San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-03-28


glanced at the slope behind to keep me to my
bearings, and once more sought the haven;
but the rock that had formed it was gone, the
blue swell rolled trimming past the line of
shore there, and my eye following the swing
Of fold saw the boat about three cables
length distant out upon the water, swimming
steadily away into the south, and showing
and disappearing with the heave.
l uttered cry Of anguish; clasped my
hands and lifted them to God, and looked up
to him. 1 was for kicking off my boots and
plunging into the water-but, mad as was,
was not so mad as that; and mad should
have been to attempt it, for could not swim
twenty strokes; and had been the stoutest
swimmer that ever breasted the salt spray,
the cold must speedily put an end to my mis-
cry.
The horror that this white and frightful
scene of desolation had at the beginning filled
me with, was renewed with such violence
when saw that my boat was lost, and I was
to be prisoner on the death haunted waste,
that fell down in sort Of swoon, like one
partly stunned; and had any person come
along and seen me he would have thought
me as dead as the body on the bill, or the
corpse that kept its dismal lookout from the
deck of the schooner.
My senses presently returning, got up,
and the rock upon which stood being level,
I fell to pacing it, with my hands locked be-
hind me, my head sunk, lost in thought.
By this time the boat was out of sight l
looked and looked, but she was gone. Then
came my good angel to my help, and put
some courage into me. "After al, )" thought l,
"what do dreada Death hit can but come to
that. 1t is not long ago that Capt Rosy
cried to me: "A man can die but once. He'll
not perish the quicker for contemplating his
end with stout heart He that SO spoke is
dead. The worst is over for him. Were he
q babe resting upon his mothers breast he
could not sleep more soundly, be more ten.
derby lulled, nor be freer from such anguish
as now afflicts me, who clings to life as if this
this" cried, looking around me, "were 6
paradise of warmth and beauty. must be 6
man, ask God for courage to meet whatever
may betide, and stoutly endure what cannot
be evaded."
My mind went to the schooner, yet felt
thought of seeking an asylum in her. had
the figure of her before my fancy, viewed the
form of the man on her deck, and the idea Of
shelter in facrie that time and frost and
death had wrought into black mystery, was
dreadful to me.
1t must be done, nevertheless, thought I; I
shall certainly perish from exposure if linger
here; besides, how do l know but that may
discover some means Of escaping from that
ships Assuredly there was plenty Of material
in her for the building Of boat, if could
meet with tools. Or, possibly, 1 might find
boat under matches, for it was common for
vessels Of her class and in her time to stow
their plnnaces in the hold, and when the
necessity for using them arose to hoist them
out and tow them astern. These reflections
somewhat heartened me, and / turned my
back upon the clamorous ocean and started
to ascend the slope once more
Ihelped myself along with the oar, and
presently arrived at the brink of the slope, in
whose hollow lay the ship as in a cup. The
wind made noisy bowling in her rigging;
but the tackling was frozen so iron hard that
not rope stirred, and the vane at the mast
head was as motionless as any of the adjacent
steeples or pillars Of ice My heart was dis
mayed again by the figure of man. He was
more dreadful than the other because Of the
size to which the frozen snow upon his head,
trunk and limbs had swelled him; and the
half rise of his face was particularly start
ling, as if he were in the very act of running
his gaze softly upward. That he should have
died in that easy leaning posture was strange;
however, l supposed, and no doubt rightly,
that he had been seized with sudden faint
ness and had leaned upon the rail and so ex-
pired. The cold would quickly make him
rigid and likewise preserve him, and thus he
might have been leaning, contemplating the
ice of the cliffs, for years and years
A wild and dreadful thing for one in my
condition to light on, and be forced to think
of
Ny heart, as I have said, sank in me again
at the sight of him, and fear, and ave. and
superstition so worked upon my spirits that
stood irresolute, and would have gone back
had there been any place to return to. I
plucked up after little, and, gripping the
mar, l started on the descent.
The depth was not great, nor the declivity
sharp; but the surface was formed Of blocks
of ice, like the collections of big stones you
sometimes encounter on the sides of noun
tains near the base; and 1 had again and
again to fetch a compass SO as to gain a
smaller block down which to drop, till was
close to the vessel, and here the snow had
piled and frozen into smooth face.
The ship lay with list or inclination to
larboard. l had come down to her on her
starboard side. She had small channels with
long plates; but her list on my side hove
them somewhat high, beyond my reach, and
perceived that to get aboard must seek an
entrance on the larboard hand. This was not
hard to arrive at; indeed, had but to walk