The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-02

Everything was tried that seamanship could
suggest, but in vain Their fate was frowning
on them.
1t was about midnight when. over the
melancholy wall of the storm, wild voice
shrieked- Ell
The breakers! right aheadl"
Down the helm |"
loo late, sir; she wont obey"
save yourselves. can do no more,p said
the captain, seating himself moodily, with fold
cd arms For himself one could see he had
no desire to hive. His own blind folly had
brought his ship, his darling beautiful shin. into
Der present strait, and her fate should he his
Lake the dying standard bearer, he had wrapped
himself in the flag intrusted to him, and no one
should separate them. l .- ID ....,
Jasper, when she strikes she will 90 To
pieces IN five minutes. Jump clear of the reef.
well out to leeward, and the surf will take Won
ashore. Swim strong. Good bye"
Farewell, old Brawny Back"
lie raised himself proudly, glanced around
with kindling eye, and waved his hand, as if.
by that gesture, he meant to take leave of tlx,
world and of those he loved in it. For once in
ms HE, at this moment of danger, at this i'm
minent crisis, he felt himself a man, really and
truly man. All, thought he if but live. and
can feel thus always! And rightly, for doth
not the Greek say, "Whoso can look on Death,
will start at no shadows ?"
f.t,.i r. I'd. s.... $50
There came sudden grating sound, a shud-
der OF the tlmbers that lifted them off their feet,
a crash, wild turmoil of boiling waters, dashed
fragments, and roar of impeded surf through
all which, piercing the uproar like knife, went
the sharp, shrill one shrek and wall of the
drowning. Then followed dim sense of dan
ger, somehow, somewhere I; gasping, clutching
effort to swim a inurderous blow from some
cruel thing a dreamy vacancy floating up into
the brain as vapors interfuse and distribute
themselves under a receiver; a Willingness to
go with the wave whittier it listed, unresisting :;
a thought nevertheless struggling up amid all
tins COMA thought as broad as his past, as a
lightning flash will reveal, through the pitchy
midnight, whole countries to our staring eyes,
weirdly illumined by its sudden CHASTITY splen-
dora thought of so much done, and so little
time to undO- then, a faint impression of be-
ing somehow, somewhere seized, plucked off
bodily, while the soul Heated adown vistas of
grandeur and beauty, peopled with lovely hfe
flashing with gold, and gem, and purple !
Cleopatra's barge upon the glorious river; and
then he went out from himself, and his soul
hurtled through gray space sweeping
onward with the pinions of hooded Falcon,
with the selfexpansion of an escaped essence;
only to be brought back obedient to some sum
mons at once from without, and yet within it.
self, and in horrible anguish to reduce itself
into its narrow flesh-limits again, making the
blood abandon its quiescence, and calling back
into life and Operativeness the functions which
had battered themselves of eternal disuse, call
ing them back, with jar and clash and tortare
OF the frame beyond description thus Jasper
~, 81, L al i
find Brawny Back chatting his limbs and him.
sell wrecked mariner upon the bleak Fuegan
coast. Thank God, Ruth cannot guess it,
nor my mother We've life and limbs, b. B. !;
our chances are good yet
aye, lad we need not say die yet. But
you've had close shave of it. | thought Won
were dead"
The surviving remnant of passengers and
crew were gathered Oh the beach, sheltering
themselves from the piercing blast beneath
hug .,'oulder OF volcanic rock, in gloomy silence
despairing. The mate was the on " officer who
had got ashore. 1t was a long fiat stretch of
sandy beach upon which they stood, with the
breakers forming an uninterrupted reef outside,
except ut one point, where was considerable
inlet, sufficient could they have steered into 1t,
to have admitted the ship with ease. After
there awhile, and giving way to their
gloom, by a common impulse they set them
selves to work, scooped out "A shallow trench in
the sand, and covered up out OF sight the bodies
that the waves had flung ashore. The sea had
reserved the unfortunate Captain for its own
NAV, and returned not a token of him, except a
inscribed with his name, which the
mate, with an honorable emotion, claimed for
himself.
"What is to be done now, menu" inquired be,
as they rested from their sad Office and began to
look in each others faces. " The ship is broken
up, we have no boat, and this is Terra del Fue-
go, not famous for having visitors"
Brawny Back spoke up. A
Best get away from here as quick as posi-
BILE. The natives will be down on us like vul-
lures as soon as they find there's been wreck.
''Pshawl b. B., this land here is not nhab-
tied Why sea-gull wouldn't live hereabout
if he could help it, much less human being.
We'd better build raft or boat out of the
broken timbers-yonder lays poor Tom Bevers
tool chest-and camp here meantime. We can
live on salt horse, and there's plenty of unstove
water puncheons. That's better than footing it
over these stony ridges in search of settlements,
amt it, men2e
"Ay, ay, SIR" TIM
But B. B. spoke again. "Wil you let me
and Jasper leave you then? The crews broken
up, and the straits are not far off, and we may
meet some vessel there that will send you relief,
or may find sealing party to the north'ard.
There used to be good many of 'em further
upon the coast"
AS you please, b. b., you are your own men
now but you'd better stay by us, Jasper, and
you too, old man" f
"Will you give us cutlass apiece, and a
few biscuit, and pistol to Jasper? | see the
arm chest is hauled up, and you'll have plenty
for yourselves" |t
'!'Help YOURSELF B. b., and here's little
pocket compass l can spare you. There, now
What, off Already? Well good bye"
y"Good bye, sir"
And so, having provisioned and armed them
selves, they shook hands with their comrades in
distress with much warmth and cordiality
and, striking for the volcanic hills that rose
back of the coast, soon lost sight of the wreck
ed ships company.
We will never see them any more, Jasper,
said old Brawny Back, sadly; they're a set o
do nothings, and the mate is the biggest do
nothing Of 'em ALL But come, boy, we mus
get into the hills before the alarm spreads
abroad, or these redheaded savages will b.
numbering us before we know it. I've been OF
this coast before, Jasper-was once wrecked IL
the straits there where we're going, and saw GU
whole crew spcared by the blackamorcg; an'
they can handle spears beautilul-such har
pooncrs they would make, to be sure, if w
could only tame EN- little-and once wa
here with boats crew, seal-hunting, further t,
the north ard, where We built hut and tool
seal all winter, on an island off from the coast
and the black Injuns came out to take us there
and would done it. only we sunk some of thei
boats with swivel we'd brought to shoot hocl
seal with. So come on, Jasper, and mayhal
wen get off this coast yet, somehow" :.
ward. leaving the coast, and going through al
ascending region, with high hills in the dis