A First Year in Canterbury Settlement | Page 7

by two o'clock in the morning the noise of the
flapping sails, as the men were reefing them, and of the wind roaring
through the rigging, was deafening. All next day we lay hove to under a
close-reefed main- topsail, which, being interpreted, means that the
only sail set was the main-topsail, and that that was close reefed;
moreover, that the ship was laid at right angles to the wind and the
yards braced sharp up. Thus a ship drifts very slowly, and remains
steadier than she would otherwise; she ships few or no seas, and,
though she rolls a good deal, is much more easy and safe than when
running at all near the wind. Next day we drifted due north, and on the
third day, the fury of the gale having somewhat moderated, we
resumed--not our course, but a course only four points off it. The next
several days we were baffled by foul winds, jammed down on the coast
of Portugal; and then we had another gale from the south, not such a
one as the last, but still enough to drive us many miles out of our course;
and then it fell calm, which was almost worse, for when the wind fell
the sea rose, and we were tossed about in such a manner as would have
forbidden even Morpheus himself to sleep. And so we crawled on till,
on the morning of the 24th of October, by which time, if we had had
anything like luck, we should have been close on the line, we found
ourselves about thirty miles from the Peak of Teneriffe, becalmed. This
was a long way out of our course, which lay three or four degrees to the
westward at the very least; but the sight of the Peak was a great treat,
almost compensating for past misfortunes. The Island of Teneriffe lies
in latitude 28 degrees, longitude 16 degrees. It is about sixty miles long;
towards the southern extremity the Peak towers upwards to a height of
12,300 feet, far above the other land of the island, though that too is
very elevated and rugged. Our telescopes revealed serrated gullies upon
the mountain sides, and showed us the fastnesses of the island in a
manner that made us long to explore them. We deceived ourselves with
the hope that some speculative fisherman might come out to us with
oranges and grapes for sale. He would have realised a handsome sum if
he had, but unfortunately none was aware of the advantages offered,

and so we looked and longed in vain. The other islands were Palma,
Gomera, and Ferro, all of them lofty, especially Palma--all of them
beautiful. On the seaboard of Palma we could detect houses
innumerable; it seemed to be very thickly inhabited and carefully
cultivated. The calm continuing three days, we took stock of the islands
pretty minutely, clear as they were, and rarely obscured even by a
passing cloud; the weather was blazing hot, but beneath the awning it
was very delicious; a calm, however, is a monotonous thing even when
an island like Teneriffe is in view, and we soon tired both of it and of
the gambols of the blackfish (a species of whale), and the operations on
board an American vessel hard by.
On the evening of the third day a light air sprung up, and we watched
the islands gradually retire into the distance. Next morning they were
faint and shrunken, and by midday they were gone. The wind was the
commencement of the north-east trades. On the next day (Thursday,
October 27, lat. 27 degrees 40 minutes) the cook was boiling some fat
in a large saucepan, when the bottom burnt through and the fat fell out
over the fire, got lighted, and then ran about the whole galley, blazing
and flaming as though it would set the place on fire, whereat an alarm
of fire was raised, the effect of which was electrical: there was no real
danger about the affair, for a fire is easily extinguishable on a ship
when only above board; it is when it breaks out in the hold, is
unperceived, gains strength, and finally bursts its prison, that it
becomes a serious matter to extinguish it. This was quenched in five
minutes, but the faces of the female steerage passengers were awful. I
noticed about many a peculiar contraction and elevation of one
eyebrow, which I had never seen before on the living human face,
though often in pictures. I don't mean to say that all the faces of all the
saloon passengers were void of any emotion whatever.
The trades carried us down to latitude 9 degrees. They were but light
while they lasted, and left us soon. There is no wind more agreeable
than