Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1889-03-22

midway out by the tackle, and, attaching o.
limo to a rngbolt in her bow, showed her
over the side, and she fell with a splash, ship
ping scarce hatful of water
| found her mast and sail-the sail fured
to the mast, as it was used to lie in her--closo
against tho stump of the mainmast and
though / sought with all tho diligence that
hurry would permit for her ruddcr, | no.
where saw it, but met with an oar that had
belonged to the other boat and this with tho
mast and sail l dropped into her, the swell
lifting her up to my hand when the blue fold
swung past.
Nv next business was to victual her |
ran to the cabin, but found the lazarette full
Of water, and mono of the provisions in it to
be como at. / thereupon ransacked the
cabin, and found whole Dutch cheese, a
piece Of raw pork, half ham, eight or ten
biscuits, some candles, a finder box, several
lemons, little bag of flour, and thirteen
bottles of beor. These things rolled up in
cloth and placed them in the boat then
took from the captains locker four jars Of
spirits, two Of which emptied that l might
fill them with fresh water. | also took with
me from the captains cabin a small boat
compass.
The heavy, sluggish soddcn movement of
the hull advised me to make haste. She was
now barely lifting to the swell that came
brimming in broad liquid blue brows to her
stem. 1t seemed as though another ton of
water would sink her; and if the swell fell
over her bows and filled the decks, down she
would go. I had a small parcel of guineas
in my chest, and was about to fetch this
money, when sort of staggering sensation
in the upward slide of the hull gave me a
fright, and watching my chance, | jumped
into the boat and cast the line that held her
adrift.
threw the oar over the stelsl of tho boat
to keep her .lear to the brig, not so much be
cause | desired TO see tho last of her as be-
cause of the shrinking of my soul wshin me
from the thought of heading in my Loneliness
into those prodigious leagues OF ocean wnlca
lay stretched under the sky
had risen to step the boats mast, and was
standing and grasping it while ! directed
slow look round the horizon, in God knows
what vain hope of beholding a sail, when, my
eye coming to the brig, | observed that she
was sinking. She went down very slowly;
there was a horrible gurgling sound of water
rushing into her, and her main deck blew mp
with a lou. clap or blast of noise | could
follow the line of her bulwarks fuctuating
and waving in the clear dark blue when she
|
pools spun round over her, but tho slowness
of her laundering was soemnly marked by
the gradual descent of the ruin of masts and
yards which were attached to the hull by
| their rigging, and which she dragged down
with her. On sudden, when the last
fragment of mast had disappeared, and when
| the hollows of the whirlpOols were flattening
! to the level surface of the sea, up rose a
| body, with sort of leap. 1t the sailor
| that had lain drowned on the starboard side
| of the forward deck. Being frozen stiff he
rose in the posture in which he had expired
that is, with his arms extended SO that,
whe nhe jumped to the surface, he came with
his hands lifted up to heaven, and thus he
stayed minute, sustained by the eddies
whchaso rovolved him.
The shock occ.sioned by this melancholy
object was so great it came near to causing
me to swoon. He sank when the water
ceased to twist him, and was unspeakingly
thankful to see him vanish, for his posture
had Gil the horror Of a spectral appeal, and
such was the state of my mind that imagina-
ton might quickly have worked the appari-
ton, had it fingered, into an instrument for
the unsettling of my reason.
rose from the scat on TO which had sunk
and loosed the sail and hauling the sheet aft
little crafts head to an easterly course. The
draught of air was extremely weak and
scarce furnished impulse enough to tho sail
TO raise n bubble alongside. The boat was
about fifteen feet long: she would be but a
small boat for summer pleasuring in Eng
lish July lake waters-yet here was | in
her in the heart of a vast ocean, many
| leagues south and west of the stormiest, most
inhospitable point of land in the world, with
distances before me almost infinite for such
a boat rs this to measure ere | could heave a
civilized coast or a habitable island into
view!
At tho start had mind to steer north
west and blow, as the wind would suffer, into
the South sea, where perchance might meet
a whaler or q Smithsonian from New HOl-
land; but my heart sanl: at the prospect of
the leagues of water which rolled between
me and the islands and the western American
seaboard, Indeed, l understood that my
only hope OF deliverance lay in being picked
up; and that, though by heading east should
be ciinging TO the stormy parts, was more
likely TO meet with ship hereabouts than by
sailing into the great desOlatiOn of the north
west The burden Of my loneliness weighed
down upon ITO so crushingly that | cannot
but consider my senses must have been some
what dulled by suffering; for had they been
active to their old accustomed height, am
persuaded my heart must have broken, and
that / should have died Of grief.
CHAPTER V.