, distinguished for the enormous yachtsman's cap he wore, was a
+Murrumbidgee[C] whaler before he took command of the _Akbar_; and the
+navigating officer, poor fellow, was almost as deaf as a post, and
+nearly as stiff and immovable as a post in the ground. These three jolly
+tars comprised the crew. None of them knew more about the sea or about a
+vessel than a newly born babe knows about another world. They were bound
+for New Guinea, so they said; perhaps it was as well that three
+tenderfeet so tender as those never reached that destination.
+
+[B] _Akbar_ was not her registered name, which need not be told
+
+[C] The Murrumbidgee is a small river winding among the mountains of
+Australia, and would be the last place in which to look for a whale.
+
+The owner, whom I had met before he sailed, wanted to race the poor
+old _Spray_ to Thursday Island en route. I declined the challenge,
+naturally, on the ground of the unfairness of three young yachtsmen in
+a clipper against an old sailor all alone in a craft of coarse build;
+besides that, I would not on any account race in the Coral Sea.
+
+[Illustration: "'Is it a-goin' to blow?'"]
+
+"_Spray_ ahoy!" they all hailed now. "What's the weather goin' t' be?
+Is it a-goin' to blow? And don't you think we'd better go back t'
+r-r-refit?"
+
+I thought, "If ever you get back, don't refit," but I said: "Give me
+the end of a rope, and I'll tow you into yon port farther along; and
+on your lives," I urged, "do not go back round Cape Hawk, for it's
+winter to the south of it."
+
+They purposed making for Newcastle under jury-sails; for their
+mainsail had been blown to ribbons, even the jigger had been blown
+away, and her rigging flew at loose ends. The _Akbar_, in a word, was
+a wreck.
+
+"Up anchor," I shouted, "up anchor, and let me tow you into Port
+Macquarie, twelve miles north of this."
+
+"No," cried the owner; "we'll go back to Newcastle. We missed
+Newcastle on the way coming; we didn't see the light, and it was not
+thick, either." This he shouted very loud, ostensibly for my hearing,
+but closer even than necessary, I thought, to the ear of the
+navigating officer. Again I tried to persuade them to be towed into
+the port of refuge so near at hand. It would have cost them only the
+trouble of weighing their anchor and passing me a rope; of this I
+assured them, but they declined even this, in sheer ignorance of a
+rational course.
+
+"What is your depth of water?" I asked.
+
+"Don't know; we lost our lead. All the chain is out. We sounded with
+the anchor."
+
+"Send your dinghy over, and I'll give you a lead."
+
+"We've lost our dinghy, too," they cried.
+
+"God is good, else you would have lost yourselves," and "Farewell" was
+all I could say.
+
+The trifling service proffered by the _Spray_ would have saved their
+vessel.
+
+"Report us," they cried, as I stood on--"report us with sails blown
+away, and that we don't care a dash and are not afraid."
+
+"Then there is no hope for you," and again "Farewell." I promised I
+would report them, and did so at the first opportunity, and out of
+humane reasons I do so again. On the following day I spoke the
+steamship _Sherman,_ bound down the coast, and reported the yacht in
+distress and that it would be an act of humanity to tow her somewhere
+away from her exposed position on an open coast. That she did not get
+a tow from the steamer was from no lack of funds to pay the bill; for
+the owner, lately heir to a few hundred pounds, had the money with
+him. The proposed voyage to New Guinea was to look that island over
+with a view to its purchase. It was about eighteen days before I heard
+of the _Akbar_ again, which was on the 31st of May, when I reached
+Cooktown, on the Endeavor River, where I found this news:
+
+May 31, the yacht _Akbar,_ from Sydney for New Guinea, three hands on
+board, lost at Crescent Head; the crew saved.
+
+So it took them several days to lose the yacht, after all.
+
+After speaking the distressed _Akbar_ and the _Sherman_, the voyage
+for many days was uneventful save in the pleasant incident on May 16
+of a chat by signal with the people on South Solitary Island, a dreary
+stone heap in the ocean just off the coast of New South Wales, in
+latitude 30 degrees 12' south.
+
+"What vessel is that?" they asked, as the sloop came abreast of their
+island. For answer I tried them with the Stars and Stripes at the
+peak. Down came their signals at once, and up went the British ensign
+instead, which they dipped heartily. I understood from this that they
+made out my vessel and knew all about her, for they asked no more
+questions. They didn't even ask if the "voyage would pay," but they
+threw out this friendly message, "Wishing you a pleasant voyage,"
+which at that very moment I was having.
+
+May 19 the _Spray_, passing the Tweed River, was signaled from Danger
+Point, where those on shore seemed most anxious about the state of my
+health, for they asked if "all hands" were well, to which I could say,
+"Yes."
+
+On the following day the _Spray_ rounded Great Sandy Cape, and, what
+is a notable event in every voyage, picked up the trade-winds, and
+these winds followed her now for many thousands of miles, never
+ceasing to blow from a moderate gale to a mild summer breeze, except
+at rare intervals.
+
+From the pitch of the cape was a noble light seen twenty-seven miles;
+passing from this to Lady Elliott Light, which stands on an island as
+a sentinel at the gateway of the Barrier Reef, the _Spray_ was at once
+in the fairway leading north. Poets have sung of beacon-light and of
+pharos, but did ever poet behold a great light flash up before his
+path on a dark night in the midst of a coral sea? If so, he knew the
+meaning of his song.
+
+The _Spray_ had sailed for hours in suspense, evidently stemming a
+current. Almost mad with doubt, I grasped the helm to throw her head
+off shore, when blazing out of the sea was the light ahead.
+"Excalibur!" cried "all hands," and rejoiced, and sailed on. The
+_Spray_ was now in a protected sea and smooth water, the first she had
+dipped her keel into since leaving Gibraltar, and a change it was from
+the heaving of the misnamed "Pacific" Ocean.
+
+The Pacific is perhaps, upon the whole, no more boisterous than other
+oceans, though I feel quite safe in saying that it is not more pacific
+except in name. It is often wild enough in one part or another. I once
+knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed
+through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man. But where,
+after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves? At
+last here was the _Spray_ in the midst of a sea of coral. The sea
+itself might be called smooth indeed, but coral rocks are always
+rough, sharp, and dangerous. I trusted now to the mercies of the Maker
+of all reefs, keeping a good lookout at the same time for perils on
+every hand.
+
+Lo! the Barrier Reef and the waters of many colors studded all about
+with enchanted islands! I behold among them after all many safe
+harbors, else my vision is astray. On the 24th of May, the sloop,
+having made one hundred and ten miles a day from Danger Point, now
+entered Whitsunday Pass, and that night sailed through among the
+islands. When the sun rose next morning I looked back and regretted
+having gone by while it was dark, for the scenery far astern was
+varied and charming.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Arrival at Port Denison, Queensland--A lecture--Reminiscences of
+Captain Cook--Lecturing for charity at Cooktown--A happy escape from a
+coral reef--Home Island, Sunday Island, Bird Island--An American
+pearl-fisherman--Jubilee at Thursday Island--A new ensign for the
+_Spray_--Booby Island--Across the Indian Ocean--Christmas Island.
+
+On the morning of the 26th Gloucester Island was close aboard, and the
+_Spray_ anchored in the evening at Port Denison, where rests, on a
+hill, the sweet little town of Bowen, the future watering place and
+health-resort of Queensland. The country all about here had a
+healthful appearance.
+
+The harbor was easy of approach, spacious and safe, and afforded
+excellent holding-ground. It was quiet in Bowen when the _Spray_
+arrived, and the good people with an hour to throw away on the second
+evening of her arrival came down to the School of Arts to talk about
+the voyage, it being the latest event. It was duly advertised in the
+two little papers, "Boomerang" and "Nully Nully," in the one the day
+before the affair came off, and in the other the day after, which was
+all the same to the editor, and, for that matter, it was the same to
+me.
+
+Besides this, circulars were distributed with a flourish, and the
+"best bellman" in Australia was employed. But I could have keelhauled
+the wretch, bell and all, when he came to the door of the little hotel
+where my prospective audience and I were dining, and with his
+clattering bell and fiendish yell made noises that would awake the
+dead, all over the voyage of the _Spray_ from "Boston to Bowen, the
+two Hubs in the cart-wheels of creation," as the "Boomerang" afterward
+said.
+
+Mr. Myles, magistrate, harbor-master, land commissioner, gold warden,
+etc., was chairman, and introduced me, for what reason I never knew,
+except to embarrass me with a sense of vain ostentation and embitter
+my life, for Heaven knows I had met every person in town the first
+hour ashore. I knew them all by name now, and they all knew me.
+However, Mr. Myles was a good talker. Indeed, I tried to induce him to
+go on and tell the story while I showed the pictures, but this he
+refused to do. I may explain that it was a talk illustrated by
+stereopticon. The views were good, but the lantern, a thirty-shilling
+affair, was wretched, and had only an oil-lamp in it.
+
+I sailed early the next morning before the papers came out, thinking
+it best to do so. They each appeared with a favorable column, however,
+of what they called a lecture, so I learned afterward, and they had a
+kind word for the bellman besides.
+
+From Port Denison the sloop ran before the constant trade-wind, and
+made no stop at all, night or day, till she reached Cooktown, on the
+Endeavor River, where she arrived Monday, May 31, 1897, before a
+furious blast of wind encountered that day fifty miles down the coast.
+On this parallel of latitude is the high ridge and backbone of the
+tradewinds, which about Cooktown amount often to a hard gale.
+
+I had been charged to navigate the route with extra care, and to feel
+my way over the ground. The skilled officer of the royal navy who
+advised me to take the Barrier Reef passage wrote me that H. M. S.
+_Orlando_ steamed nights as well as days through it, but that I, under
+sail, would jeopardize my vessel on coral reefs if I undertook to do
+so.
+
+Confidentially, it would have been no easy matter finding anchorage
+every night. The hard work, too, of getting the sloop under way every
+morning was finished, I had hoped, when she cleared the Strait of
+Magellan. Besides that, the best of admiralty charts made it possible
+to keep on sailing night and day. Indeed, with a fair wind, and in the
+clear weather of that season, the way through the Barrier Reef
+Channel, in all sincerity, was clearer than a highway in a busy city,
+and by all odds less dangerous. But to any one contemplating the
+voyage I would say, beware of reefs day or night, or, remaining on the
+land, be wary still.
+
+"The _Spray_ came flying into port like a bird," said the longshore
+daily papers of Cooktown the morning after she arrived; "and it seemed
+strange," they added, "that only one man could be seen on board
+working the craft." The _Spray_ was doing her best, to be sure, for it
+was near night, and she was in haste to find a perch before dark.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ leaving Sydney, Australia, in the new suit
+of sails given by Commodore Foy of Australia. (From a photograph.)]
+
+Tacking inside of all the craft in port, I moored her at sunset nearly
+abreast the Captain Cook monument, and next morning went ashore to
+feast my eyes on the very stones the great navigator had seen, for I
+was now on a seaman's consecrated ground. But there seemed a question
+in Cooktown's mind as to the exact spot where his ship, the
+_Endeavor_, hove down for repairs on her memorable voyage around the
+world. Some said it was not at all at the place where the monument now
+stood. A discussion of the subject was going on one morning where I
+happened to be, and a young lady present, turning to me as one of some
+authority in nautical matters, very flatteringly asked my opinion.
+Well, I could see no reason why Captain Cook, if he made up his mind
+to repair his ship inland, couldn't have dredged out a channel to the
+place where the monument now stood, if he had a dredging-machine with
+him, and afterward fill it up again; for Captain Cook could do 'most
+anything, and nobody ever said that he hadn't a dredger along. The
+young lady seemed to lean to my way of thinking, and following up the
+story of the historical voyage, asked if I had visited the point
+farther down the harbor where the great circumnavigator was murdered.
+This took my breath, but a bright school-boy coming along relieved my
+embarrassment, for, like all boys, seeing that information was wanted,
+he volunteered to supply it. Said he: "Captain Cook wasn't murdered
+'ere at all, ma'am; 'e was killed in Hafrica: a lion et 'im."
+
+Here I was reminded of distressful days gone by. I think it was in
+1866 that the old steamship _Soushay_, from Batavia for Sydney, put in
+at Cooktown for scurvy-grass, as I always thought, and "incidentally"
+to land mails. On her sick-list was my fevered self; and so I didn't
+see the place till I came back on the _Spray_ thirty-one years later.
+And now I saw coming into port the physical wrecks of miners from New
+Guinea, destitute and dying. Many had died on the way and had been
+buried at sea. He would have been a hardened wretch who could look on
+and not try to do something for them.
+
+The sympathy of all went out to these sufferers, but the little town
+was already straitened from a long run on its benevolence. I thought
+of the matter, of the lady's gift to me at Tasmania, which I had
+promised myself I would keep only as a loan, but found now, to my
+embarrassment, that I had invested the money. However, the good
+Cooktown people wished to hear a story of the sea, and how the crew of
+the _Spray_ fared when illness got aboard of her. Accordingly the
+little Presbyterian church on the hill was opened for a conversation;
+everybody talked, and they made a roaring success of it. Judge
+Chester, the magistrate, was at the head of the gam, and so it was
+bound to succeed. He it was who annexed the island of New Guinea to
+Great Britain. "While I was about it," said he, "I annexed the
+blooming lot of it." There was a ring in the statement pleasant to the
+ear of an old voyager. However, the Germans made such a row over the
+judge's mainsail haul that they got a share in the venture.
+
+Well, I was now indebted to the miners of Cooktown for the great
+privilege of adding a mite to a worthy cause, and to Judge Chester all
+the town was indebted for a general good time. The matter standing so,
+I sailed on June 6,1897, heading away for the north as before.
+
+Arrived at a very inviting anchorage about sundown, the 7th, I came
+to, for the night, abreast the Claremont light-ship. This was the only
+time throughout the passage of the Barrier Reef Channel that the
+_Spray_ anchored, except at Port Denison and at Endeavor River. On the
+very night following this, however (the 8th), I regretted keenly, for
+an instant, that I had not anchored before dark, as I might have done
+easily under the lee of a coral reef. It happened in this way. The
+_Spray_ had just passed M Reef light-ship, and left the light dipping
+astern, when, going at full speed, with sheets off, she hit the M Reef
+itself on the north end, where I expected to see a beacon.
+
+She swung off quickly on her heel, however, and with one more bound on
+a swell cut across the shoal point so quickly that I hardly knew how
+it was done. The beacon wasn't there; at least, I didn't see it. I
+hadn't time to look for it after she struck, and certainly it didn't
+much matter then whether I saw it or not.
+
+But this gave her a fine departure for Cape Greenville, the next point
+ahead. I saw the ugly boulders under the sloop's keel as she flashed
+over them, and I made a mental note of it that the letter M, for which
+the reef was named, was the thirteenth one in our alphabet, and that
+thirteen, as noted years before, was still my lucky number. The
+natives of Cape Greenville are notoriously bad, and I was advised to
+give them the go-by. Accordingly, from M Reef I steered outside of the
+adjacent islands, to be on the safe side. Skipping along now, the
+_Spray_ passed Home Island, off the pitch of the cape, soon after
+midnight, and squared away on a westerly course. A short time later
+she fell in with a steamer bound south, groping her way in the dark
+and making the night dismal with her own black smoke.
+
+From Home Island I made for Sunday Island, and bringing that abeam,
+shortened sail, not wishing to make Bird Island, farther along, before
+daylight, the wind being still fresh and the islands being low, with
+dangers about them. Wednesday, June 9, 1897, at daylight, Bird Island
+was dead ahead, distant two and a half miles, which I considered near
+enough. A strong current was pressing the sloop forward. I did not
+shorten sail too soon in the night! The first and only Australian
+canoe seen on the voyage was encountered here standing from the
+mainland, with a rag of sail set, bound for this island.
+
+A long, slim fish that leaped on board in the night was found on deck
+this morning. I had it for breakfast. The spry chap was no larger
+around than a herring, which it resembled in every respect, except
+that it was three times as long; but that was so much the better, for
+I am rather fond of fresh herring, anyway. A great number of
+fisher-birds were about this day, which was one of the pleasantest on
+God's earth. The _Spray_, dancing over the waves, entered Albany Pass
+as the sun drew low in the west over the hills of Australia.
+
+At 7:30 P.M. the _Spray_, now through the pass, came to anchor in a
+cove in the mainland, near a pearl-fisherman, called the _Tarawa_,
+which was at anchor, her captain from the deck of his vessel directing
+me to a berth. This done, he at once came on board to clasp hands. The
+_Tarawa_ was a Californian, and Captain Jones, her master, was an
+American.
+
+On the following morning Captain Jones brought on board two pairs of
+exquisite pearl shells, the most perfect ones I ever saw. They were
+probably the best he had, for Jones was the heart-yarn of a sailor. He
+assured me that if I would remain a few hours longer some friends from
+Somerset, near by, would pay us all a visit, and one of the crew,
+sorting shells on deck, "guessed" they would. The mate "guessed" so,
+too. The friends came, as even the second mate and cook had "guessed"
+they would. They were Mr. Jardine, stockman, famous throughout the
+land, and his family. Mrs. Jardine was the niece of King Malietoa, and
+cousin to the beautiful Faamu-Sami ("To make the sea burn"), who
+visited the _Spray_ at Apia. Mr. Jardine was himself a fine specimen
+of a Scotsman. With his little family about him, he was content to
+live in this remote place, accumulating the comforts of life.
+
+The fact of the _Tarawa_ having been built in America accounted for
+the crew, boy Jim and all, being such good guessers. Strangely enough,
+though, Captain Jones himself, the only American aboard, was never
+heard to guess at all.
+
+After a pleasant chat and good-by to the people of the _Tarawa,_ and
+to Mr. and Mrs. Jardine, I again weighed anchor and stood across for
+Thursday Island, now in plain view, mid-channel in Torres Strait,
+where I arrived shortly after noon. Here the _Spray_ remained over
+until June 24. Being the only American representative in port, this
+tarry was imperative, for on the 22d was the Queen's diamond jubilee.
+The two days over were, as sailors say, for "coming up."
+
+Meanwhile I spent pleasant days about the island. Mr. Douglas,
+resident magistrate, invited me on a cruise in his steamer one day
+among the islands in Torres Strait. This being a scientific expedition
+in charge of Professor Mason Bailey, botanist, we rambled over Friday
+and Saturday islands, where I got a glimpse of botany. Miss Bailey,
+the professor's daughter, accompanied the expedition, and told me of
+many indigenous plants with long names.
+
+The 22d was the great day on Thursday Island, for then we had not only
+the jubilee, but a jubilee with a grand corroboree in it, Mr. Douglas
+having brought some four hundred native warriors and their wives and
+children across from the mainland to give the celebration the true
+native touch, for when they do a thing on Thursday Island they do it
+with a roar. The corroboree was, at any rate, a howling success. It
+took place at night, and the performers, painted in fantastic colors,
+danced or leaped about before a blazing fire. Some were rigged and
+painted like birds and beasts, in which the emu and kangaroo were well
+represented. One fellow leaped like a frog. Some had the human
+skeleton painted on their bodies, while they jumped about
+threateningly, spear in hand, ready to strike down some imaginary
+enemy. The kangaroo hopped and danced with natural ease and grace,
+making a fine figure. All kept time to music, vocal and instrumental,
+the instruments (save the mark!) being bits of wood, which they beat
+one against the other, and saucer-like bones, held in the palm of the
+hands, which they knocked together, making a dull sound. It was a show
+at once amusing, spectacular, and hideous.
+
+The warrior aborigines that I saw in Queensland were for the most part
+lithe and fairly well built, but they were stamped always with
+repulsive features, and their women were, if possible, still more ill
+favored.
+
+I observed that on the day of the jubilee no foreign flag was waving
+in the public grounds except the Stars and Stripes, which along with
+the Union Jack guarded the gateway, and floated in many places, from
+the tiniest to the standard size. Speaking to Mr. Douglas, I ventured
+a remark on this compliment to my country. "Oh," said he, "this is a
+family affair, and we do not consider the Stars and Stripes a foreign
+flag." The _Spray_ of course flew her best bunting, and hoisted the
+Jack as well as her own noble flag as high as she could.
+
+On June 24 the _Spray_, well fitted in every way, sailed for the long
+voyage ahead, down the Indian Ocean. Mr. Douglas gave her a flag as
+she was leaving his island. The _Spray_ had now passed nearly all the
+dangers of the Coral Sea and Torres Strait, which, indeed, were not a
+few; and all ahead from this point was plain sailing and a straight
+course. The trade-wind was still blowing fresh, and could be safely
+counted on now down to the coast of Madagascar, if not beyond that,
+for it was still early in the season.
+
+I had no wish to arrive off the Cape of Good Hope before midsummer,
+and it was now early winter. I had been off that cape once in July,
+which was, of course, midwinter there. The stout ship I then commanded
+encountered only fierce hurricanes, and she bore them ill. I wished
+for no winter gales now. It was not that I feared them more, being in
+the _Spray_ instead of a large ship, but that I preferred fine weather
+in any case. It is true that one may encounter heavy gales off the
+Cape of Good Hope at any season of the year, but in the summer they
+are less frequent and do not continue so long. And so with time enough
+before me to admit of a run ashore on the islands en route, I shaped
+the course now for Keeling Cocos, atoll islands, distant twenty-seven
+hundred miles. Taking a departure from Booby Island, which the sloop
+passed early in the day, I decided to sight Timor on the way, an
+island of high mountains.
+
+Booby Island I had seen before, but only once, however, and that was
+when in the steamship _Soushay_, on which I was "hove-down" in a
+fever. When she steamed along this way I was well enough to crawl on
+deck to look at Booby Island. Had I died for it, I would have seen
+that island. In those days passing ships landed stores in a cave on
+the island for shipwrecked and distressed wayfarers. Captain Airy of
+the _Soushay_, a good man, sent a boat to the cave with his
+contribution to the general store. The stores were landed in safety,
+and the boat, returning, brought back from the improvised post-office
+there a dozen or more letters, most of them left by whalemen, with the
+request that the first homeward-bound ship would carry them along and
+see to their mailing, which had been the custom of this strange postal
+service for many years. Some of the letters brought back by our boat
+were directed to New Bedford, and some to Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
+
+There is a light to-day on Booby Island, and regular packet
+communication with the rest of the world, and the beautiful
+uncertainty of the fate of letters left there is a thing of the past.
+I made no call at the little island, but standing close in, exchanged
+signals with the keeper of the light. Sailing on, the sloop was at
+once in the Arafura Sea, where for days she sailed in water milky
+white and green and purple. It was my good fortune to enter the sea on
+the last quarter of the moon, the advantage being that in the dark
+nights I witnessed the phosphorescent light effect at night in its
+greatest splendor. The sea, where the sloop disturbed it, seemed all
+ablaze, so that by its light I could see the smallest articles on
+deck, and her wake was a path of fire.
+
+On the 25th of June the sloop was already clear of all the shoals and
+dangers, and was sailing on a smooth sea as steadily as before, but
+with speed somewhat slackened. I got out the flying-jib made at Juan
+Fernandez, and set it as a spinnaker from the stoutest bamboo that
+Mrs. Stevenson had given me at Samoa. The spinnaker pulled like a
+sodger, and the bamboo holding its own, the _Spray_ mended her pace.
+
+Several pigeons flying across to-day from Australia toward the islands
+bent their course over the _Spray_. Smaller birds were seen flying in
+the opposite direction. In the part of the Arafura that I came to
+first, where it was shallow, sea-snakes writhed about on the surface
+and tumbled over and over in the waves. As the sloop sailed farther
+on, where the sea became deep, they disappeared. In the ocean, where
+the water is blue, not one was ever seen.
+
+In the days of serene weather there was not much to do but to read and
+take rest on the _Spray_, to make up as much as possible for the rough
+time off Cape Horn, which was not yet forgotten, and to forestall the
+Cape of Good Hope by a store of ease. My sea journal was now much the
+same from day to day-something like this of June 26 and 27, for
+example:
+
+June 26, in the morning, it is a bit squally; later in, the day
+blowing a steady breeze.
+
+  On the log at noon is
+                                      130 miles
+  _Subtract_ correction for slip       10   "
+                                     ---------
+                                      120   "
+  _Add_ for current                    10   "
+                                      --------
+                                      130   "
+
+  Latitude by observation at noon, 10 degrees 23' S.
+  Longitude as per mark on the chart.
+
+There wasn't much brain-work in that log, I'm sure. June 27 makes a
+better showing, when all is told:
+
+  First of all, to-day, was a flying-fish on deck; fried it in butter.
+
+  133 miles on the log.
+
+  For slip, off, and for current, on, as per guess, about equal--let it
+  go at that.
+
+  Latitude by observation at noon, 10 degrees 25' S.
+
+For several days now the _Spray_ sailed west on the parallel of 10
+degrees 25' S., as true as a hair. If she deviated at all from that,
+through the day or night,--and this may have happened,--she was back,
+strangely enough, at noon, at the same latitude. But the greatest
+science was in reckoning the longitude. My tin clock and only
+timepiece had by this time lost its minute-hand, but after I boiled
+her she told the hours, and that was near enough on a long stretch.
+
+On the 2d of July the great island of Timor was in view away to the
+nor'ard. On the following day I saw Dana Island, not far off, and a
+breeze came up from the land at night, fragrant of the spices or what
+not of the coast.
+
+On the 11th, with all sail set and with the spinnaker still abroad,
+Christmas Island, about noon, came into view one point on the
+starboard bow. Before night it was abeam and distant two and a half
+miles. The surface of the island appeared evenly rounded from the sea
+to a considerable height in the center. In outline it was as smooth as
+a fish, and a long ocean swell, rolling up, broke against the sides,
+where it lay like a monster asleep, motionless on the sea. It seemed
+to have the proportions of a whale, and as the sloop sailed along its
+side to the part where the head would be, there was a nostril, even,
+which was a blow-hole through a ledge of rock where every wave that
+dashed threw up a shaft of water, lifelike and real.
+
+It had been a long time since I last saw this island; but I remember
+my temporary admiration for the captain of the ship I was then in, the
+_Tawfore_, when he sang out one morning from the quarter-deck, well
+aft, "Go aloft there, one of ye, with a pair of eyes, and see
+Christmas Island." Sure enough, there the island was in sight from the
+royal-yard. Captain M----had thus made a great hit, and he never got
+over it. The chief mate, terror of us ordinaries in the ship, walking
+never to windward of the captain, now took himself very humbly to
+leeward altogether. When we arrived at Hong-Kong there was a letter in
+the ship's mail for me. I was in the boat with the captain some hours
+while he had it. But do you suppose he could hand a letter to a
+seaman? No, indeed; not even to an ordinary seaman. When we got to the
+ship he gave it to the first mate; the first mate gave it to the
+second mate, and he laid it, michingly, on the capstan-head, where I
+could get it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+A call for careful navigation--Three hours' steering in twenty-three
+days--Arrival at the Keeling Cocos Islands--A curious chapter of
+social history--A welcome from the children of the islands--Cleaning
+and painting the _Spray_ on the beach--A Mohammedan blessing for a pot
+of jam--Keeling as a paradise--A risky adventure in a small boat--Away
+to Rodriguez--Taken for Antichrist--The governor calms the fears of
+the people--A lecture--A convent in the hills.
+
+To the Keeling Cocos Islands was now only five hundred and fifty
+miles; but even in this short run it was necessary to be extremely
+careful in keeping a true course else I would miss the atoll.
+
+On the 12th, some hundred miles southwest of Christmas Island, I saw
+anti-trade clouds flying up from the southwest very high over the
+regular winds, which weakened now for a few days, while a swell
+heavier than usual set in also from the southwest. A winter gale was
+going on in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope. Accordingly, I
+steered higher to windward, allowing twenty miles a day while this
+went on, for change of current; and it was not too much, for on that
+course I made the Keeling Islands right ahead. The first unmistakable
+sign of the land was a visit one morning from a white tern that
+fluttered very knowingly about the vessel, and then took itself off
+westward with a businesslike air in its wing. The tern is called by
+the islanders the "pilot of Keeling Cocos." Farther on I came among a
+great number of birds fishing, and fighting over whatever they caught.
+My reckoning was up, and springing aloft, I saw from half-way up the
+mast cocoanut-trees standing out of the water ahead. I expected to see
+this; still, it thrilled me as an electric shock might have done. I
+slid down the mast, trembling under the strangest sensations; and not
+able to resist the impulse, I sat on deck and gave way to my emotions.
+To folks in a parlor on shore this may seem weak indeed, but I am
+telling the story of a voyage alone.
+
+I didn't touch the helm, for with the current and heave of the sea the
+sloop found herself at the end of the run absolutely in the fairway of
+the channel. You couldn't have beaten it in the navy! Then I trimmed
+her sails by the wind, took the helm, and flogged her up the couple of
+miles or so abreast the harbor landing, where I cast anchor at 3:30
+P.M., July 17,1897, twenty-three days from Thursday Island. The
+distance run was twenty-seven hundred miles as the crow flies. This
+would have been a fair Atlantic voyage. It was a delightful sail!
+During those twenty-three days I had not spent altogether more than
+three hours at the helm, including the time occupied in beating into
+Keeling harbor. I just lashed the helm and let her go; whether the
+wind was abeam or dead aft, it was all the same: she always sailed on
+her course. No part of the voyage up to this point, taking it by and
+large, had been so finished as this.[D]
+
+[D] Mr. Andrew J. Leach, reporting, July 21, 1897, through Governor
+Kynnersley of Singapore, to Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, said
+concerning the _Iphegenia's_ visit to the atoll: "As we left the ocean
+depths of deepest blue and entered the coral circle, the contrast was
+most remarkable. The brilliant colors of the waters, transparent to a
+depth of over thirty feet, now purple, now of the bluest sky-blue, and
+now green, with the white crests of the waves flashing tinder a
+brilliant sun, the encircling ... palm-clad islands, the gaps between
+which were to the south undiscernible, the white sand shores and the
+whiter gaps where breakers appeared, and, lastly, the lagoon itself,
+seven or eight miles across from north to south, and five to six from
+east to west, presented a sight never to be forgotten. After some little
+delay, Mr. Sidney Ross, the eldest son of Mr. George Ross, came off to
+meet us, and soon after, accompanied by the doctor and another officer,
+we went ashore." "On reaching the landing-stage, we found, hauled up for
+cleaning, etc., the _Spray_ of Boston, a yawl of 12.70 tons gross, the
+property of Captain Joshua Slocum. He arrived at the island on the 17th
+of July, twenty-three days out from Thursday Island. This extraordinary
+solitary traveler left Boston some two years ago single-handed, crossed
+to Gibraltar, sailed down to Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of
+Magellan to the Society Islands, thence to Australia, and through the
+Torres Strait to Thursday Island."
+
+The Keeling Cocos Islands, according to Admiral Fitzroy, R. N., lie
+between the latitudes of 11 degrees 50' and 12 degrees 12' S., and the
+longitudes of 96 degrees 51' and 96 degrees 58' E. They were
+discovered in 1608-9 by Captain William Keeling, then in the service
+of the East India Company. The southern group consists of seven or
+eight islands and islets on the atoll, which is the skeleton of what
+some day, according to the history of coral reefs, will be a
+continuous island. North Keeling has no harbor, is seldom visited, and
+is of no importance. The South Keelings are a strange little world,
+with a romantic history all their own. They have been visited
+occasionally by the floating spar of some hurricane-swept ship, or by
+a tree that has drifted all the way from Australia, or by an
+ill-starred ship cast away, and finally by man. Even a rock once
+drifted to Keeling, held fast among the roots of a tree.
+
+After the discovery of the islands by Captain Keeling, their first
+notable visitor was Captain John Clunis-Ross, who in 1814 touched in
+the ship _Borneo_ on a voyage to India. Captain Ross returned two
+years later with his wife and family and his mother-in-law, Mrs.
+Dymoke, and eight sailor-artisans, to take possession of the islands,
+but found there already one Alexander Hare, who meanwhile had marked
+the little atoll as a sort of Eden for a seraglio of Malay women which
+he moved over from the coast of Africa. It was Ross's own brother,
+oddly enough, who freighted Hare and his crowd of women to the
+islands, not knowing of Captain John's plans to occupy the little
+world. And so Hare was there with his outfit, as if he had come to
+stay.
+
+On his previous visit, however, Ross had nailed the English Jack to a
+mast on Horsburg Island, one of the group. After two years shreds of
+it still fluttered in the wind, and his sailors, nothing loath, began
+at once the invasion of the new kingdom to take possession of it,
+women and all. The force of forty women, with only one man to command
+them, was not equal to driving eight sturdy sailors back into the sea.[E]
+
+[E] In the accounts given in Findlay's "Sailing Directory" of some of
+the events there is a chronological discrepancy. I follow the accounts
+gathered from the old captain's grandsons and from records on the spot.
+
+From this time on Hare had a hard time of it. He and Ross did not get
+on well as neighbors. The islands were too small and too near for
+characters so widely different. Hare had "oceans of money," and might
+have lived well in London; but he had been governor of a wild colony
+in Borneo, and could not confine himself to the tame life that prosy
+civilization affords. And so he hung on to the atoll with his forty
+women, retreating little by little before Ross and his sturdy crew,
+till at last he found himself and his harem on the little island known
+to this day as Prison Island, where, like Bluebeard, he confined his
+wives in a castle. The channel between the islands was narrow, the
+water was not deep, and the eight Scotch sailors wore long boots. Hare
+was now dismayed. He tried to compromise with rum and other luxuries,
+but these things only made matters worse. On the day following the
+first St. Andrew's celebration on the island, Hare, consumed with
+rage, and no longer on speaking terms with the captain, dashed off a
+note to him, saying: "Dear Ross: I thought when I sent rum and roast
+pig to your sailors that they would stay away from my flower-garden."
+In reply to which the captain, burning with indignation, shouted from
+the center of the island, where he stood, "Ahoy, there, on Prison
+Island! You Hare, don't you know that rum and roast pig are not a
+sailor's heaven?" Hare said afterward that one might have heard the
+captain's roar across to Java.
+
+The lawless establishment was soon broken up by the women deserting
+Prison Island and putting themselves under Ross's protection. Hare
+then went to Batavia, where he met his death.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ ashore for "boot-topping" at the Keeling
+Islands. (From a photograph.)]
+
+My first impression upon landing was that the crime of infanticide had
+not reached the islands of Keeling Cocos. "The children have all come
+to welcome you," explained Mr. Ross, as they mustered at the jetty by
+hundreds, of all ages and sizes. The people of this country were all
+rather shy, but, young or old, they never passed one or saw one
+passing their door without a salutation. In their musical voices they
+would say, "Are you walking?" ("Jalan, jalan?") "Will you come along?"
+one would answer.
+
+For a long time after I arrived the children regarded the "one-man
+ship" with suspicion and fear. A native man had been blown away to sea
+many years before, and they hinted to one another that he might have
+been changed from black to white, and returned in the sloop. For some
+time every movement I made was closely watched. They were particularly
+interested in what I ate. One day, after I had been "boot-topping" the
+sloop with a composition of coal-tar and other stuff, and while I was
+taking my dinner, with the luxury of blackberry jam, I heard a
+commotion, and then a yell and a stampede, as the children ran away
+yelling: "The captain is eating coal-tar! The captain is eating
+coal-tar!" But they soon found out that this same "coal-tar" was very
+good to eat, and that I had brought a quantity of it. One day when I
+was spreading a sea-biscuit thick with it for a wide-awake youngster,
+I heard them whisper, "Chut-chut!" meaning that a shark had bitten my
+hand, which they observed was lame. Thenceforth they regarded me as a
+hero, and I had not fingers enough for the little bright-eyed tots
+that wanted to cling to them and follow me about. Before this, when I
+held out my hand and said, "Come!" they would shy off for the nearest
+house, and say, "Dingin" ("It's cold"), or "Ujan" ("It's going to
+rain"). But it was now accepted that I was not the returned spirit of
+the lost black, and I had plenty of friends about the island, rain or
+shine.
+
+One day after this, when I tried to haul the sloop and found her fast
+in the sand, the children all clapped their hands and cried that a
+_kpeting_ (crab) was holding her by the keel; and little Ophelia, ten
+or twelve years of age, wrote in the _Spray's_ log-book:
+
+  A hundred men with might and main
+    On the windlass hove, yeo ho!
+  The cable only came in twain;
+    The ship she would not go;
+  For, child, to tell the strangest thing,
+    The keel was held by a great kpeting.
+
+This being so or not, it was decided that the Mohammedan priest, Sama
+the Emim, for a pot of jam, should ask Mohammed to bless the voyage
+and make the crab let go the sloop's keel, which it did, if it had
+hold, and she floated on the very next tide.
+
+On the 22d of July arrived H.M.S. _Iphegenia,_ with Mr. Justice Andrew
+J. Leech and court officers on board, on a circuit of inspection among
+the Straits Settlements, of which Keeling Cocos was a dependency, to
+hear complaints and try cases by law, if any there were to try. They
+found the _Spray_ hauled ashore and tied to a cocoanut-tree. But at
+the Keeling Islands there had not been a grievance to complain of
+since the day that Hare migrated, for the Rosses have always treated
+the islanders as their own family.
+
+If there is a paradise on this earth it is Keeling. There was not a
+case for a lawyer, but something had to be done, for here were two
+ships in port, a great man-of-war and the _Spray._ Instead of a
+lawsuit a dance was got up, and all the officers who could leave their
+ship came ashore. Everybody on the island came, old and young, and the
+governor's great hall was filled with people. All that could get on
+their feet danced, while the babies lay in heaps in the corners of the
+room, content to look on. My little friend Ophelia danced with the
+judge. For music two fiddles screeched over and over again the good
+old tune, "We won't go home till morning." And we did not.
+
+The women at the Keelings do not do all the drudgery, as in many
+places visited on the voyage. It would cheer the heart of a Fuegian
+woman to see the Keeling lord of creation up a cocoanut-tree. Besides
+cleverly climbing the trees, the men of Keeling build exquisitely
+modeled canoes. By far the best workmanship in boat-building I saw on
+the voyage was here. Many finished mechanics dwelt under the palms at
+Keeling, and the hum of the band-saw and the ring of the anvil were
+heard from morning till night. The first Scotch settlers left there
+the strength of Northern blood and the inheritance of steady habits.
+No benevolent society has ever done so much for any islanders as the
+noble Captain Ross, and his sons, who have followed his example of
+industry and thrift.
+
+Admiral Fitzroy of the _Beagle_, who visited here, where many
+things are reversed, spoke of "these singular though small islands,
+where crabs eat cocoanuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men ride
+on turtles, and shells are dangerous man-traps," adding that the
+greater part of the sea-fowl roost on branches, and many rats make
+their nests in the tops of palm-trees.
+
+My vessel being refitted, I decided to load her with the famous
+mammoth tridaena shell of Keeling, found in the bayou near by. And
+right here, within sight of the village, I came near losing "the crew
+of the _Spray_"--not from putting my foot in a man-trap shell,
+however, but from carelessly neglecting to look after the details of a
+trip across the harbor in a boat. I had sailed over oceans; I have
+since completed a course over them all, and sailed round the whole
+world without so nearly meeting a fatality as on that trip across a
+lagoon, where I trusted all to some one else, and he, weak mortal that
+he was, perhaps trusted all to me. However that may be, I found myself
+with a thoughtless African negro in a rickety bateau that was fitted
+with a rotten sail, and this blew away in mid-channel in a squall,
+that sent us drifting helplessly to sea, where we should have been
+incontinently lost. With the whole ocean before us to leeward, I was
+dismayed to see, while we drifted, that there was not a paddle or an
+oar in the boat! There was an anchor, to be sure, but not enough rope
+to tie a cat, and we were already in deep water. By great good
+fortune, however, there was a pole. Plying this as a paddle with the
+utmost energy, and by the merest accidental flaw in the wind to favor
+us, the trap of a boat was worked into shoal water, where we could
+touch bottom and push her ashore. With Africa, the nearest coast to
+leeward, three thousand miles away, with not so much as a drop of
+water in the boat, and a lean and hungry negro--well, cast the lot as
+one might, the crew of the _Spray_ in a little while would have been
+hard to find. It is needless to say that I took no more such chances.
+The tridacna were afterward procured in a safe boat, thirty of them
+taking the place of three tons of cement ballast, which I threw
+overboard to make room and give buoyancy.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum drifting out to sea.]
+
+On August 22, the kpeting, or whatever else it was that held the sloop
+in the islands, let go its hold, and she swung out to sea under all
+sail, heading again for home. Mounting one or two heavy rollers on the
+fringe of the atoll, she cleared the flashing reefs. Long before dark
+Keeling Cocos, with its thousand souls, as sinless in their lives as
+perhaps it is possible for frail mortals to be, was left out of sight,
+astern. Out of sight, I say, except in my strongest affection.
+
+The sea was rugged, and the _Spray_ washed heavily when hauled on the
+wind, which course I took for the island of Rodriguez, and which
+brought the sea abeam. The true course for the island was west by
+south, one quarter south, and the distance was nineteen hundred miles;
+but I steered considerably to the windward of that to allow for the
+heave of the sea and other leeward effects. My sloop on this course
+ran under reefed sails for days together. I naturally tired of the
+never-ending motion of the sea, and, above all, of the wetting I got
+whenever I showed myself on deck. Under these heavy weather conditions
+the _Spray_ seemed to lag behind on her course; at least, I attributed
+to these conditions a discrepancy in the log, which by the fifteenth
+day out from Keeling amounted to one hundred and fifty miles between
+the rotator and the mental calculations I had kept of what she should
+have gone, and so I kept an eye lifting for land. I could see about
+sundown this day a bunch of clouds that stood in one spot, right
+ahead, while the other clouds floated on; this was a sign of
+something. By midnight, as the sloop sailed on, a black object
+appeared where I had seen the resting clouds. It was still a long way
+off, but there could be no mistaking this: it was the high island of
+Rodriguez. I hauled in the patent log, which I was now towing more
+from habit than from necessity, for I had learned the _Spray_ and her
+ways long before this. If one thing was clearer than another in her
+voyage, it was that she could be trusted to come out right and in
+safety, though at the same time I always stood ready to give her the
+benefit of even the least doubt. The officers who are over-sure, and
+"know it all like a book," are the ones, I have observed, who wreck
+the most ships and lose the most lives. The cause of the discrepancy
+in the log was one often met with, namely, coming in contact with some
+large fish; two out of the four blades of the rotator were crushed or
+bent, the work probably of a shark. Being sure of the sloop's
+position, I lay down to rest and to think, and I felt better for it.
+By daylight the island was abeam, about three miles away. It wore a
+hard, weather-beaten appearance there, all alone, far out in the
+Indian Ocean, like land adrift. The windward side was uninviting, but
+there was a good port to leeward, and I hauled in now close on the
+wind for that. A pilot came out to take me into the inner harbor,
+which was reached through a narrow channel among coral reefs.
+
+It was a curious thing that at all of the islands some reality was
+insisted on as unreal, while improbabilities were clothed as hard
+facts; and so it happened here that the good abbe, a few days before,
+had been telling his people about the coming of Antichrist, and when
+they saw the _Spray_ sail into the harbor, all feather-white before a
+gale of wind, and run all standing upon the beach, and with only one
+man aboard, they cried, "May the Lord help us, it is he, and he has
+come in a boat!" which I say would have been the most improbable way
+of his coming. Nevertheless, the news went flying through the place.
+The governor of the island, Mr. Roberts, came down immediately to see
+what it was all about, for the little town was in a great commotion.
+One elderly woman, when she heard of my advent, made for her house and
+locked herself in. When she heard that I was actually coming up the
+street she barricaded her doors, and did not come out while I was on
+the island, a period of eight days. Governor Roberts and his family
+did not share the fears of their people, but came on board at the
+jetty, where the sloop was berthed, and their example induced others
+to come also. The governor's young boys took charge of the _Spray's_
+dinghy at once, and my visit cost his Excellency, besides great
+hospitality to me, the building of a boat for them like the one
+belonging to the _Spray_.
+
+My first day at this Land of Promise was to me like a fairy-tale. For
+many days I had studied the charts and counted the time of my arrival
+at this spot, as one might his entrance to the Islands of the Blessed,
+looking upon it as the terminus of the last long run, made irksome by
+the want of many things with which, from this time on, I could keep
+well supplied. And behold, here was the sloop, arrived, and made
+securely fast to a pier in Rodriguez. On the first evening ashore, in
+the land of napkins and cut glass, I saw before me still the ghosts of
+hempen towels and of mugs with handles knocked off. Instead of tossing
+on the sea, however, as I might have been, here was I in a bright
+hall, surrounded by sparkling wit, and dining with the governor of the
+island! "Aladdin," I cried, "where is your lamp? My fisherman's
+lantern, which I got at Gloucester, has shown me better things than
+your smoky old burner ever revealed."
+
+The second day in port was spent in receiving visitors. Mrs. Roberts
+and her children came first to "shake hands," they said, "with the
+_Spray._" No one was now afraid to come on board except the poor old
+woman, who still maintained that the _Spray_ had Antichrist in the
+hold, if, indeed, he had not already gone ashore. The governor
+entertained that evening, and kindly invited the "destroyer of the
+world" to speak for himself. This he did, elaborating most effusively
+on the dangers of the sea (which, after the manner of many of our
+frailest mortals, he would have had smooth had he made it); also by
+contrivances of light and darkness he exhibited on the wall pictures
+of the places and countries visited on the voyage (nothing like the
+countries, however, that he would have made), and of the people seen,
+savage and other, frequently groaning, "Wicked world! Wicked world!"
+When this was finished his Excellency the governor, speaking words of
+thankfulness, distributed pieces of gold.
+
+On the following day I accompanied his Excellency and family on a
+visit to San Gabriel, which was up the country among the hills. The
+good abbe of San Gabriel entertained us all royally at the convent,
+and we remained his guests until the following day. As I was leaving
+his place, the abbe said, "Captain, I embrace you, and of whatever
+religion you may be, my wish is that you succeed in making your
+voyage, and that our Saviour the Christ be always with you!" To this
+good man's words I could only say, "My dear abbe, had all religionists
+been so liberal there would have been less bloodshed in the world."
+
+At Rodriguez one may now find every convenience for filling pure and
+wholesome water in any quantity, Governor Roberts having built a
+reservoir in the hills, above the village, and laid pipes to the
+jetty, where, at the time of my visit, there were five and a half feet
+at high tide. In former years well-water was used, and more or less
+sickness occurred from it. Beef may be had in any quantity on the
+island, and at a moderate price. Sweet potatoes were plentiful and
+cheap; the large sack of them that I bought there for about four
+shillings kept unusually well. I simply stored them in the sloop's dry
+hold. Of fruits, pomegranates were most plentiful; for two shillings I
+obtained a large sack of them, as many as a donkey could pack from the
+orchard, which, by the way, was planted by nature herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+A clean bill of health at Mauritius--Sailing the voyage over again in
+the opera-house--A newly discovered plant named in honor of the
+_Spray's_ skipper--A party of young ladies out for a sail--A bivouac
+on deck--A warm reception at Durban--A friendly cross-examination by
+Henry M. Stanley--Three wise Boers seek proof of the flatness of the
+earth--Leaving South Africa.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ at Mauritius.]
+
+On the 16th of September, after eight restful days at Rodriguez, the
+mid-ocean land of plenty, I set sail, and on the 19th arrived at
+Mauritius, anchoring at quarantine about noon. The sloop was towed in
+later on the same day by the doctor's launch, after he was satisfied
+that I had mustered all the crew for inspection. Of this he seemed in
+doubt until he examined the papers, which called for a crew of one all
+told from port to port, throughout the voyage. Then finding that I had
+been well enough to come thus far alone, he gave me pratique without
+further ado. There was still another official visit for the _Spray_ to
+pass farther in the harbor. The governor of Rodriguez, who had most
+kindly given me, besides a regular mail, private letters of
+introduction to friends, told me I should meet, first of all, Mr.
+Jenkins of the postal service, a good man. "How do you do, Mr.
+Jenkins?" cried I, as his boat swung alongside. "You don't know me,"
+he said. "Why not?" I replied. "From where is the sloop?" "From around
+the world," I again replied, very solemnly. "And alone?" "Yes; why
+not?" "And you know me?" "Three thousand years ago," cried I, "when
+you and I had a warmer job than we have now" (even this was hot). "You
+were then Jenkinson, but if you have changed your name I don't blame
+you for that." Mr. Jenkins, forbearing soul, entered into the spirit
+of the jest, which served the _Spray_ a good turn, for on the strength
+of this tale it got out that if any one should go on board after dark
+the devil would get him at once. And so I could leave the _Spray_
+without the fear of her being robbed at night. The cabin, to be sure,
+was broken into, but it was done in daylight, and the thieves got no
+more than a box of smoked herrings before "Tom" Ledson, one of the
+port officials, caught them red-handed, as it were, and sent them to
+jail. This was discouraging to pilferers, for they feared Ledson more
+than they feared Satan himself. Even Mamode Hajee Ayoob, who was the
+day-watchman on board,--till an empty box fell over in the cabin and
+frightened him out of his wits,--could not be hired to watch nights,
+or even till the sun went down. "Sahib," he cried, "there is no need
+of it," and what he said was perfectly true.
+
+At Mauritius, where I drew a long breath, the _Spray_ rested her
+wings, it being the season of fine weather. The hardships of the
+voyage, if there had been any, were now computed by officers of
+experience as nine tenths finished, and yet somehow I could not forget
+that the United States was still a long way off.
+
+The kind people of Mauritius, to make me richer and happier, rigged up
+the opera-house, which they had named the "_Ship Pantai_."[F] All decks
+and no bottom was this ship, but she was as stiff as a church. They gave
+me free use of it while I talked over the _Spray's_ adventures. His
+Honor the mayor introduced me to his Excellency the governor from the
+poop-deck of the _Pantai._ In this way I was also introduced again to
+our good consul, General John P. Campbell, who had already introduced me
+to his Excellency, I was becoming well acquainted, and was in for it now
+to sail the voyage over again. How I got through the story I hardly
+know. It was a hot night, and I could have choked the tailor who made
+the coat I wore for this occasion. The kind governor saw that I had done
+my part trying to rig like a man ashore, and he invited me to Government
+House at Reduit, where I found myself among friends.
+
+[F] Guinea-hen
+
+It was winter still off stormy Cape of Good Hope, but the storms might
+whistle there. I determined to see it out in milder Mauritius,
+visiting Rose Hill, Curipepe, and other places on the island. I spent
+a day with the elder Mr. Roberts, father of Governor Roberts of
+Rodriguez, and with his friends the Very Reverend Fathers O'Loughlin
+and McCarthy. Returning to the _Spray_ by way of the great flower
+conservatory near Moka, the proprietor, having only that morning
+discovered a new and hardy plant, to my great honor named it "Slocum,"
+which he said Latinized it at once, saving him some trouble on the
+twist of a word; and the good botanist seemed pleased that I had come.
+How different things are in different countries! In Boston,
+Massachusetts, at that time, a gentleman, so I was told, paid thirty
+thousand dollars to have a flower named after his wife, and it was not
+a big flower either, while "Slocum," which came without the asking,
+was bigger than a mangel-wurzel!
+
+I was royally entertained at Moka, as well as at Reduit and other
+places--once by seven young ladies, to whom I spoke of my inability to
+return their hospitality except in my own poor way of taking them on a
+sail in the sloop. "The very thing! The very thing!" they all cried.
+"Then please name the time," I said, as meek as Moses. "To-morrow!"
+they all cried. "And, aunty, we may go, mayn't we, and we'll be real
+good for a whole week afterward, aunty! Say yes, aunty dear!" All this
+after saying "To-morrow"; for girls in Mauritius are, after all, the
+same as our girls in America; and their dear aunt said "Me, too" about
+the same as any really good aunt might say in my own country.
+
+I was then in a quandary, it having recurred to me that on the very
+"to-morrow" I was to dine with the harbor-master, Captain Wilson.
+However, I said to myself, "The _Spray_ will run out quickly into
+rough seas; these young ladies will have _mal de mer_ and a good time,
+and I'll get in early enough to be at the dinner, after all." But not
+a bit of it. We sailed almost out of sight of Mauritius, and they just
+stood up and laughed at seas tumbling aboard, while I was at the helm
+making the worst weather of it I could, and spinning yarns to the aunt
+about sea-serpents and whales. But she, dear lady, when I had finished
+with stories of monsters, only hinted at a basket of provisions they
+had brought along, enough to last a week, for I had told them about my
+wretched steward.
+
+The more the _Spray_ tried to make these young ladies seasick, the
+more they all clapped their hands and said, "How lovely it is!" and
+"How beautifully she skims over the sea!" and "How beautiful our
+island appears from the distance!" and they still cried, "Go on!" We
+were fifteen miles or more at sea before they ceased the eager cry,
+"Go on!" Then the sloop swung round, I still hoping to be back to Port
+Louis in time to keep my appointment. The _Spray_ reached the island
+quickly, and flew along the coast fast enough; but I made a mistake in
+steering along the coast on the way home, for as we came abreast of
+Tombo Bay it enchanted my crew. "Oh, let's anchor here!" they cried.
+To this no sailor in the world would have said nay. The sloop came to
+anchor, ten minutes later, as they wished, and a young man on the
+cliff abreast, waving his hat, cried, "_Vive la Spray!_" My passengers
+said, "Aunty, mayn't we have a swim in the surf along the shore?" Just
+then the harbor-master's launch hove in sight, coming out to meet us;
+but it was too late to get the sloop into Port Louis that night. The
+launch was in time, however, to land my fair crew for a swim; but they
+were determined not to desert the ship. Meanwhile I prepared a roof
+for the night on deck with the sails, and a Bengali man-servant
+arranged the evening meal. That night the _Spray_ rode in Tombo Bay
+with her precious freight. Next morning bright and early, even before
+the stars were gone, I awoke to hear praying on deck.
+
+The port officers' launch reappeared later in the morning, this time
+with Captain Wilson himself on board, to try his luck in getting the
+_Spray_ into port, for he had heard of our predicament. It was worth
+something to hear a friend tell afterward how earnestly the good
+harbor-master of Mauritius said, "I'll find the _Spray_ and I'll get
+her into port." A merry crew he discovered on her. They could hoist
+sails like old tars, and could trim them, too. They could tell all
+about the ship's "hoods," and one should have seen them clap a bonnet
+on the jib. Like the deepest of deep-water sailors, they could heave
+the lead, and--as I hope to see Mauritius again!--any of them could
+have put the sloop in stays. No ship ever had a fairer crew.
+
+The voyage was the event of Port Louis; such a thing as young ladies
+sailing about the harbor, even, was almost unheard of before.
+
+While at Mauritius the _Spray_ was tendered the use of the military
+dock free of charge, and was thoroughly refitted by the port
+authorities. My sincere gratitude is also due other friends for
+many things needful for the voyage put on board, including bags of
+sugar from some of the famous old plantations.
+
+The favorable season now set in, and thus well equipped, on the 26th
+of October, the _Spray_ put to sea. As I sailed before a light wind
+the island receded slowly, and on the following day I could still see
+the Puce Mountain near Moka. The _Spray_ arrived next day off Galets,
+Reunion, and a pilot came out and spoke her. I handed him a Mauritius
+paper and continued on my voyage; for rollers were running heavily at
+the time, and it was not practicable to make a landing. From Reunion I
+shaped a course direct for Cape St. Mary, Madagascar.
+
+The sloop was now drawing near the limits of the trade-wind, and the
+strong breeze that had carried her with free sheets the many thousands
+of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia, fell lighter each day until
+October 30, when it was altogether calm, and a motionless sea held her
+in a hushed world. I furled the sails at evening, sat down on deck,
+and enjoyed the vast stillness of the night.
+
+October 31 a light east-northeast breeze sprang up, and the sloop
+passed Cape St. Mary about noon. On the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of
+November, in the Mozambique Channel, she experienced a hard gale of
+wind from the southwest. Here the _Spray_ suffered as much as she did
+anywhere, except off Cape Horn. The thunder and lightning preceding
+this gale were very heavy. From this point until the sloop arrived off
+the coast of Africa, she encountered a succession of gales of wind,
+which drove her about in many directions, but on the 17th of November
+she arrived at Port Natal.
+
+This delightful place is the commercial center of the "Garden Colony,"
+Durban itself, the city, being the continuation of a garden. The
+signalman from the bluff station reported the _Spray_ fifteen miles
+off. The wind was freshening, and when she was within eight miles he
+said: "The _Spray_ is shortening sail; the mainsail was reefed and set
+in ten minutes. One man is doing all the work."
+
+This item of news was printed three minutes later in a Durban morning
+journal, which was handed to me when I arrived in port. I could not
+verify the time it had taken to reef the sail, for, as I have already
+said, the minute-hand of my timepiece was gone. I only knew that I
+reefed as quickly as I could.
+
+The same paper, commenting on the voyage, said: "Judging from the
+stormy weather which has prevailed off this coast during the past few
+weeks, the _Spray_ must have had a very stormy voyage from Mauritius
+to Natal." Doubtless the weather would have been called stormy by
+sailors in any ship, but it caused the _Spray_ no more inconvenience
+than the delay natural to head winds generally.
+
+The question of how I sailed the sloop alone, often asked, is best
+answered, perhaps, by a Durban newspaper. I would shrink from
+repeating the editor's words but for the reason that undue estimates
+have been made of the amount of skill and energy required to sail a
+sloop of even the _Spray's_ small tonnage. I heard a man who called
+himself a sailor say that "it would require three men to do what it
+was claimed" that I did alone, and what I found perfectly easy to do
+over and over again; and I have heard that others made similar
+nonsensical remarks, adding that I would work myself to death. But
+here is what the Durban paper said:
+
+[Citation: As briefly noted yesterday, the _Spray_, with a crew of one
+man, arrived at this port yesterday afternoon on her cruise round the
+world. The _Spray_ made quite an auspicious entrance to Natal. Her
+commander sailed his craft right up the channel past the main wharf,
+and dropped his anchor near the old _Forerunner_ in the creek, before
+any one had a chance to get on board. The _Spray_ was naturally an
+object of great curiosity to the Point people, and her arrival was
+witnessed by a large crowd. The skilful manner in which Captain Slocum
+steered his craft about the vessels which were occupying the waterway
+was a treat to witness.]
+
+The _Spray_ was not sailing in among greenhorns when she came to
+Natal. When she arrived off the port the pilot-ship, a fine, able
+steam-tug, came out to meet her, and led the way in across the bar,
+for it was blowing a smart gale and was too rough for the sloop to be
+towed with safety. The trick of going in I learned by watching the
+steamer; it was simply to keep on the windward side of the channel and
+take the combers end on.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Joshua Slocum.]
+
+I found that Durban supported two yacht-clubs, both of them full of
+enterprise. I met all the members of both clubs, and sailed in the
+crack yacht _Florence_ of the Royal Natal, with Captain Spradbrow and
+the Right Honorable Harry Escombe, premier of the colony. The yacht's
+center-board plowed furrows through the mud-banks, which, according to
+Mr. Escombe, Spradbrow afterward planted with potatoes. The
+_Florence_, however, won races while she tilled the skipper's land.
+After our sail on the _Florence_ Mr. Escombe offered to sail the
+_Spray_ round the Cape of Good Hope for me, and hinted at his famous
+cribbage-board to while away the hours. Spradbrow, in retort, warned
+me of it. Said he, "You would be played out of the sloop before you
+could round the cape." By others it was not thought probable that the
+premier of Natal would play cribbage off the Cape of Good Hope to win
+even the _Spray_.
+
+It was a matter of no small pride to me in South Africa to find that
+American humor was never at a discount, and one of the best American
+stories I ever heard was told by the premier. At Hotel Royal one day,
+dining with Colonel Saunderson, M. P., his son, and Lieutenant
+Tipping, I met Mr. Stanley. The great explorer was just from Pretoria,
+and had already as good as flayed President Kruger with his trenchant
+pen. But that did not signify, for everybody has a whack at Oom Paul,
+and no one in the world seems to stand the joke better than he, not
+even the Sultan of Turkey himself. The colonel introduced me to the
+explorer, and I hauled close to the wind, to go slow, for Mr. Stanley
+was a nautical man once himself,--on the Nyanza, I think,--and of
+course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his
+experience. He looked me over carefully, and said, "What an example of
+patience!" "Patience is all that is required," I ventured to reply. He
+then asked if my vessel had water-tight compartments. I explained that
+she was all water-tight and all compartment. "What if she should
+strike a rock?" he asked. "Compartments would not save her if she
+should hit the rocks lying along her course," said I; adding, "she
+must be kept away from the rocks." After a considerable pause Mr.
+Stanley asked, "What if a swordfish should pierce her hull with its
+sword?" Of course I had thought of that as one of the dangers of the
+sea, and also of the chance of being struck by lightning. In the case
+of the swordfish, I ventured to say that "the first thing would be to
+secure the sword." The colonel invited me to dine with the party on
+the following day, that we might go further into this matter, and so I
+had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Stanley a second time, but got no more
+hints in navigation from the famous explorer.
+
+It sounds odd to hear scholars and statesmen say the world is flat;
+but it is a fact that three Boers favored by the opinion of President
+Kruger prepared a work to support that contention. While I was at
+Durban they came from Pretoria to obtain data from me, and they seemed
+annoyed when I told them that they could not prove it by my
+experience. With the advice to call up some ghost of the dark ages for
+research, I went ashore, and left these three wise men poring over the
+_Spray's_ track on a chart of the world, which, however, proved
+nothing to them, for it was on Mercator's projection, and behold, it
+was "flat." The next morning I met one of the party in a clergyman's
+garb, carrying a large Bible, not different from the one I had read.
+He tackled me, saying, "If you respect the Word of God, you must admit
+that the world is flat." "If the Word of God stands on a flat world--"
+I began. "What!" cried he, losing himself in a passion, and making as
+if he would run me through with an assagai. "What!" he shouted in
+astonishment and rage, while I jumped aside to dodge the imaginary
+weapon. Had this good but misguided fanatic been armed with a real
+weapon, the crew of the _Spray_ would have died a martyr there and
+then. The next day, seeing him across the street, I bowed and made
+curves with my hands. He responded with a level, swimming movement of
+his hands, meaning "the world is flat." A pamphlet by these Transvaal
+geographers, made up of arguments from sources high and low to prove
+their theory, was mailed to me before I sailed from Africa on my last
+stretch around the globe.
+
+While I feebly portray the ignorance of these learned men, I have
+great admiration for their physical manhood. Much that I saw first and
+last of the Transvaal and the Boers was admirable. It is well known
+that they are the hardest of fighters, and as generous to the fallen
+as they are brave before the foe. Real stubborn bigotry with them is
+only found among old fogies, and will die a natural death, and that,
+too, perhaps long before we ourselves are entirely free from bigotry.
+Education in the Transvaal is by no means neglected, English as well
+as Dutch being taught to all that can afford both; but the tariff duty
+on English school-books is heavy, and from necessity the poorer people
+stick to the Transvaal Dutch and their flat world, just as in Samoa
+and other islands a mistaken policy has kept the natives down to
+Kanaka.
+
+I visited many public schools at Durban, and had the pleasure of
+meeting many bright children.
+
+But all fine things must end, and December 14, 1897, the "crew" of the
+_Spray_, after having a fine time in Natal, swung the sloop's dinghy
+in on deck, and sailed with a morning land-wind, which carried her
+clear of the bar, and again she was "off on her alone," as they say in
+Australia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Rounding the "Cape of Storms" in olden time--A rough Christmas--The
+_Spray_ ties up for a three months' rest at Cape Town--A railway trip
+to the Transvaal--President Kruger's odd definition of the _Spray's_
+voyage--His terse sayings--Distinguished guests on the
+_Spray_--Cocoanut fiber as a padlock--Courtesies from the admiral of
+the Queen's navy--Off for St. Helena--Land in sight.
+
+The Cape of Good Hope was now the most prominent point to pass. From
+Table Bay I could count on the aid of brisk trades, and then the
+_Spray_ would soon be at home. On the first day out from Durban it
+fell calm, and I sat thinking about these things and the end of the
+voyage. The distance to Table Bay, where I intended to call, was about
+eight hundred miles over what might prove a rough sea. The early
+Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than
+sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far
+as Algoa Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small
+island, now called Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross,
+and swore they would cut the captain's throat if he attempted to sail
+farther. Beyond this they thought was the edge of the world, which
+they too believed was flat; and fearing that their ship would sail
+over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their commander, to
+retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year later,
+we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape of
+Storms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered
+Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the
+way to India was easy.
+
+Gales of wind sweeping round the cape even now were frequent enough,
+one occurring, on an average, every thirty-six hours; but one gale was
+much the same as another, with no more serious result than to blow the
+_Spray_ along on her course when it was fair, or to blow her back
+somewhat when it was ahead. On Christmas, 1897, I came to the pitch of
+the cape. On this day the _Spray_ was trying to stand on her head, and
+she gave me every reason to believe that she would accomplish the feat
+before night. She began very early in the morning to pitch and toss
+about in a most unusual manner, and I have to record that, while I was
+at the end of the bowsprit reefing the jib, she ducked me under water
+three times for a Christmas box. I got wet and did not like it a bit:
+never in any other sea was I put under more than once in the same
+short space of time, say three minutes. A large English steamer
+passing ran up the signal, "Wishing you a Merry Christmas." I think
+the captain was a humorist; his own ship was throwing her propeller
+out of water.
+
+Two days later, the _Spray_, having recovered the distance lost in the
+gale, passed Cape Agulhas in company with the steamship _Scotsman_,
+now with a fair wind. The keeper of the light on Agulhas exchanged
+signals with the _Spray_ as she passed, and afterward wrote me at New
+York congratulations on the completion of the voyage. He seemed to
+think the incident of two ships of so widely different types passing
+his cape together worthy of a place on canvas, and he went about
+having the picture made. So I gathered from his letter. At lonely
+stations like this hearts grow responsive and sympathetic, and even
+poetic. This feeling was shown toward the _Spray_ along many a rugged
+coast, and reading many a kind signal thrown out to her gave one a
+grateful feeling for all the world.
+
+One more gale of wind came down upon the _Spray_ from the west after
+she passed Cape Agulhas, but that one she dodged by getting into
+Simons Bay. When it moderated she beat around the Cape of Good Hope,
+where they say the _Flying Dutchman_ is still sailing. The voyage then
+seemed as good as finished; from this time on I knew that all, or
+nearly all, would be plain sailing.
+
+Here I crossed the dividing-line of weather. To the north it was clear
+and settled, while south it was humid and squally, with, often enough,
+as I have said, a treacherous gale. From the recent hard weather the
+_Spray_ ran into a calm under Table Mountain, where she lay quietly
+till the generous sun rose over the land and drew a breeze in from the
+sea.
+
+The steam-tug _Alert_, then out looking for ships, came to the _Spray_
+off the Lion's Rump, and in lieu of a larger ship towed her into port.
+The sea being smooth, she came to anchor in the bay off the city of
+Cape Town, where she remained a day, simply to rest clear of the
+bustle of commerce. The good harbor-master sent his steam-launch to
+bring the sloop to a berth in dock at once, but I preferred to remain
+for one day alone, in the quiet of a smooth sea, enjoying the
+retrospect of the passage of the two great capes. On the following
+morning the _Spray_ sailed into the Alfred Dry-docks, where she
+remained for about three months in the care of the port authorities,
+while I traveled the country over from Simons Town to Pretoria, being
+accorded by the colonial government a free railroad pass over all the
+land.
+
+The trip to Kimberley, Johannesburg, and Pretoria was a pleasant one.
+At the last-named place I met Mr. Kruger, the Transvaal president. His
+Excellency received me cordially enough; but my friend Judge Beyers,
+the gentleman who presented me, by mentioning that I was on a voyage
+around the world, unwittingly gave great offense to the venerable
+statesman, which we both regretted deeply. Mr. Kruger corrected the
+judge rather sharply, reminding him that the world is flat. "You don't
+mean _round_ the world," said the president; "it is impossible! You
+mean _in_ the world. Impossible!" he said, "impossible!" and not
+another word did he utter either to the judge or to me. The judge
+looked at me and I looked at the judge, who should have known his
+ground, so to speak, and Mr. Kruger glowered at us both. My friend the
+judge seemed embarrassed, but I was delighted; the incident pleased me
+more than anything else that could have happened. It was a nugget of
+information quarried out of Oom Paul, some of whose sayings are
+famous. Of the English he said, "They took first my coat and then my
+trousers." He also said, "Dynamite is the corner-stone of the South
+African Republic." Only unthinking people call President Kruger dull.
+
+[Illustration: Cartoon printed in the Cape Town "Owl" of March 5,
+1898, in connection with an item about Captain Slocum's trip to
+Pretoria.]
+
+Soon after my arrival at the cape, Mr. Kruger's friend Colonel
+Saunderson,[G] who had arrived from Durban some time before, invited me
+to Newlands Vineyard, where I met many agreeable people. His Excellency
+Sir Alfred Milner, the governor, found time to come aboard with a party.
+The governor, after making a survey of the deck, found a seat on a box
+in my cabin; Lady Muriel sat on a keg, and Lady Saunderson sat by the
+skipper at the wheel, while the colonel, with his kodak, away in the
+dinghy, took snap shots of the sloop and her distinguished visitors. Dr.
+David Gill, astronomer royal, who was of the party, invited me the next
+day to the famous Cape Observatory. An hour with Dr. Gill was an hour
+among the stars. His discoveries in stellar photography are well known.
+He showed me the great astronomical clock of the observatory, and I
+showed him the tin clock on the _Spray_, and we went over the subject of
+standard time at sea, and how it was found from the deck of the little
+sloop without the aid of a clock of any kind. Later it was advertised
+that Dr. Gill would preside at a talk about the voyage of the _Spray_:
+that alone secured for me a full house. The hall was packed, and many
+were not able to get in. This success brought me sufficient money for
+all my needs in port and for the homeward voyage.
+
+[G] Colonel Saunderson was Mr. Kruger's very best friend, inasmuch as he
+advised the president to avast mounting guns.
+
+After visiting Kimberley and Pretoria, and finding the _Spray_ all
+right in the docks, I returned to Worcester and Wellington, towns
+famous for colleges and seminaries, passed coming in, still traveling
+as the guest of the colony. The ladies of all these institutions of
+learning wished to know how one might sail round the world alone,
+which I thought augured of sailing-mistresses in the future instead of
+sailing-masters. It will come to that yet if we men-folk keep on
+saying we "can't."
+
+On the plains of Africa I passed through hundreds of miles of rich but
+still barren land, save for scrub-bushes, on which herds of sheep were
+browsing. The bushes grew about the length of a sheep apart, and they,
+I thought, were rather long of body; but there was still room for all.
+My longing for a foothold on land seized upon me here, where so much
+of it lay waste; but instead of remaining to plant forests and reclaim
+vegetation, I returned again to the _Spray_ at the Alfred Docks, where
+I found her waiting for me, with everything in order, exactly as I had
+left her.
+
+I have often been asked how it was that my vessel and all
+appurtenances were not stolen in the various ports where I left her
+for days together without a watchman in charge. This is just how it
+was: The _Spray_ seldom fell among thieves. At the Keeling Islands, at
+Rodriguez, and at many such places, a wisp of cocoanut fiber in the
+door-latch, to indicate that the owner was away, secured the goods
+against even a longing glance. But when I came to a great island
+nearer home, stout locks were needed; the first night in port things
+which I had always left uncovered disappeared, as if the deck on which
+they were stowed had been swept by a sea.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Slocum, Sir Alfred Milner (with the tall hat),
+and Colonel Saunderson, M. P., on the bow of the _Spray_ at Cape
+Town.]
+
+A pleasant visit from Admiral Sir Harry Rawson of the Royal Navy and
+his family brought to an end the _Spray's_ social relations with the
+Cape of Good Hope. The admiral, then commanding the South African
+Squadron, and now in command of the great Channel fleet, evinced the
+greatest interest in the diminutive _Spray_ and her behavior off Cape
+Horn, where he was not an entire stranger. I have to admit that I was
+delighted with the trend of Admiral Rawson's questions, and that I
+profited by some of his suggestions, notwithstanding the wide
+difference in our respective commands.
+
+On March 26, 1898, the _Spray_ sailed from South Africa, the land of
+distances and pure air, where she had spent a pleasant and profitable
+time. The steam-tug _Tigre_ towed her to sea from her wonted berth at
+the Alfred Docks, giving her a good offing. The light morning breeze,
+which scantily filled her sails when the tug let go the tow-line, soon
+died away altogether, and left her riding over a heavy swell, in full
+view of Table Mountain and the high peaks of the Cape of Good Hope.
+For a while the grand scenery served to relieve the monotony. One of
+the old circumnavigators (Sir Francis Drake, I think), when he first
+saw this magnificent pile, sang, "'T is the fairest thing and the
+grandest cape I've seen in the whole circumference of the earth."
+
+The view was certainly fine, but one has no wish to linger long to
+look in a calm at anything, and I was glad to note, finally, the short
+heaving sea, precursor of the wind which followed on the second day.
+Seals playing about the _Spray_ all day, before the breeze came,
+looked with large eyes when, at evening, she sat no longer like a lazy
+bird with folded wings. They parted company now, and the _Spray_ soon
+sailed the highest peaks of the mountains out of sight, and the world
+changed from a mere panoramic view to the light of a homeward-bound
+voyage. Porpoises and dolphins, and such other fishes as did not mind
+making a hundred and fifty miles a day, were her companions now for
+several days. The wind was from the southeast; this suited the _Spray_
+well, and she ran along steadily at her best speed, while I dipped
+into the new books given me at the cape, reading day and night. March
+30 was for me a fast-day in honor of them. I read on, oblivious of
+hunger or wind or sea, thinking that all was going well, when suddenly
+a comber rolled over the stern and slopped saucily into the cabin,
+wetting the very book I was reading. Evidently it was time to put in a
+reef, that she might not wallow on her course.
+
+[Illustration: "Reading day and night."]
+
+March 31 the fresh southeast wind had come to stay. The _Spray_ was
+running under a single-reefed mainsail, a whole jib, and a flying-jib
+besides, set on the Vailima bamboo, while I was reading Stevenson's
+delightful "Inland Voyage." The sloop was again doing her work
+smoothly, hardly rolling at all, but just leaping along among the
+white horses, a thousand gamboling porpoises keeping her company on
+all sides. She was again among her old friends the flying-fish,
+interesting denizens of the sea. Shooting out of the waves like
+arrows, and with outstretched wings, they sailed on the wind in
+graceful curves; then falling till again they touched the crest of the
+waves to wet their delicate wings and renew the flight. They made
+merry the livelong day. One of the joyful sights on the ocean of a
+bright day is the continual flight of these interesting fish.
+
+One could not be lonely in a sea like this. Moreover, the reading of
+delightful adventures enhanced the scene. I was now in the _Spray_ and
+on the Oise in the _Arethusa_ at one and the same time. And so the
+_Spray_ reeled off the miles, showing a good run every day till April
+11, which came almost before I knew it. Very early that morning I was
+awakened by that rare bird, the booby, with its harsh quack, which I
+recognized at once as a call to go on deck; it was as much as to say,
+"Skipper, there's land in sight." I tumbled out quickly, and sure
+enough, away ahead in the dim twilight, about twenty miles off, was
+St. Helena.
+
+My first impulse was to call out, "Oh, what a speck in the sea!" It is
+in reality nine miles in length and two thousand eight hundred and
+twenty-three feet in height. I reached for a bottle of port-wine out
+of the locker, and took a long pull from it to the health of my
+invisible helmsman--the pilot of the _Pinta_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+In the isle of Napoleon's exile--Two lectures--A guest in the
+ghost-room at Plantation House--An excursion to historic
+Longwood--Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it--The _Spray's_
+ill luck with animals--A prejudice against small dogs--A rat, the
+Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket--Ascension Island.
+
+It was about noon when the _Spray_ came to anchor off Jamestown, and
+"all hands" at once went ashore to pay respects to his Excellency the
+governor of the island, Sir R. A. Sterndale. His Excellency, when I
+landed, remarked that it was not often, nowadays, that a
+circumnavigator came his way, and he cordially welcomed me, and
+arranged that I should tell about the voyage, first at Garden Hall to
+the people of Jamestown, and then at Plantation House--the governor's
+residence, which is in the hills a mile or two back--to his Excellency
+and the officers of the garrison and their friends. Mr. Poole, our
+worthy consul, introduced me at the castle, and in the course of his
+remarks asserted that the sea-serpent was a Yankee.
+
+Most royally was the crew of the _Spray_ entertained by the governor.
+I remained at Plantation House a couple of days, and one of the rooms
+in the mansion, called the "west room," being haunted, the butler, by
+command of his Excellency, put me up in that--like a prince. Indeed,
+to make sure that no mistake had been made, his Excellency came later
+to see that I was in the right room, and to tell me all about the
+ghosts he had seen or heard of. He had discovered all but one, and
+wishing me pleasant dreams, he hoped I might have the honor of a visit
+from the unknown one of the west room. For the rest of the chilly
+night I kept the candle burning, and often looked from under the
+blankets, thinking that maybe I should meet the great Napoleon face to
+face; but I saw only furniture, and the horseshoe that was nailed over
+the door opposite my bed.
+
+St. Helena has been an island of tragedies--tragedies that have been
+lost sight of in wailing over the Corsican. On the second day of my
+visit the governor took me by carriage-road through the turns over the
+island. At one point of our journey the road, in winding around spurs
+and ravines, formed a perfect W within the distance of a few rods. The
+roads, though tortuous and steep, were fairly good, and I was struck
+with the amount of labor it must have cost to build them. The air on
+the heights was cool and bracing. It is said that, since hanging for
+trivial offenses went out of fashion, no one has died there, except
+from falling over the cliffs in old age, or from being crushed by
+stones rolling on them from the steep mountains! Witches at one time
+were persistent at St. Helena, as with us in America in the days of
+Cotton Mather. At the present day crime is rare in the island. While I
+was there, Governor Sterndale, in token of the fact that not one
+criminal case had come to court within the year, was presented with a
+pair of white gloves by the officers of justice.
+
+Returning from the governor's house to Jamestown, I drove with Mr.
+Clark, a countryman of mine, to "Longwood," the home of Napoleon. M.
+Morilleau, French consular agent in charge, keeps the place
+respectable and the buildings in good repair. His family at Longwood,
+consisting of wife and grown daughters, are natives of courtly and
+refined manners, and spend here days, months, and years of
+contentment, though they have never seen the world beyond the horizon
+of St. Helena.
+
+On the 20th of April the _Spray_ was again ready for sea. Before going
+on board I took luncheon with the governor and his family at the
+castle. Lady Sterndale had sent a large fruit-cake, early in the
+morning, from Plantation House, to be taken along on the voyage. It
+was a great high-decker, and I ate sparingly of it, as I thought, but
+it did not keep as I had hoped it would. I ate the last of it along
+with my first cup of coffee at Antigua, West Indies, which, after all,
+was quite a record. The one my own sister made me at the little island
+in the Bay of Fundy, at the first of the voyage, kept about the same
+length of time, namely, forty-two days.
+
+After luncheon a royal mail was made up for Ascension, the island next
+on my way. Then Mr. Poole and his daughter paid the _Spray_ a farewell
+visit, bringing me a basket of fruit. It was late in the evening
+before the anchor was up, and I bore off for the west, loath to leave
+my new friends. But fresh winds filled the sloop's sails once more,
+and I watched the beacon-light at Plantation House, the governor's
+parting signal for the _Spray_, till the island faded in the darkness
+astern and became one with the night, and by midnight the light itself
+had disappeared below the horizon.
+
+When morning came there was no land in sight, but the day went on the
+same as days before, save for one small incident. Governor Sterndale
+had given me a bag of coffee in the husk, and Clark, the American, in
+an evil moment, had put a goat on board, "to butt the sack and hustle
+the coffee-beans out of the pods." He urged that the animal, besides
+being useful, would be as companionable as a dog. I soon found that my
+sailing-companion, this sort of dog with horns, had to be tied up
+entirely. The mistake I made was that I did not chain him to the mast
+instead of tying him with grass ropes less securely, and this I
+learned to my cost. Except for the first day, before the beast got his
+sea-legs on, I had no peace of mind. After that, actuated by a spirit
+born, maybe, of his pasturage, this incarnation of evil threatened to
+devour everything from flying-jib to stern-davits. He was the worst
+pirate I met on the whole voyage. He began depredations by eating my
+chart of the West Indies, in the cabin, one day, while I was about my
+work for'ard, thinking that the critter was securely tied on deck by
+the pumps. Alas! there was not a rope in the sloop proof against that
+goat's awful teeth!
+
+It was clear from the very first that I was having no luck with
+animals on board. There was the tree-crab from the Keeling Islands. No
+sooner had it got a claw through its prison-box than my sea-jacket,
+hanging within reach, was torn to ribbons. Encouraged by this success,
+it smashed the box open and escaped into my cabin, tearing up things
+generally, and finally threatening my life in the dark. I had hoped to
+bring the creature home alive, but this did not prove feasible. Next
+the goat devoured my straw hat, and so when I arrived in port I had
+nothing to wear ashore on my head. This last unkind stroke decided his
+fate. On the 27th of April the _Spray_ arrived at Ascension, which is
+garrisoned by a man-of-war crew, and the boatswain of the island came
+on board. As he stepped out of his boat the mutinous goat climbed into
+it, and defied boatswain and crew. I hired them to land the wretch at
+once, which they were only too willing to do, and there he fell into
+the hands of a most excellent Scotchman, with the chances that he
+would never get away. I was destined to sail once more into the depths
+of solitude, but these experiences had no bad effect upon me; on the
+contrary, a spirit of charity and even benevolence grew stronger in my
+nature through the meditations of these supreme hours on the sea.
+
+In the loneliness of the dreary country about Cape Horn I found myself
+in no mood to make one life less in the world, except in self-defense,
+and as I sailed this trait of the hermit character grew till the
+mention of killing food-animals was revolting to me. However well I
+may have enjoyed a chicken stew afterward at Samoa, a new self
+rebelled at the thought suggested there of carrying chickens to be
+slain for my table on the voyage, and Mrs. Stevenson, hearing my
+protest, agreed with me that to kill the companions of my voyage and
+eat them would be indeed next to murder and cannibalism.
+
+As to pet animals, there was no room for a noble large dog on the
+_Spray_ on so long a voyage, and a small cur was for many years
+associated in my mind with hydrophobia. I witnessed once the death of
+a sterling young German from that dreadful disease, and about the same
+time heard of the death, also by hydrophobia, of the young gentleman
+who had just written a line of insurance in his company's books for
+me. I have seen the whole crew of a ship scamper up the rigging to
+avoid a dog racing about the decks in a fit. It would never do, I
+thought, for the crew of the _Spray_ to take a canine risk, and with
+these just prejudices indelibly stamped on my mind, I have, I am
+afraid, answered impatiently too often the query, "Didn't you have a
+dog!" with, "I and the dog wouldn't have been very long in the same
+boat, in any sense." A cat would have been a harmless animal, I dare
+say, but there was nothing for puss to do on board, and she is an
+unsociable animal at best. True, a rat got into my vessel at the
+Keeling Cocos Islands, and another at Rodriguez, along with a centiped
+stowed away in the hold; but one of them I drove out of the ship, and
+the other I caught. This is how it was: for the first one with
+infinite pains I made a trap, looking to its capture and destruction;
+but the wily rodent, not to be deluded, took the hint and got ashore
+the day the thing was completed.
+
+It is, according to tradition, a most reassuring sign to find rats
+coming to a ship, and I had a mind to abide the knowing one of
+Rodriguez; but a breach of discipline decided the matter against him.
+While I slept one night, my ship sailing on, he undertook to walk over
+me, beginning at the crown of my head, concerning which I am always
+sensitive. I sleep lightly. Before his impertinence had got him even
+to my nose I cried "Rat!" had him by the tail, and threw him out of
+the companionway into the sea.
+
+As for the centiped, I was not aware of its presence till the wretched
+insect, all feet and venom, beginning, like the rat, at my head,
+wakened me by a sharp bite on the scalp. This also was more than I
+could tolerate. After a few applications of kerosene the poisonous
+bite, painful at first, gave me no further inconvenience.
+
+From this on for a time no living thing disturbed my solitude; no
+insect even was present in my vessel, except the spider and his wife,
+from Boston, now with a family of young spiders. Nothing, I say, till
+sailing down the last stretch of the Indian Ocean, where mosquitos
+came by hundreds from rain-water poured out of the heavens. Simply a
+barrel of rain-water stood on deck five days, I think, in the sun,
+then music began. I knew the sound at once; it was the same as heard
+from Alaska to New Orleans.
+
+Again at Cape Town, while dining out one day, I was taken with the
+song of a cricket, and Mr. Branscombe, my host, volunteered to capture
+a pair of them for me. They were sent on board next day in a box
+labeled, "Pluto and Scamp." Stowing them away in the binnacle in their
+own snug box, I left them there without food till I got to sea--a few
+days. I had never heard of a cricket eating anything. It seems that
+Pluto was a cannibal, for only the wings of poor Scamp were visible
+when I opened the lid, and they lay broken on the floor of the
+prison-box. Even with Pluto it had gone hard, for he lay on his back
+stark and stiff, never to chirrup again.
+
+Ascension Island, where the goat was marooned, is called the Stone
+Frigate, R. N, and is rated "tender" to the South African Squadron. It
+lies in 7 degrees 35' south latitude and 14 degrees 25' west
+longitude, being in the very heart of the southeast trade-winds and
+about eight hundred and forty miles from the coast of Liberia. It is a
+mass of volcanic matter, thrown up from the bed of the ocean to the
+height of two thousand eight hundred and eighteen feet at the highest
+point above sea-level. It is a strategic point, and belonged to Great
+Britain before it got cold. In the limited but rich soil at the top of
+the island, among the clouds, vegetation has taken root, and a little
+scientific farming is carried on under the supervision of a gentleman
+from Canada. Also a few cattle and sheep are pastured there for the
+garrison mess. Water storage is made on a large scale. In a word, this
+heap of cinders and lava rock is stored and fortified, and would stand
+a siege.
+
+Very soon after the _Spray_ arrived I received a note from Captain
+Blaxland, the commander of the island, conveying his thanks for the
+royal mail brought from St. Helena, and inviting me to luncheon with
+him and his wife and sister at headquarters, not far away. It is
+hardly necessary to say that I availed myself of the captain's
+hospitality at once. A carriage was waiting at the jetty when I
+landed, and a sailor, with a broad grin, led the horse carefully up
+the hill to the captain's house, as if I were a lord of the admiralty,
+and a governor besides; and he led it as carefully down again when I
+returned. On the following day I visited the summit among the clouds,
+the same team being provided, and the same old sailor leading the
+horse. There was probably not a man on the island at that moment
+better able to walk than I. The sailor knew that. I finally suggested
+that we change places. "Let me take the bridle," I said, "and keep the
+horse from bolting." "Great Stone Frigate!" he exclaimed, as he burst
+into a laugh, "this 'ere 'oss wouldn't bolt no faster nor a turtle. If
+I didn't tow 'im 'ard we'd never get into port." I walked most of the
+way over the steep grades, whereupon my guide, every inch a sailor,
+became my friend. Arriving at the summit of the island, I met Mr.
+Schank, the farmer from Canada, and his sister, living very cozily in
+a house among the rocks, as snug as conies, and as safe. He showed me
+over the farm, taking me through a tunnel which led from one field to
+the other, divided by an inaccessible spur of mountain. Mr. Schank
+said that he had lost many cows and bullocks, as well as sheep, from
+breakneck over the steep cliffs and precipices. One cow, he said,
+would sometimes hook another right over a precipice to destruction,
+and go on feeding unconcernedly. It seemed that the animals on the
+island farm, like mankind in the wide world, found it all too small.
+
+On the 26th of April, while I was ashore, rollers came in which
+rendered launching a boat impossible. However, the sloop being
+securely moored to a buoy in deep water outside of all breakers, she
+was safe, while I, in the best of quarters, listened to well-told
+stories among the officers of the Stone Frigate. On the evening of the
+29th, the sea having gone down, I went on board and made preparations
+to start again on my voyage early next day, the boatswain of the
+island and his crew giving me a hearty handshake as I embarked at the
+jetty.
+
+For reasons of scientific interest, I invited in mid-ocean the most
+thorough investigation concerning the crew-list of the _Spray_. Very
+few had challenged it, and perhaps few ever will do so henceforth; but
+for the benefit of the few that may, I wished to clench beyond doubt
+the fact that it was not at all necessary in the expedition of a sloop
+around the world to have more than one man for the crew, all told, and
+that the _Spray_ sailed with only one person on board. And so, by
+appointment, Lieutenant Eagles, the executive officer, in the morning,
+just as I was ready to sail, fumigated the sloop, rendering it
+impossible for a person to live concealed below, and proving that only
+one person was on board when she arrived. A certificate to this
+effect, besides the official documents from the many consulates,
+health offices, and customhouses, will seem to many superfluous; but
+this story of the voyage may find its way into hands unfamiliar with
+the business of these offices and of their ways of seeing that a
+vessel's papers, and, above all, her bills of health, are in order.
+
+The lieutenant's certificate being made out, the _Spray_, nothing
+loath, now filled away clear of the sea-beaten rocks, and the
+trade-winds, comfortably cool and bracing, sent her flying along on
+her course. On May 8, 1898, she crossed the track, homeward bound,
+that she had made October 2, 1895, on the voyage out. She passed
+Fernando de Noronha at night, going some miles south of it, and so I
+did not see the island. I felt a contentment in knowing that the
+_Spray_ had encircled the globe, and even as an adventure alone I was
+in no way discouraged as to its utility, and said to myself, "Let what
+will happen, the voyage is now on record." A period was made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil--All at sea
+regarding the Spanish-American war--An exchange of signals with the
+battle-ship _Oregon_--Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
+Island--Reappearance to the _Spray_ of the north star--The light on
+Trinidad--A charming introduction to Grenada--Talks to friendly
+auditors.
+
+On May 10 there was a great change in the condition of the sea; there
+could be no doubt of my longitude now, if any had before existed in my
+mind. Strange and long-forgotten current ripples pattered against the
+sloop's sides in grateful music; the tune arrested the oar, and I sat
+quietly listening to it while the _Spray_ kept on her course. By these
+current ripples I was assured that she was now off St. Roque and had
+struck the current which sweeps around that cape. The trade-winds, we
+old sailors say, produce this current, which, in its course from this
+point forward, is governed by the coastline of Brazil, Guiana,
+Venezuela, and, as some would say, by the Monroe Doctrine.
+
+The trades had been blowing fresh for some time, and the current, now
+at its height, amounted to forty miles a day. This, added to the
+sloop's run by the log, made the handsome day's work of one hundred
+and eighty miles on several consecutive days, I saw nothing of the
+coast of Brazil, though I was not many leagues off and was always in
+the Brazil current.
+
+I did not know that war with Spain had been declared, and that I might
+be liable, right there, to meet the enemy and be captured. Many had
+told me at Cape Town that, in their opinion, war was inevitable, and
+they said: "The Spaniard will get you! The Spaniard will get you!" To
+all this I could only say that, even so, he would not get much. Even
+in the fever-heat over the disaster to the _Maine_ I did not think
+there would be war; but I am no politician. Indeed, I had hardly given
+the matter a serious thought when, on the 14th of May, just north of
+the equator, and near the longitude of the river Amazon, I saw first a
+mast, with the Stars and Stripes floating from it, rising astern as if
+poked up out of the sea, and then rapidly appearing on the horizon,
+like a citadel, the _Oregon!_ As she came near I saw that the great
+ship was flying the signals "C B T," which read, "Are there any
+men-of-war about?" Right under these flags, and larger than the
+_Spray's_ mainsail, so it appeared, was the yellowest Spanish flag I
+ever saw. It gave me nightmare some time after when I reflected on it
+in my dreams.
+
+[Illustration: The _Spray_ passed by the _Oregon_.]
+
+I did not make out the _Oregon's_ signals till she passed ahead, where
+I could read them better, for she was two miles away, and I had no
+binoculars. When I had read her flags I hoisted the signal "No," for I
+had not seen any Spanish men-of-war; I had not been looking for any.
+My final signal, "Let us keep together for mutual protection," Captain
+Clark did not seem to regard as necessary. Perhaps my small flags were
+not made out; anyhow, the _Oregon_ steamed on with a rush, looking for
+Spanish men-of-war, as I learned afterward. The _Oregon's_ great flag
+was dipped beautifully three times to the _Spray's_ lowered flag as
+she passed on. Both had crossed the line only a few hours before. I
+pondered long that night over the probability of a war risk now coming
+upon the _Spray_ after she had cleared all, or nearly all, the dangers
+of the sea, but finally a strong hope mastered my fears.
+
+On the 17th of May, the _Spray_, coming out of a storm at daylight,
+made Devil's Island, two points on the lee bow, not far off. The wind
+was still blowing a stiff breeze on shore. I could clearly see the
+dark-gray buildings on the island as the sloop brought it abeam. No
+flag or sign of life was seen on the dreary place.
+
+Later in the day a French bark on the port tack, making for Cayenne,
+hove in sight, close-hauled on the wind. She was falling to leeward
+fast, The _Spray_ was also closed-hauled, and was lugging on sail to
+secure an offing on the starboard tack, a heavy swell in the night
+having thrown her too near the shore, and now I considered the matter
+of supplicating a change of wind. I had already enjoyed my share of
+favoring breezes over the great oceans, and I asked myself if it would
+be right to have the wind turned now all into my sails while the
+Frenchman was bound the other way. A head current, which he stemmed,
+together with a scant wind, was bad enough for him. And so I could
+only say, in my heart, "Lord, let matters stand as they are, but do
+not help the Frenchman any more just now, for what would suit him well
+would ruin me!"
+
+I remembered that when a lad I heard a captain often say in meeting that
+in answer to a prayer of his own the wind changed from southeast to
+northwest, entirely to his satisfaction. He was a good man, but did this
+glorify the Architect--the Ruler of the winds and the waves? Moreover,
+it was not a trade-wind, as I remember it, that changed for him, but one
+of the variables which will change when you ask it, if you ask long
+enough. Again, this man's brother maybe was not bound the opposite way,
+well content with a fair wind himself, which made all the difference in
+the world.[H]
+
+[H] The Bishop of Melbourne (commend me to his teachings) refused to set
+aside a day of prayer for rain, recommending his people to husband water
+when the rainy season was on. In like manner, a navigator husbands the
+wind, keeping a weather-gage where practicable.
+
+On May 18,1898, is written large in the _Spray's_ log-book: "To-night,
+in latitude 7 degrees 13' N., for the first time in nearly three years
+I see the north star." The _Spray_ on the day following logged one
+hundred and forty-seven miles. To this I add thirty-five miles for
+current sweeping her onward. On the 20th of May, about sunset, the
+island of Tobago, off the Orinoco, came into view, bearing west by
+north, distant twenty-two miles. The _Spray_ was drawing rapidly
+toward her home destination. Later at night, while running free along
+the coast of Tobago, the wind still blowing fresh, I was startled by
+the sudden flash of breakers on the port bow and not far off. I luffed
+instantly offshore, and then tacked, heading in for the island.
+Finding myself, shortly after, close in with the land, I tacked again
+offshore, but without much altering the bearings of the danger. Sail
+whichever way I would, it seemed clear that if the sloop weathered the
+rocks at all it would be a close shave, and I watched with anxiety,
+while beating against the current, always losing ground. So the matter
+stood hour after hour, while I watched the flashes of light thrown up
+as regularly as the beats of the long ocean swells, and always they
+seemed just a little nearer. It was evidently a coral reef,--of this I
+had not the slightest doubt,--and a bad reef at that. Worse still,
+there might be other reefs ahead forming a bight into which the
+current would sweep me, and where I should be hemmed in and finally
+wrecked. I had not sailed these waters since a lad, and lamented the
+day I had allowed on board the goat that ate my chart. I taxed my
+memory of sea lore, of wrecks on sunken reefs, and of pirates harbored
+among coral reefs where other ships might not come, but nothing that I
+could think of applied to the island of Tobago, save the one wreck of
+Robinson Crusoe's ship in the fiction, and that gave me little
+information about reefs. I remembered only that in Crusoe's case he
+kept his powder dry. "But there she booms again," I cried, "and how
+close the flash is now! Almost aboard was that last breaker! But
+you'll go by, _Spray_, old girl! 'T is abeam now! One surge more! and
+oh, one more like that will clear your ribs and keel!" And I slapped
+her on the transom, proud of her last noble effort to leap clear of
+the danger, when a wave greater than the rest threw her higher than
+before, and, behold, from the crest of it was revealed at once all
+there was of the reef. I fell back in a coil of rope, speechless and
+amazed, not distressed, but rejoiced. Aladdin's lamp! My fisherman's
+own lantern! It was the great revolving light on the island of
+Trinidad, thirty miles away, throwing flashes over the waves, which
+had deceived me! The orb of the light was now dipping on the horizon,
+and how glorious was the sight of it! But, dear Father Neptune, as I
+live, after a long life at sea, and much among corals, I would have
+made a solemn declaration to that reef! Through all the rest of the
+night I saw imaginary reefs, and not knowing what moment the sloop
+might fetch up on a real one, I tacked off and on till daylight, as
+nearly as possible in the same track, all for the want of a chart. I
+could have nailed the St. Helena goat's pelt to the deck.
+
+My course was now for Grenada, to which I carried letters from
+Mauritius. About midnight of the 22d of May I arrived at the island,
+and cast anchor in the roads off the town of St. George, entering the
+inner harbor at daylight on the morning of the 23d, which made
+forty-two days' sailing from the Cape of Good Hope, It was a good run,
+and I doffed my cap again to the pilot of the _Pinta_.
+
+Lady Bruce, in a note to the _Spray_ at Port Louis, said Grenada was a
+lovely island, and she wished the sloop might call there on the voyage
+home. When the _Spray_ arrived, I found that she had been fully
+expected. "How so?" I asked. "Oh, we heard that you were at
+Mauritius," they said, "and from Mauritius, after meeting Sir Charles
+Bruce, our old governor, we knew you would come to Grenada." This was
+a charming introduction, and it brought me in contact with people
+worth knowing.
+
+The _Spray_ sailed from Grenada on the 28th of May, and coasted along
+under the lee of the Antilles, arriving at the island of Dominica on
+the 30th, where, for the want of knowing better, I cast anchor at the
+quarantine ground; for I was still without a chart of the islands, not
+having been able to get one even at Grenada. Here I not only met with
+further disappointment in the matter, but was threatened with a fine
+for the mistake I made in the anchorage. There were no ships either at
+the quarantine or at the commercial roads, and I could not see that it
+made much difference where I anchored. But a negro chap, a sort of
+deputy harbormaster, coming along, thought it did, and he ordered me
+to shift to the other anchorage, which, in truth, I had already
+investigated and did not like, because of the heavier roll there from
+the sea. And so instead of springing to the sails at once to shift, I
+said I would leave outright as soon as I could procure a chart, which
+I begged he would send and get for me. "But I say you mus' move befo'
+you gets anyt'ing't all," he insisted, and raising his voice so that
+all the people alongshore could hear him, he added, "An' jes now!"
+Then he flew into a towering passion when they on shore snickered to
+see the crew of the _Spray_ sitting calmly by the bulwark instead of
+hoisting sail. "I tell you dis am quarantine" he shouted, very much
+louder than before. "That's all right, general," I replied; "I want to
+be quarantined anyhow." "That's right, boss," some one on the beach
+cried, "that's right; you get quarantined," while others shouted to
+the deputy to "make de white trash move 'long out o' dat." They were
+about equally divided on the island for and against me. The man who
+had made so much fuss over the matter gave it up when he found that I
+wished to be quarantined, and sent for an all-important half-white,
+who soon came alongside, starched from clue to earing. He stood in the
+boat as straight up and down as a fathom of pump-water--a marvel of
+importance. "Charts!" cried I, as soon as his shirt-collar appeared
+over the sloop's rail; "have you any charts?" "No, sah," he replied
+with much-stiffened dignity; "no, sah; cha'ts do'sn't grow on dis
+island." Not doubting the information, I tripped anchor immediately,
+as I had intended to do from the first, and made all sail for St.
+John, Antigua, where I arrived on the 1st of June, having sailed with
+great caution in midchannel all the way.
+
+The _Spray_, always in good company, now fell in with the port
+officers' steam-launch at the harbor entrance, having on board Sir
+Francis Fleming, governor of the Leeward Islands, who, to the delight
+of "all hands," gave the officer in charge instructions to tow my ship
+into port. On the following day his Excellency and Lady Fleming, along
+with Captain Burr, R. N., paid me a visit. The court-house was
+tendered free to me at Antigua, as was done also at Grenada, and at
+each place a highly intelligent audience filled the hall to listen to
+a talk about the seas the _Spray_ had crossed, and the countries she
+had visited.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Clearing for home--In the calm belt--A sea covered with sargasso--The
+jibstay parts in a gale--Welcomed by a tornado off Fire Island--A
+change of plan--Arrival at Newport--End of a cruise of over forty-six
+thousand miles--The _Spray_ again at Fairhaven.
+
+On the 4th of June, 1898, the _Spray_ cleared from the United States
+consulate, and her license to sail single-handed, even round the
+world, was returned to her for the last time. The United States
+consul, Mr. Hunt, before handing the paper to me, wrote on it, as
+General Roberts had done at Cape Town, a short commentary on the
+voyage. The document, by regular course, is now lodged in the Treasury
+Department at Washington, D. C.
+
+On June 5, 1898, the _Spray_ sailed for a home port, heading first
+direct for Cape Hatteras. On the 8th of June she passed under the sun
+from south to north; the sun's declination on that day was 22 degrees
+54', and the latitude of the _Spray_ was the same just before noon.
+Many think it is excessively hot right under the sun. It is not
+necessarily so. As a matter of fact the thermometer stands at a
+bearable point whenever there is a breeze and a ripple on the sea,
+even exactly under the sun. It is often hotter in cities and on sandy
+shores in higher latitudes.
+
+The _Spray_ was booming joyously along for home now, making her usual
+good time, when of a sudden she struck the horse latitudes, and her
+sail flapped limp in a calm. I had almost forgotten this calm belt, or
+had come to regard it as a myth. I now found it real, however, and
+difficult to cross. This was as it should have been, for, after all of
+the dangers of the sea, the dust-storm on the coast of Africa, the
+"rain of blood" in Australia, and the war risk when nearing home, a
+natural experience would have been missing had the calm of the horse
+latitudes been left out. Anyhow, a philosophical turn of thought now
+was not amiss, else one's patience would have given out almost at the
+harbor entrance. The term of her probation was eight days. Evening
+after evening during this time I read by the light of a candle on
+deck. There was no wind at all, and the sea became smooth and
+monotonous. For three days I saw a full-rigged ship on the horizon,
+also becalmed.
+
+Sargasso, scattered over the sea in bunches, or trailed curiously
+along down the wind in narrow lanes, now gathered together in great
+fields, strange sea-animals, little and big, swimming in and out, the
+most curious among them being a tiny seahorse which I captured and
+brought home preserved in a bottle. But on the 18th of June a gale
+began to blow from the southwest, and the sargasso was dispersed again
+in windrows and lanes.
+
+On this day there was soon wind enough and to spare. The same might
+have been said of the sea. The _Spray_ was in the midst of the
+turbulent Gulf Stream itself. She was jumping like a porpoise over the
+uneasy waves. As if to make up for lost time, she seemed to touch only
+the high places. Under a sudden shock and strain her rigging began to
+give out. First the main-sheet strap was carried away, and then the
+peak halyard-block broke from the gaff. It was time to reef and refit,
+and so when "all hands" came on deck I went about doing that.
+
+The 19th of June was fine, but on the morning of the 20th another gale
+was blowing, accompanied by cross-seas that tumbled about and shook
+things up with great confusion. Just as I was thinking about taking in
+sail the jibstay broke at the masthead, and fell, jib and all, into
+the sea. It gave me the strangest sensation to see the bellying sail
+fall, and where it had been suddenly to see only space. However, I was
+at the bows, with presence of mind to gather it in on the first wave
+that rolled up, before it was torn or trailed under the sloop's
+bottom. I found by the amount of work done in three minutes' or less
+time that I had by no means grown stiff-jointed on the voyage; anyhow,
+scurvy had not set in, and being now within a few degrees of home, I
+might complete the voyage, I thought, without the aid of a doctor.
+Yes, my health was still good, and I could skip about the decks in a
+lively manner, but could I climb? The great King Neptune tested me
+severely at this time, for the stay being gone, the mast itself
+switched about like a reed, and was not easy to climb; but a
+gun-tackle purchase was got up, and the stay set taut from the
+masthead, for I had spare blocks and rope on board with which to rig
+it, and the jib, with a reef in it, was soon pulling again like a
+"sodger" for home. Had the _Spray's_ mast not been well stepped,
+however, it would have been "John Walker" when the stay broke. Good
+work in the building of my vessel stood me always in good stead.
+
+On the 23d of June I was at last tired, tired, tired of baffling
+squalls and fretful cobble-seas. I had not seen a vessel for days and
+days, where I had expected the company of at least a schooner now and
+then. As to the whistling of the wind through the rigging, and the
+slopping of the sea against the sloop's sides, that was well enough in
+its way, and we could not have got on without it, the _Spray_ and I;
+but there was so much of it now, and it lasted so long! At noon of
+that day a winterish storm was upon us from the nor'west. In the Gulf
+Stream, thus late in June, hailstones were pelting the _Spray_, and
+lightning was pouring down from the clouds, not in flashes alone, but
+in almost continuous streams. By slants, however, day and night I
+worked the sloop in toward the coast, where, on the 25th of June, off
+Fire Island, she fell into the tornado which, an hour earlier, had
+swept over New York city with lightning that wrecked buildings and
+sent trees flying about in splinters; even ships at docks had parted
+their moorings and smashed into other ships, doing great damage. It
+was the climax storm of the voyage, but I saw the unmistakable
+character of it in time to have all snug aboard and receive it under
+bare poles. Even so, the sloop shivered when it struck her, and she
+heeled over unwillingly on her beam ends; but rounding to, with a
+sea-anchor ahead, she righted and faced out the storm. In the midst of
+the gale I could do no more than look on, for what is a man in a storm
+like this? I had seen one electric storm on the voyage, off the coast
+of Madagascar, but it was unlike this one. Here the lightning kept on
+longer, and thunderbolts fell in the sea all about. Up to this time I
+was bound for New York; but when all was over I rose, made sail, and
+hove the sloop round from starboard to port tack, to make for a quiet
+harbor to think the matter over; and so, under short sail, she reached
+in for the coast of Long Island, while I sat thinking and watching the
+lights of coasting-vessels which now began to appear in sight.
+Reflections of the voyage so nearly finished stole in upon me now;
+many tunes I had hummed again and again came back once more. I found
+myself repeating fragments of a hymn often sung by a dear Christian
+woman of Fairhaven when I was rebuilding the _Spray_. I was to hear
+once more and only once, in profound solemnity, the metaphorical hymn:
+
+  By waves and wind I'm tossed and driven.
+
+And again:
+
+  But still my little ship outbraves
+    The blust'ring winds and stormy waves.
+
+After this storm I saw the pilot of the _Pinta_ no more.
+
+The experiences of the voyage of the _Spray_, reaching over three
+years, had been to me like reading a book, and one that was more and
+more interesting as I turned the pages, till I had come now to the
+last page of all, and the one more interesting than any of the rest.
+
+When daylight came I saw that the sea had changed color from dark
+green to light. I threw the lead and got soundings in thirteen
+fathoms. I made the land soon after, some miles east of Fire Island,
+and sailing thence before a pleasant breeze along the coast, made for
+Newport. The weather after the furious gale was remarkably fine. The
+_Spray_ rounded Montauk Point early in the afternoon; Point Judith was
+abeam at dark; she fetched in at Beavertail next. Sailing on, she had
+one more danger to pass--Newport harbor was mined. The _Spray_ hugged
+the rocks along where neither friend nor foe could come if drawing
+much water, and where she would not disturb the guard-ship in the
+channel. It was close work, but it was safe enough so long as she
+hugged the rocks close, and not the mines. Flitting by a low point
+abreast of the guard-ship, the dear old _Dexter_, which I knew well,
+some one on board of her sang out, "There goes a craft!" I threw up a
+light at once and heard the hail, "_Spray_, ahoy!" It was the voice of
+a friend, and I knew that a friend would not fire on the _Spray_. I
+eased off the main-sheet now, and the _Spray_ swung off for the
+beacon-lights of the inner harbor. At last she reached port in safety,
+and there at 1 a.m. on June 27, 1898, cast anchor, after the cruise of
+more than forty-six thousand miles round the world, during an absence
+of three years and two months, with two days over for coming up.
+
+Was the crew well? Was I not? I had profited in many ways by the
+voyage. I had even gained flesh, and actually weighed a pound more
+than when I sailed from Boston. As for aging, why, the dial of my life
+was turned back till my friends all said, "Slocum is young again." And
+so I was, at least ten years younger than the day I felled the first
+tree for the construction of the _Spray_.
+
+My ship was also in better condition than when she sailed from Boston
+on her long voyage. She was still as sound as a nut, and as tight as
+the best ship afloat. She did not leak a drop--not one drop! The pump,
+which had been little used before reaching Australia, had not been
+rigged since that at all.
+
+The first name on the _Spray's_ visitors' book in the home port was
+written by the one who always said, "The _Spray_ will come back." The
+_Spray_ was not quite satisfied till I sailed her around to her
+birthplace, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, farther along. I had myself a
+desire to return to the place of the very beginning whence I had, as I
+have said, renewed my age. So on July 3, with a fair wind, she waltzed
+beautifully round the coast and up the Acushnet River to Fairhaven,
+where I secured her to the cedar spile driven in the bank to hold her
+when she was launched. I could bring her no nearer home.
+
+If the _Spray_ discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that
+there were no more continents to be discovered; she did not seek new
+worlds, or sail to powwow about the dangers of the seas. The sea has
+been much maligned. To find one's way to lands already discovered is a
+good thing, and the _Spray_ made the discovery that even the worst sea
+is not so terrible to a well-appointed ship. No king, no country, no
+treasury at all, was taxed for the voyage of the _Spray_, and she
+accomplished all that she undertook to do.
+
+[Illustration: The <i>Spray</i> in the storm of New York.]
+
+To succeed, however, in anything at all, one should go understandingly
+about his work and be prepared for every emergency. I see, as I look
+back over my own small achievement, a kit of not too elaborate
+carpenters' tools, a tin clock, and some carpet-tacks, not a great
+many, to facilitate the enterprise as already mentioned in the story.
+But above all to be taken into account were some years of schooling,
+where I studied with diligence Neptune's laws, and these laws I tried
+to obey when I sailed overseas; it was worth the while.
+
+And now, without having wearied my friends, I hope, with detailed
+scientific accounts, theories, or deductions, I will only say that I
+have endeavored to tell just the story of the adventure itself. This,
+in my own poor way, having been done, I now moor ship, weather-bitt
+cables, and leave the sloop _Spray_, for the present, safe in port.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+[Illustration: Again tied to the old stake at Fairhaven.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+LINES AND SAIL-PLAN OF THE "SPRAY"
+
+Her pedigree so far as known--The Lines of the _Spray_--Her
+self-steering qualities--Sail-plan and steering-gear--An unprecedented
+feat--A final word of cheer to would-be navigators.
+
+From a feeling of diffidence toward sailors of great experience, I
+refrained, in the preceding chapters as prepared for serial
+publication in the "Century Magazine," from entering fully into the
+details of the _Spray's_ build, and of the primitive methods employed
+to sail her. Having had no yachting experience at all, I had no means
+of knowing that the trim vessels seen in our harbors and near the land
+could not all do as much, or even more, than the _Spray_, sailing, for
+example, on a course with the helm lashed.
+
+I was aware that no other vessel had sailed in this manner around the
+globe, but would have been loath to say that another could not do it,
+or that many men had not sailed vessels of a certain rig in that
+manner as far as they wished to go. I was greatly amused, therefore,
+by the flat assertions of an expert that it could not be done.
+
+[Illustration: Plan of the after cabin of the _Spray._]
+
+The _Spray_, as I sailed her, was entirely a new boat, built over from
+a sloop which bore the same name, and which, tradition said, had first
+served as an oysterman, about a hundred years ago, on the coast of
+Delaware. There was no record in the custom-house of where she was
+built. She was once owned at Noank, Connecticut, afterward in New
+Bedford and when Captain Eben Pierce presented her to me, at the end
+of her natural life, she stood, as I have already described, propped
+up in a field at Fairhaven. Her lines were supposed to be those of a
+North Sea fisherman. In rebuilding timber by timber and plank by
+plank, I added to her free-board twelve inches amidships, eighteen
+inches forward, and fourteen inches aft, thereby increasing her sheer,
+and making her, as I thought, a better deep-water ship. I will not
+repeat the history of the rebuilding of the _Spray_, which I have
+detailed in my first chapter, except to say that, when finished, her
+dimensions were thirty-six feet nine inches over all, fourteen feet
+two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her
+tonnage being nine tons net, and twelve and seventy one-hundredths
+tons gross.
+
+I gladly produce the lines of the _Spray_, with such hints as my
+really limited fore-and-aft sailing will allow, my seafaring life
+having been spent mostly in barks and ships. No pains have been spared
+to give them accurately. The _Spray_ was taken from New York to
+Bridgeport, Connecticut, and, under the supervision of the Park City
+Yacht Club, was hauled out of water and very carefully measured in
+every way to secure a satisfactory result. Captain Robins produced the
+model. Our young yachtsmen, pleasuring in the "lilies of the sea,"
+very naturally will not think favorably of my craft. They have a right
+to their opinion, while I stick to mine. They will take exceptions to
+her short ends, the advantage of these being most apparent in a heavy
+sea.
+
+Some things about the _Spray's_ deck might be fashioned differently
+without materially affecting the vessel. I know of no good reason why
+for a party-boat a cabin trunk might not be built amidships instead of
+far aft, like the one on her, which leaves a very narrow space between
+the wheel and the line of the companionway. Some even say that I might
+have improved the shape of her stern. I do not know about that. The
+water leaves her run sharp after bearing her to the last inch, and no
+suction is formed by undue cutaway.
+
+Smooth-water sailors say, "Where is her overhang?" They never crossed
+the Gulf Stream in a nor'easter, and they do not know what is best in
+all weathers. For your life, build no fantail overhang on a craft
+going offshore. As a sailor judges his prospective ship by a "blow of
+the eye" when he takes interest enough to look her over at all, so I
+judged the _Spray_, and I was not deceived.
+
+In a sloop-rig the _Spray_ made that part of her voyage reaching from
+Boston through the Strait of Magellan, during which she experienced
+the greatest variety of weather conditions. The yawl-rig then adopted
+was an improvement only in that it reduced the size of a rather heavy
+mainsail and slightly improved her steering qualities on the wind.
+When the wind was aft the jigger was not in use; invariably it was
+then furled. With her boom broad off and with the wind two points on
+the quarter the _Spray_ sailed her truest course. It never took long
+to find the amount of helm, or angle of rudder, required to hold her
+on her course, and when that was found I lashed the wheel with it at
+that angle. The mainsail then drove her, and the main-jib, with its
+sheet boused flat amidships or a little to one side or the other,
+added greatly to the steadying power. Then if the wind was even strong
+or squally I would sometimes set a flying-jib also, on a pole rigged
+out on the bowsprit, with, the sheets hauled flat amidships, which was
+a safe thing to do, even in a gale of wind. A stout downhaul on the
+gaff was a necessity, because without it the mainsail might not have
+come down when I wished to lower it in a breeze. The amount of helm
+required varied according to the amount of wind and its direction.
+These points are quickly gathered from practice.
+
+[Illustration: Deck-plan of the _Spray_.]
+
+Briefly I have to say that when close-hauled in a light wind under all
+sail she required little or no weather helm. As the wind increased I
+would go on deck, if below, and turn the wheel up a spoke more or
+less, relash it, or, as sailors say, put it in a becket, and then
+leave it as before.
+
+[Illustration: Sail-Plan of the _Spray_ The solid lines represent the
+sail-plan of the _Spray_ on starting for the long voyage. With it she
+crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, and then crossed again southwest to
+Brazil. In South American waters the bowsprit and boom were shortened
+and the jigger-sail added to form the yawl-rig with which the rest of
+the trip was made, the sail-plan of which is indicated by the dotted
+lines The extreme sail forward is a flying jib occasionally used, set
+to a bamboo stick fastened to the bowsprit. The manner of setting and
+bracing the jigger-mast is not indicated in this drawing, but may be
+partly observed in the plans on pages 287 and 289.]
+
+To answer the questions that might be asked to meet every contingency
+would be a pleasure, but it would overburden my book. I can only say
+here that much comes to one in practice, and that, with such as love
+sailing, mother-wit is the best teacher, after experience.
+Labor-saving appliances? There were none. The sails were hoisted by
+hand; the halyards were rove through ordinary ships' blocks with
+common patent rollers. Of course the sheets were all belayed aft.
+
+[Illustration: Steering-gear of the _Spray_. The dotted lines are the
+ropes used to lash the wheel. In practice the loose ends were belayed,
+one over the other, around the top spokes of the wheel.]
+
+The windlass used was in the shape of a winch, or crab, I think it is
+called. I had three anchors, weighing forty pounds, one hundred
+pounds, and one hundred and eighty pounds respectively. The windlass
+and the forty-pound anchor, and the "fiddle-head," or carving, on the
+end of the cutwater, belonged to the original _Spray_. The ballast,
+concrete cement, was stanchioned down securely. There was no iron or
+lead or other weight on the keel.
+
+If I took measurements by rule I did not set them down, and after
+sailing even the longest voyage in her I could not tell offhand the
+length of her mast, boom, or gaff. I did not know the center of effort
+in her sails, except as it hit me in practice at sea, nor did I care a
+rope yarn about it. Mathematical calculations, however, are all right
+in a good boat, and the _Spray_ could have stood them. She was easily
+balanced and easily kept in trim.
+
+Some of the oldest and ablest shipmasters have asked how it was
+possible for her to hold a true course before the wind, which was just
+what the _Spray_ did for weeks together. One of these gentlemen, a
+highly esteemed shipmaster and friend, testified as government expert
+in a famous murder trial in Boston, not long since, that a ship would
+not hold her course long enough for the steersman to leave the helm to
+cut the captain's throat. Ordinarily it would be so. One might say
+that with a square-rigged ship it would always be so. But the _Spray_,
+at the moment of the tragedy in question, was sailing around the globe
+with no one at the helm, except at intervals more or less rare.
+However, I may say here that this would have had no bearing on the
+murder case in Boston. In all probability Justice laid her hand on the
+true rogue. In other words, in the case of a model and rig similar to
+that of the tragedy ship, I should myself testify as did the nautical
+experts at the trial.
+
+[Illustration: Body-plan of the _Spray_.]
+
+But see the run the _Spray_ made from Thursday Island to the Keeling
+Cocos Islands, twenty-seven hundred miles distant, in twenty-three
+days, with no one at the helm in that time, save for about one hour,
+from land to land. No other ship in the history of the world ever
+performed, under similar circumstances, the feat on so long and
+continuous a voyage. It was, however, a delightful midsummer sail. No
+one can know the pleasure of sailing free over the great oceans save
+those who have had the experience. It is not necessary, in order to
+realize the utmost enjoyment of going around the globe, to sail alone,
+yet for once and the first time there was a great deal of fun in it.
+My friend the government expert, and saltest of salt sea-captains,
+standing only yesterday on the deck of the _Spray_, was convinced of
+her famous qualities, and he spoke enthusiastically of selling his
+farm on Cape Cod and putting to sea again.
+
+To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough
+usage are for the most part exaggerations, as also are the stories of
+sea danger. I had a fair schooling in the so-called "hard ships" on
+the hard Western Ocean, and in the years there I do not remember
+having once been "called out of my name." Such recollections have
+endeared the sea to me. I owe it further to the officers of all the
+ships I ever sailed in as boy and man to say that not one ever lifted
+so much as a finger to me. I did not live among angels, but among men
+who could be roused. My wish was, though, to please the officers of my
+ship wherever I was, and so I got on. Dangers there are, to be sure,
+on the sea as well as on the land, but the intelligence and skill God
+gives to man reduce these to a minimum. And here comes in again the
+skilfully modeled ship worthy to sail the seas.
+
+To face the elements is, to be sure, no light matter when the sea is
+in its grandest mood. You must then know the sea, and know that you
+know it, and not forget that it was made to be sailed over.
+
+I have given in the plans of the _Spray_ the dimensions of such a ship
+as I should call seaworthy in all conditions of weather and on all
+seas. It is only right to say, though, that to insure a reasonable
+measure of success, experience should sail with the ship. But in order
+to be a successful navigator or sailor it is not necessary to hang a
+tar-bucket about one's neck. On the other hand, much thought
+concerning the brass buttons one should wear adds nothing to the
+safety of the ship.
+
+[Illustration: Lines of the _Spray_.]
+
+I may some day see reason to modify the model of the dear old _Spray_,
+but out of my limited experience I strongly recommend her wholesome
+lines over those of pleasure-fliers for safety. Practice in a craft
+such as the _Spray_ will teach young sailors and fit them for the more
+important vessels. I myself learned more seamanship, I think, on the
+_Spray_ than on any other ship I ever sailed, and as for patience, the
+greatest of all the virtues, even while sailing through the reaches of
+the Strait of Magellan, between the bluff mainland and dismal Fuego,
+where through intricate sailing I was obliged to steer, I learned to
+sit by the wheel, content to make ten miles a day beating against the
+tide, and when a month at that was all lost, I could find some old
+tune to hum while I worked the route all over again, beating as
+before. Nor did thirty hours at the wheel, in storm, overtax my human
+endurance, and to clap a hand to an oar and pull into or out of port
+in a calm was no strange experience for the crew of the _Spray_. The
+days passed happily with me wherever my ship sailed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Sailing Alone Around The World, by Joshua Slocum
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