, but were a long time about it, and
after careening and filling up with water 'twixt San Carlos and Chiloe
we set sail for the Antilles. Like your brig, we were blown south. The
weather was ferocious. Gale after gale thundered down upon us, forcing
us to fly before it. We lost all reckoning of our position; for days,
for weeks, sea and sky were enveloped in clouds of snow, in the heart of
which drove our frozen schooner. We were none of us of a nationality fit
to encounter these regions; we carried most of us the curly hair of the
sun, the chocolate cheek of the burning zone, and the ice chained the
crew, crouching like Lascars, below. We swept past many vast icebergs,
which would leap on a sudden out of the white whirl of thickness, often
so close aboard that the recoil of the surge striking against the mass
would flood our decks. At all moments of the day and night we were
prepared to feel the shock of the vessel crushing her bows against one
of these stupendous hills. The cabin resounded with Salves and Aves,
with invocations to the saints, promises, curses, and litanies. The cold
does not make men of the Spaniards, who are but indifferent seamen in
temperate climes, and we were chiefly Spanish with consciences as red as
your English flag."

He grinned, emptied the pannikin, and stretched his hands to the fire to
warm them.

"One morning, the weather having cleared somewhat, we found ourselves
surrounded by ice. A great chain floated ahead of us, extending far into
the south. The gale blew dead on to this coast; we durst not haul the
schooner to the wind, and our only chance lay in discovering some bay
where we might find shelter. Such a bay it was my good luck to spy,
lying directly in a line with the ship's head. It was formed of a great
steep of ice jutting a long way slantingly into the sea, the width
between the point and the main being about a third of a mile. I seized
the helm, and shouted to the men to hoist the head of the mainsail that
she might round to when I put the helm down. But the fellows were in a
panic terror and stood gaping at what they regarded as their doom,
calling upon the Virgin and all the saints for help and mercy. Into this
bay did we rush on top of a huge sea, Trentanove and the captain and I
swinging with set teeth at the tiller, that was hard a-lee; she came
round, but with such way upon her that she took a long shelving beach of
ice and ran up it to the distance of half her own leng