"
"I'm amazed to hear, you say that. I'm never solitary at sea, one has
so much to do in taking care of his craft; and then he can always look
forward to the day he'll get in. But this generalizing, night and
day, without any port ahead, and little comfort in looking astarn,
will soon fit a man for Bedlam. I just: weathered Cape Crazy, I can
tell you, lads; and that, too, in the white water! As for my v'y'ge
being desperate, what was there to make it so, I should like to know?"
"You must have been twelve or fifteen hundred miles from any island
where you could look forward to anything like safety; and that is a
distance one would rather not travel all alone on the high seas."
"Pshaw! all consait. You're getting notional, Miles, now you're a
master and owner. What's a run of a thousand or fifteen hundred miles,
in a tight boat, and with plenty of grub and water? It was the easiest
matter in the world; and if it warn't for that bloody Cape Horn, I
should have made as straight a wake for Coenties' Slip, as the
trending of the land would have allowed. As it was, I turned to
windward, for I knew the savages to leeward weren't to be trusted. You
see, it was as easy as working out a day's work. I kept the boat on a
wind all day, and long bits of the night, too, until I wanted sleep;
and then I hove her to, under a reefed mainsail, and slept as sound as
a lord.
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