Daylight came at length, but it brought no certainty. The
weather was so thick, between a drizzling rain, sea-mist and the
spray, that it was seldom we could see a league around us, and
frequently not half a mile. Fortunately, the general direction of the
eastern coast of Terra del Fuego, is from north-west to south-east,
always giving us room to ware off shore, provided we did not
unexpectedly get embarrassed in some one of the many deep indentations
of that wild and inhospitable shore.
Captain Williams showed great steadiness in the trying circumstances
in which we were placed. The ship was just far enough south to render
it probable she could weather Falkland Islands, on the other tack,
could we rely upon the currents; but it would be ticklish work to
undertake such a thing, in the long, intensely dark nights we had, and
thus run the risk of finding ourselves on a lee shore. He determined,
therefore, to hold on as long as possible, on the tack we were on,
expecting to get through another night, without coming upon the land,
every hour now giving us the hope that we were drawing near to the
termination of the gale. I presume he felt more emboldened to pursue
this course by the circumstance that the wind evidently inclined to
haul little by little, more to the southward, which was not only
increasing our chances of laying past the islands, but lessened the
danger from Terra del Fuego.
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