It was Marble's
opinion that, in such smooth water, do all we could, the vessel would
drive towards the much-dreaded land again, between sun and sun of that
short day, a distance of from thirty to forty miles. "Nor is this all,
Miles," he added to me, in an aside, "I no more like this 'bloody
current,' than that we had over on the other side of the pond, when we
broke our back on the rocks of Madagascar. You never see as smooth
water as this, unless when the wind and current are travelling in the
same direction." I made no reply, but there all four of us, the
captain and his three mates, stood looking anxiously into the vacant
mist on our lee-bow, as if we expected every moment to behold our
homes. A silence of ten minutes succeeded, and I was still gazing in
the same direction, when by a sort of mystic rising of the curtain, I
fancied I saw a beach of long extent, with a dark-looking waste of low
bottom extending inland, for a considerable distance. The beach did
not appear to be distant half a knot, while the ship seemed to glide
along it, as compared with visible objects on shore, at a rate of six
or eight miles the hour. It extended, almost in a parallel line with
our course, too, as far as could be seen, both astern and ahead.
"What a strange delusion is this!" I thought to myself, and turned to
look at my companions, when I found all looking, one at the other, as
if to ask a common explanation.
Pages:
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283