The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-04-27
CHAPTER V.
I SIGHT A WHITE COAST.


Four days did pass in that little open boat.
The first day was fine till sunset; it then
blew fresh from tho northwest, and / was
Obliged to keep the boat before the wind.
Tho next day was dark and turbulent, with
heavy falls of snow and high swell from
the north, and the wind small gale. On the
third day the sun shone, and it was a fair
day, but horribly cold, and l saw two ice
bergs, like clouds upon the far western sea
line. There followeda cruel night of clouded
skies, sleet and snow, and very troubled
sea; and then broke tho fourth day, as softly
brilliant as an English May day, but cold
great God, how coldl
Thus might epitomize this passage; and
do so to spare you tho WEAKNESS of rela-
ton of uneventtul suffering.
In those four days mainly ran before the
wind, and in this way drove many leagues
south, though whenever a chance offered
hauled my sheet for the east. know not, I
am sure, how the boat lived. l might pre-
tend it was due TO my clever management
do not say had no share in my own pres
srvation, but to God belongs all the praise
When the third night came down with
sullen blasts sweeping into steady storming
Of wind, that swung a strong melancholy
howl through the gloom, it found me so
weak with cold, watching, and anxiety, and
the want of space wherein to rid my limbs
Of the painful cramp which weighted them
with an insupportable leaden sensation, that
had barely power to control the boat with
the oar. Ipined for sleep; one hour of slum-
Der would, l felt, give me new life-but I
burst not close my eyes. The boat was
sweeping through the dark and seething
seas, and her course had to be that of an
arrow, or she would capsize and be smothered
In breath.
Long before daybreak was exhausted.
Mercifully, the wind was scant; the stars
shone very gloriously; on high sparkled the
Cross of the southern world.
Worn out by three days and nights of suf-
fering, fell into deep sleep, and when
awoke my eyes opened right upon the blind
ing sun.
This was the morning of tho fourth day.
was without a watch. BY the height of
the sun l reckOned the hour to be 10. l
threw a languid glance at the compass and
found the boats head to be pointing north
west.
/ stood up to take view of the horizon,
and the first sight that met my eye forced q
cry from me. Extending the whole length
Of the southwest seaboard lay what took ia
be a line of white coast, melting at either
extremity into the blue, airy distance Even
at the low elevation of the boat my eye
seemed to measure thirty miles of it. 1t
was not white as chalk is; there was some
thing of a crystalline complexion upon the
face of its solidity. 1t was too far off to en-
able me to remark its outline; yet, on strain
ing my sight-the atmosphere being very ex-
quisitely clcar-I thought l could distinguish
the projections of peaks, of rounded slopes
and aerial irregularities in places which, in
the retroactive lens of the air, looked, with
their hue of CLASSY azure, like the loom of
high land behind the coastal line.
The notion that it was ice came into my
head after the first prospect of it; and then
returned to my earlier belief that it was
land.
But what landl Some large island that
had been missed by the explorers and left
uncharted! put a picture of the map of
| this part of the world before my minds eye,
and fell to an earnest consideration of it, but
could recollect of no land hereabouts-un-
less, indeed, we had been widely wrong in our
reckoning aboard the brig, and i in the boat
had been driven four or five times the dis.
lance had calculated-things not to be en-.
tertained.
| put the DOatS neau before Cne WHO, ano
steered with one hand, while l got some break
fast with the other. thanked God for the
brightness of the day and for the sight OF
that strange white line of land, that went il
glimmering blobs of faintness to the trem
bling horizon where the southern ena or II
died out.
! Meanwhile my boat sailed quietly along,
running up and down the smooth and foam
less hills of water very buoyantly, and the
sun sidled into the northwest sky and darted
reddening beam upon the coast toward
| which steered