ssing Cape Froward, to find, when broad day
appeared, that two canoes which I had eluded by sailing all night were
now entering the same bay stealthily under the shadow of the high
headland. They were well manned, and the savages were well armed with
spears and bows. At a shot from my rifle across the bows, both turned
aside into a small creek out of range. In danger now of being flanked
by the savages in the bush close aboard, I was obliged to hoist the
sails, which I had barely lowered, and make across to the opposite
side of the strait, a distance of six miles. But now I was put to my
wit's end as to how I should weigh anchor, for through an accident to
the windlass right here I could not budge it. However, I set all sail
and filled away, first hauling short by hand. The sloop carried her
anchor away, as though it was meant to be always towed in this way
underfoot, and with it she towed a ton or more of kelp from a reef in
the bay, the wind blowing a wholesale breeze.

Meanwhile I worked till blood started from my fingers, and with one
eye over my shoulder for savages, I watched at the same time, and sent
a bullet whistling whenever I saw a limb or a twig move; for I kept a
gun always at hand, and an Indian appearing then within range would
have been taken as a declaration of war. As it was, however, my own
blood was all that was spilt--and from the trifling accident of
sometimes breaking the flesh against a cleat or a pin which came in
the way when I was in haste. Sea-cuts in my hands from pulling on
hard, wet ropes were sometimes painful and often bled freely; but
these healed when I finally got away from the strait into fine
weather.

After clearing Snug Bay I hauled the sloop to the wind, repaired the
windlass, and hove the anchor to the hawse, catted it, and then
stretched across to a port of refuge under a high mountain about six
miles away, and came to in nine fathoms close under the face of a
perpendicular cliff. Here my own voice answered back, and I named the
place "Echo Mountain." Seeing dead trees farther along where the shore
was broken, I made a landing for fuel, taking, besides my ax, a rifle,
which on these days I never left far from hand; but I saw no living
thing here, except a small spider, which had nested in a dry log that
I boated to the sloop. The conduct of this insect interested me now
more than anything else around the wild place. In my cabin it met,
oddly enough, a spider of its own size