"
Even I thought to myself, what would have become of us had we
stretched a _leetle_ further in! The captain, however, seemed
satisfied that he could carry the ship out, and, as this was all we
wanted, no one was disposed to be very critical. A word was said about
the launch, which the mate had ordered to be dropped astern, out of
the way, and the explanation seemed to mystify the captain. In the
meanwhile, the pork was boiling furiously in the coppers.
All hands were now called to get the anchor up. Rupert and I went
aloft to loosen sails, and we staid there until the royals were
mast-headed. In a very few minutes the cable was up and down, and then
came the critical part of the whole affair. The wind was still very
light, and it was a question whether the ship could be carried past a
reef of rocks that now began to show itself above water, and on which
the long, heavy rollers, that came undulating from the south-western
Atlantic, broke with a sullen violence that betrayed how powerful was
the ocean, even in its moments of slumbering peacefulness. The rising
and falling of its surface was like that of some monster's chest, as
he respired heavily in sleep.
Even the captain hesitated about letting go his hold of the bottom,
with so strong a set of the water to leeward, and in so light a
breeze.
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