CHAPTER XIV.
_Court_--"Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which
breaks yonder?"
_Bates_.--"I think it be; but we have no great cause to desire
the approach of day."
_Will_.--"We see yonder the beginning of the day; but I think
we shall never see the end of it----"
_Henry V._
The ship did not lose her steerage-way. As soon as past the point of
the island, a gentle southerly breeze was felt; and, acting on the
spars and hull, it enabled me, by putting the helm a little up, to
keep her head off shore, and thus increase her distance from the
bay. The set of the tide did more for her than the wind, it is true;
but the two, acting in unison, carried her away from the coast at a
rate that nearly equalled two knots in the hour. This was slow moving,
certainly, for a vessel in such a strait; but it would require fifteen
or twenty minutes for the canoes to return from the creek, and make
the circuit of the island by the other channel. By that time we should
be near half a mile at sea.
Smudge, beyond a question, understood that he was in a dilemma, though
totally ignorant of some of the leading difficulties of his case. It
was plain to me he could not comprehend why the ship took the
direction of the offing, for he had no conception of the power of the
rudder.
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