Ronald Morton | Page 2

father, who was his grandson, a constant communication
was kept up with our Norse connections. I, also, have more than once
heard of them since my father's death, and have determined to become
more intimately acquainted with my relatives during this northern
voyage of ours. But where are we getting to? What with the strong tide,
and the favourable breeze, we positively fly by the land. Send for the
chart on deck, Alvarez, and let me have a look at its bearings."
The first lieutenant beckoned to a midshipman, who soon returned with
a large sea-chart, which the captain spread out on the capstan head.
"Ah! here we have this small rock--Fate Island, I see the natives call
it--away to the south-west; and that lofty bluff headland, north by west,
now shining so white, as if formed of marble, is Fitfiel Head, or the
White Mountain, I see by a note--not an unfit name either; and that high
point to the south-east again is Sumburgh Head. What bleak and barren
hills appear to the northward again! What a dreadful coast to make
during the long nights of winter!" The captain shuddered. "Unless we
find the interior more attractive, I shall wonder how my ancestors could
have had so much partiality for such a country."
"Summer or winter, in stormy weather it is not a coast a seaman would
wish to hug too closely," observed Lieutenant Alvarez; "the crews of
the ships of our great Armada found that to their cost. However, there
appear to be some good roadsteads, where, should bad weather come

on, we may be secure."
"Numbers. See what a curious shape has the mainland," observed the
captain, pointing to the chart. "It is fully twenty leagues long, and yet
there does not appear to be a point where it is more than a league across
from sea to sea. Those voes run up for a league or more, and make it
appear like some huge insect. Then what innumerable islands of all
shapes and sizes! The people should be amphibious, who live here, to
enable them to visit their neighbours: in a southern clime what a
delightful spot it might be! but in this hyperborean region, existence
must be a penalty."
"As to that, my fancy is for a southern clime," answered the lieutenant,
who, by-the-by, did not clearly comprehend all his captain's remarks;
"but I suppose as there are some animals, polar bears and arctic foxes,
who delight in snow and frost, so there are human beings who are
content to live on in this cheerless region."
"Not a bad notion, Alvarez," observed the captain, who continued
walking the deck, and talking much in the same strain with his officer.
The contrast between the two was very considerable. The captain, Don
Hernan Escalante, was a refined, highly-educated man. His knowledge
on most matters was extensive, if not profound; he spoke several
languages, and among them English, with a fluency few Spaniards
attain. Few Spaniards indeed of that day were equally accomplished.
His first lieutenant, Pedro Alvarez, was every inch a seaman, and like
many seamen despised all who were not so. Again the captain stopped
before the chart, and placing his finger on it, observed: "Here I hope we
may anchor to-night, opposite the capital, Lerwick. See, there is a long
wide sound marked with good anchorage, called Brassay Sound,
formed by the mainland and the island of Brassay. I wonder what sort
of a city is Lerwick! It of course has theatres, hotels, billiard-rooms,
and balls; these northern people are fond of dancing, I have read. We
shall have ample amusement with the fair islanders."
"The dances will be something like those of the North American
Indians, I suspect," answered the lieutenant, who might have thought
that his captain was laughing at him, when he talked of such

amusements in a country he believed so barbarous.
The corvette had got close in with Sumburgh Head, when her sails gave
several loud flaps against the masts, bulged out, then again collapsed,
and she speedily lost all steerage way. The head of the vessel, instead
of pointing, as heretofore, towards the north, now began slowly to turn
round west, and south, and east, and then, as if some secret power had
seized her keel, away she was whirled, now to the westward, and then
to the north in the direction of the towering heights of Fitfiel Head.
As the ship lay rocking to and fro under this lofty headland, which they
at length arrived at, the sea-birds flew forth in myriads from the ledges
and caverns, where, for ages past, in storm and sunshine, in winter and
summer, they have roosted undisturbed, wheeling and circling with
discordant cries round the stranger, as if to inquire why she had thus