The Pilot | Page 4

he should find himself a souldier, and he knowing nothing
about the same."
"Hoot! mon! ye ken but little of raising an airmy in Ireland, if ye mak' a
drum o' a whiskey keg," said the drover, winking to the listeners. "Noo,
in the north, they ca' a gathering of the folk, and follow the pipes as

graciously as ye wad journey kirkward o' a Sabbath morn. I've seen a'
the names o' a Heeland raj'ment on a sma' bit paper, that ye might cover
wi' a leddy's hand. They war' a' Camerons and M'Donalds, though they
paraded sax hundred men! But what ha' ye gotten here! That chield has
an ow'r liking to the land for a seafaring body; an' if the bottom o' the
sea be onything like the top o't, he's in gr'at danger o' a shipwreck!"
This unexpected change in the discourse drew all eyes on the object
toward which the staff of the observant drover was pointed. To the utter
amazement of every individual present, a small vessel was seen moving
slowly round a point of land that formed one of the sides of the little
bay, to which the field the laborers were in composed the other. There
was something very peculiar in the externals of this unusual visitor,
which added in no small degree to the surprise created by her
appearance in that retired place. None but the smallest vessels, and
those rarely, or, at long intervals, a desperate smuggler, were ever
known to venture so close to the land, amid the sand-bars and sunken
rocks with which that immediate coast abounded. The adventurous
mariners who now attempted this dangerous navigation in so wanton,
and, apparently, so heedless a manner, were in a low black schooner,
whose hull seemed utterly disproportioned to the raking masts it upheld,
which, in their turn, supported a lighter set of spars, that tapered away
until their upper extremities appeared no larger than the lazy pennant,
that in vain endeavored to display its length in the light breeze.
The short day of that high northern latitude was already drawing to a
close, and the sun was throwing his parting rays obliquely across the
waters, touching the gloomy waves here and there with streaks of pale
light. The stormy winds of the German Ocean were apparently lulled to
rest; and, though the incessant rolling of the surge on the shore
heightened the gloomy character of the hour and the view, the light
ripple that ruffled the sleeping billows was produced by a gentle air,
that blew directly from the land. Notwithstanding this favorable
circumstance, there was something threatening in the aspect of the
ocean, which was speaking in hollow but deep murmurs, like a volcano
on the eve of an eruption, that greatly heightened the feelings of
amazement and dread with which the peasants beheld this extraordinary

interruption to the quiet of their little bay. With no other sails spread to
the action of the air than her heavy mainsail, and one of those light jibs
that projected far beyond her bows, the vessel glided over the water
with a grace and facility that seemed magical to the beholders, who
turned their wondering looks from the schooner to each other in silent
amazement. At length the drover spoke in a low solemn voice:
"He's a bold chield that steers her! and if that bit craft has wood in her
bottom, like the brigantines that ply between Lon'on and the Frith at
Leith, he's in mair danger than a prudent mon could wish. Ay! he's by
the big rock that shows his head when the tide runs low, but it's no
mortal man who can steer long in the road he's journeying and not
speedily find land wi' water a-top o't."
The little schooner, however, still held her way among the rocks and
sand-pits, making such slight deviations in her course as proved her to
be under the direction of one who knew his danger, until she entered as
far into the bay as prudence could at all justify, when her canvas was
gathered into folds, seemingly without the agency of hands, and the
vessel, after rolling for a few minutes on the long billows that hove in
from the ocean, swung round in the currents of the tide, and was held
by her anchor.
The peasants now began to make their conjectures more freely
concerning the character and object of their visitor; some intimating
that she was engaged in contraband trade, and others that her views
were hostile, and her business war. A few dark hints were hazarded on
the materiality of her construction, for nothing of artificial formation, it
was urged, would be ventured by men in such a dangerous place, at a
time when even the most inexperienced landsman