News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-07-24

Sno naQ very nlgn DOW and stern
towering Ear above the water ant
tapering toward the top. This mad
the galley look top heavy; but she wa
very broad at the water line and wa
deep qualities which made her sea
worthy.
The cabin was small, stuffy aparS
ment, without staterooms or berths
The beds were spread on the deck. The
entire ship reeked with the smell of tan
and pitch and of moldy biscuit and
salt fish and spirits. But perhaps peo-
pie who went to sea in those days had
stronger stomachs than they have now
at any rate this was the only way they
had of taking a voyage; the ships
slow and the comforts none 1t was
little consolation to those who were
tossed in such q tub as that to know
that the stern was prof1sely decorated
with gilded calgings or thatea rank tai
low taper was ever burning before the
picture of the Virgin Mary at one end
of the cabin.
The galley had three short masts
and three sails on yards hoisted from
the deck and she had an abundance of
long streamers The captain and crew
were coarse but picturesque figures
heavily bearded and brown with fight
ing the rough sea- They knew the
way to France or Holland or Spain,
although rarely sailing as far as Spain;
but of aught south of it they knew lit
tie if anything and absolutely nothing
OF what was westward. America had
not yet been discovered and the At
lantic was to them vast, vague mys-
tery
To the poor lady, flying from home
and now for the first time on the sea,
everything was SO sad and strange and
wild. Although they told her that in
three or four days at farthest they
hoped to land in sunny France yet her
heart was full of fears and many a
time she longed to be once more safe
in the home she had left behind. But
the die was cast. Even if they had
been willing to return for her sake the
winds were now contrary, and there
was nothing to do but to keep on.
But it soon became question wheth- |
er they should be able even to reach
France. 1t was now the season of |
storms, the wild month of October |
verging on winter, and the clumsy little |
galley was but ill fitted to battle with |
head winds and storms. 1t needed no |
barometer to tell the crew and passen-
gers of the galley that heavy weather
had set in for good. The white gulls
darted swiftly round the ship over the
foaming crests, the stormy petrels fol
lowed in the wake, and hour by hour
the surges and angry green swelled
higher and higher and tossed the little
ship like an egg shell, now toward the
leaden sky and now with a swift rush
into the watery abyss.
Yes it began to be question at last
not whether they should reach France
but whether they would ever again see
land or make a port.
Day afaor dsNy tf-e galley seudded un-
der rag of canvass before the furious,
hOwling nOrtheaSter, rolling her gun
wales under and shipping tons of water
that threatened to send her to the bot
tom. Every timber creakcd and groan-
ed, and every man on board vowed
candles to the virgin or promised to do
penance at the first shrine to which
he should come if only heaven would
bring him safe to land. They had no
charts of the regioEs toward which they
were heading.
One day through the mist the high
coast of Spain was seen off Cape Finis-
terre Then they knew they were
across the Bay of Biscay, and began to
hope the fury of the storm might
slacken. Never in all their experience
had the bold captain and his pilots en-
countered such weather. But the
storm continued, and still the galley
sped southwark, the winds grew warm
er and the skies more blue, but the
wind held and the surges seemed high
er than ever One of these surges
swept off the captain and several of
the crew.
At last the wind moderated, and the
sea began to grow more peaceful.
Every one was exhausted to the last
degree; they knew not where they
were, and their best navigator had
been lost. While they were debating
what course to take a sharp sighted
old salt at the mast head shouted
Land hop
Every one sprang on deck. 1t was
a surprise to every one on board, for
no one had ever seen nor ever heard OF
land in that quarter. Poor Anne
d'Arfet crept out from her couch and, |
leaning on the arm of Roger, gazed
wistfully at the gray form which rose
like a mist above the sea. A mass of
clouds brooded over the summit of the
lofty mountains, which gradually took
shape as the galley drifted toward this
unknown land. Passing around
long, lofty, rocky CAPE the ship came
under the tremendous precipices OF this
newly discovered coast, and her crew
| gazed amazed on the dense forests
which grew to the waters edge and
the cataracts which, as if from the
clouds, dropped to the sea.
But lovely and grand as was this
sublime solitude, and pleasant as 1t
was to see land once more, yee Roger
Machim was not without fear; for the
new land might be peopled by savages
and cannibals or monsters, such as DIS
turbed the imagination of the men OF
those days; and his conscience smote
him. as if he felt that Providence had
brought punishment on them all Tor
leading that fair young girl from her
English home.
The galley dropped anchor at the en-
trance of an enchanting retired cove
called from that time Machico, after
Roger Machim. The water was. deep
and beautifully blue and clear. 1t was
like molten turquois. The bottom OF
the ship could be distinctly seen from
the surface as she floated there, and 1t
locked for all the world as if it were
made of solid turquois. The fish that
darted under the keel also looked Ike
turouois fish Never on the coast OF
England had they seen any such lovely
effects in the water as one sees at Ma
deira
} Tenderly they assisted the sick ana
: careworn lady over the ships side INTO
: the boat and rowed her ashore. she
was, perhaps, the first woman who mad
stepped foot on that most witchlng Oh
, all the isles of the sea. They were,
D perhaps, the first human beings VINO
a,-or +rod on the yellow sands of that