-
 
 W. CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 tftor of " A Marriage at Sem," "The Mate of th* Vancouve, 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & CO. 
 
 407-429 DEARBOKN STREET, 
 CHICAGO.
 
 HARKAVVAY 
 SERIES OF BOOKS 
 
 BY BRACEBRIDGE HEMING. 
 
 Price, 75 Cents per Volume. 
 
 NO. TITLE. 
 
 1 Jack Harkaway's School Days. 
 
 2 Jack Harkaway After School Days. 
 
 3 Jack Harkaway Afloat and Ashore. 
 
 4 Jack Harkaway at Oxford, Part 1. 
 
 5 Jack Harkaway at Oxford, Part 2. 
 
 6 Jack Harkaway Among the Brigands, Part 1. 
 
 7 Jack Harkaway Among the Brigands, Part 2. 
 
 8 Jack Harkaway's Adventures 'Around the 
 
 World. 
 
 9 Jack Harkaway in America and Cuba. 
 
 10 Jack Harkaway's Adventures in China. 
 
 11 Jack Harkaway's Adventures in Greece, 
 
 Part 1. 
 
 12 Jack Harkaway's Adventures in Greece 
 
 Part 2. 
 
 13 Jack Harkaway's Adventures in Australia. 
 
 14 Jack Harkaway and His Boy Tinkei, Part 1. 
 
 15 Jack Harkaway and His Boy Tinker, Part 2. 
 
 For sale by all booksellers 
 
 or DONOHUE BROTHERS, 4<>7-429 Dearborn St., 
 CHICAGO.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 L The Storm 1 
 
 IL The Iceberg 8 
 
 IJL I Low My CompaaioM 80 
 
 IV. I Quit the Wreck ... 87 
 
 V. I Bight a White Coae* . . . 84 
 
 VL An Inland of Ice -..., 43 
 
 TIL I am Startled by a DLwrrerjr ... 4 
 
 VHL The Frozen Schooner . ... 46 
 
 IX, I Lose my Boat 73 
 
 X. Another Startling Diacorery ... ti 
 
 XL I Make Farther DiacoTerie. . 87 
 
 XII. A Lonely Night ..... 106 
 
 XIIL I Explore the Hold and Foreeaatle . 188 
 
 TTV, An Extraordinary OOOVRMM* , . . 1SS 
 
 XV. The Pirate'* Story 14T 
 
 TVI. I Hear of a Great TMOTM IfT 
 
 XVIL The Treasure 181 
 
 XYIIL We Talk OT oar 8itotte . . . Iff 
 
 XIX. We Take a View f th I*e , . . T 
 
 XX, A Merry Evening 117 
 
 XXL We Explore the Mine* . . . JSt 
 
 XXIL A Chang* Comet Orer the HWukjaM . 363 
 
 XXIII. The Ice Break* Away S67 
 
 XXIV. The Frenchman Die* .... 880 
 XXV. The Schooner Free* Henelf .... 894 
 
 XX VL I am Troubled by Thought* of tke TIMMM 311 
 
 XXVIL I Encounter a Whaler . . - . . . .382 
 
 XXVIIL I Strike a Bargain with the TaakM . . 337 
 
 XXIX, I Value the Lading ... ,861 
 
 XXX. Our Progrwfl to the CkaaMi , , 94 
 
 XXXI The KM . . 174 
 
 Peefawriy* , Iff 
 
 2138123
 
 CHAPTER I; 
 
 THK STORM. 
 
 THE Laughing Mary was a light ship, as 
 sailors term a vessel that stands high upon the 
 water, having discharged her cargo at Callao, 
 from which port we were proceeding in ballast to 
 Cape Town, South Africa, there to call for orders. 
 Our run to within a few parallels of the latitude of 
 the Horn had been extremely pleasant; the pro- 
 verbial mildness of the Pacific Ocean was in the 
 mellow sweetness of the wind and in the gentle 
 undulations of the silver-laced swell ; but scarce 
 had we passed the height of forty-nine degree? 
 when the weather grew sullen and dark, a heavy 
 bank of clouds of a livid hue rose in the north- 
 east, and the wind came and went in small guns, 
 the gusts venting themselves in dreary moans v 
 insomuch that our oldest hands confessed they 
 had never heard blasts more portentous. 
 
 The gale came on with some lightning and 
 several claps of thunder and heavy rain. Though 
 it was but two o'clock in the afternoon, the air 
 was so dusky that the men had to feel for the 
 ropes ; and when the first of the tempest stormed 
 down upon us the appearance of the sea was 
 uncommonly terrible, being swept and mangled 
 into boiling froth in the north-east quarter, whilst
 
 t THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 all about us and in the south-west it lay m a sort 
 of swollen huddle of shadows, glooming into the 
 darkness of the sky without offering the smallest 
 glimpse of the horizon. 
 
 In a few minutes the hurricane struck us. We 
 had bared the brig down to the close-reefed main- 
 topsail ; yet, though we were dead before the 
 outfly, its first blow rent the fragment of sail as 
 if it were formed of smoke, and in an instant it 
 disappeared, flashing over the bows like a 
 scattering of torn paper, leaving nothing but the 
 bolt-ropes behind. The bursting of the topsail was 
 like the explosion of a large cannon. In a breath 
 the brig was smothered with froth toni up in huge 
 clouds, and hurled over and ahead of her in vast 
 quivering bodies that filled the wind with a dismal 
 twilight of their own, in which nothing was visi- 
 ble but their terrific speeding. Through these 
 slinging, soft, and singing masses of spume drove 
 the ram in horizontal steel-like lines, which 
 gleamed in the lightning stroke as though indeed 
 they were barbed weapons of bright metal, darted 
 by armies of invisible spirits raving out their war 
 cries as they chased us. 
 
 The storm made a loud thunder in the sky, and 
 this tremendous utterance dominated without sub- 
 duing the many screaming, hissing, shrieking, and 
 hooting noises raised in the rigging and about the 
 decks, and the wild, seething, weltering sound of 
 the sea, maddened by the gale and struggling in 
 us enormous passion under the first choking and 
 iron grip of the hurricane's hand. 
 
 I had used the ocean for above ten jr*rt, but
 
 TMM STMLM. I 
 
 never had I encountered anything suddener or 
 fiercer in the form of weather than this. Though 
 the wind blew from the tropics it was as cruel 
 in bitterness as frost. Yet there was neither snow 
 nor hail, only rain that seemed to pass like a 
 knife through the head if you showed your face 
 to it for a second. It was necessary to bring the 
 brig to the wind before the sea rose. The helm 
 was put down, and without a rag of canvas on her 
 she came round; but when she brought the 
 hurricane fair abeam, I thought it was all over 
 with us. She lay down to it until her bulwarks 
 were under water, and the sheer-poles in the 
 rigging above the rail hidden. 
 
 In this posture she hung so long that Captain 
 Rosy, the master, bawled to me to tell the 
 carpenter to stand by to cut away the topmast 
 rigging. But the Laughing Mary, as the 
 brig was called, was a buoyant ship and lightly 
 sparred, and presently bringing the sea on the 
 bow, through our seizing a small tarpaulin in the 
 weather main -shrouds, she erected her masts 
 afresh, like some sentient creature pricking 
 its ears for the affray, and with that showed 
 herself game and made indifferently good weather 
 of it. 
 
 But though the first rage of the storm was 
 terrible enough, its fierceness did not come to its 
 height till about one o'clock in the middle watch. 
 Long before then the sea had grown mountainous, 
 and the dance of our eggshell of a brig upon i; 
 sickening and affrighting. The h- 
 Andean peaks of black water loo ..>jgh
 
 4 THB FROM* Fiaxm 
 
 to brush the lowering soot of the heavens with 
 the blue and yellow phosphoric fires which 
 sparkled ghastly amid the bursting froth. Bodies 
 of foam flew like the flashings of pale sheet- 
 lightning through our rigging and over us, and a 
 dreadful roaring of mighty surges in mad career, 
 and battling as they ran, rose out of the sea to 
 deepen yet the thunderous bellowing of the 
 hurricane on high. 
 
 No man could show himself on deck and 
 preserve his life. Between the rails it was waist 
 nigh, and this water, converted by the motions of 
 the brig into a wild torrent, had its volume 
 perpetually maintained by ton-loads of sea falling 
 in dull and pounding crashes over the bows on to 
 the forecastle. There was nothing to be done 
 but secure the helm and await the issue below, for, 
 if we were to be drowned, it would make a more 
 easy foundering to go down dry and warm in the 
 cabin, than to perish half-frozen and already 
 nearly strangled by the bitter cold and flooded 
 tempest on deck. 
 
 There was Captain Rosy ; there was myself, by 
 name Paul Rodney, mate of the brig; and there 
 were the remaining seven of a crew, including the 
 carpenter. We sat in the cabin, one of us from 
 time to time clawing his way up the ladder to peer 
 through the companion, and we looked at one 
 another with the melancholy of malefactors 
 waiting to be called from their cells for the last 
 jaunt to Tyburn. 
 
 " May God have mercv upon us 1 " cries the 
 carpenter. " There must be an earthquake iiuido
 
 TOT STOBM. 
 
 thit storm. Something more than wind is going 
 to the making of these seas. Hear that, now ( 
 naught less than a forty-foot chuck-up could ha' 
 ended in that souse, mates." 
 
 " A man can die but once/ 1 says Captain Rosy, 
 " and he'll not perish the quicker for looking at 
 his end with a stout heart ; and with that he put 
 his hand into the locker on which he had been 
 sitting and pulled out a jar of whisky, which, 
 after putting his lips to it and keeping them 
 glued there whilst you could have counted twenty, 
 he handed to me, and so it went round, coming 
 back to him empty. 
 
 I often have the sight of that cabin in my 
 mind's eye ; and it was not long afterwards that 
 it would visit me as such a vision of comfort, I would 
 with a grateful heart have accepted it with tenfold 
 darker conditions of danger, had it been possible 
 to exchange my situation for it. A lantern hung 
 from a beam, and swung violently to the rolling and 
 pitching of the brig. The alternations of its light 
 put twenty different meanings, one after another, 
 into the settled dismal and rueful expressions in the 
 faces of my companions. We were clad in warm 
 clothes, and the steam rose from the damp in our 
 coats and trousers like vapour from wet straw. 
 The drink mottled some of our faces, but the 
 spirituous tincture only imparted a quality of irony 
 to the melancholy of our visages, as if our 
 mournfulness were not wholly sincere, when, God 
 knows, our hearts were taken up with counting 
 the minutes when we should find ourselves 
 bursting for want of breath under water.
 
 
 
 Thus K continued till daybreak, all which time 
 we strove to encourage one another as best we 
 could, sometimes with words, sometimes with 
 putting the bottle about. It was impossible for 
 any of us at any moment to show more than our 
 noses above the companion ; and even at that you 
 needed the utmost caution, for the decks being 
 full of water, it was necessary to await the lurch 
 of the vessel before moving the slide or cover to 
 the companion, else you stood to drown the 
 cabin. 
 
 Being exceedingly anxious, for the brig lay 
 unwatched, I looked forth on one occasion longer 
 than the others chose to venture, and beheld the 
 most extravagant scene of raging commotion it 
 could enter the brain of man to imagine. The night 
 was as black as the bottom of a well ; but the pro- 
 digious swelling and flinging of white waters hove a 
 faintness upon the air that was in its way a dim 
 light, by which k was just possible to distinguish 
 the reeling masts to the height of the tops, and to 
 observe the figure of the brig springing black and 
 trembling out of the head of a surge that had 
 broken over and smothered her as in a cauldron, 
 and to note the shapes ' of the nearer liquid 
 acclivities as they bore down upon our weather 
 bow, catching the brig fair under the bluff, and so 
 sloping her that she seemed to stand end on, and 
 so heeling her that the sea would wash to the 
 height of the main hatch. Indeed, had she been 
 loaded, and therefore deep, she could not have lived 
 *n hour in that hollow and frightful ocean; but 
 g nothing in her but ballast she was like a
 
 THE STORM. 7 
 
 biaddci \ and swung up the surges and blew away 
 to leeward like an empty cask. 
 
 When the dawn broke something of iti 
 midnight fury went out of the gale. The 
 carpenter made shift to sound the well, and to our 
 great satisfaction found but little water, only as 
 much a& we had a right to suppose she would take 
 in above. But it was impossible to stand at the 
 pumps, so we returned to the cabin and brewed 
 some cold punch and did what we could to keep 
 our spirits hearty. By noon the wind had 
 weakened yet, but the sea still ran very heavily, 
 and the sky was uncommonly thick with piles of 
 dusky, yellowish, hurrying clouds ; and though 
 we could fairly reckon upon our position, the 
 atmosphere was so nipping it was difficult to 
 persuade ourselves that Cape Horn was not close 
 aboard. 
 
 We could now work the pumps, and a short 
 spell freed the brig. We got up a new main- 
 topsail and bent it, and, setting the reefed foresail, 
 put the vessel before the wind, and away she ran, 
 chased by the swollen seas. Thus we continued 
 till by dead reckoning we calculated that we 
 were about thirty leagues south of the parallel of 
 the Horn, and in longitude eighty-seven degrees 
 west. We then boarded our larboard tacks and 
 brought the brig as close to the wind as it was 
 proper \> lay her for a progress that should not 
 be wholly leeway; but four hours after we had 
 handled the braces the gale, that had not veered 
 two points since it first came on to blow, stormed 
 up again into its first fury ; and the momm
 
 TUB Pfton* 
 
 tit of July, anno 1801, found the Langking 
 Mary passionately labouring in the midst of an 
 enraged Cape Horn sea, her jibboom and fore 
 top-gallant mast gone, her ballast shifted, so that 
 her posture even in a calm would have exhibited 
 her with her starboard channels under, and her 
 decks swept by enormous surges, which/fetching 
 her larboard bilge dreadful blows, thundered in 
 mighty green masses over her. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ICEBERG. 
 
 THE loss of the spars I have named was no great 
 matter, nor were we to be intimidated by such 
 weather as was to be expected off Cape Horn. 
 For what sailor entering this icy and tempestuous 
 tract of waters but knows that here he must 
 expect to find Nature in her most violent moods, 
 crueller and more unreckonable than a mad 
 woman, who one moment looks with a silent 
 sinister sullenness upon you, and the next is 
 shrieking with devilish laughter as she makes as 
 if to spnng upon you ? 
 
 But there was an inveteracy in the gale which 
 had driven us down to this part that bore heavily 
 upon our spirits. It was impossible to trim the 
 ballast. We dared not veer so as to bring the 
 hip on the other tack. And the slopa of the 
 decks, added to the fierce wild motions of the 
 fabric, made our situation as unendurable as that 
 of one who should be confined in a cask and sent 
 rolling downhill. It was impossible to light a fire.
 
 Tn 
 
 and we could not therefore dress our food or 
 obtain a warm drink. The cold was beyond 
 language severe. The rigging was glazed with 
 ice, and great pendants of the silvery brilliance 
 of crystal hung from the yards, bowsprit, and 
 catheads, whilst the sails were frozen to the 
 hardness of granite, and lay like sheets of iron 
 rolled up in gaskets of steel. We had no means 
 of drying our clothes, nor were we able so to move 
 as by exercise we might keep ourselves warm. 
 Never once did the sun shine to give us the 
 encouragement of his glorious beam. Hour after 
 hour found us amid the same distracting scene : 
 the tall olive-coloured seas hurling out their rage 
 in foam as they roared towards us in ranges of 
 dissolving cliffs ; the wind screaming and whistling 
 through our grey and frozen rigging; the water 
 washing in floods about our decks, with the ends 
 of the running gear snaking about in the torrent, 
 and the live stock lying drowned and stiff in their 
 coops and pen near the caboose. 
 
 With helm lashed and yards pointed to the 
 wind thus we lay, thus we drifted, steadily 
 trending with the send of each giant surge further 
 and deeper into the icy regions of the south-west, 
 helpless, foreboding, disconsolate. 
 
 It was the night of the fourth day of the month. 
 The crew were forward in the forecastle, and I 
 knew not if any man was on deck saving myself. 
 In truth, there was no place in which a watch 
 could be kept, if it were not in the companion 
 hatch. Such was the violence with which the 
 seas broke over the brig that it was at the risk of
 
 jo TTTF PROZFN PTRATTI. 
 
 his life a man crawled the distance betwixt 
 
 e and the Quarter-deck. It had been as 
 thick as mud all Jay, and now upon this flying 
 gloom of haz, sleet, and spray had descended 
 the blackness of the night. 
 
 I stood in the companion as in a sentry-box, 
 with my eyes just above the cover. Nothing wai 
 to be seen but sheets of ghostly white water 
 sweeping up the blackness on the vessel's lee, or 
 breaking and boiling to windward. It was sheet 
 blind chaos to the sight, and you might have 
 supposed that the brig was in the midst of some 
 enormous vaporous turmoil, so illusive and 
 indefinable were the shadows of the storm- 
 tormented night one block of blackness melting 
 into another, with sometimes an extraordinary 
 faintness of light speeding along the dark sky like 
 to the dim reflection of a lanthorn flinging its 
 radiance from afar, which no doubt must have 
 been thr *on of some particular bright and 
 
 extensive bed of foam upon a sooty belly on high, 
 hanging lower than the other clouds, 1 say, you 
 might hav^ thought yourself in the midst of some 
 hellish conflict of vapour but for the substantial 
 thun the surges upon the vessel and the 
 
 shriek of the slung masses of water flying like 
 cannon balls I; ;he masts. 
 
 After a long look round into the 
 
 obscurii froth, I went below for 
 
 mthful of .md a bite of supper, the 
 
 hour being rigi in the second dog watch 
 
 as v .ht o'clock in the evening. 
 
 The captain and carpenter were in the cabin.
 
 Tn 
 
 Upon the swing-tray over the table were a piece 
 of corned beef, some biscuit, and a bottle of 
 Hollands. 
 
 "Nothing to be seen, I suppose, Rodney?" 
 says the captain. 
 
 " Nothing," I answered. " She looks well up, 
 and that's all that can be said." 
 
 " I've been hove to under bare poles more than 
 once in my time," said the carpenter, " but never 
 through so long a stretch. I doubt if you'll find 
 many vessels to look up to it as this here 
 Laughing Mary does." 
 
 1 The loss of hamper forward will make her the 
 more weatherly," says Captain Rosy. " But we're 
 in an ugly part of the globe. When bad sailors 
 die they're sent here, I reckon. The worst 
 nautical sinner can't be hove to long off the Horn 
 without coming out of it with a purged soul. He 
 must start afresh to deserve further punishment." 
 
 "Well, here's a breeze that can't go on blowing 
 much longer," cries the carpenter. " The place 
 it comes from must give out soon, unless a new 
 trade wind's got fixed into a whole gale for this 
 here ocean." 
 
 ' What southing do you allow our drift will be 
 giving us, captain ? " I asked, munching a piece 
 of beef. 
 
 "All four mile an hour," he answered. "If 
 this goes on I shall look to make some discoveries. 
 The Antarctic circle won't be far off presently, 
 and sincp you're a scholar, Rodney, I'll leave you 
 to d^ j's inside of it, though boi! 
 
 don't ha iming of the taliess
 
 it THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 see, I've a mind to be known after I'm dead, and 
 
 there's nothing like your signature on a mountain 
 to be remembered by." 
 
 He grinned and put his hand out for the bottle, 
 and after a pull passed it to the carpenter. I 
 guessed by his jocosity that he had already been 
 making somewhat free; for although I love a 
 bold face put upon a difficulty, ours was a situation 
 in which only a tipsy man could find food for 
 merriment. 
 
 At this instant we were startled by a wild and 
 fearful shout on deck. It sounded high above 
 the sweeping and seething of the wind and the 
 hissing of the lashed waters, and it penetrated the 
 planks with a note that gave it an inexpressible 
 character of anguish. 
 
 "A man washed overboard!" bawled the 
 carpenter, springing to his feet. 
 
 " No 1 " cried I, for ray younger and shrewder 
 ear had caught a note in the cry that persuaded 
 me it was not as the carpenter said ; and in an 
 instant the three of us jumped up the ladder and 
 gained the deck. 
 
 The moment I was in the gale the same 
 affrighted cry rang down along the wind from 
 some man forward : " For Gotfs sak* tumbU up 
 before we are upon it I" 
 
 'What do you see?" I roared, sending my 
 voice, trumpet-fashion, through my hands; for 
 as to my own and the sight of Captain Rosy and 
 the carpenter, why, it was like being struck blind 
 to come on a sudden out of the lighted cabin into 
 the black night.
 
 THE ICEBERG. 13 
 
 Any reply that might have been attempted was 
 choked out by the dive of the brig's head into a 
 sea, which furiously flooded her forecastle and^came 
 washing aft like milk in the darkness till it was 
 up to our knees. 
 
 " See there 1 " suddenly roared the carpenter. 
 
 " Where, man, where?" bawled the captain. 
 
 But in this brief time my sight had grown used 
 to the night, and I saw the object before the 
 carpenter could answer. It lay on our lee beam, 
 but how far off no man coula have told in that 
 black thickness. It stood against the darkness 
 and hung out a dim complexion of light, or rather 
 of pallidness, that was not lijght not to be 
 described by the pen. It was like a small hill of 
 snow, and looked as snow does or the foam of the 
 sea in darkness, and it came and went with our 
 soaring and sinking. 
 
 " Ice ! " I shouted to the captain. 
 
 " I see it ! " he answered, in a voice that 
 satisfied me the consternation he was under had 
 settled the fumes of the spirits out of his head. 
 " We must drive her clear at all risks." 
 
 There was no need to call the men. To the 
 second cry that had been raised by one among 
 them who had come out of the forecastle and seen 
 the berg, they had tumbled up as sailors will when 
 they jump for their lives ; and now they came 
 staggering, splashing, crawling aft to us, for the 
 lamp in the cabin made a sheen in the companion 
 hatch, and they could see us as we stood there. 
 
 "Men," cried Captain Rosy, " yonder 1 s a 
 gravestone for our carcases if we are not lively 1
 
 1 4 THE FROZEN PIXATI. 
 
 Cast the helm adrift ! " (we steered by * tfller) 
 ' Two hands stand by it. Forward, some of ye, 
 and loose the stay-foresail, and show the head of 
 it." 
 
 The fellows hung in the wind. I could not 
 wonder. The bowsprit had been sprung when the 
 jibboom was wrenched from the cap by the fall of 
 the top-gallant-mast; it still had to bear the 
 weight of the heavy spritsail vard, and the drag 
 of the staysail might carry tne spar overboard 
 with the men upon it. Yet it was our best chance ; 
 the one sail most speedily released and hoisted, 
 the one that would pay the brig's head off 
 quickest, and the only fragment that promised to 
 stand. 
 
 " Jump ! ' roared the captain, in a passion of 
 hurry. " Great thunder ! 'tis close aboard ! 
 You'll leave me no sea room for veering if you 
 delay an instant." 
 
 " Follow me who will ! " I cried out ; " and 
 others stand by ready to hoist away." 
 
 Thus speaking for there seemed to my mind 
 a surer promise of death in hesitation at this 
 supreme moment than in twenty such risk 
 laying out on the bowsprit signified I made for 
 the lee of the weather bulwarks, and blindly 
 hauled myself forward by such pins and ge;r 
 came to my hands. -A man might spend 
 life on the ocean and never have to deal with 
 a passage as this. It was not the bitter 
 only, though perhaps of its full fierceness th 
 wildness of my feelings did not suffer p 
 sensible; it was the pouring of volumes of water
 
 THE ICEBERG. 15 
 
 upon me from over the rail, often tumbling upon 
 my head with such weight as nearly to beat the 
 breath out of my body and sink me to the deck ; 
 it was the frenzy excited in me by the tremendous 
 obligation of despatch and my retardment by the 
 washing seas, the violent motions of the brig, the 
 encumbrance of gear and deck furniture adrift 
 and sweeping here and there, and the sense that 
 the vessel might be grinding her bows against the 
 iceberg before I should be able to reach the 
 bowsprit. All this it was that filled me with a 
 kind of madness, by the sheer force of which 
 alone I was enabled to reach the forecastle, for 
 had I gone to my duty coldly, without agitation 
 of spirits, my heart must have failed me before 
 I had measured half the length of the brig. 
 
 I got on to the bowsprit nearly stifled by. the 
 showering of the seas, holding an open knife 
 between my teeth, half dazed by the prodigious 
 motion of the light brig, which, at this extreme 
 end of her, was to be felt to the full height of its 
 extravagance. At every plunge I expected to be 
 buried, and every moment I was prepared to be 
 torn from my hold. It was a fearful time ; the 
 falling off of the brig into the trough and never 
 was I in a hollower and more swelling sea her 
 falling off, I say, in the act of veering might end 
 us out of hand by the rolling of a surge over us 
 big enough to crush the vessel down fathoms 
 out of sight ; and then there was that horrible 
 heap of faint whiteness leaping out of the dense 
 blackness of the sky, gathering a more risible 
 sharpness of outline with every liquid heare that
 
 i$ THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 forked us high into the flying night with shrieking 
 
 rigging and boiling decks. 
 
 Commending myself to God, for I was now to 
 let go with my hands, I pulled the knife from my 
 teeth, and feeling for the gaskets or lines which 
 bound the sail to the spar, I cut and hacked as 
 fast as I could ply my arms. In a flash the gale, 
 whipping into a liberated fold of the canvas, blew 
 the whole sail out ; the bowsprit reeled and qui- 
 vered under me ; I danced off it with incredible 
 despatch, shouting to the men to hoist away. 
 The head of the staysail mounted in thunder, 
 and the slatting of its folds and the thrashing 
 of its sheet was like the rattling of heavy field- 
 pieces whisked at full gallop over a stony 
 road. 
 
 " High enough 1 " I bawled, guessing enough 
 was shown, for I could not see. " Get a drag 
 upon the sheet, lads, and then aft with you for 
 your lives ! " 
 
 Scarce had I let forth my breath in this cry 
 when I heard the blast as of a gun, and knew by 
 that the sail was gone; an instant after wash 
 came a mountainous sea sheer over the weather 
 bulwarks fair betwixt the fore and main rigging ; 
 but happily, standing near the fore shrouds, I was 
 holding on with both hands to the topsail 
 halliards whilst calling to the men, so that being 
 under the rail, which broke the blow of the sea, 
 and holding on too, no mischief befell me, only 
 that for about twenty seconds I stood in a 
 horrible fury and smother of frothing water, 
 hearing nothing, seeing nothing, with every
 
 Tn Ionia. if 
 
 iecufcy ! e se numbed and dufled by 
 wet, cold, and horror of our situation, that I knew 
 not whether in that space of time I was in the 
 least degree sensible of what had happened or 
 what might befall 
 
 The water leaving the deck, I rallied, though 
 half-drowned, and staggered aft, and found the 
 helm deserted, nor could I see any signs of my 
 companions. I rushed to the tiller, and putting 
 my whole weight and force to it, drove it up to 
 windward and secured it by a turn of its own 
 rope ; for ice or no ice and for the moment I 
 was so blinded by the wet that I could not see the 
 berg my madness now was to get the brig 
 before the sea and out of the trough, advised by 
 every instinct in me that such another surge as 
 that which had rolled over her must send her to 
 the bottom in less time than it would take a man 
 to cry O God ! " 
 
 A figure came out of the blackness on the lee 
 side of the deck. 
 
 "Who is that? 1 * said he. It was Captain 
 Rosy. 
 
 I answered. 
 
 " What, Rodnev I alive ? " cried he. * I think 
 I have been struct insensible." 
 
 Two more figures came crawling aft. Then 
 two more. They were the carpenter and three 
 seamen. 
 
 I cried put, " Who was at the helm when that 
 sea was shipped ? 
 
 A man answered, " Me, Thomas lebHng." 
 
 "Where's your mate?" I ailed | M* fc
 
 ll Tn FROtBB PHUT*. 
 
 seemed to me that I was the only man who had 
 his senses full just then. 
 
 " He was washed forward along with me/' he 
 replied. 
 
 Now a fifth man joined us, but before I could 
 question him as to the others, the captain, with a 
 scream like an epileptic's cry, shrieked, " It's all 
 over with us I We are upon it ! " 
 
 I looked and perceived the iceberg to be within 
 a musket-shot, whence it was clear that it 
 been closer to us when first sighted than the 
 blackness of the night would suffer us to dis- 
 tinguish. In a time like this at sea events throng 
 so fast they come in a heap, and even if the 
 intelligence were not confounded by the uproar 
 and peril, if indeed it were as placid as in any time 
 of perfect security, it could not possibly take note 
 of one-tenth that happens. 
 
 I confess that, for my part, I was very nearly 
 paralyzed by the nearness of the iceberg, and 
 by the cry of the captain, and by the per- 
 ception that there was nothing to be d 
 That which I best recollect is the appeararu 
 the .mass of ice lying solidly, like a little is. 
 upon the seas which roared in creaming \\\ 
 about it. Every blow of the black and an 
 surge was reverberated in a dull hollow trt 
 back to the ear through the hissing flight of 
 gale. The frozen body was not taller than 
 mastheads, yet it showed like a mountain han 
 over us as the brig was flung swirling < 
 deep Pacific hollow, leaving us staring up ; 
 out of the instant's stagnation of the trough
 
 THI IcriEma. if 
 
 lips set breathlessly and with dying eyes, it put 
 a kind of film of faint light outside the lines of its 
 own shape, and this served to magnify it, and it 
 showed spectrally in the darkness as though it 
 reflected some visionary light that came neither 
 from the sea nor the sky. These points I re- 
 collect ; likewise the maddening and maddened 
 motion of our vessel, sliding towards it down one 
 midnight declivity to another. 
 
 All other features were swallowed up in the 
 agony of the time. One monstrous swing the 
 brig gave, like to some doomed creature's last 
 delirious struggle ; the bowsprit caught the ice 
 and snapped with the noise of a great tree 
 crackling in fire. I could hear the masts breaking 
 overhead the crash and blows of spars and 
 yards torn down and striking the hull ; above all 
 the grating of the vessel, that was now head on 
 to the sea and swept by the billows, broadside on, 
 along the sharp and murderous projections. Two 
 monster seas tumbled over the bows, floated me 
 off my legs, and dashed me against the tiller, 
 to which I clung. I heard no cries. I regained 
 my feet, clinging with a death-grip to the tiller, 
 and, seeing no one near me, tried to holloa, to 
 know if any man were living, but could not make 
 my voice sound. 
 
 The fearful grating noise ceased on a sudden, 
 and the faintness of the berg loomed upon the 
 starboard bow. We had been hurled clear of it 
 and were to leeward ; but what was our condi- 
 tion ? I tried to shout again, but to no purpose ; 
 and was in the act of quitting the tiller to go
 
 SO THI PKOZKN PIRAT* 
 
 forward when I was struck over the browi by 
 something from aloft a block, as I believe and 
 fell senseless upon the deck. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I LOSS MY COMPANIONS. 
 
 I LAY for a long while insensible; and that I 
 should have recovered my mind instead of dying 
 in that swoon I must ever account as the greatest 
 wonder of a life that has not been wanting in the 
 marvellous. I had no sooner sat up than all that 
 had happened and my present situation instantly 
 came to me. My hair was stiff with ice ; there 
 was no more feeling in my hands than had they 
 been of stone ; my clothes weighed upon me like 
 a suit of armour, so inflexibly hard were they 
 frozen. Yet I got upon my legs, and found that 
 1 could stand and walk, and that life flowed warm 
 in my veins, for all that I had been lying motion- 
 less for an hour or more, laved by water that 
 would have become ice had it been still. 
 
 It was intensely dark ; the binnacle lamp was 
 extinguished, and the light in the cabin burned 
 too dimly to throw the faintest colour upon the 
 hatchway. One thing I quickly noticed, that the 
 gale had broken and blew no more than a fresh 
 breeze. The sea still ran very high, but though 
 every surge continued to hurl its head of snow, 
 and the heavens to resemble ink from contrast with 
 the passage, as it seemed, close under them of 
 these pallid bodies, there was less spite in its
 
 I fcOU MY COM* AXIOMS. 11 
 
 wash, less fury in its blow. The multitudinous 
 roaring of the heaving blackness had sobered 
 into a hard and sullen 'growling, a sound as of 
 thunder among mountains heard in a valley. 
 
 The brig pitched and rolled heavily. Much of 
 the buoyancy of her earlier dance was gone out 
 of her. Nevertheless, I could not persuade 
 myself that this sluggishness was altogether due 
 to the water she had taken in. It was wonderful, 
 however, that she should still be afloat. No man 
 could have heard the rending and grating of her 
 side against the ice without supposing that every 
 plank in it was being torn out. 
 
 Finding that I had the use of my voice, I 
 holloaed as loudly as I could, but no human note 
 responded. Three or four times I shouted, giving 
 some of the people their names, but in vain. 
 Father of mercy ! I thought, what has come to 
 pass ? Is it possible that all my companions 
 have been washed overboard ? Certainly, five 
 men at least were living before we fouled the ice. 
 And again I cried out, "Is there any one alive? " 
 looking wildly along the black decks, and putting 
 so much force into my voice with the con- 
 sternation that the thought of my being alone 
 laised in me, that I had like to have burst a 
 Dlood-vessel. 
 
 My loneliness was more terrible to me than any 
 other condition of my situation. It was dreadful 
 to be standing d with cold, in utter 
 
 darkness, uj ks of a hull wallow- 
 
 ing miserably amid the black hollows and eager 
 foaming peaks of the_ labouring sea, convinced
 
 22 TUB FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 that she was slowiy filling, and that at any 
 moment slu might go ,down*with me ; it was 
 dreadful, I say, to be thus placed, and to feel that 
 I was in the heart of the rudest, most desolate 
 space of sea in the world, into which the commerce 
 of the earth dispatched but few ships all the year 
 round. But no feature of my lamentable situation 
 so affrighted me, so worked upon the passions of 
 my mind, as my loneliness. Oh, for one com- 
 panion, even one only, to make me an echo for 
 mine own speech ! Nay, God Himself, the merciful 
 Father of all, even He seemed not ! The black- 
 ness lay like a pall upon the deep, and upon my 
 soul. Misery and horror were within that shadow, 
 and beyond it nothing that ray spirit could look 
 up to! 
 
 I stood for some moments as one stunned, and 
 then my manhood trained to some purpose by 
 the usage of the sea reasserted itself ; and may- 
 be I also got some slender comfort from observ- 
 ing that, dull and heavy as was the motion of the 
 brig, there was yet the buoyancy of vitality in her 
 manner of mounting the seas, and that, after all, 
 her case might not be so desperate as was 
 threatened by the way in which she had been torn 
 and precipitated past the iceberg. At moments 
 when she plunged the whiteness of the water 
 creaming upon the surges on either hand threw 
 out a phantom light of sufficient power to enable 
 me to see that the forward part of the brig was 
 littered with wreckage, which served to a certain 
 extent as a br?rj/ water by preventing the seas, 
 which washed on to the forecastle, from cascading
 
 I ju>st MY COMPANIONS. a 3 
 
 with their former violence aft ; also that the whole 
 length of the main and top masts lay upon the 
 larboard rail and over the side, held in that 
 position by the gear attached to them. This was 
 all that I could distinguish, and of this only the 
 most elusive glimpse was to be had. 
 
 Feeling as though the very marrow in my bones 
 were frozen, I crawled to the companion and, pull- 
 ing open the door, descended. ' The lamp in the 
 companion burnt faintly. There was a clock 
 fixed to a beam over the table ; my eyes directly 
 sought it, and found the time twenty minutes 
 after ten. This signified that I had ten or eleven 
 hours of darkness before me ! 
 
 I took down the lamp, trimmed it, and went to 
 the lazarette hatch at the after end of the 
 cabin. Here were kept the stores for the crew. 
 I lifted the hatch and listened, and could hear the 
 water in the hold gurgling and rushing with every 
 lift of the brig's bows ; and I could not question 
 from the volume of water which the sound 
 indicated that the vessel was steadily taking it in, 
 but not rapidly. I swallowed half a pannikin of 
 the hollands for the sake of the warmth and life of 
 the draught, and entering my cabin, put on thick 
 dry stockings, first chafing my feet till I felt the 
 blood in them ; and I then, with a seaman's 
 dispatch, shifted the rest of my apparel, and can- 
 not express how greatly I was comforted by the 
 change, though the jacket and trousers I put on 
 were still damp with the soaking of previous days. 
 To render myself as waterproof as possible for 
 it was the wet clothes against the skin that made
 
 24 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 the cold so cruel I took from the captain's cabin 
 a stout cloak and threw it over me, enveloping my 
 head, which I had cased in a warm fur cap, with 
 the hood of it ; and thus equipped I lighted a 
 small hanJ-lantern that was used on dark nights 
 for heaving the log, that is, for showing how 
 the sand runs in the glass, and carried it on 
 deck. 
 
 The lantern made the scene a dead, grave-like 
 black outside its little circle of illumination; 
 nevertheless its rays suffered me to guess at the 
 picture of ruin the decks offered. The main mast 
 was snapped three or 'four feet above the deck, 
 and the s:ump of it showed as jagged and barbed 
 as a wild beast's teeth. But I now noticed that 
 the weight of the hamper being on the lar- 
 board side, balanced the list the vessel took 
 from her shifted ballast, and that she floated on a 
 level keel with her bows fair at the sea, whence I 
 concluded that a sort of sea-anchor had been 
 formed ahead of her by the wreckage, and that it 
 held her in that posture, otherwise she must 
 certainly have fallen into the trough. 
 
 I moved with extreme caution, casting the 
 lantern light before me, sometimes starting at a 
 sound that resembled a groan, then stopping to 
 steady myself during some particular wild leap 
 of the hull ; until, coming abreast of the main 
 hatch, the rays' of the lantern struck upon a 
 man's body, which, on my bringing the flame to 
 his face, proved to be Captain Rosy. There was 
 a wound over his right brow ; and as if that had 
 not sufficed to slay him, the fail of the masts had.
 
 I LOSJB MY COMfANIOMS, 
 
 tn some wonderful n whipped a' rope 
 
 several times r binding his arms 
 
 andy encircling his tightly, that no 
 
 executioner could ! ae more artistically to 
 
 work to pinion 
 
 Under a mass of rigging in the larboard 
 scuppers lay two bodies, as I could just faintly 
 discern; it was impossible to put the lantern 
 close enough to either one of them to distinguish 
 his face, nor had I the strength even if I had pos- 
 sessed the weapons to extricate them, for they lay 
 under a whole body of shrouds, complicated by a 
 mass of other gear, against which leaned a portion 
 of the caboose. I viewed them long enough to 
 satisfy my mind that they were dead, and then 
 with a heart of lead turned away. 
 
 I crossed to the starboard side, where the deck 
 was comparatively clear, and found the body of a 
 seaman named Abraham V\ r the fore-hatch. 
 
 This man had probably been stunned and drowned 
 by the sea that filled the deck after I loosed the 
 staysail. These were all of our people that I could 
 find ; the others I sup; d been washed by 
 
 the water or knocked by sparsoverboard. 
 
 I returned to the quart* and sat down 
 
 in the companion way for the i;hdter of it and to 
 think. No language that 1 have command of 
 could put before you trre that possessed 
 
 me as I sat medii / situation and 
 
 recalling the faces of the The wind was 
 
 rapidly falling, and wit; but the motion 
 
 of the brig continue J large swell 
 
 having been set running by the long, fierce gale
 
 a4 THB FBOCBV Poum 
 
 that wmt gone; and there being no uproar of 
 tempest in the sky to confound the senses, I 
 could hear a hundred harsh and melancholy 
 groaning and straining sounds rising from the 
 hull, with now and again a mighty blow as from 
 some spar or lump of ice alongside, weighty 
 enough, you would have supposed, to stave the 
 ship. But though the Laughing Mary was not 
 a new vessel, she was one of the stoutest of her 
 kind ever launched, built mainly of oak and put 
 together by an honest artificer. Nevertheless her 
 continuing to float in her miserably torn and 
 mangled condition was so great a miracle, that, 
 spite of my poor shipmates having perished and 
 my own state being as hopeless as the sky was 
 starless, I could not but consider that God's 
 hand was very visible in this business. 
 
 I will not pretend to remember how I passed 
 the hours till the dawn came. I recollect of 
 frequently stepping below to lift the hatch of the 
 lazarette, to judge by the sound of the quantity 
 of water in the vessel. That she was filling I 
 knew well, yet not leaking so rapidly but that, 
 had our crew been preserved, we might easily 
 have kept her free, and made shift to rig up jury 
 masts and haul us as best we could out of these 
 desolate parallels. There was, however, nothing 
 to be done till the day broke. I had noticed the 
 jolly-boat bottom up near the starboard gangway, 
 and so far as I could make out by throwing the 
 dull lantern light upon her she was sound ; but 
 I could not have launched her Without seeing 
 what 1 was doing, and even had I managed this,
 
 I QUIT THI WECK, 7 
 
 she stood to be swamped and ! to be drowned. 
 And, in sober truth, so horrible was the prospect 
 of going adrift in her without preparing for the 
 adventure with oars, sail, mast, provisions, and 
 water most of which, by the (amplight only, 
 were not to be come at amid the hideous muddle 
 of wreckage that sooner than face it I was 
 perfectly satisfied to take my chance of the hulk 
 sinking with me in her before the sun rose, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE east grew pale and grey at last. The sea 
 rolled black as the night from it, with a rounded 
 smooth-backed swell ; the wind was spent ; only 
 a small air, still from the north-east, stirred. 
 There were a few stars dying out in the dark 
 west; the atmosphere was clear, and when the 
 sun rose I knew he would turn the sable pall over- 
 head into blueness. 
 
 The hull lay very deep. I had at one time, 
 during the black hours, struck into a mournful 
 calculation, and reckoned that the brie would 
 float some two or three hours after sunrise ; but 
 when the glorious beam flashed out at last, and 
 transformed the ashen hue of dawn into a cerulean 
 brilliance and a deep of rolling sapphire, I 
 started with sudden terror to observe how close 
 the covering-board sat upon the water, and how 
 the head of every swell ran past as high as the 
 bulwark rail. 
 
 Yet for a few moments I stood contemplating
 
 a8 
 
 the scene of ruin. It was visible now to its most 
 trifling detail, The foremast was gone smooth 
 off at the deck ; it lay over the starboard bow ; 
 and the topmast floated ahead of the hull, held by 
 the gear. Many feet of bulwarks were crushed 
 level ; the pumps had vanished ; the caboose 
 was gone ! A completer nautical ruin I had 
 never viewed. 
 
 One extraordinary stroke 1 quickly detected. 
 The jolly-boat had lain stowed in the long-boat; 
 it was thus we carried those boats, the little one 
 lying snugly enough in the other. The sea that 
 had flooded our decks 'had floated the jolly-boat 
 out of the long-boat, and swept it bottom up to 
 the gangway where it lay, as though God's mercy 
 designed it should be preserved for my use ; for, 
 not long after it had been floated out, the brig 
 struck the berg, the masts fell and there lay the 
 long-boat crushed into staves ! 
 
 This signal and surprising intervention filled my 
 heart with thankfulness, though my spirits sank 
 again at the sight of my poor drowned shipmates. 
 But, unless I had a mind to join them, it was 
 necessary I should speedily bestir myself. So 
 after a minute's reflection I whipped out my 
 knife, and cutting a couple of blocks away from 
 the raffle on deck, I rove a line through them, and 
 so made a tackle, by the help of which I turned 
 the jolly-boat over : I then with a handspike 
 prised her nose to the gangway, secured a bunch 
 of rope on either side Her to act as fenders or 
 buffers when she should be launched and lying 
 alongside, ran her midway out by the tackle, ana,
 
 I QUIT THE WRECK. 19 
 
 attaching a line to a ring-bolt in her bow, shoved 
 her over the side, and she fell with a splash, 
 shipping scarce a hatful of water. 
 
 I found her mast and sail the sail furled to the 
 mast, as it was used to lie in her close against 
 the stump of the mainmast; but though I sought 
 with all the diligence that"hurry would permit for 
 her rudder, I nowhere saw it, but I met with an 
 oar that had belonged to the other boat, and this 
 with the mast and sail I dropped into her, the 
 swell lifting her up to my hand when the blue 
 fold swung past. 
 
 My next business was to victual her. I ran to 
 the cabin, but the lazarette was full of water, 
 and none of the provisions in it to be come at. 
 I thereupon ransacked the cabin, and found a 
 whole Dutch cheese, a piece of raw pork, half a 
 ham, eight or ten biscuits, some candles, a tinder- 
 box, several lemons, a little bag of flower, 
 and thirteen bottles of beer. These things I 
 rolled up in a cloth and placed them in the 
 boat, then took from the captain's locker four 
 jars of spirits, two of which I emptied that I 
 might fill them with fresh water. I also took 
 with me from the captain's cabin a small boat 
 compass. 
 
 The heavy, sluggish, sodden movement of the 
 hull advised me to make haste. She was now 
 barely lifting to the swell that came brimming in 
 broad liquid blue brows to her stem. It seemed 
 as though another ton of water would sink her; 
 and if the swell fell over her bows and filled the 
 decks, down she would go. I had a small parcel
 
 jo THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 of guineas in my chest, and was about to fetch 
 this money, when a sort of staggering sensation 
 in the upward slide of the hull gave me a fright, 
 and, watching my chance, I jumped into the boat 
 and cast the line that held her adrift. 
 
 The sun was an hour above the horizon. The 
 sea was a deep blue, heaving very slowly, though 
 you felt the weight of the mighty ocean in every 
 fold ; and eastwards, the shoulders of the swell, 
 catching the glorious reflection of the sun, hurled 
 the splendour along, till all that quarter of the sea 
 looked to be a mass of leaping dazzle. Upon the 
 eastern sea-line lay a range of white clouds, 
 compact as the chalk cliffs of Dover; threads, 
 crescents, feather-shapes of vapour of the daintiest 
 sort, shot with pearly lustre, floated overhead very 
 high. It was in truth a fair and pleasant morning 
 of an icy coldness indeed, but the air being dry, 
 its shrewdness was endurable. Yet was it a 
 brightness to fill me with anguish by obliging 
 me to reflect how it would have been with us had 
 it dawned yesterday instead of to-day. My 
 companions would have been alive, and yonder 
 sinking ruined fabric a trim ship capable of bearing 
 us stoutly into warm seas and to our homes at last. 
 I threw the oar over the stern of the boat to 
 keep her near to the brig, not so much because I 
 desired to see the last of her, as because of 
 the shrinking of my soul within me from the 
 thought of heading in my loneliness into those 
 prodigious leagues of ocean which lay stretched 
 under the sky. Whilst the hull floated she was 
 something to hold on to, no to say, *omthing
 
 I QUIT THE WRICK, |1 
 
 for the eye amid the vastness of water to rest upon, 
 omething to take out of the insufferable feeling 
 of solitude the poisonous sting of conviction. 
 
 But her end was at hand. I had risen to step 
 the boat's mast, and was standing and grasping 
 it whilst I directed a slow look round the horizon 
 in God knows what vain hope of beholding a sail, 
 when my eye coming to the brig, I observed that 
 she was sinking. She went down very slowly ; 
 there was a horrible gurgling sound of water 
 rushing into her, and her main deck blew up with 
 a loud clap or blast of noise. I could follow the 
 line of her bulwarks fluctuating and waving in 
 the clear dark blue when she was some feet 
 under. A number of whirlpools spun round over 
 her, but the slowness of her foundering was 
 solemnly marked by the gradual descent of the ruins 
 of masts and yards which were attached to the hull 
 by their rigging, and which she dragged down 
 with her. "On a sudden, when the last fragment of 
 mast had disappeared, and when the hollows of the 
 whirlpools were flattening to the level surfac> 
 the sea, up rose a body, with a sort of leap. It 
 was the sailor that had lain drowned on the 
 starboard side of the forward deck. Being frozen 
 stiff he rose in the posture in which he had 
 expired, that is, with his arms extended ; so that, 
 when he jumped to the surface, he came with his 
 hands lifted up to heaven, and thus he stayed a min- 
 ute, sustained by the eddies which also revolved him, 
 
 The shock occasioned by this melancholy object 
 was so great, it came near to causing me to swoon. 
 He sank when the water ceased to twist him,
 
 3 THE FROZBH PIIAT*. 
 
 and I was unspeakingly thankful to see htm 
 vanish, for his posture had all the horror of a 
 spectral appeal, and such was the state of my 
 mind that imagination might quickly have worked 
 the apparition, had it lingered, into an instrument 
 for the unsettling of my reason. 
 
 I rose from the seat on to which I had sunk and 
 loosed the sail, and hauling the sheet aft, put the 
 oar over the stern, and brought the little craft's 
 head to an easterly course. The draught of air 
 was extremely weak, and scarce furnished impulse 
 enough to the sail to raise a bubble alongside. 
 The boat was about fifteen feet long ; she would be 
 but a small boat for summer pleasuring in English 
 July lake-waters, yet here was I in her in the heart 
 of a vast ocean, many leagues south and west 
 of the stormiest, most inhospitable point of land 
 in the world, with distances before me almost 
 infinite for such a boat as this to measure ere ] 
 could heave a civilized coast or a habitable island 
 into view 1 
 
 At the start I had a mind to steer north-west 
 and blow, as the wind would suffer, into the South 
 Sea, where perchance I might meet a whaler or a 
 Southseaman from New Holland ; but my heart 
 sank at the prospect of the leagues of water which 
 rolled between me and the islands and the western 
 American seaboard. Indeed I understood that 
 my only hope of deliverance lay in being pi 
 up ; and that, though by heading east I should be 
 clinging to the stormy parts, I was more likely to 
 meet with a ship hereabouts tjian by sailing into 
 the great desolation of the north- west. The
 
 I QOIT TIII 
 
 ^PW 
 
 burden of my loneliness weighed down upon me 
 so crushingly that I cannot but consider my 
 senses must have been somewhat dulled by 
 suffering, for had they been active to their old 
 accustomed height, I am persuaded my heart 
 must have broken and that 1 should have died of 
 grief. 
 
 Faintly as the wind blew, it speedily wafted me 
 out of sight of the floating relics of the wreck, 
 and then all was bare, bald, swelling sea and 
 empearled sky, darkening in lagoons of azure 
 down to the soft mountainous masses of white 
 vapour lying like the coast of a continent on the 
 larboard horizon. But one living thing there was 
 besides myself: a grey-breasted albatross, of a 
 princely width of pinion. I had not observed it 
 till the hull went down, and then, lifting my eyes 
 with involuntary sympathy in the direction pointed 
 to by the upraised arms of the sailor, I observed 
 the great royal bird hanging like a shape of 
 marble directly over the frothing eddies. It was 
 as though the spirit of the deep had taken form 
 in the substance of the noblest of all the fowls of 
 its dominions, and, ; poised on tremorless wings, 
 was surveying with .the cold curiosity of an 
 intelligence empty of human emotion the 
 destruction of one of those fabrics whose unequal 
 contests and repeated triumphs had provoked its 
 haughty surprise. The bird quitted the spot of 
 the wreck after a while and followed me. Its eyes 
 had the sparkling blood-red gleam of rubies. It 
 was as silent as a phantom, and with arched neck 
 and motionless plunks seemed to watch me with
 
 34 Tm FROZEN Pi HAT*. 
 
 arnestness that presently grew insufferable. 
 So far from finding any comfort of companion- 
 ship in the creature, methought if it did not 
 speeuily break from the motionless posture in 
 which it rested on its seat of air, and remove its 
 piercing gaze, it would end in crazing me. I felt 
 a sudden rage, and, jumping up, shouted and 
 shook my fist at it. This frightened the thing. 
 It uttered a strange salt cry the very note of a 
 gust of v.ind splitting upon a rope flapped its 
 wings, and after a turn or two sailed away into the 
 -north. 
 
 I watched it till its figure melted into the bl 
 atmosphere, and then sank trembling into 
 sternsheets of the boat. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 I SIGHT A WHITR COAST. 
 
 FOUR days did I pass in that little open boat, f.^ 
 The first day was fine till sunset ; it then blew 
 fresh from the north-west, and I was obliged to 
 keep the boat before the wind. The next day was 
 dark and turbulent, with heavy falls of snow And a 
 high swell from the north, and the wind af small 
 gale. On the third dav the sun shone, and it was 
 a fair day, but horribly cold, and 1 saw two 
 icebergs like clouds upon the far western sea- 
 line. There followed a cruel night of clouded 
 skies, sleet, and snow, and a very troubled sea ; 
 and then broke the fourth day, as softly brilliant 
 as an English May day, but cold great God, 
 how cold 1
 
 I SIGHT A WHITB COAST. 35 
 
 Thus might I epitomize this passage; and I do 
 so to spare you the weariness of a relation of 
 uneventful suffering. 
 
 In those four days I mainly ran before the 
 wind, and in this way drove many leagues south, 
 though whenever a chance offered I hauled my 
 sheet for the east I know not, I am sure, how 
 r the boat lived. I might pretend it was due to my 
 clever management I do not say I had no share 
 in my own preservation, but to God belongs all 
 the praise. 
 
 In the blackness of the first night the sea 
 boiled all about me. The boat leapt into 
 hollows in which the sail slapped the mast. One 
 look behind me at the high dark curl of the 
 oncoming surge had so affrighted me that I 
 never durst turn my head again lest the sight 
 should deprive me of the nerve to hold the oar 
 with which I steered. I sat as squarely as the 
 task of steering would suffer, trusting that if a sea 
 should tumble over the stern my back would serve 
 as a breakwater, and save the boat from being 
 \vamped. The whole sail was on her, and I could 
 not help myself ; for it would have been certain 
 death- to quit the steering oar for an instant. It 
 was this that saved me, perhaps ; for the 
 boat blew along with such prodigious speed, 
 running to the height of a sea as though she 
 meant to dart from that eminence into the air, 
 that the slope of each following surge swung like 
 a pendulum under her, and though her sail was 
 becalmed in the trough so 
 
 great that she was speeding up the ac
 
 36 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 catching the whole weight of the wind afresh 
 before there was time for her to lose way. 
 
 I was nearly dead with cold and misery when 
 the morning came, but the sparkling sun and the 
 blue sky cheered me, and as wind and sea fell 
 with the soaring of the orb, I was enabled to 
 flatten aft the sheet and let the boat steer herself 
 whilst I beat my arms about for warmth and broke 
 my fast. When I look back I wonder that I 
 should have taken any pains to live. That it is 4 
 possible for the human mind at any period of its 
 existence to be absolutely hopeless I do not 
 believe ; but I can very honestly say that when I 
 gazed round upon the enormous sea I was in, and 
 considered the size of my boat, the quantity of 
 my provisions, and my distance (even if I was 
 heading that way) from the nearest point of land, 
 I was not sensible of the faintest stirring of hope, 
 and viewed myself as a dead man. 
 
 No bird came near me. Once I spied the back 
 of a great black fish about a quarter of a mile off. 
 The wetness of it caught the sunshine and re- 
 flected it like a mirror of polished steel, and the 
 flash was so brilliant it might have passed foi a 
 bed of white fire floating on the blue heavings. 
 But nothing more that was living did I meet, and 
 such was the vastness of the sea over which my 
 little keel glided, in the midst of which I sat 
 abandoned by the angels, that for utter loneliness 
 I might have been the very last of the human race. 
 
 When the third night came down with sullen 
 blasts sweeping into a steady storming of wind, 
 that swung a strong melancholy howl through.
 
 I fiGirr A WHITI COAST, 37 
 
 the gloom, it found me so weak with cold, watch- 
 ing, and anxiety, and the want of space wherein 
 to rid my limbs of the painful cramp which 
 weighted them with an insupportable leaden sen- 
 sation, that I had barely power to control the boat 
 with the oar. I pined for sleep ; one hour oi 
 slumber would, I felt, give me new life, but 1 
 durst not close my eyes. The boat was sweep- 
 ing through the dark and seething seas, and her 
 course had to be that of an arrow, or she would 
 capsize and be smothered in a breath. 
 
 Maybe I fell something delirious, for I had 
 many strange and frightful fancies. Indeed I 
 doubt not it was the spirit of madness that is 
 certainly tonical when small which furnished 
 strength enough to my arm to steer with. It was 
 like the action of a powerful cordial in my blood, 
 and the very horrors it fed my brain with were an 
 animation to my physical qualities. The gale 
 became a voice ; it cried out my name, and every 
 shout of it past my ear had the sound of the word 
 Despair!' I witnessed the forms of huge 
 phantoms flying over the boat ; I watched the 
 beating of their giant wings of shadow and heard 
 the thunder of their laughter as they fled ahead, 
 leaving scores of like monstrous shapes to follow. 
 There was a faint lightning of phosphor in the 
 creaming heads of the ebon surges, and my sick 
 imagination twisted that pallid complexion into 
 the dim reflection of the lamps of illuminated 
 pavilions at the bottom of the sea ; mystic palaces 
 of green marble, radiant cities in the measureless 
 kingdoms of the ocean gods. I had a fancy of roofa
 
 $1 TMB FROZKN PtiAm 
 
 oi pearl below, tun te coral, pave- 
 
 ments of rainbow lu shootings and 
 
 dartingsof the hues of shells inclined and trembled 
 to the sun. I thought I could behold the move- 
 ments of shapes as indeterminable as the forms 
 which swarm in dreams, human brows crowned 
 with gold, the cold round emerald eyes of fish, 
 the creamy breasts of women, large outlines 
 slowly floating upwards, making a deeper black- 
 ness upon the blackness like the dye of the 
 electric storm upon the velvet bosom oi midnight. 
 Often would I shrink from side to side, starting 
 from a fancied apparition leaping into terrible 
 being out of some hurling block of liquid ob- 
 scurity. 
 
 Once a light shone upon the masthead. At 
 any other time I should ha*ve known this to be a 
 St. Elmo's fire, a corposant, the ignis fatuus of 
 the deep, and nailed it with a seaman's faith in 
 its promise of gentle weather. But to my dis- 
 tempered fancy it was a lanthorn hung up by i 
 spirit hand ; I traced the dusky curve of an arm 
 and observed the busy twitching of visionary 
 fingers by the rays of the ghostly light ; the out- 
 line of a large face of a blanrl and sorrowful 
 expression, pallid as any foam-flake whirling past, 
 came into the sphere of those graveyard rays. I 
 shrieked and shut my eyes, and when I looked 
 again the light was gone. 
 
 Long before daybreak I was exhausted. Mer- 
 cifully, the wind was scant ; the stars shone very 
 gloriously ; on high sparkled the Cross of the 
 southern world. A benign influence seemed to
 
 I SIGHT A WHITI COAST. 39 
 
 steal into me out of its silver shining ; the craze 
 fell from me, and I wept. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, worn out by three days and 
 nights of suffering, I fell into a deep sleep, and 
 when I awoke my eyes opened 'right upon the 
 blinding sun. 
 
 This was the morning of the fourth day. I 
 was without a watch. By the height of the sun I 
 reckoned the hour to be ten. I threw a languid 
 glance at the compass and found the boat's head 
 pointing north-west ; she fell off and came to, 
 being without governance, and was scarcely sail- 
 ing therefore. The wind was west, a very light 
 breeze, just enough to put a bright twinkling into 
 the long, smooth folds of the wide and weighty 
 swell that was rolling up from the north-east. I 
 tried to stand, but was so benumbed that man) 
 minutes passed before I had the use of my legs. 
 Brightly as the sun shone there was no moie 
 warmth in his light than you find in a moon- 
 beam on a frosty night, and the bite in the air 
 was like the pang of ice itself pressed against the 
 cheek. My right hand suffered most; I had 
 fallen asleep clasping the loom of the steering 
 oar, and when I awoke my fingers still gripped it, 
 so that, on withdrawing them, they remained 
 curved like talons, and I believed I had lost their 
 use, and even reckoned they would snap off and 
 so set up a mortification, till by much diligent 
 robbing I grew sensible of a small glow which, 
 increasing, ended in rendering the joints supple, 
 
 I stood up to lake a view of the horizon, aa4 
 life first sight that met my *yt forced a cty IMS*.
 
 4O THE FROTEW PIRATH. 
 
 me. Extending the whole length of the south- 
 west seaboard lay what I took to be a line oi 
 white coast melting at either extremity into the 
 blue airy distance. Even at the low elevation of 
 the boat my eye seemed to measure thirty miles 
 of it. It was not white as chalk is ; there was 
 something of a crystalline complexion upon the 
 face of its solidity. It was too far off to enable 
 me to remark its outline; yet on straining my 
 sight the atmosphere being very exquisitely 
 clear I thought I could distinguish the projec- 
 tions of peaks, of rounded slopes, and aerial 
 angularities in places which, in the refractive lens 
 of the air, looked, with their hue of glassy azure, 
 like the loom of high land behind the coastal 
 line. 
 
 The notion that it was ice came into my head 
 after the first prospect of it ; and then I returned 
 to my earlier belief that it was land. Methought 
 if it were ice, it must be the borderland of the 
 Antarctic circle, the limits of the unfrozen ocean, 
 for it was incredible that so mighty a body could 
 signify less than the capes and terraces of a con- 
 tinent of ice glazing the circumference of the pole 
 for leagues and leagues ; but then I also knew 
 that, though first the brig and then my boat had 
 been for days steadily blown south, I was still to 
 the north of the South Shetland parallels, and 
 many degrees therefore removed from the polar 
 bamer. Hence I concluded that what I saw wai 
 land, and that the peculiar crystal shining of it wai 
 caused by the snow that covered it. 
 
 But what land? Some large island that had
 
 1 SIGHT A WHITE COAST. 41 
 
 been missed by the explorers and left uncharted ? 
 I put a picture of the map of this part of the 
 world before my mind's eye, and fell to an earnest 
 consideration of it, but could recollect of no land 
 hereabouts, unless indeed we had been wildly 
 wrong in our reckoning aboard the brig, and I in 
 the boat had been driven four or five times the 
 distance I had calculated things not to be enter- 
 tained. 
 
 Yet even as a mere break in the frightful and 
 enduring continuity of the sea-line even as some- 
 thing that was not sea nor sky nor the cold silent 
 and mocking illusion of clouds it took a cha- 
 racter of blessedness in my eyes ; my gaze hung 
 upon it joyously, and my heart swelled with a new 
 impulse of life in my breast. It would be strange, 
 I thought, if on approaching it something to 
 promise me deliverance from this dreadful situa- 
 tion did not offer itself some whaler or trader at 
 anchor, signs of habitation and of the presence of 
 men, nay, even a single hut to serve as a refuge 
 from the pitiless cold, 'the stormy waters, the 
 black, lonely, delirious watches of the night, till 
 help should heave into view with the white canvas 
 of a ship. 
 
 I put the boat's head before the wind, and 
 steered with one hand whilst I got some breakfast 
 with the other. I thanked God for the brightness 
 of the day and for the sight of that strange white 
 line of land, that went in glimmering blobs of 
 faintness to the trembling horizon where the 
 southern end of it died out. The swell rose full 
 . and brimming ahead, rolling in sapphire hills out
 
 41 Tut FROZEN FIRATI. 
 
 of the northeast, as I have said, whence I inferred 
 that that extremity of the land did not extend very 
 much further than I could see it, otherwise there 
 could not have been so much weight of water as I 
 found in the heaving. 
 
 The breeze blew lightly and was the weaker for 
 my running before it ; but the little line of froth 
 that slipped past either side the boat gave me to 
 know that the speed would not be less than four 
 miles in the hour ; and as I reckoned the land to 
 be but a few leagues distant, I calculated upon 
 being ashore some little while before sundown. 
 
 In this way two hours passed. By this time 
 the features of the coast were tolerably distinct. 
 Yet I was puzzled. There was a peculiar sheen 
 all about the irregular sky-line ; a kind of pearly 
 whitening, as it were, of the heavens beyond, like 
 to the effect produced by the rising of a very 
 delicate soft mist melting from a mountain's brow 
 into the air. This dismayed me. Still I cried to 
 myself, ' It must be land ! All that whiteness is 
 snow, and the luminous tinge above it is the re- 
 flection of the glaring sunshine thrown upwards 
 from the dazzle. It cannot be ice I 'tis too mighty 
 a barrier. Surely no single iceberg ever reached 
 to the prodigious proportions of that coast. And 
 it cannot be an assemblage of bergs, for there is 
 no break it is leagues of solid conformation. 
 Oh yes, it is land, sure enough ! some island whose 
 tops and seaboard are covered with snow. But 
 what of that? It may be populated all the same. 
 Are the northern kingdoms of Europe bare of life 
 because of the winter rigours ? ' And then
 
 Aw ISLAVD or Id. 41 
 
 thought to myself, if that island have natives, I 
 would rather encounter them as the savages of 
 an icebound country than as the inhabitants of a 
 land of sunshine and spices and radiant vegeta- 
 tion ; for it is the denizens of the most gloriously 
 fair ocean seats in the world who are man-eaters ; 
 not the Patagonian, giant though he be, nor the 
 blubber-fed anatomies of the ice-climes. 
 
 Thus 1 sought to reassure and comfort myself. 
 Meanwhile my boat sailed quietly along, running 
 up and down the smooth and foamless hills ol 
 water very buoyantly, and the sun slided into the 
 north-west sky and darted a reddening beam upoa 
 the coast towards which I steered. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AN ISLAND OP 1C*. 
 
 I HAD to approach the coast within two miles 
 before I could satisfy my mind of its nature, and 
 then all doubt left me. 
 
 It was ice I a mighty crescent of it *s was now 
 in a measure gatherable, floating upon the dark 
 blue waters like the new moon upon the field of 
 the sky. 
 
 For a great while I had struggled with my 
 misgivings, so tyrannically will hope lord it even 
 over conviction itself, until it was impossible for 
 me to any longer mistake. And then, when I 
 knew it to be ice, I asked myself what other thing 
 I expected it should prove, seeing that this ocean 
 had been plentifully navigated since Cook's time 
 and no land discovered where I was ; aad I
 
 *4 TIIF FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 myself a fool and cursed the hope that had cheated 
 me, and, in short, gave way to a violent outburst 
 of passion, and was indeed so wild with grief and 
 rage that, had my ecstasy been but a very little 
 greater, I must have jumped overboard, so great 
 was my loathing of life then, and the horror the 
 sight of the ice filled me with. 
 
 Indeed, you cannot conceive how shocking to 
 me was the appearance of that great gleaming 
 length of white desolation. On the deck of a 
 stout ship sailing safely past it I should have 
 found the scene magnificent, I doubt not ; for the 
 sun, being low with westering, shone redly, and the 
 range of ice stood in a kind of gold atmosphere 
 which gave an extraordinary richness to the 
 shadowings of its rocks and peaks, and a 
 particular fullness of mellow whiteness to its 
 lustrous parts, softening the dazzle into an 
 airy tenderness of brightness, so that the whole 
 mass shone out with the blandness visible in a 
 glorious star. But its main beauty lay in those 
 features by which I knew it to be ice I mean in a 
 vast surprising variety of forms, such as steeples, 
 towers, columns, pyramids, ruins as it might be of 
 temples, grotesque shapes as of mighty statues, 
 left unfinished by the hands of Titans, domes as 
 of cathedrals, castellated heights, fragments of 
 ramparts, and the like. These features lay in 
 groups, as if veritably the line of coast were 
 dotted with gatherings of royal mansions and 
 remains of imperial magnificence, all of white 
 marble, yet with a glassy tincture as though the 
 material owned something of a Parian quality.
 
 AM ISLAND OF ICE. 45 
 
 I had to come within two miles, as I have said, 
 before these elegancies broke upon me, so 
 deceptively did their delicacy of outlines mingle 
 with the dark blue softness beyond. In places the 
 coast ran up to a height of two or three hundred 
 feet, in others it sloped down to twenty feet. For 
 some miles it was like the face of a cliff, a sheer 
 abrupt, with scarce a scar upon its front, staring 
 with a wild bald look over the frosty beautiful blue 
 of that afternoon sea. Here and there it projected 
 a forefoot, some white and massive rock, upon which 
 the swell of the ocean burst in thunder, and flew to 
 almost the height of the cliff in a very great and 
 glorious fury of foam. In other parts, where I sus- 
 pected a sort of beach, there was the silver tremble 
 of surf ; but in the main, the heave coming out of 
 the north-east, the folds swept the base of the ice 
 without froth. 
 
 I say again, beheld in the red sunshine, that 
 line of ice, resembling a coast of marble defining 
 the liquid junction of the swelling folds of sapphire 
 below and the moist violet of the eastern sky 
 beyond and over it, crowned at points with delicate 
 imitations of princely habitations, would have 
 offered a noble and magnificent spectacle to a 
 mind at ease ; but to my eyes its enchantments 
 were killed by the horror I felt. It was a lonely, 
 hideous waste, rendered the more shocking by the 
 consideration that the whole vast range was 
 formed of blocks of frozen water which warmth 
 would dissolve ; that it was a country as solid as 
 rock and as unsubstantial as a cloud, to be 
 shunned by the mariner as though it w&i Death's
 
 4* THE FIIOZEN PIKATM. 
 
 own pavilion, the estate and mansion of the grisly 
 spectre, and creating round about it as supreme a 
 desolation and loneliness of ocean as that which 
 reigned in its own white stillness. 
 
 Though I held the. boat's head for it I was at a 
 -in so much confusion of mind that 1 knew 
 not what to do. I did not doubt by the character 
 o! the swell that its limits in the north-east 
 extended only to the sensible horizon ; in other 
 words, that its extremity there would not be above 
 five miles distant, though to what latitude its 
 southern arm did curve was not to be conjectured. 
 
 Should I steer north and seek to go clear of it ? 
 
 ^Somehow, the presence of this similitude of land 
 
 made the sea appear as enormous as space itself. 
 
 Whilst it was all clear horizon the immensity of 
 
 the deep was in a measure limited to the vision by 
 
 its cincture. But this ice-line gave the 
 
 something to measure with, and when I looked at 
 
 those leagues of frozen shore my spirits sank into 
 
 est dejection at the thought of the vastness 
 
 of the waters in whose heart I floated in my little 
 
 However, I resolved at last to land if landing 
 was possible. I could stretch my limbs, recruit 
 myself by exercise, and might even make shift to 
 obtain a night's rest. I stood in desperate need 
 of sleep, but there was no repose to be had in the 
 boat. I durst not lie down in her; if nature 
 overcame \ne and I fell asleep in a sitting posture, 
 I might wake to find the boat capsized and myself 
 drowning, This consideration resolved me, and 
 by this tune being within half a mile of tbe coast,
 
 AM ISLAND OF Ic. 47 
 
 ran my eye carefully along it to observe a 
 safe nook for my boat to enter and myself to 
 land in. 
 
 Though for a great distance, as I have said, the 
 front of the cliff, and where it was highest too, 
 was a sheer fall, coming like the side of a house 
 to the water, that part of the island towards which 
 my boat's head was pointed sloped down and 
 continued in a low shore, with hummocks of ice 
 upon it at irregular intervals, to where it died out 
 in the north-east. I now saw that this part had 
 a broken ^appearance as if it had been violently 
 rent from a mainland of ice ; also, to my approach, 
 many ledges projecting into the sea stole into 
 view. There were ravines and gorges, and almost 
 on a line with the boat's head was an assemblage 
 of those delicate glass-like counterfeits of spires, 
 towers, and the like, of which I have spoken, 
 standing just beyond a brow whose declivity fell 
 very easily to the water. 
 
 To make you see the picture as I have it in 
 my mind would be beyond my art ; it is not in the 
 pen not in the brush either, I should think 
 convey even a tolerable portraiture of the rugged- 
 ness, the fairy grouping, the shelves, hollows, 
 crags, terraces, precipices, and beach of this 
 kingdom of ice, where its frontal line broke away 
 from the smooth face of the tall n md ran 
 
 with a ploughed, scarred, and serrated countenance 
 northwards. 
 
 Very happily I had insensibly steered for 
 perhaps the safest spot that I could have lighted 
 on ; this was formed of a large projection of rock,
 
 48 THB FROZBN PIRATB. 
 
 standing aslant, so that the swell rolled part it 
 without breaking. The rock made a sort of core, 
 towards which I sailed in full confidence that 
 the water there would be smooth. Nor was I 
 deceived, for I saw that the rock acted as a 
 breakwater, whose stilling influence was felt a 
 good way beyond it. I thereupon steered for the 
 starboard of this rock, and when I was within it 
 found the heave of the sea dwindled to a scarce 
 perceptible undulation, whereupon I lowered my 
 sail, and, standing to the oar, sculled the boat to 
 a low lump of ice, on to which I stepped. 
 
 My first business was to secure the boat ; this 
 I did by inserting the mast into a deep, thin 
 crevice in the ice and making the painter fast to 
 it as to a pole. The sun was now very low, and 
 would soon be gone. The cold was extreme, yet 
 I did not suffer from it as in the boat. There is a 
 quality in snow which it would be ridiculous to 
 speak of as warmth ; yet, as you may observe 
 after a heavy fall ashore on top of a black frost, 
 it seems to have a power of blunting the sharp 
 edge of the cold, and the snow on this shore of 
 ice being very abundant, though frozen as hard as 
 the ice itself, appeared to mitigate the intolerable 
 rigour I had languished under upon the water, in 
 the brig and afterwards. This might also be owing 
 to the dryness of the cold. 
 
 Having secured the boat I beat my hands heartily 
 upon my breast, and fell to pacing a little level of 
 ice whilst I considered what I should do. The coast 
 I cannot but speak of this frozen territory as 
 we nt in a gentle slope behind me to the
 
 AN 1 BLAND OF lot. 49 
 
 height of about thirty feet; the ground was 
 greatly broken with rocks and boulders and sharp 
 points, whence I suspected many fissures in which 
 the snow might not be so hard but that I might sink 
 deep enough to be smothered. I saw no cave 
 nor hollow that I could make a bedroom of, and 
 the improved circulation of my blood giving me 
 spirits enough to resolve quickly, I made up my 
 mind to use my boat as a bed. 
 
 So I went to work. I took the oar and jammed 
 
 it into such another crevice as the mast stood in, 
 
 and to it I secured the boat by another line. 
 
 This moored her very safely. There was as 
 
 good promise of a fair quiet night as I might 
 
 count upon in these treacherous latitudes ; the 
 
 haven in which the boat lay was sheltered and the 
 
 water almost still, and this I reckoned xvould hold 
 
 whilst the breeze hung northerly and the swell 
 
 rolled from the north-east. I spread the sail over 
 
 the seats, which served as beams for the support 
 
 of this little ceiling of canvas, and enough of it 
 
 remained to supply me with a pillow and to cover 
 
 my legs. I fell ' to this work whilst there was 
 
 light, and when 1 had prepared my habitation, I 
 
 took a bottle of ale and a handful ^ of victuals 
 
 ashore and made my supper, walking briskly 
 
 whilst I ate and drank. 
 
 1 caught myself sometimes looking yearningly 
 towards the brow of the slope, as though 
 that eminence I should gain an extensive prospect 
 of the sea and perhaps behold a ship ; but 
 wanted the courage to climb, chiefly because I 
 was afraid of tumbling into a hole and miserably
 
 fB TB Fmozi* PIRATE 
 
 perishing, and likewise because I shrank from the 
 idea of being overtaken up there by the darkness. 
 There was a kind of companionship in the boat, 
 the support of which I should lose if I left her. 
 
 The going of the lun was attended by so much 
 glory that the whole weight of my situation and 
 the pressure of vny solitude did not come upon me 
 until his li^ht was gone. The swell ran athwart 
 his mirroring in hnes of molten gold ; the sky 
 was a sheet of fire where he was, paling 
 
 tenithwards into an ardent orange. The splen- 
 dour tipped the frozen coast with points of ruby 
 flame which sparkled and throbbed like sentinel 
 beacons along the while and silent range. The 
 low thunder of far-off hills of water bursting 
 against the projections rolled sulkily down upon 
 the weak v Just beyond the edge of the 
 
 slope, about a third of a mile to the north of my 
 little haven, stood an assemblage of exquisitely 
 miry outlines -configurations such as I have 
 described ; their crystalline nature stole out to 
 the lustrous colouring of the glowing west, and 
 they had the appearance of tinted glass of several 
 the delicate fibres being deep of hue, 
 icr ones pale; and never did the highest 
 a of human invention reach to anything more 
 
 and dainty, more sweetly simulativ 
 the arts of a fairy-like imagination than yonder 
 cluster of icy fabrics, fashioned, as it entered my 
 
 to conceive, as pavilions by the hands o 
 spirits of the frozen world, and gilt and paintt 
 the bt:an>s of the setting sun. 
 
 But ail this wild and unreal beauty melted away
 
 AM ISLAND or IOL f i 
 
 to the oncoming of the dusk; and wtmi tk* ran 
 
 was gone and the twilight had put a nw quality 
 of bleakness into the air, when the tea rolled in m 
 welter of dark shadows, one tombre foW shoulder- 
 ing another a very swarm ing &i restless giant 
 phantoms^r-when the shining of th stars low 
 down in the unfathomable obscurity of the north 
 and south quarters ave to the ocean in those 
 directions a frightful immensity of surface, making 
 you feel as though you viewed th scene from the 
 centre of the firmament, and were gazing dowa 
 the spangled slopes of infinity oh, tkt* it w* 
 that the full spirit of the solitude, of this pale and 
 silent seat of ice took possession of me. I found 
 a meining I had not before caught in the com- 
 plainfng murmur of tiie night breeie blowing m 
 small gusts along the rocky shore, and in the deep 
 orgar like tremulous hum of the swell thundering 
 mile? distant on the northward-pointing cliffs. 
 This 7as a note I had missed whilst the sun shone. 
 Perhtps my senses were sharpened bv the dark- 
 ness. It mingled with the booming of the bursts 
 of w; ter on this side the range, and gave me to 
 know that the northward extremity of the island 
 did r ot extend so far as I had supposed from my 
 view of it in the boat Yet I could also suppose 
 that the beat of the swell formed a mighty 
 cannonading capable of making itself heard afar, 
 and the- ice, being resonant, with many smooth if 
 not polished tracts upon it, readily transmitted th 
 sound, ves, though the cause of it lay as far off as 
 the horizon. 
 
 I will not say that my loneliness frightened *,
 
 52 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 but it subdued my heart with a weight as if It 
 were something sensible, and filled me with a sort 
 of consternation that was full of awe. The moon 
 was up, but the rocks hid the side of the sea she 
 rode over, and her face was not to be viewed from 
 where I was until she had marched twe-thirds of 
 her path to the meridian. The coast ran away 
 on either hand in cold motionless blocks of pallor> 
 which further on fell (by deception of the sheen 
 of the stars) into a kind of twisting and snaking 
 glimmer, and you followed it into an extraordin- 
 arily elusive faintness that was neither light nor 
 colour in the liquid gloom, long after the sight 
 had outrun the visibility of the range. At 
 intervals I was startled by sounds, sometimes 
 sullen, like a muffled subterranean explosion, 
 sometimes sharp, like a quick splintering of an 
 iron-hard substance. These noises, I presently 
 gathered, were made by the ice stretching and 
 cracking in fifty different directions. The mass 
 was so vast and substantial you could not but 
 think of it as a country with its foot resting upon 
 the bed of the sea. T was a folly of my nerves 
 no doubt, yet it added to my consternation to 
 reflect that this solid territory, reverberating the 
 repelled blows of the ocean swell, was as much 
 afloat as my boat, and so much less actual than 
 my boat that, could it be towed a few degrees 
 further north, it would melt into pouring waters 
 and vanish as utterly with its little cities of 
 columns, steeples, and minarets as a wreath of 
 steam upon the air. 
 
 This gave a spirit-like character to it in my dis-
 
 AN ISLAND OF Id. 53 
 
 mayed inquiring eyes which was greatly increased 
 by the vagueness it took from the dusk. It was 
 such a scene, methought, as the souls of seamen 
 drowned in these seas might flock to and haunt. 
 The white and icy spell upon it wrought in familiar 
 things. The stars looking down upon me over the 
 edge of the cliffs were like the eyes of shapes 
 (easy to fashion out of the darkness) kneeling up 
 there and peering at the human intruder who was 
 pacing his narrow floor of ice for warmth. The 
 deceit of the shadows proportioned the blanched 
 ruggedness of the cliff's face on the north side into 
 heads and bodies of monsters. I beheld a giant, 
 from his waist up, leaning his cheek upon his arm ; 
 a great cross with a burlesque figure, as of a friar, 
 kneeling near it ; a mighty helmet with a white 
 plume curled; the shadowy conformation of a 
 huge couchant beast, with a hundred other such 
 unsubstantial prodigies. Had the moon shone in 
 the west I dare say I should have witnessed a 
 score more such things, for the snow was like 
 white paper, on which the clear black shadows of 
 the ice-rocks could not but have cast the likeness 
 of many startling phantasies. 
 
 I sought to calm my mind by considering my 
 position, and to divert my thoughts from the star- 
 wrought apparitions of the broken slopes I asked 
 myself what should be my plans, what my chance 
 for delivering myself from this unparalleled situ- 
 ation. At this distance of time I cannot precisely 
 tell how long the provisions I had brought from 
 the foundered brig were calculated to last me, 
 but I am sure I had not a week's supply,
 
 54 Tm FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 then, made it plain that my business was not to 
 linger here, but to push into the ocean afresh as 
 speedily as possible, for to my mind nothing in 
 life was clearer than that my only chance lay in 
 my falling in with a ship. .Yet how did my heart 
 sink when 1 reflected upon the mighty breast of 
 sea in which I was forlornly to seek for succour ! 
 My eyes went to the squab black outline of the 
 boat, and the littleness of her sent a shudder 
 through me. It is true she had nobly carried me 
 through some fierce weather, yet at the expense 
 of many leagues of southing, of a deeper pene- 
 tration into the solitary wilds of the polar waters. 
 However, I was sensible that I was depressed, 
 melancholy, and under a continued consternation, 
 something of which the morning sun might dis- 
 sipate, so that I should be able to take a heartier 
 view of my woful plight. So after a good look 
 seawards and at the heavens to satisfy myself on 
 the subject of the weather, and after a careful in- 
 spection of the moorings of the boat, I entered 
 her, feeling very sure that, if a sea set in from the 
 west or south and tumbled her, the motion would 
 quickly arouse me ; and getting under the roof 
 of sail, with my legs along the bottom and my 
 back against the stem, which I had bolstered 
 with the slack of the canvas, I commended 
 myself to God, folded my arms, and went to sleep. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1 AM STARTLED HV A DISCOVERY. 
 
 IN this uneasy posture, despite the intense coW, I
 
 I AM tTAHTLED BY A DISCOVERY. 55 
 
 continued to sleep soundly during the greater 
 part of the night. I was awakened by a horrid 
 dream of some giant shape stalking down the 
 slope of ice to seize and devour me, and sat up 
 trembling with horror that was not a little 
 increased by my inability to recollect myself, and 
 by my therefore conceiving the canvas that 
 covered me to be the groping of the ogre's hand 
 over my face. 
 
 I pushed the sail away and stood up, but had 
 instantly to sit again, my legs being terribly 
 cramped. A drink of spirits helped me; my 
 blood presently flowed with briskness. 
 
 The moon was in the west ; she hung large, 
 red, and distorted, and shed no light save her 
 reflection that waved in the sea under her like 
 several lengths of undulating red-hot wire. My 
 haven was still very tranquil the boat lay calm ; 
 but there was a deeper tone in the booming sound 
 of the distant surf, and a more menacing note in 
 the echoing of the blows of the swell along this 
 side of the coast, whence I concluded that, despite 
 the fairness of the weather, the heave of the deep 
 had, whilst I slept, gathered a greater weight, 
 which might signify stormy winds not very many 
 leagues away. 
 
 The pale stare of the heights of ice at that red 
 and shapeless disc was shocking. " Oh," I cried 
 aloud, as I had once cried before, " but for one, 
 even but for one, companion to speak to ! " 
 
 I had no mind to lie down again. The cold 
 indeed was cruelly sharp, and the smoke sped 
 from my mouth with every breath as though I held
 
 56 THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 a tobacco pipe betwixt my teeth. I got upon the 
 
 ice and stepped about it quickly, darting searching 
 glances into the gloom to left and right of the 
 setting moon; but all lay bare, bleak, and black. 
 I pulled off my stout gloves with the hope of 
 getting my fingers to tingle by handling the snow ; 
 but it was frozen so hard I could not scrape up 
 with my nails as much as a half-dozen of flakes 
 would make. What I got I dissolved in my 
 mouth and found it brackish ; however, I suspected 
 it would be sweeter and perhaps not so stonily 
 frozen higher up, where there was less chance of 
 the salt spray mingling with it, and I resolved 
 when the light came to fill my empty beer-bottles 
 as with salt or pounded sugar for use hereafter 
 that is, if it should prove sweet ; as to melting it, 
 I had indeed a tinder-box and the means of 
 obtaining fire, but no fuel. 
 
 It seemed as if the night had only just descended, 
 so tardy was the dawn. Outside the slanting wall 
 of ice that made my haven the swell swept past 
 in a gurgling, bubbling, drowning sound, dismal, 
 and ghastly, as though in truth some such ogre 
 as the monster I had dreamt of lay suffocating 
 there. I welcomed the cold colouring of the east 
 as if it had been a ship, and watched the stars 
 dying and the frozen shore darkening to the dim 
 and sifting dawn behind it, against which the 
 Me of the cliffs ran in a broken streak of ink. 
 rising of the sun gave me fresh life. Tru 
 Hashed out of its slatish hi. i radiant w! 
 
 the ocean changed into a rich nlue that see ; 
 as violet under the paler azure of the heavens ;
 
 I AM STARTLED BY A DISCOVERY. 57 
 
 but I could now see that the swell was heavier 
 than I had suspected from the echo of Its-femote 
 roaring in the north. It ran steadily out of the 
 north-east. This was miserable to see, for the 
 line of its running was directly my course, and if 
 I committed myself to it in that little boat, the 
 impulse of the long and swinging folds could not 
 but set me steadily southwards, unless a breeze 
 sprang up in that quarter to blow me towards 
 the sun. There was a small current of air 
 stirring, a mere trickle of wind from the north- 
 west. 
 
 I made up my mind to climb as high as I could, 
 taking the oar with me to serve as a pole, that I 
 might view the ice and the ocean round about 
 and form a judgment of the weather by the aspect 
 of the sky, of which, only the western part was 
 visible from my low strand. But first 1 must 
 break my fast. I remember bitterly lamenting 
 the lack of means to make a fire, that I might 
 obtain a warm meal and a hot drink and dry my 
 gloves, coat, and breeches, to which the damp 
 of the salt clung tenaciously. Had this ice been 
 land, though the most desolate, gloomy, repulsive 
 spot in the world, I had surely found something 
 that would bum. 
 
 I sat in the boat to eat, and whilst thus 
 occupied pondered over this great field of ice, 
 and wondered how so mighty .a berg should travel 
 in such compacted bulk so far north that is, so 
 far north from the seat of its creation. Now 
 leisurely and curiously observing it, it seemed to 
 me that the north part of it, from much about the
 
 8 THI FROWN Pnum 
 
 spot where my boat lay, was formed of a chain of 
 icebergs knitted one to another in a consolidated 
 range of irregular low steeps. The beautiful 
 appearances of spires, towers, and the like seemed 
 as if they had been formed by an upheaval, as of 
 an earthquake, of splinters and bodies of the 
 frozen stuff ; for, so tar as it was possible for me 
 to see from the low shore, wherever these radiant 
 and lovely figures were assembled I noticed great 
 rents, spacious chasms, narrow and tortuous 
 ravines. Certain appearances, however, caused 
 me to suspect that this island was steadily 
 decaying, and that, large as it still was, it had 
 been many times raster when it broke away from 
 the continent about the Pole. Naturally, as it 
 progressed northwards it would dissolve, and the 
 cracking and thunderous noises I had heard in 
 the night, sounds very audible now when I gave 
 them my attention sometimes a hollow distant 
 rumbling as of some great body dislodged and 
 set rolling far off, sometimes an inwards roaring 
 crack or blast of noise like the report of a cannon 
 fired deep down advised me that the work of 
 dissolution was perpetually progressing, and that 
 this prodigious island whicn appeared to barricade 
 the horizon might in a few months be dwindled 
 into half a score of rapidly dissolving bergs. 
 
 My slender repast ended, I pulled the oar out 
 of the crevice, and found it would make me a 
 good pole to probe my way with and support 
 mysell by up the slope. The boat was now held 
 by the mast, which I shook and found very firm. 
 I put an empty beer- bottle in my pocket, meaning
 
 I AM STAXTUED BY A DlSCOVttY. ff 
 
 to see if I could fill it, if the snow above was 
 sweet enough to be well-tasted, and then with a 
 final look at the boat I started. 
 
 The slope was extremely craggy. Blocks of 
 ice lay about, some on top of the others, like the 
 stones of which the pyramids are built ; the white 
 glare of the snow caused these stones at a little 
 distance to appear flat that is, by merging them 
 into and blending them with the soft brilliance 
 of the background; and I had sometimes to 
 warily walk fifty or sixty paces round these 
 blocks to com* at a part of the slope that was 
 smooth. 
 
 I speedily found, however, that there was no 
 danger of my being buried by stepping into a 
 hollow full of snow ; for the same hardness was 
 everywhere, the snow, whether one or twenty feet 
 deep, offering as solid a surface as the bare ice. 
 This encouraged me to step out, and I began to 
 move with some spirit ; the exercise was as good 
 as a fire, and before I was half-way up I was as 
 warm as ever I had been in my life. 
 
 1 had come to a stand to fetch a breath, and 
 was moving on afresh, when, having taken not 
 half a dozen steps, I spied the figure of a man. 
 He was in a sitting posture, his back against a 
 rock that had concealed him. His head was 
 bowed, and his knees drawn up to a level with his 
 chin, and his naked hands were clasped upon his 
 legs. His attitude was that of a person lost in 
 thought, very easy and calm. 
 
 I stopped as if 1 had been shot through tfce 
 heart Had it been a bear, or a sea-lion, or aay
 
 60 " THE FROZEN PIRATM. 
 
 creature which my mind could instantly have 
 associated with this wfiite and stirless desolation, 
 I might have been startled indeed ; but no such 
 amazement could have possessed me as I now 
 felt. It never entered into my head to doubt that 
 he was alive, so natural was his attitude, as of one 
 lost in a mood of tender melancholy. 
 
 I stood staring at him, myself motionless, for 
 some minutes, too greatly astonished and 
 thunderstruck to note more than that he was a 
 man. Then I looked about me to see if he had 
 companions or for some signs of a habitation, but 
 the ice was everywhere naked. I fixed my eyes 
 on him again. His hair was above a foot long, 
 black as ink, and the blacker maybe for the 
 contrast of the snow. His beard and mustachios, 
 which were also of this raven hue, fell to his girdle. 
 He wore a great yellow flapping hat, such as was 
 in fashion among the Spaniards and buccaneers 
 of the South Sea ; but over his ears, for the* 
 warmth of the protection, were squares of flannel, 
 secured by a very fine red silk handkerchief 
 knotted under his beard, and this, with his hair 
 and pale cheeks and black shaggy eyebrows, 
 gave him a terrible and ghastly appearance. From 
 his shoulders hung a rich thick cloak lined with 
 red, and the legs to the height of the knees 
 were encased in large boots. 
 
 I continued surveying him with my heart beating 
 fast. Every instant I expected to see him turn 
 his head and start to behold me. My emotions 
 were too tumultuous to analyze, yet I believe I 
 was more frightened than gladdened by the sight
 
 1 AM STARTLED BY A DlSCOVBKY. 4f 
 
 of a fellow-creature, though not long before I had 
 sighed bitterly for some one to speak to. I 
 looked around again, prepared to find another one 
 like him taking stock of me from behind a rock, 
 and then ventured to approach him by a few steps 
 the better to see him. He had certainly a 
 frightful face. It was not only the length of his 
 coal-black hair and beard ; it was the hue of his 
 skin, a greenish ashen colour, an unspeakably 
 hideous complexion, sharpened on the one hand 
 by the red handkerchief over his ears and on 
 the other by the dazzle of the snow. Then, 
 again, there was the extreme strangeness of his 
 costume. 
 
 I coughed loudly, holding my pole in readiness 
 for whatever might befall, but he did not stir ; I 
 then holloaed, and was answered by the echoes of 
 my own voice among the rocks. His stillness 
 persuaded me he was in one of those deep slum- 
 bers which fall upon a man in frozen places, for I 
 could not persuade myself he was dead, so living 
 was his posture. 
 
 This will not do, thought I ; so I went close to 
 him and peered into his face. 
 
 His eyes were fixed ; they resembled glass 
 painted as eyes, the colours faded. He had a 
 broad belt round his waist, and the hilt of a kind 
 of cutlass peeped from under his cloak. Other- 
 wise he was unarmed. I thought he breathed, 
 and seemed to see a movement in his breast, and 
 I took him by the shoulder ; but in the hurry of 
 my feelings I exerted more strength than I was 
 sensible of. I pushed him with the violence of
 
 6s 
 
 sudden trepidation ; my hand slipped off his 
 shoulder, and he fell on his side, exactly as a 
 statue would, preserving his posture as though, 
 like a statue, he had been chiselled out of marble 
 or stone. 
 
 I started back frightened by his fall, in which 
 my fears found a sort of life ; but it was soon 
 clear to me his rigidity was that of a man frozen 
 to death. His very hair and beard stood stiff, as 
 before, as though they were some exquisite coun- 
 terfeit in ebony. Perfectly satisfied that he was 
 dead, I stepped round to the other side of him, 
 and set him up as I had found him. He was as 
 heavy as if he had been alive, and when I put his 
 back to the rock his posture was exactly as it had 
 been, that of one deeply meditating. 
 
 Who had this man been in life ? How had he 
 fallen into this pass ? How long had he been dead 
 there, seated as I saw him ? 
 
 These were speculations not to be resolved by 
 conjecture. On looking at the rock against which 
 he leaned and observing its curvature, it seemed 
 to me that it had formed pan of a cave, or of 
 some large, deep hole of ice ; and this I was sure 
 must have been the case, for it is certain that, 
 had this body remained long unsheltered, it must 
 have been hidden by the snow. 
 
 I concluded then that the unhappy man had 
 been cast away upon this ice whilst it was under 
 bleaker heights than these parallels, and that he 
 had crawled into a hollow, and perished in that 
 melancholic sitting posture. But in what year 
 had hii fate come upon him ? I had nude several
 
 I AM STARTLED BY A DISCOVERY. 63 
 
 voyages into distant places in my time and seen 
 a great variety of people ; but I had never met 
 any man habited as that body. He had the 
 appearance of a Spanish or French cut-throat of 
 the middle of last century, and of earlier times 
 yet ; for it may be known to you that the 
 buccaneers of the Spanish Main and the South 
 Sea were great lovers of finery ; they had a 
 strange theatric taste in their choice of costumes, 
 which, as you will suppose, they had abundant 
 opportunities for gratifying out of the many rich 
 and glittering wardrobes that fell into their hands; 
 and this man, I say, with his large fine hat, hand- 
 some cloak and boots, coupled with the villainous 
 cast of his countenance and the frightful a-ppear- 
 ance. his long hair gave him, rendered him to my 
 notions the completest figure that could be ima- 
 gined of one of those rogues who earned their 
 living as pirates. 
 
 Thinking I might find something on his person 
 to acquaint me with his story or that would furnish 
 me with some idea of the date of his being cast 
 away, I pulled his cloak aside and searched his 
 pockets. His legs were thickly cased in two or 
 three pairs of breeches, the outer pair being of a 
 dark green cloth. He also wore a handsome red 
 waistcoat, laced, and a stout coat of 'a kind of 
 frieze. In his coat pocket I found a silver 
 tobacco-box, a small glass flask fitted with a 
 silver band and half full of an amber-coloured 
 liquor, hard froze ; and in his waistcoat pocket a 
 gold watch, shaped like an apple, the back 
 curiously chased and inlaid with jewels of several
 
 64 TUB FROKBN PIRATB, 
 
 kinds, forming a small letter M. The hands 
 pointed to twenty minutes after three. A key of 
 a strange shape and a number of seals, trinkets, 
 and the like, were attached to the watch. 
 
 These things, together with a knife, a key, a 
 thick plain silver ring, and some Spanish pieces 
 in gold and silver were what I found on this man. 
 There was nothing to tell me who he was nor how 
 long he had been on the island. 
 
 The searching him was the most disagreeable 
 job I ever undertook in my life. His iron-like 
 rigidity made him seem to resist me, and the 
 swaying of his back against the rock to the 
 motions of my hand was so full of life that twice 
 I quitted him, frightened by it. On touching his 
 naked hand by accident I discovered that the 
 flesh of it moved upon the bones as you pull a 
 glove off and on. I had had enough of him, and 
 walked away feeling sick. If he had companions, 
 and they were like him, I did not want to see 
 them, unless it was that I might satisfy my curi- 
 osity as to the time they had been here. I deter- 
 mined, however, on my way back to take his 
 cloak, which would make me a comfortable rug in 
 the boat, and also the watch, flask, and tobacco- 
 box ; for if I was drowned they could but go to 
 the bottom of the sea, which was their certain 
 destination if I left them in his pockets ; and if 
 I came off with them, then the money they would 
 bring me must somewhat lighten the loss of my 
 clothes and property in the brig. 
 
 I pushed onwards, stepping warily and probing 
 cautiously at every step, and earnestly peering
 
 TKI FIOZIM SCHOOVB*. 65 
 
 about me, for after such a sight as that dead man 
 I was never to know what new wonder I might 
 stumble upon. About a quarter of a mile on my 
 left-^-that is, on my left whilst I kept my face to 
 the slope there was the appearance of a ravine 
 not discernible from where the boat lay. When 
 I was within twenty feet of the summit of the cliff, 
 the acclivity continuing gentle to the very brow, 
 but much* broken, as I have said, I noticed this 
 hollow, and more particularly a small collection of 
 ice-forms, not nearly so large as the other groups 
 of this kind, but most dainty and lovely neverthe- 
 less. They showed as the heads of trees might 
 to my ascent, and when I had got a little higher I 
 observed that they were formed upon the hither 
 side of the hollow, as though the convulsion which 
 had wrought that chasm had tossed up those 
 exquisite caprices of ice. However, I was too 
 eager to view the prospect from the top of the 
 cliff to suffer my admiration to detain me ; in a 
 few minutes I had gained the brow, and, clamber- 
 ing on to a mass of rock, I sent my gaze around. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 f THE FROZEN SCHOONER. 
 
 I POUND myself on the summit of a kind of table- 
 land ; vast bodies of ice, every block weighing 
 hundreds and perhaps thousands of tons lay 
 scattered over it ; yet for the space of a mile or 
 so the character was that of flatness. Southwards 
 the range went upwards to a coastal front of some 
 hundred feet, with a huddle of peaks and strange
 
 66 THB FROZIN PIRATI. 
 
 configurations behind soaring to an elevation from 
 the sea-line of two or three hundred feet. North- 
 wards the range sloped gradually, with such a 
 shelving of its hinder part that I could catch a 
 glimpse of a little space of the blue sea that way. 
 From this I perceived that whatever thickness 
 and surface of ice lay southwards, in the north it 
 was attenuated to the shape of a wedge, so that 
 its extreme breadth where it projected its cape or 
 extremity would not exceed a musket shot. 
 
 A companion might have qualified in my mind 
 something of the sense of prodigious loneliness and 
 desolation inspired by that huge picture of dazzling 
 uneven whiteness, blotting out the whole of 
 the south-east ocean, rolling in hills of blinding 
 brilliance into the blue heavens, and curving and 
 dying out into an airy film of silvery-azure radi- 
 ance leagues away down in the south-west. But 
 to my solitary eye the spectacle was an amazing 
 and confounding one. 
 
 If I had not seen the tract of dark blue water 
 in the north-east, I might have imagined that this 
 island stretched as far into the east and north as 
 it did in the south and west. And one thing I 
 quickly enough understood : that if 1 wanted to 
 behold the ocean on the east side of the ice I 
 should have to journey the breadth of the range, 
 which here, where I was, might mean one or five 
 miles, for the blocks and lumps hid the view, and 
 'now far off the edge of the cliffs on the other side 
 might be I could not therefore gather. This wai 
 not to be dreamt of, and therefore to this extent 
 my climb had been useless.
 
 THE FKOZKN SCHOOMJUL. 67 
 
 Being on the top of the range now, I could 
 plainly near the noises of the splitting and internal 
 convulsions of this vast formation. The sounds 
 are not describable. Sometimes they seemed 
 like the explosions of guns, sometimes like the 
 growlings and mutterings of huge fierce beasts, 
 sometimes like smart single echoless blasts of 
 thunder ; and sometimes you heard a singular sort 
 of hissing or snarling, such as iron makes when 
 speeding over ice, only when this noise happened 
 the volume of it was so great that the atmosphere 
 trembled upon the ear with it. It was impossible 
 to fix the direction of these sounds, the island was 
 full of them ; and always sullenly booming upon the 
 breeze was the voice of the ocean swell bursting 
 in foam against the ice-coast that confronted it. 
 
 You may talk of the solitude of a Selkirk, but 
 surely the spirit of loneliness in him could not 
 rival the unutterable emotion of solitariness that 
 filled my mind as I sent my gaze over those miles 
 of frozen stirless whiteness. He had the sight of 
 fair pastures, of trees making a twinkling twilight on 
 the sward, of grassy savannahs and pleasant slopes 
 of hills ; the air was illuminated by the glorious 
 plumage of flying birds ; the bleat of goats broke 
 the stillness in the valleys ; there was a golden 
 regale for his eye, and his other senses were 
 gratified with the perfumes of rich flowers and 
 engaging concerts among the trembling leaves. 
 Above all, there was the soothing warmth of a 
 delicious climate. But out upon those heaped 
 and spreading plains of snow nothing stirred, if it 
 were not once that I was startled by a loud report,
 
 6* THB FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 and spied a rock about half a mile away slide 
 down the edge of the flat cliff and tumble into the 
 sea. Nothing stirred, I say; there was an 
 affrighting solemnity of motionlessness every- 
 where. The countenance of this plain glared like 
 a great dead face at the sky ; neither sympathy, 
 nor fancy, no, not the utmost forces of the imagi- 
 nation, could witness expression in it. Its un- 
 meaningness was ghastly, and the ghastlier for 
 the greatness of its bald and lifeless stare. 
 
 [ turned my eyes seawards ; haply it was the 
 whiteness that gave the ocean the extraordinarily 
 rich dye I found in it. The expanse went in 
 flowing folds of violet into the nethermost heavens, 
 and though God knows what extent of horizon I 
 surveyed, the line of it, as clear as glass, ran 
 without the faintest flaw to amuse my heart with 
 even an instant's hope. 
 
 There was more weight, however, in the wind 
 than I had supposed. It blew from the west 
 of north, and was an exquisitely frosty wind, 
 despite the quarter whence it came. It swept in 
 moans among the rocks, and there were tones in 
 it that recalled the stormy mutterings we had 
 heard in the blasts which came upon the brig 
 before the storm boiled down upon her. But my 
 imagination was now so tight- strung as to be 
 imwholesomely and unnaturally responsive to 
 impulses and influences which at another time I 
 had not noticed. There were a few heavy clouds 
 in the north-east, so steam-like that methought 
 they borrowed their complexion from the snow 
 on the island's cape there. I was pretty sure, 

 
 Tn FKGZKN Scnoovnu 
 , that there was wind behind them, for if 
 
 , 
 
 the roll of the ocean did not signify heavy weather 
 near to, then what else it betokened I could not 
 * imagine. 
 
 I cannot express to you how the Tery soul 
 within me shrank from putting to sea in the 
 little boat. There was no longer the support of 
 the excitement and terror of escaping from a 
 sinking vessel. I stood upon an island as solid 
 as land, arid the very sense of security it imparted 
 rendered the boat an object of terror, and the 
 obligation upon me to launch into yonder mighty 
 space as frightful as a sentence of death. Yet I 
 could not but consider that it would be equally 
 shocking to me to be locked up in this slowly 
 crumbling bodyof ice nay, tenfold more shocking, 
 and that, if I had to choose' between the boat and 
 this hideous solitude and sure starvation, I would 
 cheerfully accept fifty times over again the perils 
 of a navigation in my tiny ark. 
 
 This reflection comforted me somewhat, , 
 whilst I thus mused I remained standing with 
 eyes upon the little group of fanciful fanes and 
 spires of iee on the edge of the abrupt hollo . 
 had been too preoccupied to take close notic- 
 on a sucfden I started, amazed by an appearar 
 too exquisitely perfect to be credible. The sun 
 shone with a fine white frosty brilliance in, the 
 north-east ; some of these spikes and %ures of 
 ice reflected the radiance in several counts. In 
 places where they were wind-swept of their snow 
 and showed the naked ice, the hues were won- 
 drously splendid, and, mingling ^>on the sight,
 
 yo THF FROZEN Piium 
 
 formed a kind of airy, rainbow-like veil that com- 
 plicated the whole congregation of white shaft 
 and mani-tinctured spire, the marble column, the 
 alabaster steeple into a confused but most sur- 
 prisingly dainty and shining scene. 
 
 It was whilst looking at this that my eye 
 traced, a little distance beyond, the form of a 
 ship's spars and rigging. Through the labyrinth 
 of the ice outlines I clearly made out two masts, 
 with two square yards on the foremast, the 
 rigging perfect so far as it went, for the figuration 
 showed no more than half the height of the masts , 
 the lower parts being apparently hidden behind 
 the edge of the hollow. I have said that this 
 coast to the north abounded in many groups of 
 beautiful fantastic shapes, suggesting a great 
 variety of objects, as the forms of clouds do, but 
 nothing perfect ; but here now was something in 
 ice that could not have been completer, more 
 symmetrical, more faultlessly proportioned had it 
 been the work of an artist. I walked close to it 
 and a little way around so as to obtain a clearer 
 view, and then getting a fair sight of the 
 appearance I halted again, transfixed with amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 The fabric appeared as if formed of frosted 
 glass. The masts had a good rake, and with a 
 seaman's eye I took notice ef the furniture, 
 observing the shrouds, stays, backstays, braces to 
 be perfect. Nay, as though the spirit artist of 
 this fragile glittering pageant had resolved to 
 omit no detail to complete the illusion, there stood 
 a vane at the masthead, shining like a tongue of
 
 THE FROZEN SCHOONER. f\ 
 
 ice against the soft blue of the sky. Come, 
 thought I, recovering from my wonder, there is 
 more in this than it is possible for me to guess by 
 staring from a distance ; so, striking my pole into 
 the snow, I made carefully towards the edge of the 
 hollow. 
 
 The gradual unfolding of the picture prepareii 
 my mind for what I could not see till the brink 
 was reached ; then, looking down, I beheld a 
 schooner-rigged vessel lying in a sort of cradle of 
 ice, stern-on to the sea. A man bulked out with 
 frozen snow, so as to make his shape as great as 
 a bear, leaned upon the rail with a slight upwards 
 inclination of his head, as though he were in the 
 act of looking fully up to hail me. His posture 
 was even more lifelike than that of the man under 
 the rock, but his garment of snow robbed him of 
 that reality of vitality which had startled me in 
 the other, and the instant I saw him I kne\y him 
 to be dead. He was the only figure visible. 
 The whole body of tha vessel was frosted by the 
 snow into the glassy aspect of the spars and 
 rigging, and the sunshine striking down made a 
 beautiful prismatic picture of the silent ship. 
 
 She was a very old craft. The snow haa 
 moulded itself upon her and enlarged without 
 spoiling her form. I found her age in the structure 
 of her bows, the headboards of which curved 
 very low round to the top of the stern, forming a 
 kind of well there, the afterpart of which was 
 framed by the forecastle bulkhead, after the 
 fashion .of shipbuilding in vogue in the 
 Anne and the first two Georges. Her topi-
 
 Tin FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 standing, but her jibboom was rigged in. I 
 could find no other evidence of her people haying 
 snugged her for these winter quarters, in which 
 she had been manifestly lying for years and years. 
 I traced the outlines of six small cannons covered 
 with snow, but resting with clean-sculptured forms 
 in their white coats ; a considerable piece of 
 ordnance aft, and several petararoes or swivel- 
 pieces upon the after-bulwark rails. Gaffs and 
 booms were in their places, and the sails furled 
 upon them. The figuration of the main hatch 
 snowed a small square, and there was a com- 
 panion or hatch-cover abaft the mainmast 
 There was no trace of a boat. She had a flush 
 or level deck from the well in the bows to a 
 fathom or so past the main-shrouds ; it was then 
 broken by a short poop-deck, which went in a 
 freat spring or rise to the stern, that was after 
 the pink style, very narrow and tall. 
 
 Though I write this description coldly, let it 
 not be supposed that I was not violently agitated 
 and astonished almost into the belief that what I 
 beheld was a mere vision, a phenomenon. The 
 sight of the body I examined did not nearly so 
 greatly astound me as the spectacle of this ice- 
 locked schooner. It was easy to account for the 
 presence of a dead man. My own situation, 
 indeed, sufficiently solved the riddle of that corpse. 
 But the ship, perfect in all respects, was like a 
 stroke of magic. She lay with a slight list or 
 inclination to larboard, but on the whole tolerably 
 upright, owing to the corpulence of her bilge, 
 The hollow or ravine that formed her bed went
 
 I LMB MY BOAT. ft 
 
 with a sharp incline under her item to the Ma, 
 which was visible from the top of the cliffs hew 
 through the split in the rocks. The shelving of 
 the ice put the wash of the ocean at a distance 
 of a few hundred feet from the schooner; but 
 I calculated that the vessel's actual elevation 
 above the water-line, supposing you to measure 
 it with a plummet up and down, did not exceed 
 twenty feet, if so much, the hollow in which ** 
 rested being above twenty feet deep. 
 
 It was very evident that the schooner had at 
 years gone by got embayed in this ice when * 
 was far to the southward, and had in course of 
 time been built up in it by floating masses. For 
 how old the ice about the poles may be who can 
 tell ? In those sunless worlds the frozen con- 
 tinents may well possess the antiouity of the land. 
 And who shall name the monarch who filled the 
 throne of Britain when this vast field broke awaj 
 from the main and started on iti stealthy naviga- 
 tion sunwards ? 
 
 I LINGERED, I daresay, above twenty minutwi 
 contemplating this singular crystal fossil of a ship, 
 and considering whether I should go down to her 
 and ransack her for whatever might answer my 
 turn. But she looked so darkly secret under her 
 white garb, and there was something so terrible m 
 the aspect of the motionless snow-clad sentiaol 
 who leaned upon the rail, that my heart failed *>
 
 74 THE FROZE* PIRATE, 
 
 and I very easily persuaded myself to belier* that, 
 first, it would take me longer to penetrate and 
 search her than it was proper I should be away 
 from the boat ; that, second, it was scarce to be 
 supposed her crew had left any provisions in her, 
 or that, if stores there were, they would be fit to 
 eat ; and that, finally, my boat was so small it 
 would be rash to put into her any the most trifling 
 matter that was not essential to the preservation 
 of my life. 
 
 So, concluding to have nothing to do with the 
 ghostly sparkling fabric, I started for the body 
 under the rock, and with some pain and staggering, 
 the ice being very jagged, lumpish, and deceitful 
 to the tread, arrived at it. 
 
 Nothing but the desire to possess the fine warm 
 cloak could have tempted me to handle or even 
 to cast my eye upon the dead man again. I 
 found myself more scared by him now than at 
 first. His attitude was so lifelike that, though I 
 knew him to be a corpse, had he risen on a sudden 
 the surprise of it could hardly have shocked me 
 more than the astonishment his posture raised. 
 As a skeleton he could not have so chilled and 
 awed me ; but so well preserved was his flesh by 
 the cold, that it was hard to persuade myself he 
 was not breathing, and that, though he feigned to 
 be gazing downwards, he was not secretly 
 observing me. 
 
 His beard was frozen as hard as a bush, and it 
 crackled unpleasantly to the movement of m) 
 hands, which I was obliged to force under k to 
 unhook the stiver chain that confined the cloak
 
 i LOU MY BOAT, 75 
 
 About his neck. I felt like a thief, and stole a 
 glance over either shoulder as though, forsooth, 
 some strangely clad companion of his should be 
 creeping upon me unawares. Then, thought I, 
 since I have the cloak I may as well take the 
 watch, flask, and tobacco-box, as I had before 
 resolved ; and so I dipped my hand into his 
 pockets, and without another glance at his fierce 
 still face made for the boat. 
 
 I now noticed for the first time, so over- 
 whelmingly had my discoveries occupied my 
 attention, that the wind had freshened and was 
 blowing briskly and piercingly. When I had 
 first started upon the ascent of the slope, the 
 wind had merely wrinkled the swell as the large 
 bodies ran; but those wrinkles had become little 
 seas, which flashed into foam after a short race, 
 and the whole surface of the ocean was a 
 brilliant blue tremble. I came to a halt to view 
 the north-east sky before the brow of the r 
 hid it, and saw that clouds were congregating 
 there, and some of thefh blowing up to where the 
 sun hung, thes< ;bling in shape and colour 
 
 the compact puff of the first discharge of aca 
 before the sn reads on the air. \\ hat 
 
 should I do? 1 sank into a miserable perph 
 If it was going to blow what good could a 
 my departure from this island? It was an 
 adverse wind, and when it freshened I could not 
 choose but run before it, and tiuu would driv 
 clear 'ii the direction I required 
 
 10 wait upon the 
 hew bug should. I be kept a pris*
 
 7* Tn Pftoaour PHATB. 
 
 luvrkl place? Tree, a southerly wind might 
 prinf up to-morrow, but it might be otherwise, or 
 come in a hard gale ; and if I faltered now I might 
 go on hesitating, and then my provisions would 
 give out, and God alone knows how it would end 
 with me. Besides, the presence of the two bodies 
 made the island fearful to my imagination, and 
 nature clamoured in me to begone, a summons my 
 judgment could not resist, for reason often 
 misleads, but instincts never. 
 
 I fell again to my downward march and looked 
 towards my boat that is to say, I looked towards 
 the part of the ice where the little haven in which she 
 lay had been, and Hound both boat and haven gone! 
 
 I rubbed my eyes and stared again. Tush, 
 thought I, I am deceived by the ice. I glanced 
 at the slope behind to keep me to my bearings, 
 and once more sought the haven ; but the rock 
 that had formed it was gone, the blue swell rolled 
 brimming past the line of shore there, and my eye 
 following the swing of a fold, I saw the boat about 
 three cables length distant out upon the water. 
 swinging steadily away into the south, and 
 showing and disappearing with the heave. 
 
 The dead man's cloak fell from my arm ; I 
 uttered a cry of anguish ; I clasped my hands and 
 lifted them to God, and looked up to Him. I 
 for kicking off my boots and plunging into the 
 water, but, mad as I was, I was not so mad as ti 
 and mad I should have been to attempt it, for I 
 could not swim twenty strokes, and had I been the 
 stoutest swimmer that ever breasted the salt spray, 
 the cold must speedily put an end to my misery.
 
 I LOB mr BOAT. ff 
 
 What was to be done? Nothing! I could 
 
 only look idly at the receding boat with reeling 
 brain. The full blast of the wind was upon her, 
 and helping the driving action of the billows, 
 perceived that she was irrecoverable, and yet I 
 stood watching, watching, watching ! my head 
 burning with the surgings of twenty impracticable 
 schemes. I cast myself down and wept, stood up 
 afresh and looked at the boat, then cried to God 
 for help and mercy, bringing my hands to my 
 throbbing temples, and in that posture straining 
 my eyes at the fast vanishing structure. She was 
 the only hope I had my sole chance. My little 
 stock of provisions was in her oh, what was I to do ? 
 
 Though I was at some distance from the place 
 where what I have called my haven had been, 
 there was no need for me to approach it to 
 understand how my misfortune had come about. 
 It was likely enough that the very crevice in which 
 I had jammed the mast to secure the boat by was 
 a deep crack that the increased swell had wholly 
 split, so that the mast had tumbled when the rock 
 floated away and liberated the boat. 
 
 The horror that this white and frightful scene of 
 desolation had at the beginning filled me with was 
 renewed with such violence when I saw that my 
 boat was lost, and I was to be a prisoner on the 
 death-haunted waste, that I fell down in a sort of 
 swoon, like one partly stunned, anil had any 
 person come along and seen me he would hare 
 thought me as dead as the body on the hill or the 
 corpse that kept its dismal look-out from tto deck 
 of tne schooner.
 
 78 THE FROZEN Pi RAT*. 
 
 My senses presently returning, I got up, an<5 th 
 rock upon which I stood being level, I fell to 
 pacing -it with my hands lockea behind me, my 
 head sunk, lost in thought. The wind was 
 steadily freshening ; it split with a howling noise 
 upon the ice-crags and unequal surfaces, and spun 
 with a hollow note past my ear ; and the thunder 
 of the breakers on the other side of the island was 
 deepening its tone. The sea was lifting and 
 whitening ; something of mistiness had grown up 
 over the horizon that made a blue dulness of the 
 junction of the elements there ; but though a few 
 clouds out of the collection of vapour in the north- 
 east had floated to the zenith and were sailing 
 down the south-west heaven, the azure remained 
 pure and the sun very frostily white and 
 sparkling. 
 
 I am writing a strange story with the utmost 
 candour, and trust that the reader will not judge 
 me severely for my confession of weakness, or 
 consider me as wanting in the stuff out of which- 
 the hardy seaman is made for owning to having 
 shed tears and been stunned by the loss of my 
 little boat and slender stock of food. You will 
 say, " It is not in the power of the dead to hurt 
 a man ; what more pitiful and harmless than a 
 poor unburied corpse ? " I answer, " True," and" 
 declare that of the two bodies, as" dead men, I was 
 not afraid ; but this mass of frozen solitude was 
 about them, and they took a frightful character 
 from it ; they communicated an element of death 
 to the desolation of the snow-clad island ; their 
 presence made a principality of it for the souls of
 
 f losi MY BOAT. 79 
 
 dead sailors, and into their lifelike stillness it put 
 its own supernatural spirit of loneliness ; so that 
 to my imagination, disordered by suffering and 
 exposure, this melancholy region appeared a scene 
 without parallel on the face of the globe, a place 
 of doom and madness, as dreadful and wild 
 as the highest mood of the poet could reach up 
 to. 
 
 By this time the boat was out of sight. 1 
 looked and looked, but she was gone. Then came 
 my good angel to my help and put some courage 
 into me. " After all," thought I, "what do 1 
 dread ? Death ! it can but come to that. It is 
 not long ago that Captain Rosy cried to me, " A 
 man can die but once. He 1 II not perish the quicker 
 for contemplating his end -with a stout heart" 
 He that so spoke is dead. The worst is over for 
 him. Were he a babe resting upon his mother's 
 breast he could not sleep more soundly, be more 
 tenderly lulled, nor be freer from such anguish as 
 now afflicts me who cling to life, as if this this," 
 I cried, looking around me, " were a paradise of 
 vvarmth and beauty. I must be a man, ask God 
 for courage to meet whatever may betide, and 
 stoutly endure what cannot be evaded." 
 
 Do not smile at the simple thoughts of a poor 
 castaway sailor. I hold them still to be good 
 reasoning, and had my flesh been as strong as my 
 spirit they had availed, I don't doubt. But I was 
 chilled to the marrow; the mere knowing that 
 there was nothing to eat sharpened my appetite, 
 and I felt as if I had not tasted food for a week ; 
 and here then were physical conditions which
 
 io TKB F&OUN PIKATB. 
 
 broke ruinously into philosophy and staggered 
 religious trust. 
 
 My mind went to the schooner, yet I felt an 
 extraordinary recoil within me when I thought of 
 seeking an asylum in her. I had the figure of her 
 before my fancy, viewed the form of the man on 
 her deck, and the idea of penetrating her dark 
 interior and seeking shelter in a fabric that time 
 and frost and death had wrought into a black 
 mystery was dreadful to me. Nor was this all. 
 It seemed like the very last expression of despair 
 to board that stirless frame ; to make a dwelling- 
 place, without prospect of deliverance, in that 
 hollow of ice ; to become in one sense as dead as 
 her lonely mariner, yet preserve all the sensibility 
 of the living to a condition he was as unconscious 
 of as the ice that enclosed him. 
 
 It must be done nevertheless, thought I ; I 
 shall certainly perish from exposure if I linger 
 here; besides, how do I know but that I may 
 discover in that ship some means of escaping from 
 the island ? Assuredly there was plenty of material 
 in her for the building of a boat, if I could meet 
 with tools. Or possibly I might find a boat under 
 hatches, for it was common for vessels of her class 
 and in her time to stow their pinnaces in the hold, 
 and, when the necessity for using them arose, to 
 hoist them out and tow them astern. 
 
 These reflections somewhat heartened me, and 
 also let me add that the steady mounting of the 
 wind into a small gale served to reconcile me, not 
 indeed to the loss of my boat, but to rny detention ; 
 for though there might be a miserable languishing
 
 I ion MY BOAT. Si 
 
 for me here, I could not but beliere that there 
 was certain death, too, out there in that high iwell 
 and in those sharpening peaks of water off whose 
 foaming heads the wind was blowing the spray. 
 By which I mean the boat could not have plyed 
 in such a wind ; she must have run, and by running 
 have carried me into the stormier regions of the 
 south, where, even if she had lived, I must 
 speedily have starved for victuals and perished of 
 cold. 
 
 Hope lives like a spark amid the very blackest 
 embers of despondency. Twenty minutes before I 
 had awakened from a sort of swoon and was 
 overwhelmed with misery ; and now here was I 
 taking a collected view of my situation, even to 
 the extent of .being willing to believe that on the 
 whole it was perhaps as well that I should have 
 been hindered from putting to sea in my little 
 eggshell. So at every step we rebel at the 
 shadowy conducting of the hand of God ; yet from 
 every stage we arrive at we look back arid know 
 the road we have travelled to be the right one 
 though we start afresh mutinously. Lord, what 
 patience hast Thou ! 
 
 I turned my back upon the clamorous ocean 
 and started to ascend the slope once more. When 
 I reached the brow of the cliffs I observed 
 that the clouds had lost their fleeciness and 
 taken a slatish tinge, were moving fast and 
 crowding up the sky, insomuch that the sun was 
 leaping from one edge to another and darting a 
 keen and frosty light upon the scene. The wind 
 was bitterly cold, and screamed shrilly in my
 
 82 TNI FfcOZKN Pit AT*. 
 
 when I met the full tide of it. The change was 
 sudden, but it did not surprise me. I knew these 
 seas, and that our English April is not more 
 capricious than the weather in them, only that 
 here the sunny smile, though sparkling, is 
 frostier than the kiss of death, and brief as the 
 flight of a musket-ball, whilst the frowns are 
 black, savage, and lasting. 
 
 I bore the dead man's cloak on my arm and 
 helped myself along with the oar, and presently 
 amved at the brink of the^lope in whose hollow 
 lay the ship as in a cup. The wind made a noisy 
 howling in her rigging, but the tackling was frozen 
 so iron hard that not a rope stirred, and the vane 
 at the masthead was as motionless as any of the 
 adjacent steeples or pillars of ice. My heart was 
 dismayed again by the figure of the man. He 
 was more dreadful than the other because of the 
 size to which the frozen snow upon his head, 
 trunk, and limbs had swelled him ; and the half 
 rise of his face was particularly startling, as if he 
 were in the very act of running his gaze softly 
 upwards. That he should have died in that easy 
 leaning posture was strange ; however, I supposed, 
 and no doubt rightly, that he had been seized 
 with a sudden faintness, and had leaned upon the 
 rail and so expired. The cold would quickly 
 make him rigid and likewise preserve him, an<l 
 thus he might have been leaning, contemplatii ^ 
 the ice of the cliffs, for years and yean! 
 
 A wild and dreadful thing for one in my condition 
 to light on and be forced to think of. 
 
 My heart, as I have said, sank in again at
 
 ! LOSF MY &UT 13 
 
 the sight of him, and fear and 2 we and super- 
 stition so worked upon my spirits that I stood 
 irresolute, and would have gone back had there 
 been any place to return to. I plucked up after 
 a little, and, rolling up the cloak into a compact 
 bundle, flung it with all my strength to the vessel, 
 and it fell cleverly just within the rail. Then 
 gripping the oar I started on the descent. 
 
 The depth was not great nor the declivity sharp; 
 but the surface was formed of blocks of ice, like 
 the collections of big stones you sometimes en- 
 counter on the sides of mountains near the base ; 
 and I had again and again to fetch a compass so 
 as to gain a smaller block down which to drop, 
 till I was close to the vessel, and here the snow 
 had piled and frozen into a smooth face. 
 
 The ship lay with a list or inclination to lar- 
 board. I had come down to her on her starboard 
 side. She had small channels with long plates, 
 but her list, on my side, hove them somewhat 
 high, beyond my reach, and I perceived that to 
 get aboard I must seek an entrance on the lar- 
 board hand. This was not hard to arrive at; 
 indeed, I had but to walk round her, under her 
 bows. She was so coated with hard snow 1 could 
 see nothing of her timbers, and was therefore un- 
 able to guess at the condition of the hull. She 
 had a most absurd swelling bilge, and her 
 buttocks, viewed on a line with her rudder, doubt- 
 less presented the exact appearance of an apple. 
 She was sunk in snow to some planks above the 
 garboard-streak, but her lines forward were fine, 
 making her almost wedge-shaped, though the Hair
 
 84 THE F AT. 
 
 of her bows was great, so that she swelled up like 
 a balloon to the catheads. She had something 
 of the look of the barca-longas of half a century 
 ago that is, half a century ago from the date of 
 my adventure ; but that which, in sober truth, a 
 man would have taken her to be was a vessel 
 formed of snow, sparred and rigged with glass- 
 like frosted ice, the artistic caprice of the genius 
 or spirit of this white and melancholy scene, who, 
 to complete the mocking illusion, had fashioned 
 the figure of a man to stand on deck with a 
 human face toughened into an idle eternal con- 
 templation. 
 
 On the larboard hand the ice pressed close 
 against the vessel's side, some pieces rising to 
 the height of her wash-streak. The face of the 
 hollow was precipitous here, full of cracks and 
 flaws and sharp projections. Indeed, had the 
 breadth of the island been as it was at the 
 extremity I might have counted upon the first 
 violent commotion of the sea snapping this part 
 of the ice, and converting the northern part of the 
 body into a separate berg. 
 
 I climbed without difficulty into the forechains, 
 the snow being so hard that my feet and hands 
 made not the least impression on it, and some- 
 what warily feeling the government of a peculiar 
 awe, mounting into a sort of terror indeed stood 
 awhile peering over the rail of the bulwarks ; then 
 entered the ship. I ran my eyes swiftly here and 
 there, for indeed I did not know what might steal 
 or leap into view. Let it be remembered that I 
 was a sailor, with the superstitious feelings of mj
 
 ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY. 85 
 
 calling in me, and though I do not know that 1 
 
 actually believed in ghosts and apparitions and 
 spectrums, yet I felt as if I did ; particularly upon 
 the deck of this silent ship, rendered spirit-like by 
 the grave of ice in which she lay and by the long 
 years (as I could not doubt) during which she had 
 thus rested. Hence, when I slipped off the bul- 
 wark on to the deck and viewed the ghastly, 
 white, lonely scene, I felt for the moment as if 
 this strange discovery of mine was not to be 
 exhausted of its wonders and terrors by the mere 
 existence of the ship in other words, that I must 
 expect something of the supernatural to enter 
 into this icy sepulchre, and be prepared for sights 
 more marvellous and terrifying than frozen corpses. 
 
 So I stood looking forward and aft, very swiftly, 
 and in a way I dare say that a spectator would 
 have thought laughable enough ; nor was my 
 imagination soothed by the clear, harping, ring- 
 ing sounds of the wind seething through the 
 frozen rigging where the masts rose above the 
 shelter of the sides of the hollow. 
 
 Presently, getting the better of my perturbation, 
 1 walked aft, and, stepping on to the poop-deck, 
 fell to an examination of the companion or cover- 
 ing of the after-hatch, which, as I have elsewhere 
 said, was covered with snow. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY. 
 
 THIS hatch formc'l the entrance to the cabin, and 
 there was no other road to it that I could see. If
 
 86 THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 I wanted to use it I must first scrape away the 
 snow ; but unhappily I had left my knife in the 
 boat, and was witnout any instrument that would 
 serve me to scrape with. I thought of breaking 
 the beer-bottle that was in my pocket and scratch- 
 ing with a piece of the glass; but before doing 
 this it occurred to me to search the body on the 
 starboard side. 
 
 I approached him as if he were alive and 
 murderously fierce, and I own I did not like to 
 touch him. He resembled the figure of a giant 
 moulded in snow. In life he must have been six 
 feet and a half tall. The snow had bloated him, 
 and though he leaned he stood as high as I, who 
 was of a tolerable stature. The snow was on his 
 beard and mustaches and on his hair ; but these 
 features were merged and compacted into the 
 snow on his coat, and as his cap came low and 
 was covered with snow too, he, with the little 
 fragment of countenance that remained, the flesh 
 whereof had the colour and toughness of the skin 
 of a drum that has been well beaten, submitted as 
 terrible an object as mortal sight ever rested on. 
 1 say I did not like to touch him, and one reason 
 was I feared he would tumble ; and though I 
 know not why I should have dreaded this, yet the 
 apprehension of it so worked in me that for some 
 time it held me idly staring at him. 
 
 But I could not enter the cabin without first 
 scraping the snow from the companion door; and 
 the cold, after I had stood a few moments inactive, 
 was so bitter as to set me craving for sh- 
 So 1 put my hand upon the body, and discovered
 
 A MOTHER S^AKTUNfi DlSCOVEKY. if 
 
 it, as 1 might have foreseen, frozen to the hard- 
 ness of steel. His coat if I may call that a coat 
 which resembled a robe of snow fell to within a 
 few inches of the deck. Steadying the body with 
 one hand, I heartily tweaked the coat with the 
 other, hoping thus to rupture the ice upon it ; in 
 doing which I slipped and fell on my back, and in 
 falling gave a convulsive kick which, striking the 
 feet of the figure, dislodged them from their frozen 
 hold of the deck, and down it fell with a mighty 
 bang alongside of me, and with a loud crackling 
 noise, like the rending of a sheet of silk. 
 
 I was not hurt, and sprang to my feet with the 
 alacrity of fright, and looking at the body saw 
 that it had managed by its fall much better than 
 my hands could have compassed ; for the snow 
 shroud was cracked and crumpled, slabs of it had 
 broken away leaving the cloth of the coat visible, 
 and what best pleased me was the sight of the 
 end of a hanger forking out from the skirt of the 
 coat. 
 
 Yet to come at it so as to draw the blade from 
 its scabbard required an intolerable exertion of 
 strength. The clothes on this body were indeed 
 like a suit of mail. I never could have believed 
 that frost served cloth so. At last I managed 
 to pull the coat clear of the hilt of the hanger; 
 the blade was stuck, but after I had tugged * bit it 
 slipped out, and I found it a good pi^ce of 
 steel. 
 
 The corpse was habited in jack-boots, a ( oat of 
 coarse thick cloth lined with flannel, under this a 
 kind of blouse or doublet of red cloth, confined
 
 SS THI FROZEN PIRATM. 
 
 by a belt with leathern loops for pistols. His 
 apparel gave me no clue to the age he belonged 
 to ; it was no better, indeed, than a sort of mas- 
 querading attire, as though the fashions of more 
 than one country, and perhaps of more than one 
 age, had gone to the habiting of him. He looked 
 a burly, immense creature, as he lay upon the deck 
 in the same bent attitude in which he had stood 
 at the rail, and so dreadful was his face, with a 
 singular diabolical expression of leering malice, 
 caused by the lids of his eyes being half closed, 
 that having taken one peep I had no mind to 
 repeat it, though I was above ten minutes wrest- 
 ling with his cloak and hanger before I had the 
 weapon fairly in my hand. 
 
 I walked to the companion and fell to scraping 
 the snow away from it. 'Twas like scratching at 
 mortar between bricks. But I worked hard, and 
 presently, with the point of the hanger, felt the 
 crevice 'twixt the door and its jamb, after which 
 it was not long before I had carved the door out 
 of its plate of ice and snow. 
 
 The wind was now blowing a fresh gale, and 
 the howling aloft was extremely melancholy and 
 dismal. I could not see the ocean, but I heard 
 it thundering with a hollow roaring note 
 the sharp reports and distant sullen crashing 
 noises, with nearer convulsions within the ice 
 were very frequent. 
 
 My labour warmed me, but it also increased im 
 hunger. While I hacked and scraped at the 
 snow I was considering whether I should t 
 across anything fit to eat in the ship, and it nui
 
 ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY. 89 
 
 what I was to do. Here was a vessel assuredly 
 not less than fifty or sixty years old, and even 
 supposing she was almost new when she fell in 
 with the ice, the date of her disaster would still 
 carry her back half a century ; so that and 
 certainly there was much in the appearance of the 
 body on the rocks to warrant the conjecture she 
 would have been thus sepulchred and fossilized 
 for fifty years ! 
 
 What, then, in the form of provisions proper 
 for human food, such as even a famine-driven 
 stomach could deal with, was I likely to find in 
 her ? Would not her crew have eaten her bare, 
 devoured the very heart out of her, before they 
 perished ? 
 
 These thoughts weighed heavily in me, but I 
 toiled on nevertheless, and having cleared the 
 door of the snow that bound it, I prized it apart with 
 the hanger and then dragged at it ; but the snow 
 on the deck would not let it open far, and as there 
 was room for me to squeeze through, I did not 
 stop to scrape the obstruction away. 
 
 A flight of steps sank into the darkness of the 
 interior, and a cold strange smell floated up, with 
 something of a dry earthiness of flavour and a 
 mingling of leather and timber. I fell back a 
 pace to let something of this smell exhale 
 before I ventured into an atmosphere that had 
 been hermetically bottled by the ice in that cabin 
 since the hour when this little door was last closed. 
 Superstition was active in me again, and when 1 
 peered into the blackness at the bottom of the 
 natch I felt as might a schoolboy on the threshold
 
 9o THE FROZEN PIRAT*. 
 
 of a haunted room in which he is to be locked up 
 
 as a punishment. 
 
 I put my foot on the ladder and descended 
 very slowly indeed, my inclination being strong 
 the other way, and I kept on looking downwards 
 in a state of ridiculous fright as though at any 
 moment I should be seized by the leg; being in too 
 much confusion of mind to consider that it was 
 impossible anything living could be below, whilst 
 a ghostly shadow could not catch hold of me so 
 as to cause me to feel its grasp. But then if fear 
 could reason, it would cease to be fear. 
 
 On reaching the bottom I remained standing 
 close against the ladder, striving to see into what 
 manner of place I was arrived. The glare of the 
 whiteness of the decks and rocks hung upon my 
 eyes like a kind of blindness charged with fires 
 of several colours, and I could not obtain the 
 faintest glimpse of any part of this interior outside 
 the sphere of the little square of hazy light which 
 lay upon the deck at the foot of the steps. The 
 darkness, indeed, was so deep that I concluded 
 this was no more than a narrow well fornrn 
 bulkheads, and that the cabin was beyond, and U;d 
 to by a door in the bulkhead. 
 
 To test this conjecture I extended my arms in a 
 groping posture and stepped a pace fon.vard, 
 feeling to right and left, till, having gone fiv 
 six paces from the ladder, my fingers touched 
 something Cold, and feeling it, I passed my hand 
 down what I instantly knew by the proji 
 the nose and the roughness of hair on the upper 
 lip to be a human face I
 
 AKOTHKF STARTLING DISCOVERY. 91 
 
 A little reflection might have prepared me for 
 this, but I had n oted, at least in this 
 
 direction, and was therefore not prepared ; and the 
 horrible thrill of that black chill contact went in 
 an agony through my nerves, and I burst into a 
 violent perspiration. 
 
 I backed away with all my hair astir, and then 
 shot up the ladder as if the devil had been behind 
 me; and when I reached the deck I was 
 trembling so violently that I had to lean against 
 the companion lest my knees should give way. 
 Never in all my time had I received such a fright 
 as this ; but then I had gone to it in a fright, and 
 was exactly in the state of mind to be terrified out 
 of my senses. My soul had been rendered sick 
 and weak within me by mental and corporeal 
 suffering; my loneliness, too, was dreadful, and 
 the wilder and more scaring too for this my 
 unhappy association with the dead ; the shrieking 
 in the rigging was like the tongue given by endless 
 packs of hunting phantom wolves, and the 
 growling and cracking noises of the ice in all 
 directions would have made one coming new to 
 this desolate scene suppose that the island of ice 
 was full of fierce beasts. 
 
 But needs must when Old Nick drives; I had 
 either to find courage to enter the schooner and 
 search her, and so stand to come across the 
 means to prolong my life, and perhaps procure 
 my deliverance, or perish of famine and frost or 
 deck. 
 
 The companion door was small, and being 
 scarce more than ajar I was not surprised that
 
 92 THE FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 only a very faint light entered by it. If the top 
 
 were removed I doubted not I should be able to 
 get a view of the cabin, enough to show me where 
 the windows or port-holes were. So I went to 
 work with the hanger again, insensibly obtaining 
 a little stock of courage from the mere brandish- 
 ing of it. In half an hour I had chipped and cut 
 away the ice round the companion, and then 
 found it to be one of those old-fashioned clumsy 
 hatch-covers formerly used in certain kinds of 
 Dutch ships namely, a box with a shoulder- 
 shaped lid. This lid, though heavy, and fitting 
 with a tongue, I managed to unship, on which 
 the full square of the hatch lay open to the 
 sky. 
 
 The light gave me heart. Once more I 
 descended. After a few moments the bewildering 
 dazzle of the snow faded off my sight, and I could 
 see very distinctly. 
 
 The cabin was a small room. The forward part 
 lay in shadow, but I could distinguish the outline 
 of the mainmast amidships of the bulkhead there. 
 In the centre of this cabin was a small square 
 table supported by iron pins, that pierced through 
 stanchions in such a manner that the table could 
 at will be raised to the ceiling, and there left for 
 the conveniency of space. 
 
 At this table, seated upon short quaintly-wrought 
 benches, and immediately facing each other, were 
 two men. They were incomparably more lifelike 
 tnan the frozen figures. The one whose back 
 v*iis upon the hatchway ladder, being the man 
 whose face I had stroked, sat upright, in the
 
 ANOTHER .STARTLING DISCOVERY. 93 
 
 posture of a person about to start up, both hands 
 upon the rim of the table, and his countenance 
 raised as if, in a sudden terror and agony of death, 
 he had darted a look to God. So inimitably 
 expressive of life was his attitude, that though I 
 knew him to be a frozen body as perished as if 
 he had died with Adam or Noah, I was sensible of a 
 breathless wonder in me that the affrighted start 
 with which he seemed to be rising from the table 
 was not continued that, in short, he did not 
 spring to his feet with the cry that you seemed to 
 hear in his posture. 
 
 The other figure lay over the table with his 
 face buried in his arms. He wore no covering to 
 his head, which was bald, yet his hair on either 
 side was plentiful and lay upon his arms, and his 
 beard fluffing up about his buried face gave him 
 an uncommon shaggy appearance. The other 
 had on a round fur cap with lappets for the ears. 
 His body was muffled in a thick ash-coloured 
 coat ; his hair was also abundant, curling long 
 and black down his back ; his cheeks were smooth 
 manifestly through nature rather than the razor, 
 and the ends of a small black mustache were 
 twisted up to his eyes. These were the only 
 occupants of the cabin, which their presence 
 rendered terribly ghastly and strange. 
 
 There was perhaps something in keeping with 
 the icy spell of death upon this vessel in the 
 figure of the man who was bowed over the table, 
 for he looked as though he slept ; but the other 
 mocked the view with a spectrum of the fever and 
 passion of life. You would have sworn he had
 
 94 THK FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 beheld the skcl hadow reaching 
 
 out of the dimness ior him ; that he had 
 started back with a curse and cry of horror, and 
 expired in the very agony of his affrighted 
 recoil. 
 
 The interior was extremely plain : the bulk- 
 heads of a mahogany colour, the decks bare, and 
 nothing in the form of an ornament saving a silver 
 crucifix hanging by a nail to the trunk of the 
 mainmast, and a cage with a frozen bird of 
 gorgeous plumage suspended to the bulkhead 
 near the hatch. A small lanthorn of an old 
 pattern dangled over the table, and I noticed that 
 it contained two or three inches of candle. -Abaft 
 the hatchway was a door on the starboard side 
 which I opened, and found a narrow dark passage. 
 I could not pierce it with my eye beyond a few 
 feet ; but perceiving within this range the outline 
 of a little door, I concluded that here were the 
 berths in which the master and his mates slept. 
 There was nothing to be done in the dark, and I 
 bitterly lamented that I had left my tinder-box 
 and flint in the boat, for then,! could have. lighted 
 the candle in the lanthorn. 
 
 11 Perhaps," thought I, " one of those figure*, 
 may have a tinder-box upon him." 
 
 Custom was now somewhat hardening me; 
 moreover I was spurred on by mortal anxiety to 
 discover if there was any kind of food to be met 
 with in the vessel. So I stepped up to the figure 
 whose face I had touched, and felt in his pockets ; 
 but neither on him nor on the other did I find 
 what 1 wanted, though I was not a little astonished
 
 ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOYBKY. 95 
 
 to discover in the pockets of the occupants of so 
 small and humble a ship as this schooner a fine 
 gold watch as rich as the one I had brought away 
 from the man on the rocks, and more elegant in 
 shape, a gold snuffbox set with diamonds, several 
 rings of beauty and value lying loose in the 
 breeches pocket of the man whose face was 
 hidden, a handful of Spanish pieces in gold, 
 handkerchiefs of fine silk, and other articles, as 
 if indeed these fellows had been overhauling 
 a parcel of boot) , and then carelessly returned the 
 contents to their pockets. 
 
 But what I needed was the means of obtaining 
 a light, so, after casting about, I thought I would 
 search the body on deck, and went to it, and to 
 my great satisfaction discovered what I wanted in 
 the first pocket I dipped my hand into, though I 
 had to rip open the mouth of it away from the 
 snow with the hanger. 
 
 I returned to the cabin and lighted the candle, 
 and carried the lanthorn into the black passage or 
 corridor. There were four small doors, belonging 
 to as many berths ; I opened the first, and entered 
 a compartment that smelt so intolerably stale and 
 fusty that I had to come into the passage again 
 and fetch a few breaths to humour my nose to the 
 odour. As in the cabin, however, so here I found 
 this noxiousness of air was not caused by 
 putrefaction or any tainting qualities of a vege- 
 table or animal kind, but by the deadness of the 
 pent-up air itself, as the foulness of bilge water is 
 owing to its being imprisoned from &ir in tfe* 
 bottom of the bold.
 
 $6 THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 I held up the lanthorn and looked about me. 
 A glance or two satisfied me that I was in a room 
 that had been appropriated to the steward and his 
 mates. A number of dark objects, which on 
 inspection I found to be hams, were stowed snugly 
 away in battens under the ceiling or upper- 
 deck ; a cask half full of flour stood in a corner ; 
 near it lay a large coarse sack in which was a quantity 
 of biscuit, a piece of which I bit and found it as 
 hard as flint and tasteless, but not in the least 
 degree mouldy. There were four shelves running 
 athwartships full of glass, knives and forks, dishes, 
 and so forth, some of the glass very choice and 
 elegant, and many of the dishes and plates also 
 very fine, fit for the greatest nobleman's table. 
 Under the lower shelf, on the deck, lay a sack of 
 what I believed to be black stones until, after 
 turning one or two of them about, it came upon me 
 that they were, or had been, I should say, potatoes. 
 Not to tease you with too many particulars 
 under this head, let me briefly say that in this 
 larder or steward's room I found among other 
 things several cheeses, a quantity of candles, a 
 great earthenware pot full of pease, several pounds 
 of tobacco, about thirty lemons, along with two 
 small casks and three or four jars, manifestly of 
 spirits, but of what kind I could not tell. I took 
 a stout sharp knife from one of the shelves, and 
 pulling down one of the hams tried to cut it, but 
 I might as well have striven to slice a piece of 
 marble. I attempted next to cut a cheese, but 
 this was frozen as hard as the ham. The lemons, 
 candles, and tobacco had the same astonishing
 
 I MAKE FURTHER DISCOVERIES, 97 
 
 quality of stoniness, and nothing yielded to the 
 touch but the flour. I laid hold of one of the jars, 
 and thought to pull the stopper out, but it was 
 frozen hard in the hole it fitted, and I was five 
 minutes hammering it loose. When it was out I 
 inserted a steel used for the sharpening of knives 
 and found the contents solid ice, nor was there 
 the faintest smell to tell me what the spirit or wine 
 was. 
 
 Never before did plenty offer itself in so mock- 
 ing a shape. It was the very irony of abundance 
 substantial ghostliness and a Barmecide's feast 
 to my aching stomach. 
 
 But there was biscuit not unconquerable by 
 teeth used to the fare of the sea life, and picking 
 up a whole one, I sat me down on the edge of a 
 cask and fell a-munching. One reflection, how- 
 ever, comforted me, namely, that this petrifaction 
 by freezing had kept the victuals sweet I was 
 sure there was little here that might not be thawed 
 into relishable and nourishing food and drink by a 
 good fire. The sight of these stores took such a 
 weight off my mind that no felon reprieved from 
 death could feel more elated than I. My fore- 
 bodings had come to nought in this regard, and 
 here for the moment my grateful spirits were 
 content to stop. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 I MAKE FURTHER DISCOVERIES. 
 
 So long as I moved about and worked I did not 
 feel the cold ; but if J stood or sat for a couple ol
 
 g9 TR* FROZE* PIUATI. 
 
 minutes I felt the nip of it in my very marrow. 
 Yet, fierce as the cold was here, it wa- 
 it could be comparable with the rigours of the 
 .parts in which this schooner had originally got 
 locked up in the ice. No doubt if I died on deck 
 my body would be frozen as stiff as the figure on 
 the rocks ; but, though it was very conceivable 
 that I might perish of cold in the cabin by sitting 
 still, I was sure the temperature below had not 
 the severity to stonify me to the granite of the 
 men at the table. 
 
 Still, though a greater degree of cold cold as 
 killing as if the world had fallen sunless did 
 unquestionably exist in those latitudes whence 
 this ice with the schooner in its hug had floated, 
 it was so bitterly bleak in this interior that 'twas 
 scarce imaginable it could be colder elsewhere ; 
 and as I rose from the cask shuddering to the 
 heart with the frosty motionless atmosphere, my 
 mind naturally went to the consideration of a fire 
 by which I might sit and toast myself. 
 
 I put a bunch of candles in my pocket they 
 were as hard as a parcel of marline-spikes and 
 took the lanthorn into the passage and insp< 
 the next room. Here was a cot hung up by 
 hooks, and a large black chest stood in cl 
 upon the deck ; some clothes dangled from pins 
 in the bulkhead, and upon a kind of tray fixed 
 upon short legs and serving as a shelf were a 
 miscellaneous bundle of boots, laced waistcoats, 
 <*- corner hats, a couple of swords, three or 
 lour pistols, and other objects not very readily 
 distinguishable by the candlelight There was a
 
 II ICAJCB FURTHER DISCOVERIES, 9f 
 
 port which I tried to open, but found it so hard 
 frozen I should need a handspike to start it. 
 There were three cabins besides this ; the last- 
 cabin, that is the one in the stern, being the 
 biggest of the lot. Each had its cot, and each 
 also had its own special muddle and litter of 
 boxes, clothes, firearms, swords, and the like. 
 
 Indeed, by this time I was beginning to sec 
 how it was. The suspicion that the watches and 
 jewellery I had discovered on the bodies of the 
 men had excited was now confirmed, and I wai 
 satisfied that this schooner had been a pirate or 
 buccaneer, of what nationality I could not yet 
 divine methought Spanish from the costume of 
 the first figure I had encountered ; and I was also 
 convinced by the brief glance I directed at the 
 things in the cabin, particularly the wearing 
 apparel, and the make and appearance of the fire- 
 arms, that she must have been in this position 
 for upwards of fifty years. 
 
 The thought awed me greatly : twenty years 
 before I was born those two men were sitting dead 
 in the cabin ! he on deck was keeping his blind 
 and silent look-out; he on the rocks with his 
 hands locked upon his knees sat sunk in blank 
 and frozen contemplation 1 
 
 Every cabin had its port, and there were ports 
 in the vessel's side opposite ; But on reflection I 
 considered that the cabin would be the warmer for 
 their remaining closed, and so I came away and 
 entered the great cabin afresh, bent on exploring 
 the forward pa 
 
 I must tell you that the mainmast, piercing the
 
 ioo THI FROZEH PIRATE. 
 
 apper deck, came down close against the bulk- 
 head that formed the forward wall of the cabin, 
 and on approaching this partition, the daylight 
 being broad enough now that the hatch lay open 
 on top, I remarked a sliding door on the larboard 
 side of the mast. I put my shoulder to it and 
 very easily ran it along its grooves, and then 
 found myself in the way of a direct communica- 
 tion with all the fore portion of the schooner. 
 The arrangement indeed was so odd that I sus- 
 pected a piratical device in this uncommon method 
 of opening out at will the whole range of deck. 
 The air here was as vile as in the cabins, and I 
 had to wait a bit. 
 
 On entering I discovered a little compartment 
 with racks on either hand filled with small-arms. 
 I afterwards counted a hundred and thirteen 
 muskets, blunderbusses, and fusils, all oi 
 antique kind, whilst the sides of the vessel were 
 hung with pistols great and little, boarding-pikes, 
 cutlasses, hangers, and other sorts of sword. 
 This armoury was a sight to set me walking very 
 cautiously, for it was not likely that powder should 
 be wanting in a ship thus equipped ; and where 
 was it stowed ? 
 
 There was another sliding door in the forward 
 partition ; it stood open, and I passed through it 
 into what I immediately saw was the cook-house. 
 I turned the lanthorn about, and discovered every 
 convenience for dressing food. The furnaces 
 were of brick and the oven was a great one- 
 great, I mean, for the size of the vessel. There 
 were pots, pans, and kettles in plenty, a dresser
 
 I MAKB FURTHER DISCOTORBB. ior 
 
 with drawers, dishes of tin and earthenware, a 
 Dutch clock in short, such an equipment of 
 kitchen furniture as you would not expect to find 
 in the galley of an Indiaman built to carry two or 
 three hundred passengers. About half a chaldron 
 of small coal lay heaped in a wooden angular 
 fence fitted to the ship's side, for the sight of 
 which I thanked God. I held the lanthorn to 
 the furnace, and observed a crooked chimney 
 rising to the deck and passing through it. The 
 mouth or head of it was no doubt covered by the 
 snow, for I had not noticed any such object in the 
 survey I had taken of the vessel above. Strange, 
 I thought, that these men should have frozen to 
 death with the material in the ship for keeping a 
 fire going. But then my whole discovery I re- 
 garded as one of those secrets of the deep which 
 defy the utmost imagination and experience of 
 man to explain them. Enough that here was a 
 schooner which had been interred in a sepulchre 
 of ice, as I might rationally conclude, for near 
 half a century, that there were dead men in her 
 who looked to have been frozen to death, that she 
 was apparently stored with miscellaneous booty, 
 that she was powerfully armed for a craft of her 
 size, and had manifestly gone crowded with mem 
 All this was plain, and I say it was enough for me. 
 If she had papers they were to be met with pre- 
 sently ; otherwise, conjecture would be mere 
 imbecility in the face of those white and frost- 
 bound countenances and iron silent lips. 
 
 I thrust back another sliding door and entered 
 the ship's forecastle. The ceiling, as I choose
 
 **r TH FROZEN 
 
 la call the upper deck, WA- hammocks, 
 
 the floor was co\ bedding, 
 
 (es, and I know not what else. The rir 
 
 of the wind on high did not disturb the still i 
 
 and I cannot convey the impression produced on 
 
 my mind by this extraordinary scene of confusion 
 
 beheld amid the silence of that tomblike interior. 
 
 1 stood in the doorway, not having the courage to 
 
 venture further. For all I knew many of those 
 
 hammocks might be tenanted ; for as this kind of 
 
 bed expresses by its curvature the rounded shape 
 
 of a seaman, whether it be empty or not, so it is 
 
 impossible by merely looking to know whether it 
 
 is occupied or vacant. The dismalness of the 
 
 1 was of course vastly exaggerated by the 
 
 e light of the candle, which, swaying in my 
 
 hand, flung a swarming of shadows upon the 
 
 e, through which the hammocks glimmered 
 
 wan and melancholy. 
 
 I c iy in a fright, sliding the door to in 
 
 'uirry with a bang that fetched a groaning 
 echo out of the hold. If this ship were haunted, 
 the > ould be the abode of the spirits ! 
 
 sore 1 could make a fire the chimney must 
 red. Among the furniture in the arms- 
 Toon r of spade-headed spears ; the 
 
 is the length of a man's thumb, and 
 about a foot long, mounted on light thin wood. 
 Armed with one of these weapons, the like of 
 which is to be met with among certain South 
 American tribes, I passed into the cabin to pro- 
 ceed on deck ; but though I knew the two figures 
 there, the coming upon them afresh struck
 
 1 MAKB FURTHER DISCOVERIES. 103 
 
 me with as much astonishment and alarm as if 
 I had not before seen them. The man starting 
 from the table confronted me on this entrance, and 
 I stopped dead to that astounding living posture 
 of terror, even recoiling, as though he were alive 
 indeed, and was jumping up from the table in his 
 amazement at my apparition. 
 
 The-brilliance of the snow was very striking after 
 the dusk of the interiors I had been penetrating. 
 The glare seemed like a blaze of white sunshine ; 
 yet it was the dazzle of the ice and nothing more 
 for the sun was hidden ; the fairness of the 
 morning was passed ; the sky was lead-coloured 
 down to the ocean line, with a quantity of smoke- 
 brown scud flying along it. The change had 
 been rapid, as it always is hereabouts. The wind 
 screamed with a piercing whistling sound through 
 the frozen rigging, splitting in wails and bounding 
 in a roar upon the adamantine peak? .md rocks ;. 
 the cracking of the ice was loud, continuous, and 
 mighty startling; and these sounds, combined 
 with the thundering of the sea and the fierce 
 hissing of its rushing yeast, gave the weather the 
 character of a storm, though as yet it was no 
 more than a fresh gale. 
 
 However, though it was frightful to be alone 
 in this frozen vault, with no other society than 
 that of the dead, not even a seafowl to put life 
 into the scene, I could not but feel that, be my 
 prospects what they might, for the moment I was 
 safe that is to say, I was immeasurably securer 
 than ever I could have been in the boat, which, 
 when I had emerged into this stormy sound and
 
 104 TH* FRCWIM PIIATB. 
 
 realized the sea that was running outside, I 
 instantly thought of with a shudder. Had the 
 rock, I mused, not fallen and liberated the boat, 
 where should I be now ? Perhaps floating, a 
 corpse, fathoms deep under water, or, if alive, then 
 flying before this gale into the south, ever widening 
 the distance betwixt me and all chance of my 
 deliverance, and every hour gauging more deeply 
 the horrible cold of the pole. Indeed I began 
 to understand that I had been mercifully diverted 
 from courting a hideous fate, and my spirits rose 
 with the emotion of gratitude and hope that attends 
 upon preservation 
 
 I speedily spied the chimney, which showed a 
 head of two feet above the deck, and made short 
 work of the snow that was frozen in it, as nothing 
 could have been fitter to cut ice with than the 
 spade-shaped weapon I carried. This done, I 
 returned to the cook-room, and with a butcher's 
 axe that hung against the bulk-head I knocked 
 away one of the boards that confined the coal, 
 split it into small pieces, and in a short time had 
 kindled a good fire. One does not need the 
 experience of being cast away upon an iceberg to 
 understand the comfort of a fire. I had a mind 
 to be prodigal, and threw a good deal of coals 
 into the furnace, and presently had a noble blaze. 
 The heat was exquisite. I pulled a little bench, 
 after the pattern of those on which the men sat 
 in the cabin, to the fire, and, with outstret< 
 legs ,'ind arms, thawed out of me the frost 
 had lain taut in my flesh ever since the wreck of 
 the Laughing Mary. When I was thoroughly
 
 I MAKB FURTHER DlSCOYttltt. IO| 
 
 warm and comforted I took the lanthorn and went 
 aft to the steward's room, and brought thence a 
 cheese, a ham, some biscuit, and one of the jars 
 of spirits, all which I carried to the cook-room, and 
 placed the whole of them in the oven. I was 
 extremely hungry and thirsty, and the warmth 
 and cheerfulness of the fire set me yearning for a 
 hot meal. Put how was I to make a bowl without 
 fresh water? I went on deck and scratched up 
 some snow, but the salt in it gave it a sickly taste, 
 and I was not only certain it would spoil and 
 make disgusting whatever I mixed it with or 
 cooked in it, but it stood as a drink to disorder 
 my stomach and bring on an illness. So, thought 
 I to myself, there must be fresh water about 
 casks enough in the hold, I dare say ; but the 
 hold was not to be entered and explored without 
 labour and difficulty, and I was weary and famished, 
 and in no temper for hard work. 
 
 In all ships it is the custom to carry one or 
 more casks called scuttlebutts on deck, into which 
 fresh water is pumped for the use of the crew. I 
 stepped along looking earnestly at the several 
 shapes of guns, coils of rigging, hatchways, and 
 the like, upon which the snow lay thick and solid, 
 sometimes preserving the mould of the object it 
 covered, sometimes distorting and exaggerating it 
 into an unrecognizable outline, but perceived 
 nothing that answered to the shape of a cask. 
 At last I came to the well in the head, passed the 
 forecastle deck, and on looking down spied among 
 other shapes three bulged and bulky forms. 1 
 seemed by instinct to know that these were \k*
 
 Tint Pftounr FTJUTB. 
 
 scuttlebutts and went for the chopper, with which 
 I returned and got into this hollow, that was four 
 or five feet deep. The snow had the hardness of 
 iron ; it took me a quarter of an hour of severe 
 labour to make sure of the character of the bulky 
 thing I wrought at, and then it proved to be a 
 cask. Whatever might be its contents it was not 
 empty, but I was pretty nigh spent by the time I 
 had knocked off the iron bands and beaten out 
 staves enough to enable me to get at the frozen 
 body within. There were three-quarters of a cask 
 full. It was sparkling clear ice, and chipping off 
 a piece and sucking it, I found it to be very sweet 
 fresh water. Thus was my labour rewarded. 
 
 I cut off as much as, when dissolved, would 
 make a couple of gallons, but stayed a minute to 
 regain my breath and take a view of this well or 
 hollow before going aft. It was formed of the 
 great open head-timbers of the schooner curving 
 up to the stem, and by the forecastle deck ending 
 like a cuddy front. I scraped at this front and 
 removed enough snow to exhibit a portion of a 
 window. It was by this window I supposed that 
 the forecastle was lighted. Out of this well forked 
 the bowsprit, with the spritsail yard braced fore 
 and aft. The whole fabric close to looked more 
 like glass than at a distance, owing to the million 
 crystalline sparkles of the ice-like snow that 
 coated the structure from the vane at the masthead 
 to the keel. 
 
 Well, I clambered on to the forecastle deck and 
 returned to the cook-room with my piece of ice, 
 stnick as 1 went along by the sudden comfortable
 
 I MAKB FUfcTHER DlSOOVnUBS. 1O7 
 
 quality of life the gushing of the black smoke out 
 of the chimney put into the ship, and how, indeed, 
 it seemed to soften as if by magic the savage 
 wildness and haggard austerity and gale-swept 
 loneliness of the white rocks and peaks. It was 
 extremely disagreeable and disconcerting to me 
 to have to pass the ghastly occupants of the cabin 
 every time I went in and out ; and I made up my 
 mind to get them on deck when I felt equal to 
 the work, and cover them up there. The slanting 
 posture of the one was a sort of fierce rebuke; 
 the sleeping attitude of the other was a dark and 
 sullen enjoinment of silence. I never passed them 
 without a quick beat of the heart and shortened 
 breathing ; and the more I looked at them the 
 keener became the superstitious alarm they excited. 
 The fire burned brightly, and its ruddy glow 
 was sweet as human companionship. I put the 
 ice into a saucepan and set it upon the fire, and 
 then pulling the cheese 7 and ham out of the oven 
 found them warm and thawed. On smelling to 
 the mouth of the jar I discovered its contents to 
 be brandy. 1 Only about an inch deep of it was 
 melted. I pourea this into a pannikin and took a 
 sup, and a finer drop of spirits I never swallowed 
 in all my life; its elegant perfume proved it 
 amazingly choice and old. I fetched a lemon and 
 some sugar and speedily prepared a small smoking 
 
 1 I can give the reader no better idea of the cold of the 
 latitudes in which this schooner had lain, than by ipeakint 
 of the brandy as being frozen. This may hav* hmppeD*d 
 tiuough its having kwt twenty or thirty pa cart, of to 
 &.
 
 IOS THI FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 bowl of punch. The ham cut readily ; ! fried a 
 couple of stout rashers, and fell to the heartiest 
 and most delicious repast I ever sat down to. At 
 any time there is something fragrant and appe- 
 tizing in the smell of fried ham ; conceive then the 
 relish that the appetite of a starved, half-frozen, 
 shipwrecked man would find in it ! The cheese 
 was extremely good, and was as sound as if it had 
 been made a week ago. Indeed, the preservative 
 virtues of the cold struck me with astonishment. 
 Here was I making a fine meal off stores which 
 in all probability had lain in this ship fifty years, 
 and they ate as choicely as like food of a similar 
 quality ashore. Possibly some of these days 
 science may devise a means for keeping the 
 stores of a ship frozen, which would be as great a 
 blessing as could befall the mariner, and a sure 
 remedy for the scurvy, for then as much fresh 
 meat might be carried as salt, besides other 
 articles of a perishable kind. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A LONELY NIGHT. 
 
 I HAD a pipe of my own in my pocket ; I fetched 
 a small block of the black tobacco that was in 
 the pantry, and, with some trouble, for it was as 
 hard and dry as glass, chipped off a bowlful and 
 fell a-puffing with all the satisfaction of a hardened 
 lover of tobacco who has long been denied his 
 favourite relish. The punch diffused a pleasing 
 glow through my frame, the tobacco was lulling,
 
 A LOKELY NIGHT. 109 
 
 the heat of the fire very soothing, the hearty meal 
 1 had eaten had also marvellously invigorated me, 
 so that I found my mind in a posture to justly and 
 rationally consider my condition, and to reason 
 out such probabilities as seemed to be attached 
 to it. 
 
 First of all I reflected that by the usual opera- 
 tion of natural laws this vast seat of " thrilling and 
 thick-ribbed ice " in which the schooner lay bound 
 was steadily travelling to the northward, where in 
 due course it would dissolve, though that would 
 not happen yet. But as it advanced so would it 
 carry me nearer to the pathways of ships using 
 these seas, and any day might disclose a sail near 
 enough to observe such signals of smoke or flag 
 as I might best contrive. But supposing no 
 opportunity of this kind to offer, then 1 ought to 
 be able to find in the vessel materials fit for the 
 construction of a boat, if, indeed, I met not with 
 a pinnace of her own stowed under the main-hatch, 
 for there was certainly no boat on deck. Nay, 
 my meditations even carried me further : this was 
 the winter season of the southern hemisphere, 
 but presently the sun would be coming my way, 
 whilst the ice, on the other hand, floated towards 
 him ; if by the wreck and dissolution of the island 
 the schooner was not crushed, she must be 
 released, in which case, providing she was tight 
 and my brief inspection of her bottom showed 
 nothing wrong with her that was visible through 
 the shroud of snow I should have a stout ship 
 under me in which I would be able to lie hoye 
 to, or even make shift to sail her if the breeit
 
 n Tm Piaa* PI&ATK. 
 
 cmme from tfce outii, and thus take my chance of 
 being sighted and discovered. 
 
 Much, I had almost said everything, depended 
 on the quantity of provisions I should find in her 
 and particularly on the stock of coal, for I feared 
 I must perish if I had not a fire. But there was 
 the hold to be explored yet; the navigation of 
 these waters must have been anticipated by the 
 men of the schooner, who were sure to make 
 handsome provision for the cold and the surer 
 if, as I fancied, they were Spaniards. Certainly 
 they might have exhausted their stock of coal, 
 but I could not persuade myself of this, since 
 the heap in the corner of the cook-room somehow 
 or other was suggestive of a store behind. 
 
 I knew not yet whether more of the crew lay in 
 the forecastle, but so far I had encountered four 
 men only. If these were all, then I had a right 
 to believe, grounding my fancy on the absence of 
 boats, that most of the company had quitted the 
 ship, and this they would have done early a 
 supposition that promised me a fair discovery of 
 stores. Herein lay my hope ; if I could prolong 
 my life for three or four months, then, if the ice 
 svas not all gone, it would have advanced far north, 
 serving me as a ship and putting me in the way of 
 delivering myself, either by the sight of a sail, or. 
 by the schooner floating free, or by my construc- 
 tion of a boat. 
 
 Thus I sat musing, as I venture to think, in a 
 clearheaded way. Yet all the same I could not 
 glance around without feeling as if I was bewitched. 
 The red shining of the furnace ruddily gilded the
 
 A LOWB.T NIGHT. ill 
 
 cook-house ; through the after-sliding door went 
 the passage to the cabin in blackness; the 
 storming of the wind was subdued into a strange 
 moaning and complaining ; often through the 
 body of the ship came the thrill of a sudden 
 explosion ; and haunting all was the sense of the 
 dead men just without, the frozen desolation of 
 the island, the mighty world of waters in which 
 it lay. No! you can think of no isolation 
 comparable to this ; and I tremble as I review 
 it, for under the thought of the enormous loneli- 
 ness of that time my spirit must ever sink and 
 break down. 
 
 It was melancholy to be without time, so ! 
 pulled out the gold watch I had taken from 
 the man on the rocks and wound it up, and 
 guessing at the hour, set the hands at half-past 
 tour. The watch ticked bravely. It was indeed 
 a noble piece of mechanism, very costly and 
 glorious with its jewels, and more than a hint as 
 to the character of this schooner ; and had there 
 been nothing else to judge by I should still have 
 sworn to her by this watch. 
 
 My pipe being emptied, I threw some more 
 coals into the furnace, and putting a candle in the 
 lanthorn went aft to take another view of the little 
 cabins, in one of which I resolved to sleep, for 
 though the cook-room would have served me best 
 whilst the fire burned, I reckoned upon it making a 
 colder habitation when the furnace was black than 
 those small compartments in the stern. The cold 
 on deck gushed down so bitingly through the 
 open companion-hatch that I was fain to close it.
 
 Hi THB Flea** PIEATB. 
 
 I mounted the steps, and with much ado shipped 
 the cover and shut the door, by which of course 
 the great cabin, as I call the room in which the 
 two men were, was plunged in darkness ; but the 
 cold was not tolerable, and the parcels of candles 
 in the larder rendered me indifferent to the 
 gloom. 
 
 On entering the passage in which were the 
 doors of the berths, I noticed an object that had 
 before escaped my observation I mean a small 
 trap-hatch, no bigger than a manhole, with a ring 
 for lifting it, midway down the lane. I suspected 
 this to be the entrance to the lazarette, and 
 putting both hands to the ring pulled the hatch 
 up. I sniffed cautiously, fearing foul air, and then 
 sinking the lanthorn by the length of my arm I 
 peered down, and observed the outlines of casks, 
 bales, cases of white wood, chests, and so forth. 
 I dropped through the hole on to a cask, which left 
 me my head and shoulders above the deck, and 
 then with the utmost caution stooped and threw 
 the lanthorn light around me. But the casks 
 were not powder-barrels, which perhaps a little 
 reflection might have led me to suspect, since it 
 was not to be supposed that any man would stow 
 his powder in the lazarette. 
 
 As I was in the way of settling my misgivings 
 touching the stock of food in the schooner, I 
 resolved to push through with this business at 
 once, and fetching the chopper went to work upon 
 these barrels and chests ; and very briefly I will 
 tell you what I found. First, I dealt with a tierce 
 that proved full of salt beef. There was a whole
 
 A LONELY NIGHT. 113 
 
 row of these tierces, and one sufficed to express 
 the nature of the rest; there were upwards of 
 thirty barrels of pork ; one canvas bale I ripped 
 open was full of hams, and of these bales 
 counted half a score. The white cases held 
 biscuit. There were several sacks of pease, a 
 number of barrels of flour, cases of candles, 
 cheeses, a quantity of tobacco, not to mention a 
 variety of jars of several shapes, some of which 
 I afterwards found to contain marmalade and 
 succadoes of different kinds. On knocking the 
 head off one cask I found it held a frozen 
 body, that by the light of the lanthorn looked as 
 black as ink ; I chipped off a bit, sucked it, and 
 found it wine. 
 
 I was so transported by the sight of this wonder- 
 ful plenty that I fell upon my knees in an outburst 
 of gratitude and gave hearty thanks to God for 
 His mercy. There was no further need for me to 
 dismally wonder whether I was to starve or no ; 
 supposing the provisions sweet, here was food 
 enough to last me three or four years. I was so 
 overjoyed and withal curious that I forgot all 
 about the time, and flourishing the chopper made 
 the round of the lazarette, sampling its freight by 
 individual instances, so that by the time I was 
 tired I had enlarged the list I have given, by 
 discoveries of brandy, beer, oatmeal, oil, lemons, 
 tongues, vinegar, rum, and eight or ten other 
 matters, all stowed very bunglingly, and in so 
 many different kinds of casks, cases, jars, and 
 other vessels as disposed me to believe that 
 several piratical rummagings must have gone to
 
 114 T* 1 FROM* Fit ATI. 
 
 the creation of this handsome and plentiful stock 
 of good things. 
 
 Well, thought I, even if there be no more coal 
 in the ship than what lies in the cook- IK 
 enough fuel is here in the shape of casks, b< 
 and the like to thaw me provisions for six monihs, 
 besides what I may come across in the hold, 
 along with the hammocks, bedding, boxes, and 
 so forth in the forecastle, all which would be 
 good to feed my fire with. This was a most 
 comforting reflection, and I recollect spring- 
 ing out through the lazarette hatch wit! 
 spirited a caper as ever I had cut at any time in. 
 my life. 
 
 I replaced the hatch-cover, and having resoi 
 upon the aft most of the four cabins as my bed- 
 room, entered it to see what kind of accommoda- 
 tion it would yield me. I hung up the lanthorn and 
 looked into the cot, that was slung athwartships 
 spied a couple of rugs or blankets, which I pulled 
 out. having no fancy to lie under them. The deck 
 was like an old clothes' shop, or the wardrobe o! 
 a travelling troop of actors. From the confu 
 in this and the adjoining cabins, I concluded thru 
 there had been a rush at the last, a wild u 
 hauling and flinging about of clothes for articles 
 of more value hidden amongst them. But just 
 as likely as not the disorder merely indicated the 
 slovenly indifference of plunderers ^o the frui 
 a pillage that had < ked th< 
 
 The first garment I - a cloak 
 
 a sort of silk material, rich!) furred and !i 
 the buttons but one had been cut oil", and that
 
 A LOVXLY Nwnrr. 115 
 
 which remained was silver, i spread k in die 
 cot, as it was a soft thing to lie upon. Then I 
 picked up a coat of the fashion you will see in 
 Hogarth's engravings ; the coat collar a broad 
 fold, and the cuffs to the elbow. This was as 
 good as a rug, and I put it into the cot with the 
 other. I inspected others of the articles on the 
 deck, and among them recollect a gold-laced 
 waistcoat of green velvet, two or three pairs of 
 high-heeled shoes, a woman's yellow sacque, 
 several frizzled wigs, silk stockings, pumps in 
 fine, the contents of the trunks of some dandy 
 passengers, long since gathered to their forefathers 
 no doubt, even if the gentlemen of this schooner 
 had not then and there walked them overboard or 
 split their windpipes. But, to be honest, I cannot 
 remember a third of what lay tumbled upon the 
 deck or hung against the bulkhead. So far as 
 my knowledge of costume went, every article 
 pointed to the date which I had fixed upon for 
 this vessel. 
 
 I swept the huddle of things with my foot into 
 a corner, and lifting the lids of the boxes saw 
 more clothes, some books, a collection of small- 
 arms, a couple of quadrants, and sundry rolls of 
 paper which proved to be charts of the islands of 
 the Antilles and the western South American coast, 
 very ill-digested. There were no papers of any 
 kind to determine the vessel's character, nor 
 journal to acquaint me with her story. 
 
 I was tired in my limbs rather than sleepy, and 
 went to the cook-room to warm myself at the fire 
 and get me some supper, meaning to sit there till
 
 n6 THI FROZEN PIIUTB, 
 
 the fire died out and then go to rest ; but when I 
 put my knife to the ham I found it as hard frozen 
 as when I had first met with it ; so with the 
 cheese ; and this though there had been a fire 
 burning for hours ! I put the things into the oven 
 to thaw as before, and sitting down fell very pen- 
 sive over this severity of cold, which had power to 
 freeze within a yard or two of the furnace. To be 
 sure the fire by my absence had shrunk, and the 
 sliding door being open admitted the cold of the 
 cabin ; but the consideration was, how was I to 
 resist the killing enfoldment of this atmosphere ? 
 I had slept in the boat, it is true, and was none the 
 worse ; and now I was under shelter, with the heat 
 of a plentiful bellyful of meat and liquor to warm 
 me ; but if wine and ham and cheese froze in an 
 air in which a fire had been burning, why not I in 
 my sleep, when there was no fire, and life beat 
 weakly, as it does in slumber? Those figures in 
 the cabin were dismal warnings and assurances ; 
 they had been men perhaps stouter and heartier 
 in their day than ever I was, but they had been 
 frozen into stony images nevertheless, under 
 cover too, with the materials to make a fire, and 
 as much strong waters in their lazarette as would 
 serve their schooner to float in. 
 
 Well, thought I, after a spell of melancholy 
 thinking, if I am to perish of cold, there's an end ; 
 it is preordained, arid it is as easy as drowning, 
 anyhow, and better than hanging ; and with that 
 I pulled out the ham and found it soft enough 
 to cut, finding philosophy (which, as the French 
 cynic says, triumphs over past and future ills)
 
 A LOHBLT NIOB*. 
 
 not so hard because somehow I did not myself 
 
 then particularly feel the cold I mean, I was not 
 certainly suffering here from that pain of frost 
 which I had felt in the open boat 
 
 Having heartily supped, I brewed a pint ol 
 punch, and, charging my pipe, sat smoking with 
 my feet against the furnace. It was after eight 
 o'clock by the watch I was wearing. I knew 
 by the humming noise that it was blowing a gale 
 of wind outside, and from time to time the decks 
 rattled to a heavy discharge of hail. All sounds 
 were naturally much subdued to my ear by the 
 ship lying in a hollow, and I being in her with the 
 hatches closed ; but this very faintness of uproar 
 formed of itself a quality of mystery very pat to 
 the ghastliness of mv surroundings. It was like 
 the notes of an elfin storm of necromantic 
 imagination ; it was hollow, weak, and terrifying ; 
 and it and the thunder of the seas commingling, 
 together with the rumbling blasts and shocks of 
 splitting ice, disjointed as by an earthquake, loaded 
 the inward silence with unearthly tones, which 
 my lonely and Quickened imagination readily 
 furnished with syllables. The lanthorn diffused 
 but a small light, and the flickering of the fire 
 made a movement of shadows about me. I was 
 separated from the great cabin where the figures 
 were by the little arms-room only, and the passage 
 to it ran there in blackness. 
 
 It strangely and importunately entered my head 
 to conceive, that though those men were frozen 
 and stirless they were not dead as corpses are; 
 Hut as a stream whose current, checked by ice,
 
 |lj * THI FROZEN PXIATB. 
 
 will flow wi is melted. Might not life 
 
 ' m the' 1 J by the cold, not ended ? 
 
 rhcre_ii in the seed though it lies a dead 
 
 thing in the hand. Those men are corpses to my 
 
 , but said I to myself, they may have the 
 
 ciples of life in them, which heat might call 
 
 ig. Putrefaction is a natural law, but it 
 
 balked by frost, and just as decay is hindered 
 
 by cold, might not the property of life be left un- 
 
 afTected in a body, though it should be numbed in a 
 
 marble form for fifty years ? 
 
 This ^ was a terrible fancy to possess a man 
 situated as 1 was. and it so worked in me that again 
 and again I caught myself looking first forward, 
 then aft, as though, Heaven help me ! my secret 
 instincts foreboded that at any moment I should 
 behold some form from the forecastle, or one 
 of those figures in the cabin, stalking in, and 
 coming to my side and silently seating himself. I 
 pshaw'd and pish'd, and querulously asked of my- 
 self what manner of E ulor was I to suffer 
 such womanly terrors to visit me; but it would 
 <io; I could not smoke; a coldness of the 
 11 upon me, and set me trembling above 
 of shivers which the frost of the air had 
 hrough me ; and presently a hollow creak 
 ; out of the hold, caused by some move- 
 the bed of ice on which the vessel lay, I 
 was seized with a panic terror and sprang to my 
 I, lanthorn r the corn- 
 pan i 
 
 i durst not look at i he figures, but, setting the
 
 A LONELY NIGHT. iif 
 
 light down at the foot of the ladder, squeezed 
 through the companion-door on to the deck. M j 
 fear was a fever in its way, and I did not feel the 
 cold. There was no star to be seen, but the 
 whiteness of the ice was flung out in a wild 
 strange glare by the blackness of the sky, and 
 made a light of its own. It was the most savage 
 and terrible picture of solitude the invention of 
 man could reach to, yet 1 blessed it for the relief 
 it gave to my ghost-enkindled imagination. No 
 squall was tnen passing ; the rocks rose up on 
 either hand in a ghastly glimmer to the ebony of 
 the heavens ; the gale swept overhead in a wild, 
 mad blending of whistlings, roarings, and crying! 
 in many keys, falling on a sudden into a doleful 
 wailing, then rising in a breath to the full fury ol 
 its concert ; the sea thundered like the cannonad- 
 ing of an electric storm, and you would have said 
 that the rending and crackling noises of the ice 
 were responses to the crashing blows of the balls 
 of shadow-hidden ordnance. But the scene, the 
 uproar, the voices of the wind were real a better 
 cordial to my spirits than a gallon of the mellowest 
 vintage below ; and presently, when the cold was 
 beginning to pierce me, my courage was so much 
 the better for this excursion into the hoarse and 
 black and gleaming realities of the nipht, that my 
 heart beat at its^ usual measure as I passed 
 through the hatch and went again to the cook- 
 room. 
 
 I was, however, sure that if I sat here long, 
 listening and thinking, fear would return. A small 
 fire still burned ; ! put a saucepan oa k, and
 
 1*0 THI FROZEN PIRATE, . 
 
 popped in a piece of the fresh-water ice, but on 
 handling the brandy I found it hard set. The 
 heat of the oven was not sufficiently great to thaw 
 me a dram ; so to save further trouble in this way 
 I took the chopper and at one blow split open the 
 jar, and then there lay before me the solid body of 
 the brandy, from which I chipped off as much as 
 1 needed, and thus procured a hot and animating 
 draught. 
 
 Raking out the fire, I picked up the lanthorn 
 and was about to go, then halted, considering 
 whether I should not stow the frozen provisions 
 away. It was a natural thought, seeing how 
 precious food was to me. But, alas ! it mattered 
 not where they lay ; they were as secure here as 
 if they were snugly hidden in the bottom of the 
 hold. It was the white realm of death ; if ever a 
 rat had crawled in this ship, it was, in its hiding- 
 place, as stiff and idle as the frozen vessel. So 1 
 let the lump of brandy, the ice, ham, and so forth, 
 rest where they were, and went to the cabin I had 
 chosen, involuntarily peeping at the figures as I 
 passed, and hurrying the faster because of the 
 grim and terrifying liveliness put into the man who 
 sat starting from the table by the swing of the 
 lanthorn in my hand. 
 
 1 shut the door and hung the lanthorn near 
 cot, having the flint and box in my pocket. 
 re was indeed an abundance of candles in the 
 vessel ; nevertheless, it was my business to hus- 
 band them with the utmost niggardliness. How 
 long I was to be imprisoned here, if indeed 1 
 e"er to be delivered, Providence alone knew ; and
 
 A LOVKLY NIGHT, ii 
 
 to run short of candles would add to the terrors of 
 my existence, by forcing me either to open the 
 hatches and ports for light, and so filling the ship 
 with the deadly air outside, or living in darkness. 
 There were a cloak and a coat in the cot, but they 
 would not suffice. The fine cloak I had taken 
 from the man on the rocks was on deck, and till 
 now I had forgotten it; there was, however, 
 plenty of apparel in the corner to serve as wraps, 
 and naving chosen enough to smother me I 
 vaulted into the cot, and so covered myself that 
 the clothes were above the level of the sides of 
 the cot. 
 
 I left the lanthorn burning whilst I made sure 
 my bed was all right, and lay musing, feeling 
 extremely melancholy ; the hardest part was the 
 thought of those two men watching in the cabin. 
 The most fantastic alarms possessed me. Sup- 
 pose their ghosts came to the ship at midnight, 
 and, entering their bodies, quickened them into 
 walking? Suppose they were in the condition of 
 cataleptics, sensible of what passed around them, 
 but paralyzed to the motionlessness and seeming 
 insensibility of death? Then the very garments 
 under which I lay were of a proper kind to keep a 
 man in my situation quaking. My imagination 
 went to work to tell me to whom they had be- 
 longed, the bloody ends their owners had met at 
 the hands of the miscreants who despoiled them. 
 I caught myself listening and there was enough 
 to hear, too, what with the subdued roaring of the 
 wind, the splintering of ice, the occasional creak- 
 ing not unlike a heavy booted tread bf UM
 
 in THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 fabric of the schooner to the blasts of the gale 
 against her masts, or to a movement in the bed on 
 which she reposed. 
 
 But plain sense came to my rescue at last. I 
 resolved to have no more of these night fears, so, 
 blowing out the candle, I put my head on the coat 
 that formed my pillow, resolutely kept my eyes 
 shut, and after awhile fell asleep. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 I EXPLORE THE HOLD AND FORECASTLE. 
 
 IT was pitch dark when I awoke, and I conceived 
 it must be the middle of the night, but to my 
 astonishment, on lighting the lanthorn and looking 
 at the watch, which I had taken the precaution to 
 wind up overnight, I saw it wanted but twenty 
 minutes of nine o'clock, so that I had passecl 
 through twelve hours of solid sleep. Howev* 
 was only needful to recollect where I was, and to 
 cast a glance at the closed door and port, to 
 understand why it was dark. I had slept f. 
 warm, and awoke with no sensation of cramp ; 
 but the keen air had caused the steam of 
 breath to freeze upon my mouth in such a manner 
 that, when feeling the sticky inconvenience I put 
 my finger to it, it fell .like a little mask; and I 
 likewise felt the pain of cold in my face to such 
 an extent that had I been blistered there my 
 cheeks, nose, and brow could not have smarted 
 more. Thr henceforward to wrap 
 
 up my h going to rest. 
 
 1 opened the door and passed out, and cbserve<i
 
 1 EXPLORE THE HOLD AtfD FORECASTLE. 
 
 an amazing difference between the temperature 
 of the air in which I had been sleeping and that 
 of the atmosphere in the passage a happy 
 discovery, for it served to assure me that, if I was 
 careful to lie under plenty of coverings and to 
 keep the outer air excluded, the heat of my body 
 would raise the temperature of the little cabin ; 
 nor, providing the. compartment was ventilated 
 throughout the day, was there anything to be 
 feared from the vitiation of the air by my own 
 breathing. 
 
 My first business was to light the fire and set 
 my breakfast to thaw, and boil me a kettle of 
 water; and some time after I went on deck to 
 view the weather and to revolve in my mind 
 the routine of the day. On opening the door 
 of the companion-hatch I . was nearly blinded 
 by the glorious brilliance of the sunshine on the 
 snow ; after the blackness of the cabin it was like 
 looking at the sun himself, and 1 had to stand a 
 full three minutes with my hand upon my eyes 
 before I could accustom my sight to the dazzling 
 glare. It was fine weather again; the sky over 
 the glass-like masts of the schooner was a clear 
 daih blue, with a few light clouds blowing over it 
 from the southward. The wind had shifted at 
 last; but, pure as the heavens w< re, the breeze 
 was piping Sriskly with the weight and song of a 
 small* gale, and its fangs of frost, even in the 
 comparative quic*. of the sheltered deck, bit 
 with a fierceness tl^t had not been observable 
 yesterday. 
 
 The moment I had tk body of the vessel m
 
 if4 THE FROZEN PIKATI. 
 
 my sight 1 perceived that she had changed hef 
 position since my last view of her. Her bows 
 were more raised, and she lay over further by the 
 depth of a plank. I stared earnestly at the rocky 
 slopes on either hand, but could not have sworin 
 their figuration was changed. \n eager hope 
 shot into my mind, but it q'.i^iuy faded into an 
 emotion of apprehension. It was conceivable 
 indeed that on a sudden some early day I might 
 find the schooner liberated and afloat, and this 
 was the first inspiriting flush ; but then came the 
 fear that the disruption and volcanic throes of the 
 ice might crush her, a fear rational enough when 
 I saw the height she lay above the sea, and how 
 by pressure those slopes which formed her cradle 
 might be jammed and welded together. The 
 change of her posture then fell upon me with a 
 kind of shock, and determined me, when I had 
 broken my fast, to search her hold for a boat or 
 for materials for constructing some ark by which 
 I might float out to sea, should the ice grow 
 menacing and force me from the schooner. 
 
 I made a plentiful meal, feeling the need of 
 abundance of food in such a temperature as this, 
 and heartily grateful that there was no need whj 
 I should stint myself. The having to pass the 
 two figures every time I went on deck and returned 
 was extremely disagreeable and unnerving, and I 
 considered that, after searching the hold, the 
 duty I owed myself was to remove them on deck, 
 and even over the side, if possible, for one place 
 below was as sure to keep them haunting me as 
 another, and they would be as much with me in
 
 I BXFU>KB THB HOLD AHB FORECAST!.*. 1*5 
 
 the forecastle as if I stowed them away in the 
 
 cabin adjoining mine. 
 
 Whilst I ate, my mind was so busy with con- 
 siderations of the change in the ship's posture 
 during the night that it ended in determining me 
 to take a survey of her from the outside, and then 
 climb the cliffs and look around before I fell to 
 any other work. I fetched the cloak I had stripped 
 the body on the rocks of and thawed and warmed 
 it, and put it on, and a noble covering it was, 
 thick, soft, and clinging. Then, arming myself 
 with a boarding-pike to serve as a pole, I dropped 
 to the fore-chains and thence stepped on to the 
 ice, and very slowly and carefully walked round 
 the schooner, examining her closely, and boring 
 into the snow upon her side with my pike wherever 
 I suspected a hole or indent. I could find nothing 
 wrong with her in this way, though what a thaw 
 might reveal I could not know. Her rudder hung 
 frozen upon its pintles, and looked as it should. 
 Some little distance abaft her rudder, where the 
 hollow or chasm sloped to the sea, was a great 
 split three or four feet wide ; this had certainly 
 happened in the night, and I must have slept as 
 sound as the dead not to hear the noise of it. 
 Such a rent as this sufficed to account for the 
 subsidence of the after-part of the schooner and 
 her further inclination to larboard. Indeed, the 
 hollow was now coming to resemble the "ways" 
 on which ships are launched ; and you would have 
 conceived by the appearance of it that if it should 
 slope a little more yet, off would slide the schooner 
 for the sea, and in the right posture toothat is,
 
 it6 THE FROZEN Piiurm. 
 
 stern on. But I prayed with all my might and 
 main for anything but this. It would have been 
 very well had the hollow gone in a gentle declivity 
 to the wash of the sea, to the water itself, in 
 short ; but it terminated at the edge of a cliff, not 
 very high indeed, but high enough to warrant the 
 prompt foundering of any vessel that should 
 launch herself off it. Happily the keel was too 
 solidly frozen into the ice to render a passage of 
 this description possible ; and the conclusi 
 arrived at after careful inspection was that the 
 sole chance that could offer for the delivery of 
 the vessel to her proper element was in the 
 cracking up and disruption of the bed on which 
 she lay. 
 
 Having ended my survey of the schooner, I 
 addressed myself to the ascent of the starboard 
 slope, and scaled it much more easily than I had 
 yesterday managed to make my way over the 
 rocks. I climbed to the highest block that was 
 nearest me on the summit, and here I had a very 
 large view of the scene. Much to my astonish- 
 ment, the first objects which encountered my eye 
 were four icebergs, floating detached but close 
 together at a distance of about three miles or 
 side of the north-east trend of the island. ( 
 counted them and made them four. Th< 
 low, and it was very easily seen they had for 
 part of the coast there, though, as the form o; 
 ice that way was not familiar to me, and 
 moreover, the glare rendered the prosp 
 deceptive, I could not distinguish w! 
 ruptures were. But one change in the face ot
 
 ! EXPLORE THE HOLD AND FORECASTLE. 1*7 
 
 this white country I did note, and that was the 
 entire disappearance of two of the most beautiful 
 of the little crystal cities that adorned the north- 
 ward range. The ga^ of the night had wrought 
 havoc, and the unsubstantially of this dazzling 
 kingdom of ice was made startlingly apparent by 
 the evanishment of the delicate glassy architecture, 
 and by those four white hills floating like ships 
 mder their courses, and topsails out upon the 
 flashing hurry and leaping blue and yeast of the 
 water. 
 
 It was blowing harder than I had imagined. 
 The wind was extraordinarily sharp, and the full 
 current of it not long to be endured on my 
 Vmsheltered eminence. The sea, swelling up from 
 the south, ran high, and was full of seething and 
 tumbling noises, and of the roaring of the breakers, 
 dashing themselves against the ice in prodigious 
 bodies of foam, which so boiled along the foot of 
 the cliffs that their fronts, rising out of it, might 
 have passed for the spume itself freezing as it 
 leapt into a solid mass of glorious brilliance. The 
 eye never explored a scene more full of the 
 splendour of light and of vivid colour. Here and 
 there the rocks shone prismatically as though 
 some flying rainbow had shivered itself upon them 
 and lay broken. The blue of the sea and sky 
 was deepened into an exquisite perfection of 
 liquid tint by the blinding whiteness of the ice, 
 which in exchange was sharpened into a wonderful 
 effulgence by the hues above and around it. 
 Again and again, along the whole range, far tt 
 the sight could explore, the spray rose in stately
 
 iS TOT Fftoanr 
 
 clouds of silver, which were scattered by the wind 
 in meteoric scintillations of surpassing beauty, 
 flashing through the fires of the sun like millions 
 of little blazing stars. There were twenty different 
 dyes of light in the collection of spires, fanes, and 
 pillars near the schooner, whose masts, yards, and 
 gear mingled their own particular radiance with 
 that of these dainty figures ; and whereva- -' bent 
 my gaze I found so much of sun-tinctured 
 loveliness, and the wild white graces of ice-forms 
 and the dazzle of snow-surfaces softening into an 
 azure gleaming in the far blue distances, that but 
 for the piercing wind I could have spent the 
 whole morning in taking into my mind the 
 marvellous spirit of this ocean picture, forgetful 
 of my melancholy condition in the intoxication of 
 this draught of free and spacious beauty. 
 
 Satisfied as to the state of the ice and the 
 posture of the schooner, viewed from without, I 
 sent a slow and piercing gaze along the ocean 
 line, and then returned to the ship. The strong 
 wind, the dance of the sea, the grandeur of the 
 great tract of whiteness, vitalized by the flying of 
 violet cloud-shadows along it, had fortified my 
 spirits, and being free (for a while) of all super- 
 stitious dread, I determined to begin by exploring 
 the forecastle and ascertaining if more bodies were 
 in the schooner than those two in the cabin and 
 the giant form on deck. I threw some coal on 
 
 jr> 
 
 the fire, and placed an ox- tongue along with the 
 cheese and a lump of the frozen wine in a pannikin 
 in the oven (for I had a mind to taste the 
 stores, and thought the tongue would
 
 make an ageeable change), and then putting a 
 candle into the lanthorn walked very bravely to 
 the forecastle and entered it. 
 
 I was prepared for the scene of confusion, but 
 I must say it staggered me afresh with something 
 of the force of the first impression. Sailors' 
 chests lay open in all directions, and their 
 contents covered the decks. There was the 
 clearest evidence here that the majority of the 
 crew had quitted the vessel in a violent hurry, 
 turning out their boxes to cram their money and 
 jewellery into their pockets, and heedlessly flinging 
 down their own and the clothes which had fallen 
 to their share. This I had every right to suppose 
 from the character of the muddle on the floor ; 
 foF, passing the light over a part of it, I witnessed 
 a great variety of attire of a kind which certainly 
 no sailor in any age ever went to sea with ; not 
 so fine perhaps as that which lay in the cabins, 
 but very good nevertheless, particularly the linen. 
 I saw several wigs, beavers of the kind that was 
 formerly carried under the arm, women's silk 
 shoes, petticoats, pieces of lace, silk, and so 
 forth ; a:! directly assuring me that what I viewed 
 was the contents of passengers' luggage, together 
 with consignments and such freight as the pirates 
 would seize and divide, every man filling his 
 chest. Perhaps there was less on the whole than 
 I supposed, the litter looking great by reason of 
 everything having been torn open and flung down 
 loose. 
 
 I trod upon these heaps with little concern ; 
 they appealed to me only as a provision for my
 
 130 THB FROZEN PIRAT*. 
 
 fire should I be disappointed in my search for 
 
 coal. The hammocks obliged me to move with a 
 stooped head ; it was only necessary to feel them 
 with my hand that is, to test their weight by 
 pushing them in the middle to know if they were 
 tenanted. Some were heavier than the others, 
 but all of them much lighter than they would 
 have been had they contained human bodies ; and 
 by this rapid method I satisfied my mind that 
 there were no dead men here as fully as if I had 
 looked into each separate hammock. 
 
 This discovery was exceedingly comforting, for, 
 though I do not know that I should have meddled 
 with any frozen man had I found him in this place, 
 his being in the forecastle would have rendered 
 me constantly uneasy, and it must have come to 
 my either closing this part of the ship and 
 shrinking from it as from a spectre-ridden gloom, 
 or to my disposing of the bodies by dragging 
 them on deck a dismal and hateful job. There? 
 were no ports, but a hatch overhead. Wanting 
 light the candle making the darkness but little 
 more than visible I fetched from the arms-room 
 a handspike that lay in a corner, and, mounting a 
 chest, struck at the hatch so heartily that the ice 
 cracked all around it and the cover rose. I 
 pushed it off, and down rolled the sunshine in 
 splendour. 
 
 Everything was plain now. In many places, 
 glittering among the clothes, were gold and silver 
 coins, a few silver ornaments such as buckles, and 
 watches things not missed by the pirates in the 
 transport of their flight. In kicking a coat aside
 
 I EXFLOU THK HOLD A1TD FoiKCAftTLl. !|I 
 
 I discovered a couple of silver crucifixes bound 
 together, and close by were a silver goblet and 
 the hilt of a sword broken short off for the sake 
 of the metal it was of. Nothing ruder than this 
 interior is imaginable. The men must have been 
 mighty put to it for room. There was a window 
 in the head, but the snow veiled it. Maybe the 
 rogues messed together aft, and only used this 
 forecastle to lie in. Right under the hatch, where 
 the light was strongest, was a dead rat. I 
 stooped to pick it up, meaning to fling it on to 
 the deck, but its tail broke off at the rump, like a 
 pipe-stem. 
 
 Close against the after bulkhead that separated 
 the forecastle from the cook-room was a little 
 hatch. There was a quantity of wearing-apparel 
 upon it, and I should have missed it but for 
 catching sight of some three inches of the dark 
 line the cover made in the deck. On clearing 
 away the clothes 1 perceived a ring similar to that 
 in the lazarette hatch, and it rose to my first drag 
 and left me the hold yawning black below. I 
 peered down and observed a stout stanchion 
 traversed by iron pins for the hands and feet. 
 The atmosphere was nasty, and to give it time to 
 clear I went to the cook-house and warmed myself 
 before the fire. 
 
 The fresh air blowing down the forecastle hatch 
 speedily sweetened the hold. I lowered the 
 lanthorn and followed, and found myself on top 
 of some rum or spirit casks, which on my 
 hitting them returned to me a solid note. There 
 was a forepeak forward in the bows, and the casks
 
 Tin FKOZEM 
 
 went stowed to the bulkhead of it ; the top of this 
 
 bulkhead was open four feet from the upper deck, 
 and on holding the lanthorn over and putting my 
 head through I saw a quantity of coals. If the 
 forepeak went as low as the vessel's floor, then I 
 calculated there would not be less than fifteen 
 tons of coal in it. This was a noble discovery to 
 fall upon, and it made me feel so happy that 
 I do not know that the assurance of my being 
 immediately rescued from this island could have 
 given a lighter pulse to my heart. 
 
 The candle yielded a very small light, and it 
 was difficult to see above a yard or so ahead or 
 around. I turned my face aft, and crawled over 
 the casks and came to under the main-hatch, 
 where lay coils of hawser, buckets, blocks, and 
 the like, but there was no pinnace, though here 
 she had been stowed, as a sailor would have 
 promptly seen. A little way beyond, under the 
 great cabin, was the powder-magazine, a small 
 bulkheaded compartment with a little door, atop 
 of which was a small bull's-eye lamp. I peered 
 warily enough, you will suppose, into this place, 
 and made out twelve barrels of powder. I heartily 
 wished them overboard ; and yet, after all, they 
 were not very much more dangerous than the 
 wine and spirits in the lazarette and fore-hold. 
 
 The run remained to be explored the after 
 part, I mean, under the lazarette deck to the 
 rudder-post but I had seen enough ; crawling 
 about that black interior was cold, lonesome, 
 melancholy work, an<i it fvas rendered p. 
 arduous by the obligation of caution imposed by
 
 AM EXTKAORDIVAKY OOCHUUOPCB. 
 
 my having to bear a light amid a freight mainly 
 formed of explosives and combustible matter. I 
 had found plenty of coal, and that sufficed. So 
 I returned by tne same road I had entered, and 
 sliding to the bulkhead door to keep the cold of 
 the forecastle out of the cook-room, I stirred the 
 fire into a blaze and sat down before it to rest and 
 think. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE, 
 
 AFTER the many great mercies which had been 
 Youchsafed me, such as my being the only one 
 saved of all the crew of the Laughing Mary^ my 
 deliverance from the dangers of an open boat, my 
 meeting with this schooner and discovering within 
 her everything needful for the support of 
 life, I should have been guilty of the basest 
 ingratitude had I repined because there was no 
 boat in the ship. Yet for all that I could not but 
 see it was a matter that concerned me very 
 closely. Should the vessel be crushed, what was 
 to become of me ? It was easy to propose to 
 myself the making of a raft or the like of such a 
 fabric ; but everything was so hard frozen that, 
 being single-handed, it was next to impossible 
 I should be able to put together such a con- 
 trivance as would be fit to live in th* smallest 
 sea-way. 
 
 However, I was resolved not to make myself 
 melancholy with these considerations. The 
 fortune that had attended me so mr
 
 1 14 Tn Fxozxir PJ* 
 
 .ny me to the end, and maybe I WAS the 
 fitter just ihen to take a hop. of my 
 
 ition because of the cheerft .vakened 
 
 a by the noble show of coal in the forepeak. 
 At twelve o'clock by the watch in my pocket I got 
 iinner. I had a mind for a lighter drink than 
 brandy, and went to the lazarette and cut out a 
 block of the wine in the cask I -had opened ; I 
 also knocked out the head of a tierce of beef, 
 designing a hearty regale for supper. You smile, 
 perhaps, that J should talk so much of my eating ; 
 but if on shore, amid the security of existence 
 there, it is the one great business of life, that is 
 to say, the one great business "of life after love, 
 what must it be to a poor shipwrecked wretch like 
 me, who had nothing else to think of but his food ? 
 
 Yet I could not help smiling when I considered 
 how I was carrying my drink about in my fingers. 
 What the wine was 1 do not know,; it looked like 
 claret but was somewhat sweet, and was the most 
 generous wine I ever tasted, spite of my having 
 to drink it warm, for if I let the cup out of 
 my hand to cool, lo ! when I looked it was ice ! 
 
 Whilst I sat smoking my pipe it entered my 
 head to presently turn those two silent gentlemen 
 in the cabin out of it. It was a task from which 
 I shrank, but it must be done. To be candid, I 
 dreaded the effects of their dismal companionship 
 en my spirits. I had been in the schooner two 
 day* only; I had been heartened by the plenty I 
 had met with, a sound night's rest, the fire, and 
 y escape from the fate that had certainly 
 me had I gone away in the boat. But
 
 AH EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE ijf 
 
 being of a superstitious nature and never m lover 
 >titude, I easily guessed that in a few dayi 
 the weight of my loneliness would come to press 
 very heavily upon me, and that if I suffered those 
 figures to keep the cabin I should find myself 
 lying under a kind of horror which might end in 
 breaking down my manhood and perhaps in 
 unsettling my reason. 
 
 But how was I to dispose of them ? I meditated 
 this matter whilst I smoked. First I thought 
 would drag them to the fissure or rent in the ice 
 just beyond the stern of the schooner and tumble 
 ttjem into it. But even then they would still be 
 with me, so to speak I mean, they would be 
 neighbours though out of sight ; and my eagerness 
 was to get them away from this island altogether, 
 which was only to be done by casting them into 
 the sea. Why, though I did not mention the 
 matter in its place, I was as much haunted last 
 night by the man on deck and the meditating 
 figure on the rocks as by the fellows in the cabin ; 
 and, laugh as you may at my weakness, I do 
 candidly own my feeling was, if I did not contrive 
 that the sea should carry those bodies away, I 
 should come before long to think of them as alive, 
 no matter in what part of the island I might bear 
 them to, and at night-time start at every sound, 
 hear their voices in the wind, see their shapes in 
 the darkness, and even by day dread to step 
 upon the cliffs. 
 
 That such fancies should possess me already 
 shows how necessary it was I should lose no time 
 to provide against their growth ; so I settled my
 
 1J0 TU FkOZKM PiaATB. 
 
 scheme thus: first I was to haul the figures as 
 best I could on to the deck; then, there being 
 three, to get them over the side, and afterwards 
 by degrees to transport the four of them to some 
 steep whence they would slide of themselves into 
 the ocean. Yet so much did I dread the under- 
 taking, and abhor the thought of the tedious time 
 I foresaw it would occupy me, that I cannot 
 imagine any other sort of painful and distressing 
 work that would not have seemed actually agree- 
 able as compared with this. 
 
 My pipe being smoked out, I stepped into the 
 cabin, and ascending the ladder threw off the 
 companion-cover and opened the doors, and then 
 went to the man that had his back to the steps, 
 but my courage failed me; he was so lifelike, 
 there was so wild and fierce an earnestness in the 
 expression of his face, so inimitable a picture of 
 borror in his starting posture, that mv hands fell 
 to my side and I could not lay hold of him. I 
 will not stop to analyse my fear or ask whv, since 
 I knew that this man was dead, he should have 
 terrified me as surely no living man could ; I can 
 onlv repeat that the prospect of touching him, and 
 laying him upon the deck and then dragging him 
 up the ladder, was indescribably fearful to me, and 
 I turned away, shaking as if I had the ague. 
 
 But it had to be done, nevertheless ; and after a 
 great deal of reasoning and self-reproach I seized 
 him on a sudden, and, kicking away the bench, let 
 him fall to the deck. He was frozen as hard as 
 tone and fell like stone, and I looked to see him 
 break, as a statue might that fails Uimpishly.
 
 AM ExnuoftDnuiY OOCVUUOKB. iff 
 
 His arms remaining raised put him into an 
 attitude of entreaty to me to leare him in peace ; 
 but I had somewhat mastered myself, and the 
 hurry and tumult of my spirits were a kind of hot 
 temper ; so catching him by the collar, I dragged 
 him to the foot of the companion-steps, and then 
 with infinite labour and a number of sickening 
 pauses hauled him up the ladder to the deck. 
 
 I let him lie and returned, weary and out of 
 breath. He had been a yery fine man in life, of 
 beauty too, as was to be seen in the shape of his 
 features and the particular elegance of his chin, 
 despite the distortion of his last unspeakable dis- 
 may ; and with his clothes I guessed his weight 
 came hard upon two hundred pounds, no mean 
 ^burden to haul up a ladder. 
 
 I went to the cook-house for a dram and to rest 
 myself, and then came back to the cabin and 
 looked at -the other man. His posture has been 
 already described. He made a very burly figure 
 in his coat, and if his weight did not exceed the 
 other's it was not likely to be less. Nothing of 
 his head was visible but the baldness on the top 
 and the growth of hair that ringed it, and the 
 fluffing up of his beard about his arms in which 
 his face was sunk. I touched his beard with a 
 shuddering finger, and noted that the frost had 
 made every hair of it as stiff as wire. It would 
 not do to stand idly contemplating him, for al- 
 ready there was slowly creeping into me a dread 
 *f seeing his face; so I took hold of him and 
 iiwaved him from the table, and he fell upon th 
 deck sideways, preserving his posture, 10 that
 
 THE F* 
 
 his face remained hidden. I dragged htm a littU 
 way, but he was so heavy and his attitude rendered 
 him as a burthen so surprisingly cumbrous that I 
 was sure I could never of my own strength haul 
 him up the ladder. Yet neither was it tolerable 
 that he should be there. I thought of contriving 
 a tackle called a whip, and making one end fast to 
 him and taking the other end to the little capstan 
 on the main deck ; but on inspecting the capstan 
 I found that the frost had rendered it immovable, 
 added to which there was nothing whatever to be 
 done with the iron-hard gear, and therefore I had 
 to give that plan up. 
 
 Then, thought I, if I was to put him before the 
 fire, he might presently thaw into some sort of 
 suppleness, and so prove not harder than the other 
 to get on deck. I liked the idea, and without 
 more ado dragged him laboriously into the cook- 
 room and laid him close to the furnace, throwing 
 in a little pile of coal to make the tire roar. 
 
 I then went on deck, and easily enough, the 
 
 deck being slippery, got my first man to where the 
 
 huge fellow was that had sentinelled the vessel 
 
 when I first looked down upon her ; but when I 
 
 viewed the slopes, broken into rocks, which I, 
 
 unburdened , had found hard enough to 
 
 I was perfectly certain I should never be 
 
 i ttoe bodies to the top of the cliffs, 
 
 vU them fall into the great split 
 
 or lower them over the side 
 
 v in which the schooner lay to 
 
 he cold in
 
 AM ExT*AO*mNA*v Occt?**nL iff 
 
 the little valley, and relishing the brisk exercise, 
 scheming to convey the bodies to the sea, for 
 was passionately in earnest in wishing the four of 
 them away ; but te no purpose. I had but my 
 arms, and scheme as I would, I could not make 
 them stronger than they were. It was still blow- 
 ing a fresh bright gale from the south ; the sea, 
 as might be known by the noise of it, beat very 
 heavily against the cliffs of ice : and the extremity 
 of the hollow, where it opened to the ocean but 
 without showing it, was again and again veiled by 
 a vast cloud of spray, &e rain of which 1 could 
 hear ringing like vollevs of shot as the wind smote 
 it and drove it with incredible force against the 
 rocks past the brow of the north slope. I thought 
 to myself there should be power* in this wind t 
 quicken the sliding of even so mighty a. berg as 
 this island northwards. Every day should steal 
 it by something, however inconsiderable, nearer to 
 warmer regions, and no gale, nay, no gentle swell 
 even, but must help to crack and loosen it into 
 pieces. " Oh," cried I, " for the power to rupture 
 this bed, that the schooner might slip into the 
 sea ! Think of her running north before such a 
 gale as this, steadily bearing me towards a more 
 temperate clime, and into the road of ships ! " 
 clenched my hands with a wild yearning in my 
 heart. Should I ever behold my country again ? 
 should I ever meet a living man? The white and 
 frozen steeps glared a bald reply; and I heird 
 nothing *ni1 menace in the shrifl noisei of th 
 win^ c deep and thunderous raaring * tb*
 
 140 THM FMOZJUT Puutm 
 
 It was mighty comforting, however, on return- 
 ing to the cabin to find it vacant, to be freed from 
 the scare of the sight of the two silent figures. I 
 drew my breath more easily and stopped to glance 
 around. It was the barest cabin I was ever in 
 uncarpeted, with no other seats than the little 
 benches. I looked at the crucifix* and guessed 
 from the sight of it that, whatever might be the 
 vessel's nation, she had not been sailed by 
 Englishmen. I peeped into poor Polly's cage if 
 a parrot it was and the sight of the nch plumage 
 carried my imagination to skies of brass, to the 
 mvsterious green solitude of tropic forests, to 
 islands fringed with silver surf, in whose sunny 
 flashing sported nude girls of faultless forms, 
 showing their teeth of pearl in merry laughter, 
 winding amorously with the blue billow, and filling 
 the aromatic breeze with the melody of their 
 language of the sun. Ha 1 thought I, sailors see 
 some changes in their time ; and with a hearty 
 sigh I stepped into the cook-room. 
 
 I started, stopped, and fell back a pace with a 
 cry. When I had put the figure before the fire 
 he was in the same posture in which he had sat 
 at the table, that is, leaning forward with his face 
 hid in his arms ; I had laid him on his side, with 
 his face to the furnace, and in that attitude you 
 would have supposed him a man sound asleep 
 with his arms over his face to shield it from the 
 heat. But now, to my unspeakable astonishment, 
 he lay on his back, with his arms sunk to his side 
 and resting on the deck, and his face upturned. 
 
 1 Ur*d at him from the door us if ,h was the
 
 An EXTRAORDINARY Oocpismtcm. 141 
 
 Fiend himself. I could scarce credit my senses, 
 and my consternation was so great that I cannot 
 conceive of any man ever having laboured under 
 a greater fright. I faintly ejaculated ' Good 
 God ! ' several times, and could hardly prevent 
 my legs from running away with me. You see, it 
 was certain he must nave moved of his own accord 
 to get upon his back. I was prepared for the fire 
 to thaw him into limbemess, and had I found him 
 straightened somewhat I should not have been 
 surprised. But there was no power in fire to 
 stretch him to his full length and turn him over on 
 his back. What living or ghostly hand had done 
 this thing ? Did spirits walk this schooner after 
 all ? Had I missed of something more terrible 
 than any number of dead men in searching th 
 vessel ? 
 
 1 had made a great fire and its light was strong, 
 and there was also the light of the lanthorn j but 
 the furnace flames played very lively, completely 
 -overmastering the steady illumination of the 
 candle, and the man's figure was all a- twitch with 
 moving shadows, and a hundred fantastic shades 
 seemed to steal out of the side and bulkheads 
 and disappear upon my terrified gaze. Then, 
 thought I, suppose after all that the man should be 
 alive, the vitality in him set flowing by the heat ? 
 I minded myself of my own simile of the current 
 checked by frost, yet retaining unimpaired the 
 principle of motion ; and getting my agitation 
 under some small control, I approached the body 
 on tiptoe and held the lanthorn to its face. 
 
 He looked a man of sixty years of age ; his
 
 14* THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 beard was grey and very long, and lay upon his 
 breast like a cloud of smoke. Hi* eyes were 
 closed ; the brows shaggy, and the dark scar of 
 a sword-wound ran across his forehead from the 
 corner of the left eye to the top of the right brow. 
 His nose was long and hooked, but the repose in 
 his countenance, backed by the vague character 
 of the light in which I inspected him, left his face 
 almost expressionless. I was too much alarmed 
 to put my ear to his mouth to mark if he breathed, 
 if indeed the noise of the burning fire would 
 have permitted me to distinguish his respiration. 
 I drew back from him, and put down the Ian- 
 thorn and watched him. Thought I, it will not do 
 to believe there is anything supernatural here. I 
 can swear there is naught living in this ship, and 
 am I to suppose, assuming she is haunted, that a 
 ghost, which I have always read and heard of as 
 an essence, has in its shadowy being such quality 
 of muscle as would enable it to turn that h 
 man over from his side on to his back ? No, no 
 thought I ! depend upon it, either he is alive 
 and may presently come to himself, or else in 
 some wonderful way the fire in thawing him 
 so wrought in his frozen fibres as to cause him to 
 turn. 
 
 Presently his left leg, that was slightly bent to- 
 wards the furnace, stretched itself out to its fuU 
 length, and my ear caught a faint sound, as of a 
 weak and melancholy sigh. Gracious heaven, 
 thought I, he is alive! and with less of terror 
 than of profound awe, now that I saw there was 
 nothing of a ghostly or preternatural character in
 
 Ax EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE. 143 
 
 this business, I approached and bent over him. 
 His eyes were still shut, and I could not hear that 
 he breathed ; there was not the faintest motion of 
 respiration in his breast nor stir in the hair, that 
 was now soft, abont his mouth. Yet, so far as the 
 light would suffer me to judge, there was a 
 flexion in his face such as could only come 
 with flowing blood, however languid its circulation, 
 and putting this and the sigh and the movement- 
 01 tne leg together, Ffelt convinced that the man 
 was alive, and forthwith fell to work, very full of 
 awe and amazement to be sure, to help nature 
 that was struggling in him. 
 
 My first step was to heat some brandy, and 
 whilst this was doing I pulled open his coat and 
 freed his neck, fetching a coat from the cabin to 
 serve as a pillow for his head. I next removed 
 his boots and laid bare his feet (which were 
 encased in no less than four pairs of thick woollen 
 stockings, so that I thought when I came to the 
 third pair I should find his legs made of stockings;, 
 and after bathing his feet in hot water, of which 
 there was a kettieful, I rubbed them with hot 
 brandy as hard as 1 could chafe. I then dealt 
 with his hands in the like manner, having once 
 been shipmate with a seaman who told me he had 
 seen a sailor brought to by severe rubbing of 
 his extremities after he had been carried below 
 supposed to be frozen to death, and continued 
 this exercise till I could rub no longer. Next I 
 opened his lips and, finding he wanted some of 
 his front teeth, I very easily poured a dram f 
 brandy into his mouth. Though I preserved my
 
 144 Tvt F&oztif PIRATB. 
 
 sfctonishment all thit while, I soon discovered 
 myself working with enthusiasm, with a most 
 passionate longing indeed to recover the man, not 
 only because it pleased me to think of my being 
 an instrument under God of calling a human being, 
 so to speak, out of his grave, but because I 
 yearned for a companion, some one to addresr, 
 to lighten the hideous solitude of my condition 
 and to assist me in planning our deliverance. 
 
 I built up a great fire, and with much trouble, 
 for he was very heavy, disposed him in such a 
 manner before it that the neat was reflected all 
 over the front of him from his head to his feet. I 
 likewise continued to chafe his extremities, 
 remitting this work only to rest, and finding that 
 the brandy had stolen down his throat, I poured 
 another dram in and then another, till I think he 
 had swallowed a pint. This went on for an hour, 
 during which time he never exhibited the least 
 signs of life ; but on a sudden he sighed deep, a 
 tremor ran through him, he sighed again and 
 partly raised his right hand, which fell to the deck 
 with a blow ; his bps twitched, and a small con- 
 vulsion of his face compelled the features into the 
 similitude of a grin that instantly faded ; then he 
 fetched a succession of sighs and opened his eyes 
 full upon me, 
 
 I was warm enough with ny work, but when I 
 observed him looking at me I turned of a death- 
 like cold, and felt the dew of an intolerable 
 emotion wet in the palms of my hands. There 
 was no speculation in his stare at first ; his eyes 
 lay as coldly upon me as those of a fish ; but as
 
 AM EmAo&DiNAMY OocintuvcB. 145 
 
 Mfe quickened in him so his understanding awoke; 
 he slightly knitted his brows, and very slowly 
 rolled his gaze off me to the furnace and so 
 over as much of the cook-room as was before 
 him. He then started as if to sit up, but fell 
 back with a slight groan and looked at me 
 again. 
 
 " What is this ? " said he in French, in a very 
 hollow feeble voice. 
 
 I knew enough of his language to enable me 
 to know he spoke in French, but that was all. I 
 could not speak a syllable of that tongue. 
 
 ' You'll be feeling better presently ; you must 
 not expect your strength to come in a minute/' 
 said I, taking my chance of his understanding 
 me, and speaking that he might not think me a 
 ghost, for I doubt not I was as white as one ; 
 since, to be plain, the mere talking to a figure 
 that I had got to consider as sheerly dead as 
 anybody in a graveyard was alarming enough, and 
 then again there was the sound of my own voice, 
 which I had not exerted in speech for ages, as it 
 seemed to me. 
 
 He faintly nodded his head, by which I per- 
 ceived he understood me, and said very faintly in 
 English, but with a true French accent, " This is a 
 hard bed, sir." 
 
 "I'll speedily mend that/' said I, and at once 
 fetched a mattress from the cabin next mine ; 
 this I placed beside him, and dragged him on to 
 it, he very weakly assisting. I then brought 
 clothei and rugs to coyer him with, and made 
 him a high pillow, and as he Uy clou to tfct
 
 TFT* FROZIW Pi*Am 
 
 furnace he could not have been snugger had h 
 had a wife to tuck him up in his own bed. 
 
 I was very much excited ; my former terrori 
 had vanished, but my awe continued great, for 
 felt as if I had wrought a miracle, and I trembled 
 as a man would who surveys some prodigy of his 
 own creation. It was yet to be learnt how long 
 he had been in this condition ; but I was perfectly 
 sure he had formed one of the schooner's people, 
 and as I had guessed her to have been here for 
 upwards of fifty years, the notion of that man 
 having lain torpid for half a century held me 
 under a perpetual spell of astonishment ; but 
 there was no more horror in me nor fright. He 
 followed me about with his eyes but did not offer 
 to speak ; perhaps he could not. I put a lump of 
 ice into the kettle, and when the water boiled made 
 him. a pint of steaming brandy punch, which I held 
 to his lips in a pannikin whilst I supported his back 
 with mv knee ; he supped it slowly and painfully 
 but with unmistakable relish, and fetched a sign 
 of contentment as he lay back. But he would 
 need something more sustaining than brandy and 
 water; and as I guessed his stomach, after so 
 prodigious a fast, would be too weak to support 
 such solids as beef or pork or bacon, 1 mused a 
 little, turning OYcrin my mind the contents of the 
 larder (as I call it), all which time he eyed me 
 with bewilderment growing in his face; and 
 then thought I could not do better than 
 manufacture him a broth of oatmeal, wine, br 
 biicuit, and a piece of tongue minced very small. 
 
 TKU dit' net take me long in doing, th tongu*
 
 THI PIRATE'S STQIY. 147 
 
 being near the furnace and soft enough for the 
 knife, and there was nothing to melt but the wine. 
 When the broth was ready I kneeled as before 
 and fed him. He ate greedily, and when the broth 
 was gone looked as if he would have been glad 
 for more. 
 
 " Now, sir," says I, " sleep if you can ;" with 
 which he turned his head and in a few minutes 
 was sound asleep, breathing regularly and 
 deeply. 
 
 CHAPTER XV, 
 THE PIRATE'S STORY. 
 
 IT was now time to think of myself. The watch 
 showed the hour to be after six. Whilst my 
 supper was preparing I went on deck to close the 
 hatches to keep the cold out of the ship, and 
 found the weather changed, the wind having 
 shifted directly into the west, whence it was 
 blowing with a good deal of violence upon the ice, 
 ringing over the peaks and among the rocks with 
 a singular clanking noise in its crying, as though 
 it brought with it the echo of thousands of bells 
 pealing in some great city behind the sea. It also 
 swept up the gorge that went from our hollow to 
 the edge of the cliff in a noisy fierce hooting, and 
 this blast was very freely charged with the sprav 
 of the breakers which boiled along the island. 
 The sky was overcast with flying clouds of the 
 true Cape Horn colour and appearance. 
 
 closed the fore-scuttle, but on stepping aft 
 came to the two bodies, the, sight of which
 
 i4 TH* F ^IIWTI 
 
 brought me to a stand. : re was lit 
 
 one, thought I, life may be in these, and I felt as 
 if it would be like murdering them to leave them 
 here for the night. But, said I to myself, after all, 
 these men are certainly insensible if they be not 
 dead ; the cold that freezes on deck cannot Be 
 different from the cold that froze them below ; 
 they'll not be better off in the cabin than here. 
 It will be all the same to them, and to-morrow I 
 shall perhaps have the Frenchman's help to carry 
 them to the furnace and discover if the vital spark 
 is still in them. 
 
 To be candid, I was the more easily persuaded 
 to leave them to their deck lodging by the very 
 grim, malignant, and savage appearance of the 
 great figure that had leaned against the rail. 
 Indeed, I did not at all like the notion of such 
 company in the cabin through the long night. 
 Added to this, his bulk was such that, without 
 assistance, 1 could only have moved him as you 
 move a cask, by rolling it ; and though this might 
 have answered to convey him to the hatch, I 
 stood to break his arms and legs off, and 
 perhaps his head, so brittle was he with frost, 
 by letting his own weight trundle him down the 
 ladder. 
 
 So I left them to lie and came away, flinging a 
 last look round, and then closing the companion- 
 door upon me. The Frenchman, as I may call 
 him, was sleeping very heavily and snoring 
 loudly. 
 
 I got my supper, and whilst I ate surveyed the 
 mound of clothes Jie made on the deck a motley
 
 TUB PIEATK'S STOKY. * 149 
 
 heap indeed, with the colours and the finery of 
 the lace and buttons of the coats I had piled upon 
 him and fell into some startling considerations 
 of him. Was it possible, I asked myself, that 
 he could have lain in his frozen stupor for fifty 
 years ? But why not ? for suppose he had been 
 on this ice but a year only, nay, six months an 
 absurdity in the face of the manifest age of the 
 ship and her furniture would not six months of 
 lifelessness followed by a resurrection be as 
 marvellous as fifty years ? Had he the same 
 aspect when the swoon of the ice seized him as 
 he has now ? I answered yes, for the current of 
 life having been frozen, his appearance would 
 remain as it was. 
 
 I lighted my pipe and sat smoking, thinking 
 he would presently awake ; but his slumber was 
 as deep as the stillness I had thawed him out 
 of had been, and he lay so motionless that, but 
 for his snoring; and harsh breathing, I should hare 
 believed him lapsed into his former state. 
 
 At eight o'clock the fire was venr low. Nature 
 was working out her own way with this Frenchman, 
 and I determined to let him sleep where he was, 
 and take my chance of the night. At all events 
 he could not alarm me by stirring, for if I heard 
 a movement I should know what it was. So, loiter- 
 ing to see the last gleam of the fire extinguished, 
 I took my lanthorn and went to bed, but not to 
 sleep. 
 
 The full meaning of the man awakening into 
 life out of a condition into which he had been 
 plunged, for all I knew, before I was born, came
 
 150 THE FROZEN PIRATE, 
 
 upon me rcry riolently in the darkness. There 
 being nothing to divert my thoughts, I gave my 
 mind wholly to it, and I tell you I found it an 
 amazing terrifying thing to happen. Indeed, I 
 do not know that the like of such an adventure 
 was ever before heard of, and I well recollect 
 thinking to myself, " I would give my left hand to 
 know of other cases of the kind to be assured 
 that this recovery was strictly within the bounds 
 of nature," that I might feel I was not alone, so 
 strongly did the thoughts of a satanic influence 
 operating in this business crowd upon me that is 
 to say, as if I was involuntarily working out some 
 plan of the devil. 
 
 The gale made a great roaring. The ship's stern 
 lay open to the gorge, and but for her steadi 
 I might have supposed myself at sea. There was 
 indeed an incessant thunder about my ears often 
 accompanied by the shock of a mass of sprav 
 flung thirty feet high, and falling like sack 
 stones upon the deck. Once I felt the vessel 
 rock ; I cannot tell the hour, but it was long past 
 midnight, and by the noise of the wind I guessed 
 it was blowing a whole gale. The movement 
 extraordinary whether sideways or downwards 
 I could not distinguish ; but, seasoned as my^ 
 stomach was to the motion of ships, this move- 
 ment set up a nausea that lasted some while, 
 acting upon me as I have since learned the 
 convulsion of an earthquake does upon people. 
 It took off my mind from the Frenchman, and 
 filled me with a different sort of alarm altogether, 
 far it was very evident the gale was making the
 
 THI PiiuTB's STOET. 151 
 
 ice break ; and, thought I to myself, if we do not 
 mind our eye we shall be crushed and buried. 
 But what was to be done ? To quit the ship for 
 that piercing flying gale, charged with sleet and 
 hail and foam, was merely to languish for a 
 little and then miserably expire of frost. No, 
 thought I, if the end is to come let it find 
 me here ; and with that I snugged me down 
 amid the coats and cloaks in my cot, and, 
 obstinately holding my eyes closed, ultimately fell 
 asleep. 
 
 It was late when I awoke. I lighted the 
 lanthorn, but upon entering the passage that 
 led to the cabin 1 observed by my own posture 
 that the schooner had not only heeled more 
 to larboard, but was further " down by the stern " 
 to the extent of several feet. Indeed, the angle 
 of inclination was now considerable enough 
 to bring my shoulder (in the passage) close 
 against the starboard side when I stood erect. 
 The noise of the gale was still in the air, and the 
 booming and boiling of the sea was uncommonly 
 loud. I walked straight to the cook-room, and, 
 putting the lanthorn to the Frenchman, perceived 
 that he was still in a heavy sleep, and that he had 
 lain through the night precisely in the attitude in 
 which I had left him. His face was so muffled 
 that little more than his long hawk's-bill nose was 
 discernible. It was freezingly cold, and I made 
 haste to light the fire. There was still coal enough 
 in the corner to last for the day, and before long 
 the furnace was blazing cheerfully. I went to work 
 10 make some broth and fry some ham, and melt
 
 15* THU FROZEN Pi*Am 
 
 a little block of the ruby-coloured wine ; and 
 whilst thus occupied, turning my head a moment 
 to look at the Frenchman, I found him half 
 started up, staring intently at me. 
 
 This sudden confrontment threw me into such 
 confusion that I could not speak. He moved his 
 head from side to side, taking a view of the scene, 
 with an expression of the most inimitable astonish- 
 ment painted upon his countenance. He then 
 brought the flat of his hand with a dramatic blow 
 to his forehead, the scar on which showed black 
 as ink to the fire-glow, and sat erect. 
 
 "Where have I been?" he exclaimed in 
 French. 
 
 " Sir," said I, speaking with the utmost difficulty, 
 " I do not understand your language. I am 
 English. You speak my tongue. Will you 
 address me in it ? " 
 
 " English ! " he exclaimed in English, dropping 
 his head on one side, and peering at me with an 
 incredible .air of amazement. " How came you 
 here? You are not of our company? Let me 
 see . . ." Here he struggled with recollec- 
 tion, continuing to stare at me. from under 
 shaggy eyebrows as if I was some frightful 
 vision. 
 
 "lam a shipwrecked British mariner," said I, 
 41 and have been cast away upon this ice, where I 
 found your schooner." 
 
 "Ha!" he interrupted with prodigious 
 vehemence, " certainly ; we are frozen up I 
 remember. That sleep should serve my memory 
 so ! " He made as if to rise, but sat again.
 
 THB PiRATi*8 STUB?. 
 
 54 The cold is numbing ; it would weaken a lion. 
 Give me a hot drink, sir." 
 
 I filled a pannikin with the melted wine, which 
 he swallowed thirstily. 
 
 " More ! " cried he. " I seem to want life." 
 
 Again I filled the pannikin. 
 
 "Good!" said he, fetching a sigh as he 
 returned the vessel ; " you are very obliging, sir. 
 If you have food there, we will eat together/' 
 
 I give the substance of his speech, but not his 
 delivery of it, nor is it necessary that I should 
 interpolate my rendering with the French words he 
 used. 
 
 The broth being boiled, I gave him a good 
 bowl of it along with a plate of bacon and tongue, 
 some biscuit and a pannikin of hot brandy and 
 water, all which things I put upon his knees as he 
 sat up on the mattress, and to it he fell, making a 
 rare meal. Yet all the while he ate he acted like 
 a man bewitched, as well he might, staring at me 
 and looking round and round him, and then 
 dropping his knife to strike his brow, as if by that 
 kind of blow he would quicken the activity of 
 memory there. 
 
 " There is something wrong," said he presently. 
 " What is it, sir? This is the cook-room. How 
 does it happen that I am lying here ? " 
 
 I told him exactly how it was, adding that if it 
 had not been for his posture, which obliged me to 
 thaw in order to carry him, he would now be on 
 deck with the others, awaiting the best funeral I 
 could give him. 
 
 " Who are the others?" asked he.
 
 154 THI FROZEN PIRAT* 
 
 " I know not," said I. " There were four in all, 
 counting yourself ; one sits frozen to death on the 
 rocks. I met him first, and took this watch from 
 his pocket that I might tell the time." 
 
 He took the watch in his hands, and asked me 
 to bring the lanthorn close. 
 
 " Ha ! " cried he, " this was Mendoza's the 
 captain's. I remember ; he took it for the sake of 
 this letter upon it. He lies dead on the rocks ? 
 We missed him, but did not know where he had 
 gone." 
 
 Then, raising his hand and impulsively starting 
 upon the mattress, he cried, whilst he tapped his 
 forehead, " It has come back ! I have it ! 
 Guiseppe Trentanove and I were in the cabin ; he 
 had fallen blind with the glare of the ice if that 
 was it. We confronted each other. On a sudden 
 he screamed out. I had put my face into my 
 arms, and felt mvself dying. His cry aroused me. 
 I looked up, and saw him leaning back from the 
 lable with his eyes fixed and horror in his 
 countenance. I was too feeble to speak too 
 languid to rise, t watched him awhile, and then 
 the drowsiness stole over me again, and my head 
 sank, and I remember no more. ' 
 
 He shuddered, and extended the pannikin for 
 more liquor. I filled it with two-thirds of brandy 
 and the rest water, and he supped it down as if it 
 had been a thimbleful of wine. 
 
 " By the holy cross," cried he, " but this is very 
 wonderful, though. How long have you been here, 
 
 sk?" 
 
 " Three days."
 
 THE PILATE'S STOBT. 155 
 
 "Three days! and I have been in a stupor all 
 that time never moving, never breathing?" 
 
 " You will have been in a stupor longer than 
 that I expect," said I. 
 
 " What is this month ? " he cried. 
 
 "Julv," I replied. 
 
 "July July!" he muttered. "Impossible! 
 Let me see " he began to count on his fingers 
 " we fell in with the ice and got locked in 
 November. We had six months of it ; I recollect 
 no more. Six months of it, sir ; and suppose the 
 stupor came upon me then, the month at which 
 my memory stops would be April. Yet you call 
 this July ; that is to say, four months of oblivion; 
 impossible ! " 
 
 " What was the year in which you fell in with 
 the ice ? " said I. 
 
 ' The year ? " he exclaimed in a voice deep with 
 the wonder this question raised in him ; " the year ? 
 Why, man, what year but seventeen hundred and 
 fifty-three/ 1 ' 
 
 " Good God ! " cried I, jumping to my feet with 
 terror at a statement I had anticipated, though it 
 shocked me as a new and frightful revelation. 
 " Do you know what year this is ? " 
 
 He looked at me without answering. 
 
 '' It is eighteen hundred and one," I cried, and 
 as I said this I recoiled a step, fully expecting 
 him to leap up and exhibit a hundred demon- 
 strations of horror and consternation ; for this 
 I am persuaded would have been rriy posture had 
 any man roused me from a slumber and told me I 
 h:>. rl been in that condition for ei fe f ht-and- forty years.
 
 156 TH FROZEN 
 
 He continued to view me with a very itrange 
 and cunning expression in his eyes, the coolness 
 of which was inexpressibly surprising and be- 
 wildering and even mortifying; then presently 
 grasping his beard, looked at it; then put his 
 hands to his face and looked at them ; then drew 
 out his feet and looked at them ; then very slowly, 
 but without visible effort, stood up, swaying a 
 little with an air of weakness, and proceeded to 
 feel and strike himself all over, swinging his arms 
 and using his legs ; after which he sat down and 
 pulled the clothes over his naked feet, and fixing 
 his eyes on me afresh, said, " What do you say 
 this year is, iir ? " 
 
 " Eighteen hundred and one," I replied. 
 
 " Bah S " laid he, and shook his head very 
 knowingly. "No matter; you have been ship- 
 wrecked too ! Sir, shipwreck shuffles dates as a 
 player does cards, and the best of us will go wrong 
 in famine, loneliness, cold, and peril. Be of good 
 cheer, my friend ; all will return to you. Sit, sir, 
 that I may hear your adventures, and I will relate 
 
 mine." 
 
 I saw how it was he supposed me deranged, 
 a mortifying construction to place upon the 
 language of a man who had restored him to life ; 
 yet a few moments' reflection taught me to see 
 the reasonableness of it, for unless he thought me 
 crazy he must conclude I spoke the truth, and it 
 was inconceivable ht should believe that he had 
 lain in a frozen condition for eight-and-forty years. 
 
 I stirred the fire to make more light and sat 
 down near the furnace. His appearance was very
 
 TV* Pnumfr STOBT. 157 
 
 striking. The scar upon his forehead gave a rerv 
 dark sullen look to his brows ; his eyes were small 
 and were half lost in the dusky hollows in which 
 they were set, and I observed an indescribably 
 leering, cunning expression in them, something of 
 which I attributed to the large quantity of liquor 
 he had swallowed. This contrasted oddly with 
 the respectable aspect he took from his baldness 
 that is, from the nakedness of his poll, for, as I 
 have before said, his hair fell long and plentifully, 
 in a ring a little above the ears, so that you would 
 have supposed at some late period of his life he 
 had been scalped. 
 
 I know not how it was, but 1 felt no joy in this 
 man's company. For some companion, for some 
 one to speak with, I had yearned again and again 
 with heart-breaking passion ; and now a living 
 man sat before me, yet I was sensible of no glad- 
 ness. In truth, I was overawed by him ; he 
 frightened me as one risen from the dead. Here 
 was a creature that had entered, as it seemed to 
 me, those black portals from which no man ever 
 returns, and had come back, through my 
 instrumentality, after hard upon fifty years of the 
 grave. Reason as I might that it was all perfectly 
 in nature, that there was nothing necromantic 
 or diabolic in it, that it could not have happened 
 had it not been natural, my spirits were as m-ich 
 oppressed and confounded by his sitting thor^ 
 alive, talking, and watching me, as if, being tiuv- 
 dead, life had entered him on a sudden, jm? he 
 
 d risen and walked. 
 
 I have no doubt the disorder mv mind w** *
 
 1 01 THB FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 helped to persuade him that ( had not the full 
 possession of my senses. He ran his eye over my 
 figure and then round the cook-room, and said, " I 
 am impatient to leam your story, sir." 
 
 " Why, sir," said I, " my story is summed up in 
 what I have already told you." But that he might 
 not be at a loss for to be sure he had only very 
 newly collected his intellects I related my 
 adventures at large. He drew nearer to the 
 furnace whilst I talked, bringing his covering of 
 clothes along with him, and held out his great 
 hands to toast at the fire, all the time observing 
 me with scarce a wink of the eye. Arrived at the 
 end of my tale, I told him how only last night I 
 had dragged his companion on deck, and how he 
 was to have followed but for his posture. 
 
 " Ha ! " cried he, " you might have caused my 
 flesh to mortify by laying me close to the 
 fire. It would have been better to rub me with 
 
 now" 
 
 He poked up one foot after the other to count 
 his toes, fearing some had come away with his 
 stockings, and then said, " Well, and how long 
 should I have slept had you not come ? Another 
 week 1 By St. Paul, I might have died. Have 
 you my stockings, sir ? M 
 
 I gave them to him, and he pulled them over 
 his legs and then drew on his boots and stood up, 
 the coats and wraps tumbling off htm as he 
 rose. 
 
 I can stand,** says he. * That is good." 
 
 But in attempting to take a step he reeled and 
 *u aav* fallen had I not grasped his
 
 TBB PI*ATB' STORY. 
 
 M Patience, my friend, patience ! " lit muttered 
 as if to himself. " I must lie a little longer/' and 
 with that he kneeled and then lay along the 
 mattress. He breathed heavily and pointed to 
 the pannikin. I asked him whether he would 
 have wine or brandy ; he answered, " Wine," so I 
 melted a draught, which dose, I thought, on top 
 of what he had already taken, would send him to 
 sleep ; but instead it quickened his spirits, and 
 with no lack of life in his voice he said, " What is 
 the condition of the vessel ? " 
 
 I told him that she was stftl high and dry, add- 
 ing that during the night some sort of change had 
 happened which I should presently go on deck to 
 remark. 
 
 " Think you," says he, " that there is any chance 
 of her ever being liberated ? " 
 
 I answered, " Yes, but not yet ; that is, if the 
 ice in breaking doesn't destroy her. The summer 
 season has yet to come, and we are progressing 
 north ; but now that you are with me it will be a 
 question for us to settle, whether we are to wait 
 for the ice to release the schooner or endeavour 
 to effect our escape by other means." 
 
 A curious gleam of cunning satisfaction shone 
 in his eyes as he looked at me ; he then kept 
 silence for some moments, lost in thought. 
 
 " Pray," said I, breaking in upon him, "what 
 ship is this ? " 
 
 He started, deliberated an instant, and ao- 
 red, " The Boca del Dragon." l 
 
 1 So in Mr. Rodney's III.
 
 t6o Tin Fiona Pnurm. 
 
 "ASpanianl?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 " She was a pirate ?" said I. 
 
 " How do you know that ? " he cried with a 
 sudden fierceness. 
 
 " Sir," said I, " I am a British sailor who has 
 used the sea for some years, and know the 
 difference between a handspike and a poop- 
 lanthorn. But what matters ? She is a pirate no 
 longer. " 
 
 He let his eves fall from my face and gazed 
 round him with the air of one who cannot yet 
 persuade his understanding of the realities of the 
 scene he moves in. 
 
 "Tut!" cried he presently, addressing him- 
 self, " what matters the truth, as you say ? Yes, 
 the Boca del Dragon is a pirate. You have 
 of course rummaged her, and guessed her 
 character by what you found ? " 
 
 " I met with enough to excite my suspicion," 
 said I. " The ship's company of such a craft as 
 this do not usually go clothed in lace and 
 rich cloaks, and carry watches of this kind," 
 tapping mv breast, " m their fobs and hand- 
 fuls of gola in their pocket*." 
 
 "Unless "said he. 
 
 " Unless," I answered, " their flag is as black 
 as our prospects." 
 
 " You think them black?" cried he, the look of 
 resentment that was darkening his face dying out 
 of it. " The vessel is sound, is not she ? ' 
 
 i replied that she appeared so, but it would bt 
 impossible to W sure until she floated.
 
 THI PiftAri's STOET. 161 
 
 "The stores?" 
 ' They are plentiful." 
 
 1 They should be ! " he cried ; " we have the 
 liquor and stores of a galleon and two carracks in 
 our hold, apart from what we originally laid in for 
 the cruise. Everything will have been kept sweet 
 by the cold." 
 
 " All the stores seem sound," said I ; "we shall 
 not starve no, not if we were to be imprisoned 
 here for three years. But all the same our 
 prospects are black, for here is the ship high and 
 fixed; the ice in parting may crush her, and we 
 have no boat" 
 
 " May, may ! " he cried with a Frenchman's 
 vehemence. ' You have m*y and you also have 
 may not in your language. Let me feel my 
 strength improving ; we shall then find means of 
 throwing a light upon these black prospects of 
 yours." 
 
 He smiled, or rather grinned, his fangs making 
 the latter term fitter for the mirthless grimace 
 he made. 
 
 " May I ask your name?" said I. 
 
 "Jules Tassard, at your service," said he, 
 " third in command W the Boca dtl Dr*g*n } but 
 good as Mate TrenUnove, and good as Captain 
 Mendoza, and good as the cabin boy Fernando 
 Prado; for we pirates are republicans, sir, we 
 know no social distinctions save those we order 
 for the convenience of working ship. Now let me 
 tell you the story of our disaster. We had come 
 out of the Spanish Main into the South Seas, 
 partly to escape some British and French cruisers
 
 its THE FROZE* Pnum 
 
 which were atter us and others ot our kind, and 
 partly because ill-luck was against us, and we 
 could not find our account in those waters. We 
 sailed in December two years ago " 
 
 " Making the year ? " I interrupted. 
 
 He started, and then grinned again. 
 
 " Ah, to be sure ! " cried he, " this is eighteen 
 hundred and one; but to keep my tale in 
 countenance," he went on in a satirical apologetic 
 way, " let me call the year in which we sailed for 
 the South Sea seventeen hundred and fifty-one. 
 What matters forty or fifty years to the ship- 
 wrecked? Is not one day of an open boat, with 
 no society but the devils of memory and no hope 
 but the silence at the bottom of the sea, an 
 eternity? Fill me that pannikin, my friend. I 
 thank you. To proceed : we cruised some 
 months in the South Sea and took a number of 
 ships. One was a privateer that had plundered a 
 British Indiaman in the Southern Ocean, and had 
 entered the South Sea by New Holland. This 
 fellow was full of fine clothes and had some silver 
 in her. We took what we wanted, and let her go 
 with her people under hatches, her yards square, 
 her helm amidships, and her cabin on fire. Our 
 maxim is, ' No witnesses ! ' That is the pirate's 
 philosophy. Who gives us quarter unless it be to 
 hang us ? But to continue : we did handsomely, 
 but were a long time about it, and after careening 
 and filling up with water 'twixt San Carlos and 
 Chiloe we set sail for the Antilles. Like your brig, 
 we were blown south. The weather was ferocious. 
 Gale after gale thundered down upon us, forcing
 
 Tn Pnutn's STOIT. 163 
 
 us to fly before it. We lost all reckoning of our 
 position ; for days, for weeks, sea and sky were 
 enveloped in clouds of snow, in the heart of which 
 drove our frozen schooner. We were none of us 
 of a nationality fit to encounter these regions ; 
 we carried most of us the curly hair of the 
 sun, the chocolate cheek of the burning zone, 
 and the ice chained the crew, crouching like 
 Lascars, below. We swept past many vast 
 icebergs, which would leap on a sudden out of 
 the white whirl of thickness, often so close 
 aboard that the recoil of the . surge striking 
 against the mass would flood our decks. At aH 
 moments of the day and night we were prepared 
 to feel the shock of the vessel crushing her bows 
 against one of these stupendous hills. The cabin 
 resounded with Salves and Aves, with invocations 
 to the saints, promises, curses, and litanies. The 
 cold does not make men of the Spaniards, who 
 are but indifferent seamen in temperate climes, and 
 we were chiefly Spanish with consciences as red 
 as your English flag." 
 
 He grinned, emptied the pannikin, and 
 stretched his hands to the nre to warm 
 them. 
 
 "One morning, the weather haying cleared 
 somewhat, we found ourselves surrounded by ice. 
 A great chain floated ahead of us, extending far 
 into the south. The gale blew dead on to this 
 coast ; we durst not haul the schooner to the 
 wind, and our only chance lay in discovering 
 some bay where we might find shelter. Such a 
 bay it was my good luck to spy, lying directly ic
 
 1 64 THE FROZEN PIRATE, 
 
 a line with the ship's head. It was formed of -A 
 great steep of ice jutting a long way slantingly 
 into the sea, the width between the point and the 
 main being about a third of a mile. I seized the 
 helm, and shouted to the men to hoist the head 
 of the mainsail that she might round to when i 
 put the helm down. But the fellows were in a 
 panic terror and stood gaping at what they 
 regarded as their doom, calling upon the Virgin 
 and all the saints for help and mercy. Into this 
 bay did we rush on top of a huge sea, Trentanove 
 and the captain and I swinging with set teeth at 
 the tiller, that was hard a-lee ; she came round, 
 but with such way upon her that she took a long 
 shelving beach of ice and ran up it to the distance 
 of half her own length, and there she lay, with 
 her rudder within touch of the wash of the water. 
 The men, regarding the schooner as lost, and 
 concluding that if she went to pieces her boats 
 would be destroyed, and with them their only 
 chance to escape from the ice, fell frantic and 
 lost their wits altogether. They roared, ' To the 
 boats ! to the boats ! ' The captain em 
 voured to bring them to their senses ; he and I 
 and the mate, and Joam Barros, the boatswain 
 a Portuguese went among them pistols in hand, 
 entreating, cursing; threatening. ' Think of the 
 plunder in this hold ! Will you abandon it with- 
 out an effort to save it ? What think you are 
 your chances for life in open boats in this sea ? 
 The schooner lies protected here ; the weather 
 will moderate presently, and we may then be able 
 to slide her off.' But reason as we would the
 
 THE PIRATE'S STOUT. 1*5 
 
 cowardly dogs refused to listen. They had 
 
 broached a spirit- cask aft, and passed the liquor 
 along the decks whilst they hoisted the pinnace 
 out of the hold and got the other boats over. 
 The drink maddened, yet left them wild with fear 
 too. They would not wait to come at the treasure 
 in the run the fools believed the ship would tumble 
 to pieces as she stood but entered the forecastle 
 and the officers' cabins, and routed about for 
 whatever money and trinkets thev might stuff 
 into their pockets without loss of time ; and then 
 provisioning the boats, they called to us to join 
 them, but we said, No, on which they ran the 
 boats down to the water, tumbled into them, and 
 pulled away round the point of ice. We lost 
 sight of them then, and I have little doubt that 
 they all perished shortly afterwards." 
 
 He ceased. I was anxious to hear more. 
 
 ' You had been six months on the ice when 
 the stupor fell upon you ? " 
 
 " Ay, about six months. The ice gathered 
 about us and built us in. I recollect it was three 
 days after we stranded that, going on deck, I saw 
 the bay (as I term it) filled with ice. We drew 
 up several plans to escape, but none satisfied us. 
 Besides, sir, we had a treasure on board which 
 we had risked our necks to get, and we were pre- 
 pared to go on imperilling our lives to save it. 
 Twas natural. We had a great store of coal 
 forwards and amidships, for we had faced the 
 Horn in coming and knew what we had to expect in 
 returning. We were also richly stocked with 
 provisions and drink of ail sorts. There were but
 
 1 64 Tm FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 Jour of us, and we deal; we had as if we 
 
 ^ned it _should la;- y years. But the 
 
 was frightful ; it was not in flesh and blood 
 to stand it. One day we had been locked up 
 about five months Mendoza said he would get 
 upon the rocks and take a view of the sea. He 
 did not return. The others were too weak to 
 seek him, and they were half blind besides ; I 
 went, but the ice was full of caves and hollows, 
 and the like, and I could not find him, nor could I 
 look for him long, the cold being the hand of 
 death itself up there. The time went by ; Tren- 
 tanove went stone-blind, and I had to put food 
 and drink into his hands that he might live. A 
 week before the stupor came upon me I went on 
 deck and saw Joam Barros leaning at the rail. I 
 called to him, but he made no reply, 
 approached and looked at him, and found him 
 frozen. Then happened what I have told you. 
 We were in the cabin, the mate seated at the 
 table, waiting for me to lead and support him to 
 the cook-room, for he was so weak he could 
 scarce carry his weight. A sudden faintness 
 seized me, and I sank down upon the bench 
 opposite him, letting my head fall upon my 
 arms. His cry startled me I looked up saw 
 him as I have said ; but the cabin then turned 
 black, my head sank again, and I remember no 
 more." 
 
 He paused and then cried in French, " That is 
 all ! They are dead Jules Tassard lives ! The 
 devil is loyal to his own ! " and with that he lay 
 bark and burst into laughter.
 
 ! nu& or A GUUT T&BASU&B. 167 
 
 * And thii," said I, * was in seventeen hundred 
 and fifty-three ? " 
 
 ' Yes," he answered ; " and this is eighteen 
 hundred and one eight-and-forty years after- 
 wards, hey ?" and he laughed out again. "I've 
 talked so much," said he, " that, d'ye know, I 
 think another nap will do me good. What coals 
 have you found in the ship ? " 
 
 I told him. 
 
 " Good," he cried ; " we can keep ourselves 
 warm for some time to come, anyhow. 
 
 And so saying, he pulled a rug up to his nose 
 and shut his eyes. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 I HEAR OP A GREAT TREASURE. 
 
 I LIGHTED a pipe and sat pondering his story a 
 little while. There was no doubt he had given 
 me the exact truth so far as his relation of it 
 went. As it was certain then that the Boca del 
 Dragon (as she was called) had been fixed in the 
 ice for hard upon fifty years, the conclusion I 
 formed was that she had been blown by some 
 hundreds of leagues further south than the point 
 to which the Laughing Mary had been driven ; 
 that this ice in which she was entangled was not 
 then drifting northwards, but was in the grasp of 
 some polar current that trended it south-easterly ; 
 that in due course it was carried to the Antarctic 
 main of ice, where it lay compacted ; after which, 
 through stress of weather or by the agency of a 
 particular temperature, a great mass of it broke
 
 i6S THI Ft or UN 
 
 away and tarted on that northward course which 
 berji of all magnitude take when they are ruptured 
 frem the frozen continent. 
 
 This theory may be disputed, but it matters 
 not. My business is to relate what befell me ; if 
 I do my share honestly the candid reader will not, 
 I believe, quarrel with me for not being able to 
 explain everything as I go along. 
 
 The Frenchman snored, and I sat considering 
 him. The impression he had made upon me was 
 not agreeable. To be sure he had suffered 
 heavily, and there was something not displeasing 
 in the spirit he discovered in telling the story a 
 spirit I am unable to communicate, as it owed 
 everything to French vivacity largely spiced with 
 devilment, and to sudden turns and ejaculations 
 beyond the capacity of my pen to imitate. But a 
 professional fierceness ran through it too ; it was 
 as if he had licked his chops when he talked of 
 dismissing the captured ship with her people 
 confined below and her cabin on fire. He had 
 been as good as dead for nearly fifty years, yet he 
 brought with him into life exactly the same 
 qualities he had carried with him in his exit. 
 Hence I never now hear that expression taken 
 from the Latin, " Of the dead speak nothing unless 
 good," without despising it as an unworthy con- 
 cession to sentiment ; Tor I have not the least 
 doubt in my mind that, spite of deathbed 
 pentances and all the horrors which crowd upon 
 the imagination of a bad man in his last moments 
 I say I have not the least doubt that of every 
 hundred persons who die, ninety-nine of them,
 
 I HEAR or A GREAT TREASURB. 169 
 
 could they be raised from the dead, no matter 
 how many years or even centuries they might 
 have lain in their graves, would exhibit their 
 original natures, and pursue exactly the same 
 courses which made them loved or scorned or 
 feared or neglected before, which brought them to 
 the gallows or which qualified them to die in 
 peace with faces brightening to the opening 
 heavens. If Nero did not again fire Rome he 
 would be equal to crimes as great, and desire 
 nothing better than the opportunity for them. 
 Caesar would again be the tyrant, and the sword 
 of Brutus would once more fulfil its mission. 
 Richard III. would emerge in his winding-sheet 
 with the same humpbacked character in which he 
 had expired, the Queen of Scots return warm 
 to her gallantries, and the Stuarts repeat those 
 blunders and crimes which terminated in the 
 headsman or in banishment. 
 
 But these are my thoughts of to-day ; I was of 
 another temper whilst I sat smoking and listening 
 to the snoring of Monsieur Jules Tassard. Now 
 that I had a companion should I be able to escape 
 from this horrid situation? He had spoken of 
 chests of silver where was the treasure ? in the 
 run ? There might be booty enough in the hold 
 to make a great man, a fine gentleman of me 
 ashore. It would be a noble ending to an amazing 
 adventure to come off with as much money as 
 would render me independent for life, and enable 
 me to turn my back for ever upon the hardest 
 calling to which the destiny of man can wed him. 
 
 Of such were the fancies which hurried through
 
 my mind, coupled with visitations of awe and 
 wonder when I cast my eyes upon the sleeping 
 Frenchman. After all it was ridiculous that 1 
 should feel mortified because he supposed me 
 crazy in the matter of dates. How was it con- 
 ceivable he should believe he had lain lifeless for 
 eight-and-forty years ? I knew a man who after 
 a terrible adventure had slept three days and 
 nights without stirring; the assurances of the 
 people about him failed to persuade him that he 
 had slumbered so long, and it was not until he 
 walked abroad and met a hundred evidences as to 
 the passage of the time during which he had 
 slept that he allowed himself to become coo- 
 vinced. 
 
 I wished to see how the schooner lay and what 
 change had befallen the ice in the night, and 
 went on deck. It was blowing a whole gale of 
 wind from the north-west. Inside the ship, with 
 the hatches on, and protected moreover oy the 
 sides of the hollow in which she lay, it would have 
 been impossible to guess at the weight of the 
 gale, though all along I had supposed it to 
 be storming pretty fiercely bv the thunderous 
 humming noise which resounded in the cabin. 
 But I had no notion that so great a wind raged 
 till I gained the deck and heard the prodigious 
 bellowing of it above the rocks. The sky was 
 one great cloud of slate, and there was no flying 
 darknesi or yellow scud to give the least move- 
 ment of life to it. The sea was swelling very 
 furiously, and I could divine its tempestuous 
 character by clouds of ipray which sped like
 
 I num or A GREAT TRBASU**. 171 
 
 volumes of steam under the sullen dusky heavens 
 high over the mastheads. The schooner lay with 
 a list of about fifteen degrees and her bows high 
 cocked. I looked over the stern and saw that 
 the ice had sunk there, and that there were twenty 
 great rents and yawning seams where I had before 
 noticed but one. A vast block of ice had fallen 
 on the starboard side, and lay so close on the 
 quarter that I could have sprung on to it. No 
 other marked changes were observable, but there 
 were a hundred sounds to assure me that neither 
 the sea nor the gale was wholly wasting its 
 strength upon this crystal territory, and that if I 
 thought proper to climb the slope and expose 
 myself to the wind, I should behold a face of ice 
 somewhat different from what I had before gazed 
 upon. 
 
 But the bitter cold held me in dread, and there 
 was no need besides for me to take a survey. All 
 that concerned me lay in the hollow in which the 
 schooner was frozen ; but so far as the slopes were 
 concerned I could see nothing to render me 
 uneasy. The declivities were gradual, and there 
 was little fear of even a violent convulsion throwing 
 the ice upon us. The danger lay below, under 
 the keel ; if the ice split, then down would drop 
 the ship and stave herself, or if she escaped that 
 peril she must be so wedged as to render the 
 least further pressure of the ice against her sides 
 destructive. 
 
 I was about to go below again, when my eve 
 was taken by the two figures lying upon the 
 deck. No dead bodies ever looked more dead,
 
 TH FROZIM PIRATE. 
 
 but after the wondrous restoration of the French- 
 man I could not view their forms without fancying 
 that they were but as he had been, and that if 
 they were carried to the furnace and treated with 
 brandy and rubbing and the like they might be 
 brought to. Full of thoughts concerning them I 
 stepped into the cabin, and, going to the cook- 
 room, found Tassard still heavilv sleeping. The 
 coal in the corner was low, and as it wanted an 
 hour of dinner-time I took the lanthorn and a 
 bucket and went into the forepeak, and after 
 several journeys stocked up a good provision of 
 coal in the corner. I made noise enough, but 
 Tassard slept on. When this was ended I boiled 
 some water to cleanse myself, and then set about 
 getting the dinner ready. 
 
 The going into the forepeak had put my mind 
 upon the treasure, which, as I had gathered from 
 the Frenchman's narrative, was somewhere hidden 
 in the schooner in the run, as I doubted not ; I 
 mean in the hold, under the lazarette, for you will 
 recollect that, being weary and half-perished with 
 the cold, I had turned my back on that dark part 
 after having looked into the powder-room. All 
 the time I was fetching the coal and dressing the 
 dinner my imagination was on fire with fancies of 
 the treasure in this ship, The Frenchman had 
 told me that they had been well enough pleased 
 with their hauls in the South Sea to resolve them 
 upon heading round the Horn for their haunt, 
 whertver it might be, in the Spanish main ; and I 
 had too good an understanding of the character 
 of pirates to believe that they would have quitted
 
 or A GREAT TRBABUUU 173 
 
 ft rich hunting-field before they had handsomely 
 lined their pocketf . What, then, was the treasure 
 in the run, if indeed it were there ? I recalled a 
 dozen stories of tht doings of the buccaneers, 
 not to speak of the famous Acapulco ship 
 taken by Anson a little before the year in which 
 the Boca tUl Dragon was fishing in those 
 waters ; and I feasted my fancy with all sorts of 
 sparkling dreams of gold and silver and precious 
 stones, of the costly ecclesiastical furniture of 
 New Spain, of which methought I found a hint 
 in that silver crucifix in the cabin, of rings, 
 sword-hilts, watches, buckles, snuff-boxes, and the 
 like. Lord! thought I, that this island were of 
 good honest mother earth instead of ice, that 
 we might bury the pirate's booty if we could not 
 save the ship, and make a princely mine of its 
 grave, ready for the mattock should we survive to 
 fetch it ! 
 
 I was mechanically stirring the saucepan full 
 of broth I had prepared, lost in these golden 
 thoughts, when the Frenchman suddenly sat up on 
 his mattress. 
 
 " Ha 1" cried he, sniffing vigorously, "I smell 
 something good something I am ready for. 
 There is no physic like sleep," and with thaf he 
 stretched out his arms with a great yawn, then rose 
 very agilely, kicking the clothes and mattress on 
 one side and bringing a bench close to the 
 furnace. " What time is it, sir ? " 
 
 "Something after twelve by the captain's 
 watch," said I, pulling it out and looking at it. 
 " But 'tis guesswork time."
 
 174 TKB PEOZXX Pnum 
 
 " The *q*Vfft'x -match f " cried he, with * short 
 
 loud lauph. ' You are modest, Mr. * 
 
 " Paul Rodney," said I, seeing he stopped for 
 my name. 
 
 'Yes, modest, Mr. Paul Rodney. That 
 watch is yours, sir; and you mean it shall be 
 yours.'* 
 
 " Well, Mr. Tassard," said I, colouring in spite 
 of myself, though he could not witness the 
 change in such a light as that, "I felt this, 
 that if I left the watch in the captain's pocket 
 it was bound to go to the bottom ultimately, 
 and " 
 
 " Bah 1 " he interrupted, with a violent flourish 
 of the hand. "Let us save the schooner, if 
 possible ; there will be more than one watch for 
 your pocket, more than one doubloon for your 
 purse. Meanwhile, to dinner! My stupor has 
 converted me into an empty hogshead, and it will 
 take me a fortnight of hard eating to feel that I 
 have broken my fast." 
 
 With a blow of the chopper he struck off a 
 lump of the frozen wine, and then fell to, eating 
 perhaps as a man might be expected to eat who 
 had not had a meal for eight-and-forty years. 
 
 4 There are two of your companions on deck," 
 said I. 
 
 He started 
 
 " Frozen," I continued ; * they'll be the bodies 
 4 Trentanove and Joam Barros J * 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 * There Is no re*on why they should be deader 
 were. It is true that Barros kas beta
 
 I nu* or A GKBAT Tu 
 
 on deck whilst you hare been below ; but after 
 you pass a certain degree of cold fiercer rigours 
 cannot signify." 
 
 " What do you propose? " said he, looking at 
 me oddly. 
 
 " Why, that we should carry them to the fire 
 and rub them, and bring them to if we can." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 I was staggered by his indifference, for I had 
 believed he would have shown himself very eager 
 to restore his old companions and shipmates to 
 life. I was searching for an answer to his strange 
 inquiry, " Why ? " when he proceeded, 
 
 " First of all, my friend Trentanove was stone- 
 blind, and Barros nearly blind. Unless you 
 could return them their sight with their life 
 they would curse you for disturbing them. Better 
 the blackness of death than the blackness of life. 1 ' 
 
 "There is the body of the captain," said I. 
 
 He grinned. 
 
 " Let them sleep," said he. " Do you know 
 that they are cutthroats, who would reward your 
 kindness with the poniard that you might not 
 tell tales against them or claim a share of the 
 treasure in this vessel ? Of all desperate villains 
 I never met the like of Barros. He loved blood 
 even better than money. He'd quench his thirst 
 before an engagement with gunpowder mixed in 
 brandy. I once saw him choke a man tut ! he 
 is very well leave him to his repose." 
 
 In the glow of the fire he looked uncommonly 
 sardonic and wild, with his long beard, bald head, 
 flowing hair, shaggy brows, and little cunning eyes,
 
 176 THE FfcOZBM PIBAI*. 
 
 which seemed in their smallness to share in His 
 grin, and yet did not ; and though to be sure he 
 was some one to talk to and to make plans with 
 for our escape, yet I felt that if he were to fall 
 into a stupor again it would net be my hands that 
 should chafe him into being. 
 
 " You knew those men in life," said I. " If the 
 others are of the same pattern as the Portuguese, 
 by all means let them he frozen." 
 
 " But, my friend," said he, calling me mon *mi, 
 which I translate, "that's not it, either. Do 
 you know the ralue of the booty in this 
 schooner ? " 
 
 I answered, No ; how was 1 to know it ? I had 
 met with nothing but wearing apparel, and some 
 pieces of money, and a few watches in the fore- 
 castle. He knit his brows with a fierce suspicious 
 gleam in his eyes. 
 
 "But you hare searched the Yessel?" bo 
 cried. 
 
 " I have searched, a* you call it that is, I 
 have crawled through the hoU as far as the 
 powder-room." 
 
 "And further aft ?" 
 
 " No, not further aft" 
 
 His countenance cleared. 
 
 " You scared me 1 " said be, fetching a deep 
 breath. " I was afraid that some one had been 
 beforehand with us. But it is not conceivable. 
 No ! we shall look for it presently, and we shall 
 find it." 
 
 " Find what, Mr. Tassmrd 1* nld I. 
 
 Ho bold i* the fingers of bis right band M OM,
 
 I HKA* or A GKXAT TRKASUKI. 177 
 
 two, three, four, fire fire chests of plate and 
 money; one, two, three three cases of virgin 
 silver in ingots ; one chest of gold ingots ; one 
 
 case of jewellery. In all " he paused to enter 
 
 into a calculation, moving his lips briskly as he 
 whispered to himself -/'between ninety and one 
 hundred thousand pounds of your English 
 money." 
 
 I stifled the amazement his words excited, and 
 said coldly, " You must have met with some rich 
 ships." 
 
 " We did well," h answered. " My memory is 
 good " ^he counted afresh on his fingers " ten 
 cases in all. Fortune is a strange wench, Mr. 
 Rodney. Who would think of finding her lodged 
 on an iceberg ? Now bring those others up 
 there to life, and you make us five. What would 
 follow, think you ? what but this ? " 
 
 He raised his beard and stroked his throat 
 with the sharp of his hand. Then, swallowing a 
 great draught of brandy, he rose and stopped to 
 listen. 
 
 "It is blowing hard," said he ; " the harder 
 the better. I want to see this island knocked 
 into bergs. Every sea is as good as a pickaxe. 
 Hark ! there are those crackling noises I used 
 to hear before I fell into a stupor. Whr do you 
 sleep?" 
 
 I told him. 
 
 " My berth is the third/' said he. M I with to 
 smoke, and will fetch my pipe." 
 
 He took the lanthorn and went aft, acting as if 
 he had left that berth an hour ago, and I under-
 
 IT* Tm Fine** 
 
 stood in the face of thii ready recurrence of his 
 memory how impossible it would be ever to make 
 him believe he had been practically lifeless since 
 the year 1 753. When ht relumed he had on a 
 hairy cap, with large covers for the ears, and a 
 big flap behind that fell to below his collar, and 
 was almost as long as his hair. He wanted but a 
 couple of muskets and an umbrella to closely 
 resemble Robinson Crusoe, as he is made to 
 figure in most of the cuts I have seen. He pro- 
 duced a pipe of the Dutch pattern, with a bowl 
 carved into a death's head,' and great enough to 
 hold a cake of tobacco. The skull might have 
 been a child's for size, and though it was dyed 
 with tobacco juice and the top blackened, with 
 the lire coals which had been held to it, it was 
 so finely carved that it looked very ghastly and 
 terribly real in his hand as he sat puffing at it. 
 
 He eyed me steadfastly whilst he smoked, as if 
 critically taking stock of me, and presently said, 
 4 The devil hath an odd way of ordering matters. 
 What particular merit have / that I should have 
 been the one hit upon by you to thaw ? Had 
 you brought any one of the others to, he would 
 have advised you against reviving us, and so I 
 should have passed out of my frosty sleep into 
 death as quietly, ay, and as painlessly, as that 
 puff of smoke melts into clear air." 
 
 ' Then perhaps you do not think you are 
 obliged by my awakening you to life?" said I. 
 
 'Yes, my friend, I am much obliged," said h< 
 with vivacity. " Any fool can die. To live i. 
 true business of life. Mark what voud*i you
 
 or A GMAT T 
 
 make me know tobacco again, you enable me to 
 
 eat and drink, and these things are pleasures 
 which were denied me in that cabin there. You 
 recall me ta the enjoyment of my gains, nay, of 
 more of ray own and the gains of our company. 
 You make me, as you make yourself, a rich man ; 
 the world opens before me anew, and very 
 brilliantly to be sure, I am obliged." 
 
 " The world is certainly before you, as it is 
 before me," said I, " but that's all ; we hare got 
 to get there." 
 
 He flourished his pipe, and 'twas like the flight 
 of Death through the gloomy fire-tinctured air. 
 
 " That must come. We are two. Yesterday 
 you were one, and I can understand your despair. 
 But these arms stupor has not wasted so much 
 as the dark line of a finger-nail of muscle. You 
 too are no girl. Courage ! between us we shall 
 manage. How long is it since you sailed from 
 England?" 
 
 " We sailed last month a year from the Thames 
 for Callao." / 
 
 " And what is the news ? " said he, taking a 
 pannikin of wine from the oven and sipping it. 
 " Last year ! 'Tis twelve years since I was in Paris 
 and three years since we had news from Europe." 
 
 News ! thought I ; to tell this man the news, as 
 he calls it, would oblige me to travel over fifty 
 years of history. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Tassard," said I, " there's plenty of 
 things happening, you know, for Europe s full of 
 kings and queens, and two or more of them are 
 nearly always at loggerheads ; but sailors raer-
 
 i8o THE FmozKK PIRATV. 
 
 chantmen like myself hear little of what goes 
 on. We know the name of our own sovereign 
 and what wages sailors are getting ; that's -about it, 
 sir. In fact, at this moment I could tell you more 
 about Chili and Peru than England and France." 
 
 11 Is there war between our nations ?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes," said I. 
 
 " Ha 1 " he cried, " I doubt if this time you will 
 come off so easily. You have good men in 
 Hawke and Anson ; but Jonquiere and St. George, 
 hey ? and Macon, Cellie, Letenduer ! " 
 
 He shook his head knowingly, and an air of 
 complacency, that would Se indescribable but for 
 the word French, overspread his face. I knew 
 the name of Jonquiere as an admiral who had 
 fought us in 1748 or thereabouts ; of the others I 
 had never heard. But I held my peace, which I 
 suppose he put down to good manners, for he 
 changed the subject by asking if I was married. 
 I answered, No, and inquired like had a wife, 
 
 " A wife ! " cried he ; " what should a man of 
 my calling do with a wife ? No, no 1 we gather 
 such flowers as we want off the high seas, and 
 wear them till the perfume palls. They prove 
 stubborn though ; our graces are not always 
 relished. Trentanove reckoned himself the most 
 killing among us, and by St Barnabas he proved 
 so, for three ladies passengers of beauty and 
 distinction slew themselves for his sake. Do 
 you understand me ? They preferred the knife to 
 his addresses. /," said he, tapping his breast 
 and grinning, " was always fortunate," 
 
 He looked a complete satyr as be tau> spoke,
 
 Tra TXSAOTILB. 181 
 
 with his hairy cap, grey beard, long nose, little 
 cunning shining eyes, and broken tangs ; and a 
 chill of disgust came upon me. But I had already 
 seen enough of him to understand that he was 
 a man of a very formidable character, and that 
 he had awakened after eight-and-forty years of 
 insensibility as real a pirate at heart as ever he 
 had been, and that it therefore behoved me to 
 deal very warily with him, and above all not to let 
 him suspect my thoughts. Yet he seemed a 
 person superior to the calling he had adopted. 
 His English was good, and his articulation in- 
 dicated a quality of breeding. Whilst he smoked 
 his pipe out he told me a story of an action be- 
 tween this schooner and a French Indiaman. 
 will not repeat it ; it was mere butchery, with 
 features of diabolic cruelty ; but what affected me 
 more violently than the horrors of the narrative 
 was his cool and easy recital of his own and the 
 deeds of his companions. You saw that he had 
 no more conscience in him than the death's head 
 he puffed at, and that his idea was there was no 
 true greatness to be met with out of enormity. 
 Well, thought I, as I stepped to the corner for 
 some coal, if I was afraid of this creature when he 
 was dead, to what condition of mind shall I be 
 reduced by his being alive ? 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE TREASURE. 
 
 WHEN his pipe was out he rose and made 
 several strides about the cook-room, then took
 
 i St Tn Fioum 
 
 the Ian thorn, and entering the cabin stood awhile 
 surveying the place. 
 
 " So this would have been my coffin but for 
 you, Mr. Rodney?" said he. " I was in good 
 company, though," pointing over his shoulder 
 at the crucifix with his thumb. " Lord, how the 
 rogues prayed and cursed in this same cabin ! 
 In fine weather, and when all was well, the sharks 
 in our wake had more religion than they ; but the 
 instant they were in danger, down they tumbled 
 upon their quivering knees, and if heaven was 
 twice as big as it is, it could not have held saints 
 enough for those varlets to petition." 
 " You were nearly all Spaniards?" 
 " Ay ; the worst class of men a ship could enter 
 these seas with. But for our calling they are the 
 fittest of all the nations in the world ; better even 
 than the Portuguese, and with truer trade instincts 
 than the trained mulatto nimbler artists in 
 roguery than ever a one of them. I despise their 
 superstition, but they are the better pirates for it. 
 They carry it as a man might a feather bed ; it 
 enables them to fall soft. D'ye take me ? " He 
 gave one of his short loud laughs, and said, " I 
 hope this slope won't increase. The angle's stiff 
 enough as it is. Twill be like living on the roof 
 of a house. I have a mind to see how she lies. 
 What d'ye say, Mr. Rodney ? shall I venture into 
 the open ? " 
 
 "Why not?" said I. f You can move 
 briskly. You have as much life as ever you 
 
 " Let's go, then, ' he exclaimed, and climbing
 
 THE TMAIOTKB. iS 
 
 the ladder he pushed open the companion-door 
 
 and stepped on to the deck, I followed with but 
 little solicitude, as you may suppose, as to what 
 might attend his exposure. The blast of the gale 
 though it was broken into downwards eddying 
 darlings by the rocks, made him bawl out with 
 the sting of it, and for some moments he could 
 think of nothing but the cold, stamping the 
 deck, and beating his hands. 
 
 " Ha ! " cried he, grinning to the smart of his 
 cheeks, "this is not the cook-room, eh ? Great 
 thunder, you will not have it that this ice has 
 been drifting north ? Why, man, 'tis icier by 
 twenty degrees than when we were first locked 
 up." ' 
 
 " I hope not," said I ; " and I think not. 
 Your blood doesn't course strong yet, and you 
 are fresh from the furnace. Besides, it is blow- 
 ing a bitter cold gale. Look at that sky and 
 listen to the thunder of the sea ! " 
 
 The commotion was indeed terribly uproarious. 
 The spume as before was blowing in clouds of 
 snow over the ice, and fled in very startling 
 flashes of whiteness under the livid drapery of the 
 sky. The wind itself sounded like the prolonged 
 echo of a discharge of monster ordnance, and it 
 screeched and whistled hideously where it struck 
 the peaks and edges of the cliffs and swept 
 through the schooner's masts. The rending 
 noises of the ice in all directions were distinct and 
 fearful. The Frenchman looked about him with 
 consternation, and to my surprise crossed him- 
 self.
 
 i*4 THB FKOKSK PIXATB. 
 
 " May the blessed Virgin preserve us ! " he 
 said. " Do you say we have drifted north ? If 
 this is not the very heart of the south pole you 
 shall persuade me we are on the equator. ' 
 
 "It cannot storm too terribly for us, as you 
 just now said," I replied. " I want this island to 
 i(o to pieces." 
 
 As I said this a solid pillar of ice just beyond 
 the brow of the hill on the starboard side was 
 dislodged or blown down ; it fell with a mighty 
 crash, and filled the air with crystal splinters. 
 Tassard started back with a faint cry of " Bon 
 Dieu!" 
 
 " Judge for yourself how the ship lies," said I ; 
 " this is freezing work." 
 
 He went aft and looked over the stern, then 
 walked to the larboard rail and peered over the 
 side. 
 
 ''Is there ice beyond that opening ?" he asked, 
 pointing over the taffrail. 
 
 "No," I answered; "that goes to the sea. 
 There is a low cliff beyond. Mark that cloud of 
 white ; it is the spray hurled athwart the mouth 
 of this hollow." 
 
 "Good," he mumbled with his teeth chatter- 
 ing. " The change is marvellous. There was 
 ice for a quarter of a mile where that slope ends. 
 Tis too cold to converse here." 
 
 " There are your companions," said I, pointing 
 to the two bodies lying a little distance before the 
 mainmast. 
 
 He marched up to them, and exclaimed, " Yes, 
 this is Trentanove and that is Barros. Both were
 
 Tin TftBATOBB. itj 
 
 blind, but they are blinder now. Would they 
 thank you to arouse them out of their comfortable 
 sleep and force them to feel as I do, this cold to 
 which they are now as insensible as I was ? By 
 heaven, for my part, I can stand it no longer ; ' 
 and with that ne ran briskly to the hatch. 
 
 1 followed him to the cook-room and he crept so 
 close to the furnace that I thought he had a 
 mind to roast himself. No doubt, newly come to 
 life as he was, the cold hurt him more than 
 me, and maybe the tide of those animal spirits 
 which had in his former existence furnished him 
 with a brute courage had not yet flowed full to 
 his mind ; still I questioned even in his heydey if 
 there had ever been much more than the swash- 
 buckler in him, which opinion, however, could 
 only increase the anxiety his companionship was 
 like to cause me by obliging me to understand 
 that I must prepare myself for treachery, and on 
 no account whatever to suppose for a moment 
 that he was capable of the least degree of grati- 
 tude or was to be swerved from any design he 
 might form by considerations of my claim upon 
 him as his preserver. 
 
 It is among the wonders of human nature that 
 antagonisms should be found to flourish under 
 such conditions of hopelessness, misery, and 
 anguish as make those who languish under them 
 the most pitiful wretches under God's eye. But 
 so it has been, so it is, so it will ever be. Two 
 men in an open boat at sea, their lips frothing 
 with thirst, their eyes burning with famine, shall 
 fall upon each other and fight to the death. Two
 
 1 86 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 men on an island, two miserable castaways whose 
 dismal end can only be a matter of a week or two, 
 eye each other morosely, give each other in- 
 jurious words, break away and sullenly live, 
 each man by himself, on opposite sides of their 
 desert prison. Beasts do not act thus, nor birds, 
 nor reptiles only man. What waj in the 
 Frenchman Tassard's mind I do not know ; 
 in mine was fear, dislike, profound distrust, a 
 great uneasiness, albeit we were alone, we were 
 brothers in affliction and distress, as completely 
 sundered from the world to which we belonged 
 as if we lay stranded in the icy moon, speaking 
 in the same tongue and believing in the same 
 God I 
 
 The heat comforted him presently, and he put 
 a lump of wine into the overt to melt, and this 
 comforted him also. 
 
 " I can converse now," said he. " Perhaps 
 after all the danger lies more in the imagination 
 than in the fact. But it is a hideous naked scene, 
 and needs no such colouring as the roaring of 
 wind, the rushing of seas, and the crashing falls 
 of masses of ice to render it frightful." 
 
 "You tell me," said I, "that when you fell 
 asleep " 1 would sometimes express his frozen 
 state thus " there was a quarter of a mile of ice 
 beyond the schooner's stern." 
 
 " At least a quarter of a mile," he answered. 
 11 Day after day it wo^Ki be built up till it came to 
 a face of that extent." 
 
 I thought to myself if it has takea forty-eiftot 
 /ears of the wear and tear of stem aad swge t
 
 THB TRMASUKB. 187 
 
 extinguish a quarter of a mile, how long a time 
 must elapse before this island splits up? But 
 then I reflected that during the greater part of 
 those years this seat of ice had been stuck very 
 low south where the cold was so extreme as to 
 make it defy dissolution ; that since then, it was 
 come away from the main and stealing north, so 
 that what might have taken thirty years to accom- 
 plish in seventy degrees of south latitude, might 
 be performed in a day on the parallel of sixty 
 degrees in the summer season in these seas. 
 
 Tassard continued speaking with the pannikin 
 KJ his hand, and his eyes shut as if to get the 
 picture of the schooner's position fair before his 
 mind's vision : " There was a quarter of a mile of 
 ice beyond the ship : I have it very plain in my 
 sight : it was a great muddle of hillocks, for the 
 ice pressed thick and hard, and raised us and 
 vomited up peaks and rocks to the squeeze. 
 Suppose I have been asleep a week?" Here he 
 opened his eyes and gazed at me, 
 
 "Well?" said I. 
 
 " I say," he continued in the tone of one easily 
 excited into passion, *' a week. It will not have 
 been more. It is impossible. Never mind about 
 your eighteen hundred and one," showing his 
 fangs in a sarcastic grin ; " a week is long-enough, 
 friend. Then this is what I mean to say : that 
 the breaking away of a quarter of a mile of ice in 
 a week is fine work, full of grand promise : the 
 next wrench which might come now as I speak, 
 or to-morrow, or in a week the next wrench may 
 bring away the rock on which we are lodged,
 
 iS8 THB FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 the rest is a matter of patience which we can 
 afford, hey ? for we are but two there is plenty 
 of meat and liquor and the reward afterwards is a 
 princely independence, Mr. Paul Rodney." 
 
 I was struck with the notion of the bed of ice 
 on which the schooner lay going afloat, and said, 
 " Are sea and wind to be helped, think you ? If 
 the block on which we lie could be detached, it 
 might beat a bit against its parent stock, but 
 would not unite again. The schooner's canvas 
 might be made to help it along though suppose 
 it capsized ! " 
 
 " We must consider," said he ; " there is no 
 need to hurry. When the wind falls we will survey 
 the ice." 
 
 He warmed himself afresh, and after remaining 
 silent with the air of one turning many thoughts 
 over in his mind, he suddenly cried, " D'ye know 
 I have a mind to view the plate and money below. 
 What say you ? " 
 
 His little eyes seemed to sparkle with suspicion 
 as he directed them at me. I was confident he 
 suspected I had lied in saying I knew nothing of 
 this treasure and that he wanted to see if I had 
 meddled with those chests. One of the penalties 
 attached to a man being forced to keep the com- 
 pany of liars is, he himself is never believed by 
 them. I answered instantly, " Certainly ; I should 
 like to see this wonderful booty. It is right that 
 we should find out at once if it is there ; for sup- 
 posing it vanished we should be no better than 
 madmen to sit talking here of the fine lives we 
 shall live if ever we get home."
 
 Tm Tuusvuk ito. 
 
 He picked up the lanthorn and said, " I must 
 go to your cabin : it was the captain's. The keys 
 of the chests should be in one of his boxes." 
 
 He marched off, and was so long gone that I 
 was almost of belief he had tumbled down in a fit. 
 However, I had made up my mind to act a very 
 wary part ; and particularly never to let him think 
 I distrusted him, and so I would not go to see 
 what he was about. But what I did was this: 
 the arms-room was next door : I lighted a candle, 
 entered it, and swiftly armed myself with a sort of 
 dagger, a kind of boarding- knife, a very murderous 
 little two-edged sword, the blade about seven 
 inches long, and the haft of brass. There were 
 some fifty of these weapons, and I took the first 
 that came to my hand and dropped it into the deep 
 side pocket of my coat and returned to the cook- 
 room. It was not that I was afraid of going 
 unarmed with this man into the hold : there was 
 no more danger to me there than here : should he 
 ever design to despatch me, one place was the 
 same as another, for the dead above could not 
 testify : there were no witnesses in this white and 
 desolate kingdom. What resolved me to go 
 armed was the fear that should the treasure be 
 missing and who was to swear that the schooner 
 had never been visited once in eight-and-forty 
 years ? the Frenchman, who was persuaded his 
 stupor had not lasted above a week, and who was 
 doubtless satisfied the chests were in the hold 
 down to the period when he lost recollection 
 would suspect me of foul play, and in the barbaroui 
 rage of a pirate fill upon and endeavour to kill *.
 
 190 THB FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 Thus you will see that I had no very high opinion of 
 
 the morals and character of the man I had given life 
 to ; and indeed, after 1 had armed myself and was 
 seated again before the furnace, I felt extremely 
 melancholy, and underwent the severest dejection 
 of spirits that had yet visited me, fearing that my 
 humanity had achieved nothing more than to 
 bring me into the society of a devil, who would 
 prove a fixed source of anxiety and misery to me. 
 Was it conceivable that the others should be 
 worse than, or even as bad as, this creature ? His 
 hair showed him hoary in vice. The Italian was 
 a handsome man, and let him have been as pro- 
 fligate as he would, as cruel and fierce a pirate as 
 Tassard had painted him, he would at all events 
 have proved a sightly companion, and harmless 
 as being blind, though to- be sure for that reason 
 of no use to me. Yet though his blindness would 
 have made him a burden, I had rather have thawed 
 him into life than the Frenchman. 
 
 The mere thought of feeling under an obligation 
 toarm myself filled me with such vindictive passions 
 that I protest as I sat alone waiting for him I felt 
 as if it were a duty I owed myself to return him tc 
 the condition in which I found him, which was tc 
 be easily contrived by my binding him in his 
 sleep and dragging him to the deck and leaving 
 him to stupefy alongside the body of the giant 
 Joam Barros. " Peace ! " cried I to myself with 
 a shiver ; " villain that thou art to harbour such 
 thoughts 1 Thou art a hundred-fold worse than 
 the wretch against whom Satan is setting thee 
 plotting to think thus vilely." I gulped down
 
 THE TREASURE. 191 
 
 this bolus of conscience with the help of a 
 draught of wine, and it did me good. Lord, how 
 dangerous is loneliness to a man ! Depend upon 
 it, your seeker after solitude is only hunting for 
 the road that leads to Bedlam. 
 
 It might be that he was long because of having 
 to seek for the keys ; but my own conviction was 
 that he found the keys easily and stayed to rum- 
 mage the boxes for such jewels and articles of 
 value as he might there find. I think he was 
 gone near half an hour ; he then returned to the 
 cook-house, saying briefly, " I have the keys," and 
 jingling them, and after warming himself, said, 
 " Let us go." 
 
 I was moving towards the forecastle. 
 
 " Not that way for the run," cried he. 
 
 " Is there a hatch aft ? " I asked. 
 
 " Certainly ; in the lazarette." 
 
 " I wish I had known that," said I ; " I should 
 have been spared a stifling scramble over the 
 casks and raffle forwards." 
 
 He led the way, and coming to the trap hatch 
 that conducted to the lazarette, he pulled it open 
 and we descended. He held the lanthorn and threw 
 the light around him and said, "Ay, there are plenty 
 of stores here. We reckoned upon provisions for 
 twelve months, and we were seventy of a crew." 
 
 A strange figure he looked, just touched by the 
 yellow candle-light, and standing out upon the 
 blackness like some vision of a distempered 
 fancy, in his hair-cap and flaps, and with his long 
 nose and beard and little eyes shining as he rolled 
 them here and there. We made our way over the
 
 io* Tn Fftoutv PIEATE. 
 
 casks, bales, and the like, till we were rigfit aft, 
 and here there was a small clear space of deck 
 in which lay a hatch. This he lifted by its ring, 
 and down through the aperture did he drop, I 
 following. The lazarette deck came so low that 
 we had to squat when still or move upon our 
 knees. At the foremost end of this division ol 
 the ship, so far as it was possible for my eyes 
 to pierce the darkness for it seems that this run 
 went clear to the forehold bulkhead, that is to 
 say, under the powder-room, to where the forehold 
 began were stowed the spare sails, ropes for 
 gear, and a great variety of furniture for the 
 equipment of a ship's yards and masts. But im- 
 mediately under the hatch stood several small 
 chests and cases, painted black, stowed side by 
 de so that they could not shift. 
 
 Tassard ran his eye over them, counting. 
 "Right!" cried he; "hold the lanthorn, Mr. 
 Rodney.** 
 
 I took the light from him, and, pulling the keys 
 from his pocket, he fell to trying them at the lock 
 of the first chest. One fitted ; the bolt shot with 
 a hard click, like cocking a trigger, and he raised 
 the lid. The chest was full of silver money. I 
 picked up a couple of the coins, and, bringing 
 them to tne candle, perceived them to be Spanish 
 pieces of eight. The money was tarnished, yet 
 it reflected a sort of dull metallic light. The 
 Frenchman grasped a handful and dropped them, 
 as though, like a child, he loved to hear the chink 
 the pieces made as they fell. 
 
 " There' a brave pocketful there," Mid 1.
 
 TBB TUASUUL 
 
 *Tut!" cried he, scornfully. "Tjs * mere 
 show of money ; resolve it into gold and it becomes 
 a lean bit of plunder. This we got from the 
 Conquistador; it was all she had in this way; 
 destined for some monastery, I recollect; but 
 disappointment is good for holv fathers ; it makes 
 them more earnest in their devotions and keeps 
 their paunches from swelling." 
 
 He let fall the lid of the chest, which locked 
 itself, and then, after a short trial of the keys, 
 opened the one beside it. This was stored to the 
 top with what I took to be pigs of lead, and when 
 he pulled out one and bade me feel the weight of 
 it I still thought it was lead, until he told me it 
 was virgin silver. 
 
 " This was good booty ! * cried he, taking the 
 lanthorn and swinging it over the blocks of metal. 
 " It would have been missed but for me. Our 
 men had found it in the hold of the buccaneer in a 
 chest half as deep again as this, and thought it 
 to be a case of marmalade, for there were two 
 layers of boxes of marmalade stowed on top. I 
 routed them out and found those pretty bricks of 
 ore snug beneath. I believe Mendoza made the 
 value of the two chests silver though it be to be 
 equal to six thousand pounds of your money." 
 
 The next chest he opened was filled with 
 jewellery of various kinds, the fruits, I daresay, of 
 a dozen pillages, for not only had this pirate 
 robbed honest traders but a picaroon as well 
 that had also plundered in her turn another of 
 her own kidney; so that, as I say, this chest 
 of jewellery might represent the property of th*
 
 194 THE FROZEN PIIHTK. 
 
 passengers of as many as a dozen vessels. It 
 
 was as if the contents of the shop of a jeweller 
 who was at once a goldsmith and a silversmith 
 had been emptied into this chest ; you could 
 scarce name an ornament that was not here 
 watches, snuff-boxes, buckles, bracelets, pounce- 
 boxes, vinaigrettes, earrings, crucifixes, stars for 
 the hair, necklaces but the list grows tiresome ; 
 in silver and gold, but chiefly in gold ; all shot 
 together and lying scramble fashion, as if they had 
 been potatoes. 
 
 'This is a fine sight," said Tassard, poring 
 upon the sparkling mass with falcon nose and 
 ravenous eyes. Here is a dainty little watch. 
 Fifty guineas would not purchase it in London or 
 Paris. Where is the white breast upon which that 
 cross there once glittered ? Ha ! the perfume has 
 faded," bringing a vinaigrette to his hawk's bill ; 
 " the soul is gone ; the body is the Immortal part 
 in this case. Now, my friend, talk to me of the 
 patient drudgery of honourable life after this," col- 
 lecting the chests, so to say, to my view with a 
 sweep of the hand ; " men will break their hearts 
 for a hundred livres ashore and be hanged for 
 the price of a pinchbeck dial. When I was in 
 London I saw five men carted to the gallows; 
 one had forged, one was a highwayman I 
 forget the others' businesses ; but I recollect 
 on inquiring the value of their baggings that 
 for which they were hanged it did not amount to 
 four guineas a man. Look at this ! " He swept 
 his great hand again over the chests. " Is not 
 here something worth going to the scaffold Iff ?"
 
 THB TREASURE, 195 
 
 His bosom swelled, his eyes sparkled, and he 
 made as if to strike a heroic posture, but this he 
 could not contrive on his hams. 
 
 I was thunder-struck, as you will suppose, by 
 the sight of all this treasure, and looked and stared 
 like a fool, as if I was in a dream. I had never 
 seen so many fine things before, and indulged in 
 the most extravagant fancies of their worth. 
 Here and there in the glittering huddle my eye 
 lighted on an object that was a hundred, perhaps 
 two hundred, years old : a cup very choicely 
 wrought, that may have been in a family for 
 several generations ; a watch of a curious figure, 
 and the like. There might have been the pickings 
 of the cabins, trunks, and portmanteaux of a 
 hundred opulent men and women in this chest, 
 and, so far as I could judge from what lay atop, 
 the people plundered represented several nation- 
 alities. 
 
 But there were other chests and cases to explore 
 ten in all : two of these were filled with silver 
 money, a third with plate, a fourth with English, 
 French, Spanish, and Portugal coins in gold ; but 
 the one over which Tassard hung longest in a 
 transport that held him dumb, was the smallest of 
 all, and this was packed with gold in bars. The 
 stuff had the appearance of mouldy yellow soap, 
 and having no sparkle nor variety did not affect 
 me as the jewellery had, though in value this chest 
 came near to being worth as much as all the 
 others put together. The fixed transported pos- 
 ture of the pirate, his little shining eyes intent 
 upon the bars, his form in the candle-light looking
 
 196 THE FROZEN PIIATB. 
 
 like a sketch of a strange, wildly-apparelled man 
 done in phosphorus, coupled with the loom of the 
 black chests, the sense of our desolation, the folly 
 of our enjoyment of the sight of the treasure in 
 the face of our pitiable and dismal plight, the 
 melancholy storming of the wind, moaning like 
 the rumble of thunder heard in a vault, and above 
 all the feeling of unreality inspired by the thought 
 of my companion having lain for eight-and-forty 
 years as good as dead, combined to render the 
 scene so startlingly impressive that it remains at 
 this hour painted as vividly upon the eye of 
 memory as if I had come from it five minutes 
 ago. 
 
 " So I" cried the Frenchman suddenly, slamming 
 the lid <i the chest. " Tis all here I Now then 
 to the business of considering how to come off 
 with it." 
 
 He thrust the keys in his . pocket, and we 
 returned to the cook-room. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 WB TALK OVBR OUR SITUATION. 
 
 THAT night, as afterwards, Tassard occupied the 
 berth that he was used to sleep in before he was 
 frozen. Although I had not then the least fear 
 that he would attempt any malignant tricks with 
 me whilst we remained in this posture, the feeling 
 that he lay in the berth next but one to mine made 
 me uneasy in spite of my reasoning ; and I WAI 
 so nervous as to silently shoot a great iron boh,
 
 Wl TALK 07** OUK SlTUAVKM. Iff 
 
 so that it would have been impossible to enter 
 
 without beating the door in. 
 
 In sober truth, the sight of the treasure had put 
 a sort of fever into my imagination, of the heat 
 and effects of which I was not completely sensible 
 until I was alone in my cabin and swinging in the 
 darkness. That the value of what I had seen 
 came to ninety or a hundred thousand pounds of 
 our money I could not doubt ; and I will not deny 
 that my fancy was greatly excited by thinking of 
 it. But there was something else. Suppose we 
 should have the happiness to escape with this 
 treasure, then I was perfectly certain the French- 
 man would come between me and my share of it. 
 This apprehension threading my heated thoughts 
 of the gold and silver kept me restless during the 
 greater part of the night, and I also held my 
 brains on the stretch with devices for saving our- 
 selves and the treasure ; yet I could not satisfy 
 my mind that anything was to be done unless 
 Nature herself assisted us in freeing the schooner. 
 
 However, as it happened, the gale roared for a 
 whole week, and th cold was so frightful and the 
 air so charged with spray and hail that we were 
 forced to lie close below with the hatches on for 
 our lives. It was true Cape Horn weather, with 
 seas as high as cliffs, and a westering tendency in 
 the wind that flung sheets of water through the 
 ravine, which must have quickly filled the hollow 
 and built us up in ice to the height of the rails but 
 for the strong slope down which the water rushed 
 as fast as it was hurled. 
 
 I never needed to peep an inch beyond the
 
 is$ FROZEN PJR/ 
 
 companion- way to view the sky; nor fw the 
 matter of that was there ever any occasion to 
 leave the cabin to guess at the weather, for the 
 perpetual thunder of it echoed strong in every 
 part of the vessel below, and the whole fabric was 
 constantly shivering to the blows of the falls of 
 water on her decks. 
 
 At first the Frenchman and I would sit in the 
 greatest fear imaginable, constantly expecting 
 some mighty disaster, such as the rending of the 
 ice under our keei and our being swallowed up, or 
 the coming together of the slopes in such a 
 manner as to crush the ship, or the fall upon her 
 of ice weighty enough to beat her flat ; though 
 perhaps this we least feared, for unless the storm 
 changed the whole face of the cliffs, there was no 
 ice in our neighbourhood to serve us in that way. 
 But as the time slipped by and nothing worse 
 happened than one sharp movement only in the 
 vessel, following the heels of a great noise like a 
 cannon discharged just outside ; though this 
 movement scared us nearly out of our senses, 
 and held us in a manner dumbfounded for the 
 rest of the day ; I say, the time passing and 
 nothing more terrifying than what I have related 
 happening, we took heart and waited with some 
 courage and patience for the gale to break, never 
 doubting that we should find a wonderful change 
 when we surveyed the scene from the heights. 
 
 We lived well, sparing ourselves in nothing that 
 the vessel contained, the abundance rendering 
 tint idle ; the Frenchman cooked, for he was a 
 better hand than I at that work, and provided
 
 WB TALK OVER OUR SITUATION. 199 
 
 several relishable sea-pies, cakes, and broths. As 
 for liquor, there was enough on board to drown 
 the pair of us twenty times over : wines of France, 
 Spain, Portugal, very choice fine brandy, rum in 
 plenty, such variety indeed as enabled us to brew 
 a different kind of punch every day in the seven, 
 But we were much more careful with the coal, and 
 spared it to the utmost by burning the hammocks, 
 bedding, and chests that lay in the forecastle ; 
 that is to say, we burnt these things by degrees, 
 the stock being excessive, and by judiciously 
 mixing them with coal and wood, they made 
 good warming fires, and as tinder lasted long 
 
 too. 
 
 We occupied one morning in thoroughly over- 
 hauling the forecastle for such articles of value as 
 the sailors had dropped or forgotten in their 
 flight ; but found much less than I had expected 
 from the sight of the money and other things on 
 the deck. There was little in this way to be found 
 in the cabins : I mean in the captain's cabin which 
 I used, and the one next it that had been the 
 mate's, for of course I did not search Mr. 
 Tassard's berth. But though it was quite likely 
 that the seamen had plundered these cabins before 
 they left the ship, I was also sure that the French- 
 man had made a clean sweep of what they had 
 overlooked when he pretended to search for the 
 keys of the treasure-chests ; and this suspicion I 
 seemed to find confirmed by the appearance of 
 the captain's boxes. One of these ho- a mod 
 
 books, papers, a telescope, some nautical n 
 ments, and the like, I looked at the books and
 
 mt TUB FROZEN 
 
 the papers, in the hope of finding something to 
 read ; out they were written and printed in the 
 Spanish tongue, and might have been Hebrew for 
 all the good they were to me. 
 
 Our life was extraordinarily dismal and melan- 
 choly, how much so I am unable to express. It 
 was just the same as living in a dungeon. There 
 was no crevice for the daylight to shine through, 
 and had there been we must have closed it to keep 
 the cold out. Nothing could be imagined more 
 gloomy to the spirits than the perpetual night of 
 the schooner's interior. The furnace, it is true, 
 would, when it flamed heartily, throw a brightness 
 about it ; but often it sank into redness that did 
 but empurple the gloom. We burned but one 
 candle at a time, and its light was very small, so 
 that our time was spent chiefly in a sullen twilight. 
 Added to all this was my dislike of my companion. 
 He would half fuddle himself with liquor, and in 
 that condition hiccup out twenty kinds of villainous 
 - arns of piracy, murder, and bloodshed, boasting 
 >f the number of persons he had despatched, of 
 lis system of torturing prisoners to make them 
 ( onfess what they had concealed and where. He 
 would drivel about his amours, of the style in 
 which he lived when ashore, and the like; but 
 whether reticence had grown into a habit too 
 strong even for drink to break down, he never 
 once gave me so much as a hint touching his 
 youth and early life. He was completely a 
 Frenchman in nis vanity, and you would have 
 thought him entirely odious and detestable for 
 this excessive quality in him alone. Methinks t
 
 Wl TALK OVBB OC1 
 
 see him now, sitting before me, with one half el 
 Slim reflecting the Tight of the furnace, hit little 
 eyes twinkling with a cruel merriment of wine, 
 telling me a lying story of the adoration of a noble, 
 queenly-looking captive for his person some 
 lovely Spanish court lady whom, with others, they 
 had taken out of a small frigate bound to old 
 Spain. To test her sincerity he offered to procure 
 her liberty at the first opportunity that offered ; 
 but she wept, raved, tore her hair. No ; without 
 her Jules life would be unendurable ; her husband, 
 her country, her king, nay, even th allurements 
 and sparkle of the court, had grown disgusting ; 
 and so on, and so on. And I think a monkev 
 would have burst into laughter to see the bald- 
 headed old satyr beat his bosom, flourish his 
 arms, ogle, languish, and simper, all with a cut- 
 throat expression, too, soften his voice, and act in 
 short as if he was not telling me as big a lie as was 
 ever related on shipboard. 
 
 It naturally rendered me very melancholy to 
 reflect that I had restored this old villain to life, 
 and I protest it was a continuous shock to such 
 religious feelings as I had managed to preserve to 
 reflect that what had been as good as nearly half 
 a century of death had done nothing for this 
 elderly rogue's morals. It entered my head once 
 to bebeve that if I could succeed in getting him to 
 believe he had lain frozen for eight-and-forty years, 
 he might be seized with a fright (for he was a 
 white-livered creature), and in some directions 
 mend, and so come to a sense of the service I had 
 done him, oi which be appeared wholly k
 
 aos THE FROZEH PIRATE. 
 
 and qualify me to rid my mind of the fears which 
 I entertained concerning our association, should 
 we manage to escape with the treasure. I said to 
 him bluntly not apropos (to use his own lingo) of 
 anything we were talking about, 
 
 " 'Tis odd, Mr. Tassard, you should doubt my 
 assurance that this is the year eighteen hundred 
 and one." 
 
 He stared, grinned, and said, " Do you think 
 so?" 
 
 ' Well," said J, " perhaps it is not so odd after 
 all ; but you should suffer me to have, as good an 
 idea of the passage of time as yourself. You 
 cannot tell me how long your stupor lasted." 
 
 "Two days if you like ! " he interrupted vehe- 
 mently. " Why more ? Why longer than a day ? 
 How do you know that I had sunk into the con- 
 dition in which you found me longer than an hour 
 or two when you landed ? How do you know, hey ? 
 How do you know ? " and he snapped his fingers. 
 
 " I know by the date you name and by the 
 year that this is," said I defiantly. 
 
 He uttered a coarse French expression and 
 added, " You want to prove that I have been in- 
 sensible for forty-eight years." 
 
 " It is the fact," said I. 
 
 He looked so wild and fierce that I drew my- 
 self erect ready for him if he should fall upon 
 Then, slowl) his head whilst ti. 
 
 in his face softened out, he said, " \\ \ 
 France now ? " 
 
 I said, " There b no king ; he was be-
 
 Wl TALK OVKR OC SlTTJATK> tOJ 
 
 " What was his name ? " said he. 
 
 *' Louis the Sixteenth," I answered. 
 
 *' Ha 1 " cried he, with an arch sneer ; * Louis 
 the Sixteenth, hey ? Are you sure it wasn't Louts 
 the Seventeenth r M 
 
 " He is dead too," 
 
 " This is news, Mr. Rodney." said he scorn- 
 fully. 
 
 "Whilst you have been here," said I, "many 
 mighty changes have happened, France has 
 produced as great a general and as dangerous a 
 villain as the world ever beheld ; his name is 
 Buonaparte." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders with an air of mock- 
 ing pity. 
 
 " Who is your king ? " he asked. 
 
 "George the Third," said I; "God bless 
 him ! " 
 
 " So George and Louis Louis and George. 
 I see how it is. Stick to your dates, sir. But, 
 my friend, never set up as a schoolmaster." 
 
 This sally seemed to delight him, and he burst 
 into a loud laugh. 
 
 14 Eighteen hundred and one! "he cried. "A 
 man I knew once lost ten thousand livres at a 
 coup. What do you think happened ? They 
 settled in him here;" he patted his belly: "he 
 went about bragging to everybody that he was 
 made of money, and was nicknamed the walking 
 bourse. One day he asked a friend to dine witlt 
 him ; wNn the bill was presented he felt in hit 
 pocket i, and exclaimed, 'I left my purse *t 
 no***. No matter;' there is plenty Vert;' witJb
 
 04 Tn PlOflUEM PlfcATM. 
 
 wWck be seized a table-knife and ripped himui 
 open. Eighteen hundred and one, d ye call it ? 
 Soit. But let it be your secret, my friend. The 
 world will not love you for making it fifty years 
 older than it is." 
 
 It was ridiculous to attempt to combat such 
 obstinacy as this, and as the subject produced 
 nothing but excitement and irritation, I dropped 
 it and meddled with it no more, leaving him to 
 his conviction that I was cracked in this one 
 particular. In fact, it was a matter of no conse- 
 quence at all ; what came very much closer home 
 was the business of our deliverance, and over this 
 we talked long and very earnestly, for he forgot 
 to be mean and fierce and boastful, and I to dis- 
 like and fear him, when we spoke of getting 
 away with our treasure, and returning to our 
 native home, 
 
 For hour after hour would we go on plotting 
 and planning and scheming, stepping about the 
 cook-house in our earnestness, and entirely en- 
 grossed with the topic. His contention was that 
 if we were to save the money and plate, we must 
 save the schooner. 
 
 "Unless we build a vessel," said I. 
 
 "Out of what?" 
 
 " Out of this schooner." 
 
 * Are you a carpenter ? " said be. 
 
 " No," I replied. 
 
 " Neither am I," said he. " It's possible we 
 might contrive such a structure as would enable us 
 to save our lives ; but we v have not the skill to pro- 
 duct a vessel big enough to contain those chests as
 
 Wl TALK OVML OUE SlTUATIOV. *O$ 
 
 well as ourselves, and the stores we should require to 
 take. Besides, do you know there is no labour 
 more fatiguing than knocking such a craft as 
 this to pieces ? " 
 
 This I very wefl believed, and it was truer 
 of such a vessel as the Boca del Dragon that 
 was a perfect bed of timber, and, like the 
 Laughing Mary, built as if she was to keep the 
 seas for three hundred years. 
 
 *' And supposing," said he, " after infinite toil we 
 succeeded in breaking up as much of her as we 
 wanted, what appliances have we for reshaping 
 the curved timbers ? and where are we to lay the 
 keel ? Labour as we might, the cold would prove 
 too much for us. No, Mr. Rodney, to save the 
 treasure, ay, and to save ourselves, we must save 
 the ship. Let us put our minds to that." 
 
 In this way we would reason, and I confess he 
 talked very sensibly, taking very practical views, 
 and indicating difficulties which my more ardent 
 and imaginative nature might have been blind 
 to till they immovably confronted me, and ren- 
 dered days of labour useless. But how was 
 the ship to be saved ? Was it possible to force 
 Nature's hand ; in other words, to anticipate our 
 release by the dissolution of the ice ? We were 
 both agreed that this was the winter season in 
 these seas, though he instantly grew sulky if I 
 mentioned the month, for he was as certain I 
 was as mad in this, as in the year, and he would 
 eye me very malignantly if I persisted in calling 
 it July. But, as I have said, we were both agreed 
 that the summer was to come, and though we
 
 TifB FPOZKH 
 
 could not swear that the ice was floating north- 
 wards, we had a right to believe so, in spite oi 
 the fierceness of the cold, this being the trick 
 of all these frozen estates when they fetch to 
 the heights under which we lay ; and we would 
 ask each other whether we should let our hands and 
 minds rest idle and wait to see what the summer 
 would do for us, or essay to launch the schoo 
 
 " If," said he, " we wait for the ice to break 
 up it may break us up too." 
 
 11 Yes," said I ; " but how are we to cut the 
 vessel out of the ice in which she is seated to 
 above the garboafd streak ? Waiting is odious 
 and intolerable work ; but my own conviction is, 
 nothing is to be done till the sun comes this way, 
 and the ice crumbles into bergs. The island is 
 leagues long, and vanishes in the south ; but it is 
 wasting fast in the north, and when this gale is 
 done I shall expect to see twenty bergs where it 
 was before all compact." 
 
 As you may guess, our long conversations left 
 us without plans, bitter as was our n 
 vigorous as were our efforts to strike upon : 
 likely scheme. However, if they achieved no 
 more, they served to beguile the time, and 
 was better yet, they took my nind 
 
 off his nauseous and revolting recoiled 
 that it was only now an ' 
 drained a full bowl, and his little eyes d 
 their thick-shagged caves, that he 
 with his memories of murder, rapine, plank-walk- 
 ing, hanging, treacheries of all kinds, and cruelties 
 too barbarous for belief.
 
 Wl TAKB A VlEW OF THE Id. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 WB TAKE A VIBW OP THE ICB. 
 
 FOR seven days the gale raged with uncommon 
 violence : it then broke, and this brought us into 
 the first week of August. The wind fell in the 
 night, and I was awakened by the silence, which 
 you will not think strange it you consider how 
 used were my ears to the fierce seething and 
 strong bellowing of the blast. I lay listening, 
 believing that it had only veered, and that it would 
 come on again in gusts and guns ; but the still- 
 ness continued, and there was no sound what- 
 ever, saving the noises of the ice, which broke 
 upon the air like slow answers from batteries 
 near and distant, half whose cannons have been 
 silenced. 
 
 I slept again, and when I awoke it was half* 
 past nine o'clock in the morning. The French- 
 man was snoring lustily. I went on deck before 
 entering the cook-house, and had like to have 
 been blinded by the astonishing brilliance of the 
 sunshine upon the ice and snow. All the wind 
 was gone. The air was exquisitely frosty and 
 sharp. But there was a heavy sound coming 
 from the sea which gave me to expect the sight 
 of a strong swell. The sky was a clear blue, and 
 there was no cloud on as much of its face as 
 showed betwixt the brows of the slopes. 
 
 The schooner was a most wonderful picture of 
 drooping icicles. A more beautiful and radiant 
 sight you could not figure. FIWB erory tope,
 
 ao8 Ttn FROZBV PIRATB. 
 
 from the yards forward, from the rails, from 
 whatever water could run in a stream, hung 
 glorious ice-pendants of prismatic splendour. 
 No snow had fallen to frost the surfaces, and 
 every pendant was as pure and polished 
 cut-glass and reflected a hundred brilliant 
 colours. The water hurled over and on the 
 schooner had frozen upon the masts, rigging, 
 and decks, and as this ice, like the pendants, was 
 very sparklingly bright, it gave back all the hues 
 of the sunbeam, so that, stepping from the dark- 
 ness of the cabin into this effulgent scene, you 
 might easily have persuaded yourself that before 
 you stood the fabric of a ship fashioned out of a 
 rainbow. 
 
 My attention, however, was quickly withdrawn 
 from this shining spectacle by the appearance of 
 the starboard cliff over against our quarter. The 
 whole shoulder of it had broken away and I could 
 just catch a view of the horizon of the sea from 
 the deck by stretching my figure. The sight of 
 the ocean showed me that the breakage had been 
 prodigious, for to have come to that prospect 
 before, I should have had to climb to the height 
 of the main lower masthead. No other marked 
 or noteworthy change did I detect from the 
 deck ; but on stepping to the larboard side to 
 peer over I spied a split in the ice that reached 
 from the very margin of the ravine, I mean to 
 that end of it where it terminated in a cliff, to 
 past the bows of the schooner by at least four 
 times her own length. 
 
 I returned to the cook-room and went about the
 
 Wl TAKl A VIEW OF THE Id. 9O9 
 
 oM business of lighting the fire and preparing 
 the breakfast this job by an understanding be- 
 tween the Frenchman and me, falling to him who 
 was first out of bed and in about twenty minutes 
 Tassard arrived. 
 
 * The wind is gone," said he. 
 
 " Yes/' I replied, " it is a bright still morning. 
 1 have been on deck. There has been a great fall 
 of ice close to." 
 
 " Does it block us ? " 
 
 " No, on the contrary, it clears the way to the 
 sea ; the ocean is now visible from the deck. 
 Not that it mends our case," I added. " But 
 there is a great rent in the ice that puts a 
 fancy into my head; I'll speak of it later after a 
 closer look." 
 
 The breakfast was ready, and we fell to in a 
 hurry, the Frenchman gobbling like a hog in his 
 eagerness to make an end. When we were finished 
 he wrapped himself up in three or four coats and 
 cloaks, warming the under ones before folding them 
 about him, and completing his preparations for 
 the excursion by swallowing hali a pint of raw 
 brandy. I -bade him arm himself with a short- 
 headed spear to save his neck ; and thus equipped 
 we went on deck. 
 
 He stood stock-still with his eyes shut on 
 emerging through the hatch, crying out with a 
 number of French oaths that he had been struck 
 blind. This I did not believe, though I readily sup- 
 posed that the glare made his eyeballs smart so as 
 tocause him a good deal of agony. Indeed, all along 
 I had befin. surprised that he should have found his
 
 a io THE FROZEN Pnum 
 
 sight o easily after having sat in blindness fm 
 forty-eight years, and it was not wonderful that 
 the amazing brilliance on deck, smiting his sight 
 on a sudden, should have caused him to cry 
 out as if he had lost the use of his eyes for 
 ever. 
 
 I waited patiently, and in about ten minutes he 
 was able to look about him, and then it was not 
 long before he could see without pain. He stood 
 a minute gazing at the glories upon the rigging, 
 and in that piercing light I noticed the unwhole- 
 some colour of his lace. His cap hid the scar, 
 and nothing of his countenance was to be seen 
 but the cheeks, eyes, and nose; he was much 
 more wrinkled than I had supposed, and methought 
 the spirit of cruelty lay visible in every line, 
 had never seen eyes so full of cunning and 
 treachery so expressive, I should say, of these 
 qualities ; yet they were no bigger than mere punc- 
 tures. I was sensible of a momentary fear of the 
 man not, let me say, an emotion of cowardice 
 but a sort of mixture of alarm and awe, such as 
 a ghost might inspire. This I put down to the 
 searching light in which I watched him for a 
 moment or two, an irradiation subtle enough to 
 give the sharpest form to expression, to exquisitely 
 define every meaning that was distinguishable in 
 his graveyard physiognomy. I left him to stare 
 and judge for himself of the posture in which th 
 long hard gale had put the schooner and stc; 
 over to the two bodies. They were shrouded in icn 
 from head to foot, as though thev had each man 
 been packed in a glass case cunningly wrought to
 
 Wl TAK1 A VlEW Of THl fc, III 
 
 their shapes. Their faces were hid by the crystal 
 
 masks. Tassard joined me. 
 
 " Small chance for your friends now/' said I, 
 " even if you were agreeable to ray proposal to 
 attempt to revive them." 
 
 " So ! " cried he, touching the body of the mate 
 with his foot ; " and this is the end of the irresis- 
 tible Trentanove ! for what conquests has Death 
 robed him so bravely ? See, the colours shine in 
 him like fifty different kinds of ribbands. Poor 
 fellow ! he could not curl his moustachios now, 
 though the loveliest eyes in Europe were fixed in 
 passionate admiration on him. He'll never slit 
 another throat, nor hiccup Petrarch over a goblet 
 nor remonstrate with me on my humanity. Shall 
 we toss the bodies over the side ? " 
 
 ' They are four friends/' said I ; " do as you 
 please." 
 
 " But we must empty their pockets first. Busi- 
 ness before sentiment, Mr. Rodney." 
 
 He stirred the figure again with his foot. 
 
 11 Well, presently," said he, " this armour will 
 want the hatchet. Now, my friend, to view the 
 work of the gale." 
 
 The increased heel of the ship brought the lar- 
 board fore-channel low, and we stepped without 
 difficulty from it on to the ice. The rent or fissure 
 that I have before spoken of went very deep ; it was 
 nearly two feet wide in places, but, though the light 
 poured brilliantly upon it, I could see no bottom. 
 
 " If only such another split as this would happen 
 t'other side," said the Frenchman. " I believe this 
 block would go adrift."
 
 til THE FROZEN PIRAT. 
 
 " Well," said I, after musing a. attic whilst I ran 
 my eye over the hollows, "I'll tell you what was in 
 my mind just now. There is a great quantity of 
 gunpowder in the hold ; ten or a dozen barrels. 
 By dropping large parcels of it into the crevices on 
 the right there, and firing k with slow-matches " 
 
 He interrupted me with a cry : " By St. Paul, 
 you have it ! What crevices have you ? " 
 
 We walked briskly round the vessel, and all 
 about her beam and starboard quarter I found, in 
 addition to the seams I had before noticed, many 
 great cracks and fissures, caused no doubt by the 
 fall of the shoulder of the slope. I pushed on 
 further yet, going down the ravine, as I have 
 called it, until I came to the edge; and here I 
 looked down from a height of some twelve or 
 fourteen feet so greatly had the ice sunk or been 
 changed by the weather upon the ocean. I 
 called to Tassard. He approached warily. I 
 believe he feared I might be tempted to give 
 him a friendly shove over the edge. 
 
 " Observe this hollow,"- said I ; " the split there 
 goes down to the water, and you may take it that 
 the block is wholly disconnected on that side. 
 Now look at the face of the ice," said I, point- 
 ing to the starboard or right-hand side ; " that 
 crack goes as far as the vessel's quarter, and 
 the weakness is carried on to past the bows by 
 the other rents. Mr, Tassard, if we could burst 
 this body of ice by an explosion from its moorings 
 ahead 01 the bowsprit, where it is all too compact, 
 this cradle with the schooner in it wil 1 go free of 
 the parent body."
 
 Wl TAKB A VllW OF THE I CM. 
 
 He answered promptly, "Yes; it is the one 
 and only plan. That crack to starboard is like 
 teUing us what to do. It is well you came here. 
 We should not have seen it from the top. This 
 valley runs steep. You must expect no more than 
 the surface to be liberated, for the foot of the cliff 
 will go deep." 
 
 " I desire no more.*' 
 
 " Will the ship stand such a launch, supposing 
 we bring it about ? " said he. 
 
 I responded with one of his own shrugs, and 
 said, " Nothing is certain. We have one of two 
 courses to choose : to venture this launch, or stay 
 till the ice breaks up, and take our chance of float- 
 ing or of being smashed." 
 
 " You are right," he exclaimed. " Here is an 
 opportunity. If we wait, bergs may gather about 
 this point and build us in. As to this island 
 dissolving, we are yet to know which way 'tis head- 
 ing. Suppose it should be travelling south, hey ! " 
 
 He struck the ice with his spear, and we toiled 
 up the slippery rocks with difficulty to the ship. 
 We walked past the bows to the distance of the 
 vessel's length. Here were many deep holes and 
 cracks, and as if we were to be taught how these 
 came about, even whilst we were viewing them an 
 ear-splitting crash of noise happened within twenty 
 fathoms of us, a rock many tons in weight rolled 
 over, and left a black gulf behind it. 
 
 The Frenchman started, muttered, and crossed 
 himself. " Holy Virgin ! " he cried, rolling his 
 eyes. " Let us return to the schooner. We shall 
 be swallowed up here."
 
 14 Tn FROZKM PIRATB. 
 
 I own I was not a little terrified my sell b\ 
 sudden loud blast and the thunder of the uprooted 
 rock, and the sight of the huge black rent ; but I 
 meant to view the scene from the top, and to con- 
 sider how best to dispose of the powder in the 
 cracks, and said, "There is nothing to be done on 
 board ; skulking below will not deliver us or pre- 
 serve the treasure. Here are several fissures big 
 enough to receive barrels of gunpowder. See! 
 Mr. Tassard, as they stand they cover the whole 
 width of the hollow." 
 
 And I proceeded to give him my ideas as to 
 lowering, fixing the barrels, and the like. He 
 nodded his head, and said, " Yes, very good ; 
 yes, it will do," and so on ; but was too scared in 
 his heart, I believe, to see my full meaning. He 
 was perpetually moving, as if he feared the ice 
 would split under his feet, and his eyes trav 
 over the face of the rocks with every manifestation 
 of alarm in their expression. I wondered how 
 so poor a creature should ever have had stomach 
 enough to serve as a pirate ; no doubt his spirit 
 had been enfeebled by his long 'sleep ; but then 
 it is also true that the greatest bullies and i 
 bloodthirsty rogues prove themselves despi< 
 curs under conditions which make no demand 
 pon their temper or their lust for plund 
 
 He would have returned to the ship, had I 
 :ouraged him, but on seeing me start to climb to 
 the brow he followed. The prospect disappointed 
 me. I had expected to witness a variety of sur- 
 prising changes; but southward tin 
 scarce altered. It was a wonder
 
 Wl TAWS A VIEW OF THE Id, 
 
 ing, the sky clear from sea-line to sea-line, and 
 of a very soft blue, the ocean of a like hue, with 
 a high swell running, that was a majestic undula- 
 tion even from the height at which I surveyed it. 
 The sun' stood over the ice in the north-east, and 
 the dazzle kept me weeping, so intolerable was 
 the effulgence. Half of the delicate architecture 
 that had enriched the slopes and surfaces that 
 way was swept down, and ice lay piled in places 
 to an elevation of many feet, where before it had 
 been flat or hollow. However, there was no ques- 
 tion but that the gale had played havoc with the 
 north extremity of the island : I counted no less 
 than twenty bergs floating off the main, and it was 
 quite likely the sea was crowded beyond, though 
 my sight could not travel so far. 
 
 However, when I came to look close, and to 
 recollect the features of the shore as they showed 
 when I first landed, I found some vital changes 
 near at hand. Where my haven had been the ice 
 had given way and left a gap half a mile broad 
 and a hundred feet deep. The fall on the 
 schooner's starboard quarter was very heavy, 
 and the ice was split in all directions ; and in 
 parts was so loose that a point of cliff hard upon 
 the sea rocked with the swell. When Tassard 
 came to a stand he looked about him north and 
 south, shading his eyes with his hand, and then 
 swearing very savagely in French, he cried out in 
 English, freely employing oaths as he spoke, 
 
 ' Why, here's as much ice as there was before 
 I fell asleep ! See yonder ! " pointing to the 
 south. " It dies out in the distance. If it does
 
 ai6 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 not join the pole there, may the devil rise before 
 me as I speak. Thunder and fury ! I had hoped 
 to see it shrivelled to an ordinary berg ! " 
 
 ' What ! in a week ?' f cried I, as if I believed 
 his stupor had not lasted longer. 
 
 He returned no answer and gaped about him 
 full of consternation and passion. 
 
 " And are we to wait for our deliverance till this 
 continent breaks up ?" he bawled. " The dav of 
 judgment will be a thing of the past by that time. 
 Travelling north ! 'sdeath ! " he roared, his mouth 
 full of the expletives of his day, French and 
 English. " Who but a madman could suppose 
 that this ice is not as fixed as the antarctic circle 
 to which it is moored ? Why, six months ago it 
 was no bigger than it is now ! " And he sent a 
 furious terrified gaze into the white solitudes 
 vanishing in azure faintness in the south- 
 west. 
 
 It was not a thing to reason upon. I was as 
 much disappointed as he by the trifling changes 
 the gale had made, and my heart felt very heavy at 
 the sight of the great field disappearing in the 
 south. The bergs in the north signified little. 
 It is true they indicated demolition, but demolition 
 so slow as to be worthless to us. It was not to 
 be questioned that the island was proceeding north, 
 but at what rate ? Here, perhaps, might be a 
 frozen crescent of forty or fifty leagues : and at 
 what speed, appreciable enough to be of the 
 lenst consequence to our calculations, should such 
 c' body travel ? 
 
 I looked at the Frenchman.
 
 A MERRY EVENING. 1x7 
 
 " This must decide us ! " said I. "We must 
 fix on one of two courses : endeavour to launch 
 the ship by blowing up the ice, or turn to and rig 
 up the best arrangement we can contrive and put 
 
 to sea." 
 
 ' Yes," he answered} scowling as he darted his 
 enraged eyes over the ice. " Better set a slow- 
 match in the magazine and drink ourselves 
 senseless, and so blow ourselves to hell, than 
 linger here in the hope that this continent will 
 dissolve and release us. Where's Mendoza's 
 body ? " 
 
 I stared about me, and then pointing to the 
 huge gap the ice had made, answered, "It was 
 there. Where it is now I know not." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders, took another view 
 of the ice and the ocean, and then cried 
 impatiently, " Let us return ! the powder- barrels 
 must have the first chance." And he made for 
 the schooner, savagely striking the ice with his 
 spear and growling curses to himself as he 
 ploughed and climbed and jumped his way along. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A MERRY EVENING. 
 
 BY the time we had reached the bottom of the 
 hollow Tassard was blowing like a bellows with 
 the uncommon exertion ; and swearing that he 
 felt the cold penetrating his bones, and that he 
 should be stupefied again if he did not mind, he 
 climbed into the ship and disappeared. I loved 
 him so little that secretly I very heartily wished
 
 *i8 THE FROZEN PTRATM. 
 
 that nature would make away with him : I mean 
 that something it would be impossible in me to 
 lay to my conscience should befall him, as becom- 
 ing comatose again, and so lying like one dead. 
 Assuredly in such a case it was not this hand that 
 would have wasted a drop of brandy in returning 
 an evil, white-livered, hectoring old rascal to a life 
 that smelled foully with him and the like of 
 him. 
 
 It was so still a day that the cold did not try 
 me sorely : there was vitality if not warmth in the 
 light of the sun, and I was heated with clambering. 
 So I stayed a full half-hour after my companion had 
 vanished examining the ice about the schooner ; 
 which careful inspection repaid me to the extent 
 of giving me to see that if by blasts of gunpowder 
 I could succeed in rupturing the ice ahead of the 
 schooner's bows there was a very good chance of 
 the mass on which she lay going adrift. Yet I 
 will not deny that though I recognized this busi- 
 ness of dislocation as our only chance for I could 
 see little or nothing to be done in the way of 
 building a boat proper to swim and ply I fore- 
 boded a dismal issue to our adventure, even should 
 we succeed in separating this block from the main. 
 In fine, what I feared was that the weight of the 
 schooner would overset the ice and drown her 
 and us. 
 
 I entered the ship and found Tassard roasting 
 himself in the cook-house. 
 
 " How melancholy is this gloom/' said I, "after 
 the glorious white sunshine ! " 
 
 "Yes/' said he, " but it is warm. That is
 
 A MERRY EVENIWO, 919 
 
 enough for me. Curse the cold, say I. It robs a 
 
 man of all spirit. To grapple with this rigour one 
 should have fed all one's life on blubber. I defy a 
 man to be brave when he is half-frozen. I feel a 
 match for any three men now ; but on the heights 
 a flea would have made me run." 
 
 He pulled a pot from the bricks and filled his 
 pannikin. 
 
 " I have been surveying the ice," said I, drawing 
 to the furnace, " and have very little doubt that if 
 we wisely bestow the powder in great quantities 
 we shall succeed in dislocating the bed on which 
 we are lying." 
 
 " Good ! " he cried. 
 
 "But after?" said I. 
 
 11 What ? " 
 
 " As much of this bed as may be dislodged 
 will not be deep : icebergs, as of course you know, 
 capsize in consequence of their becoming top- 
 heavy by the wasting of the bulk that is sub- 
 merged. This block will make but a small berg 
 should we liberate it, and I very much fear that 
 the weight of the schooner will overset it the 
 instant we are launched." 
 
 " Body of Moses ! " he cried angrily, knitting 
 his brows, whereby he stretched the scar to half 
 its usual width, " what's to be done, then ? " 
 
 " She is a full ship," said I, " and weighty. If 
 the liberated ice be thin she may sit up OR it 
 and keep it under. We have a right to hope in 
 that direction, perhaps. Yet there is another 
 consideration. She may leak like a sieve ! " 
 
 "Why?" he exclaimed. "She took the ice
 
 390 THV FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 smoothly ; she has not been strained ; she was as 
 tight as a bottle before she stranded ; the coating 
 of ice will have cherished her ; and a stout ship 
 like this does not suffer from six months of lying 
 up!" 
 
 Six months, thought I ! 
 
 " Well, it may be as you say ; but if she leaks 
 it will not be in our four arms to keep her free." 
 
 He exclaimed hotly, "Mr. Rodney, if we are to 
 escape, we must venture something. To stay 
 here means death in the end. I am persuaded 
 that this ice is joined with some vast main body 
 far south and that it does not move. What is 
 there, then, to wait for? There is promise in 
 your gunpowder proposal. If she capsizes then 
 the devil will get his own." And with a savage 
 flourish of the pannikin he put it to his lips and 
 drained it. 
 
 His sullen determination that we should stand 
 or fall by my scheme was not very useful to me. 
 I had looked for some shrewdness in him, some 
 capacity of originating and weighing ideas ; but I 
 found he could do little more than curse and 
 swagger and ply his can, in which he found most 
 of his anecdotes and recollections and not a little 
 of his courage. I pulled out my watch, as I must 
 call it, and observed that it was hard upon one 
 o'clock. 
 
 <4 Tis lucky," said he, eying the watch greedily 
 and coming to it away from the great subject of 
 our deliverance as though the sight of the fine 
 gold thing with its jewelled letter extinguished 
 every other thought in him, " that you removed that
 
 A MBKRY EYBVIVG, tn 
 
 watch from Mer.rfora, But he will have carried 
 other good to the bottom with him, I fear." 
 
 His flask and tobacco-box I took away/' said 
 " He had nothing of consequence besides. " 
 
 1 They must go into the common-chest," cried 
 he ; " 'tis share and share, you know." 
 
 "Ay," said I 5 " but what I found on Mendoza 
 is mine by the highest right under heaven. If I 
 had not taken the things, they would now be at the 
 bottom of the sea." 
 
 r< What of that?" cried he savagely. " If we 
 had not plundered the galleon, she might have been 
 wrecked and taken all she had down with her. 
 Yet should such a consideration hinder a fair divi- 
 sion as between us between you who had nothing 
 to do with the pillage and me who risked my life 
 in it ? " 
 
 I said, " Very well ; be it as you say," appear- 
 ing to consent, for there was something truly 
 absurd in an altercation about a few guineas' 
 worth of booty in the face of our melancholy and 
 most perilous situation ; though it not only enabled 
 me to send a deeper glance into the mind of this 
 man than I had yet been able to manage, but 
 made me understand a reason for the bloody and 
 furious quarrels which have again and again arisen 
 among persons standing on the brink of eternity, 
 to whom a cup of drink or the sight of a ship had 
 been more precious than the contents of the Bank 
 of England. 
 
 I set about getting the dinner. 
 
 ' Whilst vou are at that work/' cried he, start- 
 in? up, " I'll overhaul the pockets of the bodies on
 
 TH FROZBM Piium 
 
 deck;" and, picking up a chopper, away he went, 
 and I heard him cursing in his native tongue as 
 he stumbled to the companion-ladder through the 
 darkness in the cabin. 
 
 His rapacity was beyond credence. There was 
 an immense treasure in the hold, yet he could not 
 leave the pockets of the two poor wretches on 
 deck alone. I did not envy him hii task. The 
 frozen figures would bear a deal of hammering ; 
 and besides he had to work in the cold. Ah, 
 thought I with a groan, I should have left him to 
 make one of them ! 
 
 I had finished my dinner by the time he arrived. 
 He produced the watch I had taken from and re- 
 turned to the mate's pocket when I had searched 
 him for a tinder-box ; also a gold snuff-box set 
 with diamonds, and a few Spanish pieces in gold. 
 On seeing these things I remembered that I had 
 found some rings and money in his pockets whilst 
 overhauling him for means to obtain fir* ; but I 
 held my peace. 
 
 14 Should not we hare been imbeciles to sacrifice 
 these beauties ? " he cried, viewing the watch and 
 snuff-box with a rapturous grin. 
 
 "They were hard to come at, I expect?" 
 
 " No," he answered, pocketing them and turning 
 to a piect of btcf in the oven. " I knocked away 
 the ic and after a little wrenching got at the 
 pockets. But poor Trentanove 1 d'y know, his 
 nose cam away with the mask of ice 1 He is no 
 longer lovely to the sight 1" He broke into a 
 guffaw, then stuffed his mouth full and talked in 
 the intervals of chewing. 'There was nothing
 
 A MnutT Evnmro. tij 
 
 worth taking on Barros. They a*t both over- 
 board." 
 
 " Overboard ! " I cried. 
 
 " Why, yes," said he. " They are no good on 
 deck. I stood them against the rail, then tipped 
 them over." 
 
 This was an illustration of his strength I did not 
 much relish. 
 
 " I doubt if I could have lifted Barros/' said I. 
 
 " Not you 1 " he exclaimed, running his eye over 
 me. "A dead Dutchman would have the weight 
 of a fairy alongside Barros." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Tassard," said I, " since you are so 
 strong, you will be very useful to our scheme. 
 There is much to be done." 
 
 " Give me a sketch of your plans, that I may 
 understand you," he exclaimed, continuing to eat 
 very heartilv. 
 
 11 First of all/' said I, "we shall have to break 
 the powder-barrels out of the magazine and hoist 
 them on deck. There are tackles, I suppose ? " 
 
 " You should be able to find what you want 
 among the boatswain's stores in the run," he re- 
 plied. 
 
 I There are some splits wide enough to receive 
 a whole barrel of powder," said I. "I counted 
 four such yawns all happily lying in a line athwart 
 the ice past the bows. I propose to sink these 
 barrels twenty feet deep, where they must hang 
 from a piece of spar across the aperture." 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 II Have you any slow-matches aboard ? * 
 
 " Plenty among the gunner's stores," he replied.
 
 3*4 THE FROZEN PIRATB, 
 
 "There are but you and me," said I; "these 
 operations will take time. We must mind not to 
 be blown up by one barrel whilst we are suspend- 
 ing another. We shall have to lower the barrels 
 with their matches on fire and they must be timed 
 to burn an hour. 
 
 " Ay, certainly, at leait an hour," he exclaimed. 
 11 Two hours would be better." 
 
 " Well, that must depend upon the number of 
 parcels of matches we meet with. There will be 
 a good many mines to spring, and one must not 
 explode before another. Tis the united force of 
 the several blasts which we must reckon on. The 
 contents of at least four more barrels of powder 
 we must distribute amongst the other chinks and 
 splits in such parcels as they will be able to re- 
 
 ceive." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 " And then," said I, " we must await the explo- 
 sion and trust to the mercy of Heaven to help us." 
 
 He made a hideous face, as if this was a sort of 
 talk to nauseate him, and said, " Do you propose 
 that we should remain on board or watch the effects 
 from a distance ? " 
 
 " Why, remain on board of course," I answered. 
 " Suppose the mines liberated the ice on which 
 the schooner lies and it floated away, what should 
 we, watching at a distance, do ? " 
 
 " True," cried he, " but it is cursed perilous. 
 The explosion might blow the ship up." ' 
 
 " No, it will not do that. We shall be bad 
 engineers if we bring such a thing about. The 
 danger will be providing the schooner is released
 
 EVENING. 
 
 in her capsizing, ax I have before pointed 
 out." 
 
 " Enough I " cried he, charging his pannikin for 
 the third time. " We must chance her capsizing." 
 
 " If I had a crew at my back," said I, " I would 
 carry an anchor and cable to the shoulder of the 
 cliff at the end of the slope to hold the ship if she 
 swam. I would also put a quantity of provisions 
 on the ice along with materials for making us 
 shelter and the whole of the stock of coal, so that 
 we could go on supporting life here if the schooner 
 capsized." 
 
 ' Then/' said he, " you would remain ashore 
 during the explosion ? " 
 
 " Most certainly. But as all these preparations 
 would mean a degree of labour impracticable by 
 us two men, I am for the bold venture prepare 
 and fire the mines, return to the ship, and leave 
 the rest to Providence." 
 
 He made another ugly face and indulged him- 
 self in a piece of profanity that was inexpressibly 
 disgusting and mean in the mouth of a man who 
 was used to cross himself when alarmed and 
 swear by the saints. But perhaps he knew, even 
 better than I, how little he had to expect from 
 Providence. He filled his pipe, exclaiming that 
 when he had smoked it out we should Kill to 
 work. 
 
 Now that I had settled a plan I was eager to 
 put it into practice hot and wild indeed with the 
 impatience and hope of the castaway animated 
 with the dream of recovering his liberty and pre- 
 serving his life ; and I was the more anxious to
 
 ia6 THE FROZEN I*num 
 
 set about the business at once, on account of the 
 weather being fair and still, for if it came on to 
 blow a stormy wind again we should be forced as 
 before under hatches. But I had to wait for the 
 Frenchmr n to empty his pipe. He was so com- 
 plete a sensualist that I beueve nothing short of 
 terror could have forced him to shorten the period 
 of a pleasure by a second of time. He went on 
 puffing so deliberately, with such leisurely enjoy- 
 ment of the flavour of the smoke, that I expected 
 to see him fall asleep ; and my patience becoming 
 exhausted I jumped up ; but by this time his bowl 
 held nothing but black ashes. 
 
 " Now," cried he, " to work." 
 
 And he rose with a prodigious yawn and seized 
 the lanthorn. Our first business was to hunt 
 among the boatswain's stores in the run for tackles 
 to hoist the powder-barrels up with. There was a 
 good collection, as might have been expected in 
 a pirate whose commerce lay in slinging goods 
 from other ships' holds into her own ; but the ropes 
 were frozen as hard as iron, to remedy which \ve 
 carried an armful to the cook-house, and left the 
 tackles to lie and soften. We also conveyed to 
 the cook-house a quantity of ratline stuff a thin 
 rope used for making of the steps in the shroud 
 ladders ; this being a line that would exactly serve 
 to suspend the smaller parcels of powder in the 
 splits. Before touching the powder-barrels we 
 put a lighted candle into the bull's-eye lamp over 
 the door and removed the lanthorn to a safe dis- 
 tance. Tassard was perfectly well acquainted 
 with the contents of this storeroom, and on my
 
 A MB&RY EVBVIBO. 1*7 
 
 asking for the matches put his hand on one of 
 
 several bags of them. They varied in length, 
 some being six inches and some making a big 
 coil. There was nothing for it but to sample and 
 test them, and this I told Tassard could be done 
 that evening. The main hatch was just forward 
 of the gim-room bulkhead ; we seized a handspike 
 apiece and went to work to prize the cover open. 
 It was desperate tough labour; as bad as trying 
 to open an oyster with a soft blade. The French- 
 man broke out into many strange oloSfashioned 
 oaths in his own tongue, imagining the hatch to 
 be frozen ; but though I don't doubt the frost had 
 something to do with it, its obstinacy was mainly 
 owing to time, that had soldered it, so to speak, 
 with the stubbornness that eight-and-forty years 
 will communicate to a fixture which ice has 
 cherished and kept sound. 
 
 We got the hatch open at lasfc be pleased to 
 know that I am speaking of the hatch in the 
 lower deck, for there was another immediately 
 over it on the upper or main deck and returning 
 to the powder-room rolled the barrels forward 
 ready for slinging and hoisting away when we 
 should have rigged a tackle aloft. We had not 
 done much, but what we 4 had done had eaten far 
 into the afternoon. 
 
 ^ " I am tired and hungry and thirsty/' said the 
 Frenchman. " Let us knock off. We have made 
 good progress. No use opening the main-deck 
 hatch to-night : the vessel is cold enough even 
 when hermetically corked." 
 
 " Very well," said I, bringing my watch to the
 
 ta8 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 lanthorn and observing the time to be sundown : 
 
 so, carefully extinguishing the candle in the bull's- 
 eye lamp, we took each of us a bag of matches 
 and went to the cook-room. 
 
 There was neither tea nor coffee in the ship. 1 
 so pined for these soothing drinks that I would 
 have given all the wine in the vessel for a few 
 pounds of either one of them. A senseless, un- 
 gracious yearning, indeed, in the face of the plenty 
 that was aboard ! but it was the plenty, perhaps, 
 that provoked it. There was chocolate, which the 
 Frenchman frothed and drank with hearty enjoy- 
 ment ; he also devoured handfuls of succades^ 
 which he would wash down with wine. These 
 things made me sick, and for drink I was forced 
 upon the spirits and wine, the latter of which was 
 so generous that it promised to combine with the 
 enforced laziness of my life under hatches to make 
 me fat ; so that I am of opinion had we waited 
 for the ice to release us, I should have become so 
 corpulent as to prove a burden to myself. 
 
 I mention this here that you may find an excuse 
 in it for the only act of folly in the way of drink- 
 ing that I can lay to my account whilst I \v. 
 this pirate ; for I must tell you that, on returning 
 to the furnace, we, to refresh us after our labour, 
 made a bowl of punch, of which I drank so plenti- 
 fully that I began to feel myself very merry. I 
 forgot all about the matches and my resolution to 
 test them that night. The Frenchman, enjoying 
 my condition, continued to pledge me till his little 
 eyes danced in his head. Luckily for me, being 
 at bottom of a very jolly disposition, drink never
 
 A MKRRY FVKW?W* 99 
 
 served me worse than to develop that quality in 
 me. No man could ever say that I was quarrel- 
 some in my cups. My progress was marked by 
 stupid smiles, terminating in unmeaning laughter. 
 The Frenchman sang a ballad about love and 
 Picardy, and the like, and I gave him " Hearts 
 of Oak," the sentiments of which song kept him 
 shrugging his shoulders and drunkenly looking 
 contempt. 
 
 We continued singing alternately for some 
 time, until he fell to setting up his throat when 
 I was at work, and this confused and stopped 
 me. He then favoured me with what he called 
 the Pirate's Dance, a very wild, grotesque move- 
 ment, with no elegance whatever to be hurt by 
 his being in liquor ; and I think I see him 
 now, whipping off his coat, and sprawling and 
 flapping about in high boots and a red waist- 
 coat, flourishing his arms, snapping his fingers, 
 and now and again bursting into a stave to keep 
 step to. When he was done, I took the floor with 
 the hornpipe, whistling the air, and double- 
 shuffling, toe-and-heeling, and quivering from one 
 leg to another very briskly. He lay back against 
 the bulkhead grasping a can half full of punch, 
 roaring loudly at my antics; and when If sank 
 down, breathless, would have had me go on, 
 hiccuping that though he had known scores of 
 English sailors, he had never seen that dance 
 better performed. 
 
 By this time I was extremely excited and 
 extraordinarily merry, and losing hold of my judg- 
 ment began to indulge in sundry pleasantries
 
 concerning his natior tryi 
 
 with many explosions of laughter, how it was that 
 they continued at the trouble of building ships for 
 us to use against them, and if he did not think 
 i he " flower de louse " a neater symbol for 
 people who put snuff into their soup and re- 
 stricted their" ablutions to their faces than the 
 tricolour, being too muddled to consider that he 
 was ignorant of that flag ; and in short I was so 
 offensive, in spite of my ridiculous merriment, that 
 his savage nature broke out. He assailed the 
 English with every injurious term his drunken 
 condition suffered him to recollect ; and starting 
 up with his little eyes wildly rolling, he clapped 
 his hand to his side, as if feeling fora sword, and 
 calling me by a very ugly French word, bade me 
 come on, and he would show me the difference 
 between a Frenchman and a beast of an English- 
 man. 
 
 I laughed at him with all my might, which so 
 enraged him that, swaying to right and left, he 
 advanced as if to fall upon me. I started to my 
 feet and tumbled over the bench I had jumped 
 from, and lay sprawling ; and the bench over- 
 setting close to him, he kicked against it and fell 
 too, fetching the deck a very hard blow. He 
 groaned heavily and muttered that he was killed. 
 1 tried to rise, but my legs gave war, and then 
 the fumes of the punch overpowered me, for I 
 recollect no more. 
 
 When I awoke it was pitch dark. My hands, 
 legs, and feet seemed formed of ice, my head of 
 burning brass. I thought I was in my cot, and
 
 A MUULY EVKMIMO. 
 
 tth with my hands till I touched Tassard's cold 
 bald head, which so terrified me that I uttered a 
 loud cry and sprang erect. Then recollection 
 returnee!, and I heartily cursed myself for my folly 
 and wickedness. Good God ! thought I, that I 
 should be so mad as to drown my senses when 
 never was any wretch in such need of all his 
 reason as I ! 
 
 The boatswain's tinder-box was in my pocket ; 
 I groped, found a candle, and lighted it. It was 
 twenty minutes after three in the morning. 
 sard lay on his back, snoring hideously, his 
 overhanging the capsized bench. 1 pullet! 
 hauled at him, but he was too drunk to a, 
 and that he might not freeze to dea 
 a pile of clothes out of his cabin and co\ 
 him up, and put his head on a coat. 
 
 My head ached horribly, but not worse than 
 my heart. When I considered how our orgy 
 might have ended in bloodshed and murder, how I 
 had insulted God's providence by drinking and 
 laughing and roaring out songs and dancing at a 
 time when I most needed His protection, with 
 Death standing close beside me, as I may say, 
 I could have beaten my head against the deck 
 in the anguish of my contrition and shame. 
 My passion of sorrow was so extravagant, indeed, 
 that I remember looking at the Frenchman as 
 if he was the devil incarnate, who had put 
 himself in my way to thaw and recover, that he 
 might tempt me on to the loss of my soul. For- 
 tunately these fancies did not last, l was parched 
 m\t the water was ice, and there was
 
 ijt Tu FROIEN PIRATI 
 
 no fire to melt it with; so I broke off some 
 chips and sucked them, and held a lump to my 
 forehead. I went to my cabin and got into my 
 hammock, but my head was so hoi, and arhed 
 so furiously, and I was so vexed with myself he- 
 sides, that I could not sleep. The schooner was 
 deathly still ; there was not apparently the faintest 
 murmur of air to awaken an echo in her ; nothing 
 spoke but the near and distant cracking of the 
 ice. It was miserable work lying in the cabin 
 sleepless and reproaching myself, and as my 
 burning head robbed the cold of its formidable- 
 ness, I resolved to go on deck and take a brisk 
 turn or two. 
 
 The night was wonderfully fine; the velvet 
 dusk so crowded with stars that in parts it resem- 
 bled great spaces of cloth of silver hovering. I 
 turned my eyes northwards to the stars low down 
 there and thought of England and the home where 
 I was brought up until the tears gathered, and 
 with them went something of the dreadful burn- 
 ing aching out of my head. Those distant, silent, 
 shining bodies amazingly intensified the sense of 
 my loneliness and remoteness, and yonder South- 
 ern Cross and the luminous dust of the Magel- 
 lanic clouds seemed not farther off than my n 
 country. It is not in language to express the 
 savage naked beauty, the wild mystery of the 
 white still scene of ice, shining back to the 
 with a light that owed nothing to their glory ; 
 convey how the whole was heightened to e 
 sense by the element of fear, put into the pi< 
 b< f the splitting ice, and
 
 A MERRY EVENIWO. 133 
 
 softened regular roaring of the breakers along the 
 coast. 
 
 I started with fresh shame and horror when I 
 contrasted this ghastly calmness of pale ice and 
 the brightness of the holy stars looking down 
 upon it, with our swinish revelry in the cabin, and 
 I thought with loathing of the drunken ribaldry of 
 the pirate and my own tipsy songs piercing the 
 ear of the mighty spirit of this solitude. The 
 exercise improved my spirits ; I stepped the length 
 of the little raised dtck briskly, my thoughts 
 busy. On a sudden the ice split on the starboard 
 hand with a noise louder than the explosion of a 
 twenty-four pounder. The schooner swayed to a 
 level keel with so sharp a rise that I lost my 
 balance and staggered. I recovered myself, 
 trembling and greatly agitated by the noise and 
 the movement coming together, without the least 
 hint having been given me, and grasping a back- 
 stay, waited, not knowing what was to happen 
 next. Unless it be the heave of an earthquake, I 
 can imagine no motion capable of giving one such 
 a swooning, nauseating, terrifying sensation as the 
 rending of ice under a fixed ship. In a few 
 moments there were several sharp cracks, all on 
 the starboard side, like a snapping of musketry, 
 and I felt the schooner very faintly heave, but this 
 might have been a deception of the senses, for 
 though I set a star against the masthead and 
 watched it, there was no movement. I looked 
 over the side and observed that the split I had 
 noticed on the face of the cliff had by this new 
 rupture been extended transversely right across the
 
 TME FiozKw PIIIATI. 
 
 schooner's starboard bow, the thither side being 
 several feet higher than on this. It was plain that 
 the bed on which the vessel rested had dropped 
 so as* to bring her upright, and I was convinced 
 by this circumstance alone, that if ' I used good 
 judgment in disposing of the powder the weight 
 of the mass would complete its own disloca- 
 tion. 
 
 I stepped a Kttle way forward to obtain a 
 clearer sight of the splits about the schooner, 
 and on putting my head over, I was inexpressibly 
 iismayed and confounded by the apparition of 
 a man with his arms stretched out before him, 
 his face upturned, and his posture that of starting 
 back as though terrified at beholding me. I 
 had met with several frights whilst I had been 
 on this island, but none worse than this, none 
 that so completely paralyzed me as to very 
 nearly deprive me of the power of breathing. I 
 stared at him, and he seemed to stare at me, 
 and I know not which of the two was the more 
 motionless. The whiteness made a light of its 
 own, and he was perfectly plain. I blinked and 
 puffed, conceiving it might be some illusion of 
 the wine I had drunk, and finding him still there, 
 and acting as though he warded me off in terror,' 
 as if my showing myself unawares had led him to 
 think me the devil I say finding him perfectly 
 real, I was seized with an agony of fear, and should 
 have rushed to my cabin had my legs been equal 
 to the task of transporting me there. Tfun, 
 thought I, idiot that you are, what think you, vou 
 fo 1 .- is it b body of Trentanove ? Sure
 
 A MERRY Evmjnwo. f J5 
 
 enough it was, and putting my head a little farther 
 over the rail, I saw the figure of the Portuguese 
 Barros lying close under the bends. No doubt it 
 was the movement of the ice that had shot the 
 Italian into the life-like posture, it being incredible 
 he should have fallen so on being tumbled over- 
 board by the Frenchman. But there he was, resting 
 against a lump of ice, looking as living in his 
 frozen posture as ever he had showed in the 
 cabin. 
 
 The shock did my head good ; I went below 
 and got into r&y cot, and after tossing for half an 
 hour or so fell asleep. I awoke and went to the 
 cook-house, where I found Tassard preparing 
 the breakfast, and a great fire burning, 
 hardly knew -what reception he would give me, 
 and was therefore not a little agreeably surprised 
 by his thanking me for covering him up. 
 
 " You have a stronger head than mine," said 
 he. " The punch used you well. You made me 
 laugh, though. You was very diverting." 
 
 "Ay, much too diverting to please myself," 
 said I ; and I sounded him cautiously to remark 
 what his memory carried of my insults, but found 
 that he recollected nothing more than that I danced 
 with vigour, and sang wefl. 
 
 I said nothing about my contrition, mjr going on 
 deck, and the luce, contenting myself with asking 
 if he had heard the explosion in the night. 
 
 " No/' cried he, staring and looking eagerly. 
 
 " Well, then," said I, " there has happened a 
 mighty crack in the ice, and I do soberly believe 
 that with the blessing of God we shall to sJbk by
 
 THI FnozBM PIRATI. 
 
 blasts of powder to free the block on which the 
 schooner rests." 
 
 " Good I " cried he ; " come, let us hurry with 
 this meal. How is the weather ?" 
 
 " Quiet, I believe. I have not been on deck 
 since the explosion aroused me early this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 Whilst we ate he said, " Suppose we get the 
 schooner afloat, what do you propose ? " 
 
 ' Why," I answered, " if she prove tight and 
 seaworthy, what but carry her home ? " 
 
 ' What, you and I alone ? " 
 
 "No," said I, "certainly not; we must make 
 shift to sail her to the nearest port, and ship a 
 
 crew." 
 
 He looked at me attentively, and said, " What 
 do you mean by home?" 
 
 " England," said I. 
 
 ^ He shrugged his shoulders and exclaimed in 
 French, Tis natural." Then proceeding in 
 English, *' Pray/' said he, showing his fangs, " do 
 not you know that the Boca del Dragon is a 
 pirate ? Do you want to be hanged that you 
 propose to carry her to a port to ship men ? " 
 
 " I have no fear of that," said I ; " after all these 
 ;s she'll be as clean forgotten as if she had 
 never had existence." 
 
 " Look ye here, Mr. Rodney/' cried he in a 
 passion, " let's have no more of this snivelling 
 nonsense about years. You may be as mad as 
 you please on that point, but it shan't hang me. 
 It needs more than a few months to make men 
 forget a craft that has carried on such traffic as
 
 A MXKKY EVEMIMO. 
 
 ur hold represents. You'll not find me venturing 
 myself nor the schooner into any of your ports for 
 men. No, no, my friend. I am in no stupor now, 
 you know ; and I've slept the puach off also, d'ye 
 see. What, betray our treasure and W hanged 
 for our generosity t " 
 
 He made mt an ironical Ww, grinning with 
 wrath. 
 
 " Let's get the schooner afloat first/' said 1. 
 
 "Ay, that's all very well," he cried; "but 
 better stop here than dangle in chains. No, my 
 friend ; our plan must be a very different one from 
 your proposal. I suppose you want your share 
 of the booty ? " said he, snapping his nngers. 
 
 " I deserve it/' said I, smiling, that I might 
 soften his passion. 
 
 "And yet you would convey the mst noted 
 pirate of the age, with plunder in her to the value 
 of thousands of doubloons, to a port in which we 
 should doubtless find ships of war, a garrison, 
 magistrates, governors, pnsons, and the whole of 
 the machinery it is our business to give our stern 
 to ! Ma /at, Mr. Rodney I sure you are out in 
 something more than your reckoning of time ? " 
 
 " What do you propose ? " said I. 
 
 '* Ha ! " he exclaimed, whilst his little eyes 
 twinkled wkh cunning, " now you speak sensibly. 
 What do I propose ? This, my friend. We must 
 navigate the schooner to an island and bury the 
 treasure ; then head for the shipping highways, 
 and obtain help from any friendly merchantmen 
 we may fall in with. Home with us means the 
 Tortuga*. There we shall find the company w
 
 Tmm Paouv PXEA 
 
 to rccorer for s what we ihafl hare hidden. 
 We shall come br our own then* But to sail with 
 this treasure on board without a crew to defend 
 the vessel by this hand! the first cruiser that 
 sighted us would make a clean sweep, and then, 
 ho, for the hangman, Mr. Rodney 1 * 
 
 How much I relished this scheme you will 
 imagine ; but to reason with him would have 
 been mere madness. I knitted my brows and 
 seemed to reflect, and then said, " Well, there is 
 a great deal of plain, good sense in what you say. 
 I certainly see the wisdom of your advice in re- 
 commending that we should bury the treasure. 
 Nor must we leave anything on board to convict 
 the ship of her true character." 
 
 His greedy eyes sparkled with self-complacency. 
 He tapped his forehead and cried, " Trust to this. 
 There is mind behind this surface. Your plan 
 for releasing the schooner is great ; mine for 
 preserving the treasure is great too. You are the 
 sailor, I the strategist ; by combining our genius, 
 we shall oppose an invulnerable front to adver- 
 sity, and must end our days as Princes, Your 
 hand, Paul ! " 
 
 I laughed and gave him my hand, which he 
 squeezed with many contortions of face and figure ; 
 but though I laughed I don't know that I ever so 
 much disliked and distrusted and feared the old 
 leering rogue as at that moment. 
 
 II Come 1 " cried I, jumping .up, " let's get about 
 our work/' And with that I pulled open a bag of 
 matches, and fell to testing them. They burnt 
 well. The fire ate into them as smoothly as if
 
 Wi IXFLODI THi MINES. 139 
 
 they had been prepared the day before. They 
 were all of one thickness. I cut them to equal 
 lengths, and fired them and waited watch in hand ; 
 one was burnt out two minutes before the other, 
 and each length took about ten minutes to con- 
 sume. This was good enough to base my calcu- 
 lations upon. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 WE EXPLODE THE MINKS. 
 
 I DON'T design to weary you with a close account 
 of our proceedings. How we opened the main- 
 deck hatch, rigged up tackles, clapping purchases 
 on to the falls, as the capstan was hard frozen and 
 immovable ; how we hoisted the powder- barrels on 
 deck and then, by tackles on the foreyard, lowered 
 them over the side ; how we filled a number of 
 bags which we found in the forecastle with powder; 
 how we measured the cracks in the ice and sawed 
 a couple of spare studding-sail booms into lengths 
 to serve as beams whereby to poise the barrels 
 and bags ; would make but sailor's talk, half of 
 which would be unintelligible and the rest weari- 
 some. 
 
 The Frenchman worked hard, and we snatched 
 only half an hour for our dinner. The split that 
 had happened in the ice during the night showed 
 by daylight as a guif betwixt eight and ten feet 
 wide at the seawards end, thinning to a width of 
 three feet, never less, to where it ended, ahead of 
 the ship, in a hundred cracks in the ice that 
 howed as if a thunderbolt had fallen just there.
 
 240 THI F&ozmx PIRATB. 
 
 I looked into this rent, but it was as black as a 
 tfell past a certain depth, and there was no gleam 
 of water. When we went over the side to roll our 
 first barrel of powder to the spot where we meant 
 to lower it, the Frenchman marched up to the 
 figure of Trentanove, and with no more reverence 
 than a boy would show in throwing a stone at a 
 jackass, tumbled him into the chasm. He then 
 stepped up to the body of the Portuguese boat- 
 swain, dragged him to the tame fissure, and rolled 
 him into it. 
 
 "There!" critd h; " ow they mro properly 
 buried." 
 
 And with this he wont c^Jy e with his 
 work. 
 
 I said nothing, but was secretly heartily disgusted 
 with this brutal disposal of his miserable shipmates' 
 remains. However, it was his doing, not mine } 
 and I confess the removal of those silent witnesses 
 was a very great relief to me, albeit when I con- 
 sidered how Tassard had been awakened, and how 
 both the mate and the boatswain might have been 
 brought to by treatment, I felt as though, after a 
 manner, the Frenchman had committed a murder 
 by burying them so. 
 
 It blew a small breeze alLday from the south- 
 west, the weather keeping fine, It was ten 
 o'clock in the morning when we started on our 
 labour, and the sun had been sunk a few minutes 
 by the time we had rigged the last whip for the 
 lowering and poising of the powder. This left us 
 nothing to oo in the morning but light th 
 matches, lower the powder into position, aad then
 
 Wl IXPLODK TUB MlMW. 
 
 the schooner and await the if sue. 
 Our arrangements comprised, first, four barrels of 
 powder in deep yawns ahead of the vessel, directly 
 athwart tht line of her head ; second, two barrels, 
 a wide space between them, in the great chasm 
 on the starboard side; third, about fifty very 
 heavy charges in bags and the like for the further 
 rupturing of many splits and crevices on the 
 larboard bow of the ship, where the ice was most 
 compact. What should follow the mighty blast 
 no mortal being could have foretold. I had no 
 fear of the charges injuring the vessel that is to 
 say, I did not fear that the actual explosion would 
 damage her: but as the effect of the bursting of 
 such a mass of powder as we designed to explode 
 upon so brittle a substance as ice was not calcu- 
 lable, it was quite likely that the vast discharge, 
 instead of loosening and freeing the bed of ice, 
 might rend it into blocks, and leave the schooner 
 still stranded and lying in some wild posture amid 
 the ruins. 
 
 But the powder was our only trumps ; we had 
 but to play it and leave the rest to fortune. 
 
 We got our supper and sat smoking and dis- 
 cussing our situation and chances. Tassard was 
 tired, and this and our contemplation of the pro- 
 babilities of the morrow sobered his mind, and he 
 talked with a certain gravity. He drank sparely 
 and forbore the hideous recollections or inventions 
 he was used to bestow on me, and indeed could 
 find nothing to talk about but the explosion and 
 what it was to do for us. I was very glad he did 
 not again refer to his project to bury the treasure
 
 ml oasry ta* scheofr * th* Tsctngas THt 
 aaajamt irod hii blood, AIM! it wu such nonsense 
 that ta* more miming of it was nauseous to me. 
 Ejf ht-aad-forty years nail passed since his ship 
 fell m with this tee, and aet tentoid the treasure 
 in tao hold might have purchased for him the sight 
 of so much as a single bone of the youngest of 
 those associates whom he idly dreamt of seeking 
 aad shipptag and sailing in command of. Yet, 
 babociU as was his scheme, having regard to the 
 aaM-century that had eUpied, I clearly witnessed 
 ISM auraace to me that it implied. His views were 
 ! W road as plainly as if he had delivered them. 
 First aad foremost h eant that I should help 
 hfaa to ojj tho schoonor to island and hury the 
 psalo aad oArf ? whieli done he would Uke the 
 irvt opportunity to murder me. His chance of 
 ostsiywhh a ohip that would lend him assistance 
 Is- Mmfate the schooner would be as good if he 
 * to* k her as if I wore on board too. There 
 ho sjothkf , thon, re this consideration to 
 htm from cvning my throat after we had 
 hunod tho treasure and! were got north. Two 
 mottTii wovld imperatively arge htm to make 
 away with mo ; first, that 1 should not be able to 
 serve as a witaoss to his being s pirate, and next 
 that ho aleo* should possess tho secret of the 
 
 Ht i*ie hsww what was pasting m my mind 
 as ho sorroyod me through the curls of smoke 
 ptMting p from his death's-head pipe. I talkH 
 taoily aad oonfidentially, but I saw in his gaze the 
 0704 of say sawderer, and was so sure of ais
 
 EXPLODE TH* MnHBL 
 
 tions that had I shot him in self-defence, as he 
 ^at there, I am certain my conscience would have 
 acquitted me of his blood. 
 
 I passed two most uneasy hours in my cot 
 before closing my eyes. I could think of nothing 
 but how to secure myself against the Frenchman's 
 treachery. You would suppose that my mind must 
 have been engrossed with considerations of the 
 several possibilities of the morrow ; but that was 
 not so. My reflections ran wholly to the bald- 
 headed evil-eyed pirate whom in an evil hour I had 
 thawed into being, and who was like to discharge 
 the debt of his own life by taking mine. The 
 truth is, I had been too hard at work all day, too 
 full of the business of planning, cutting, testing, 
 and contriving, to find leisure to dwell upon what 
 he had said at breakfast, and now that I lay 
 alone in darkness it was the only subject I could 
 settle my thoughts to. 
 
 However, next morning I found myself less 
 gloomy, thanks to several hours of solid sleep. 
 I thought, what is the good of anticipating ? 
 Suppose the schooner is crushed by the ice or 
 jammed by the explosion ? Until we are under 
 way, nay, until the treasure is buried, I have 
 nothing to fear, for the rogue cannot do with- 
 out me. And, reassuring myself in this fashion, 
 I went to the cook-room and lighted the fire ; 
 my companion presently arrived, and we sat down 
 to our morning' meal. 
 
 " I dreamt last night," said he, " that the devil 
 sat on my breast and told me that we should 
 break clear of the ice and come off safe with the
 
 144 TH* FROZEN Pnum 
 
 treasure there is loyalty in the Fiend. He sel- 
 dom betrays his friends. 
 
 'You have a better opinion of him than I," 
 said I ; " and I do not know that you have 
 much claim upon his loyalty either, seeing that 
 you will cross yourself and call upon the Madonna 
 and saints when the occasion arises." 
 
 " Pooh, mere habit," cried he, sarcastically. 
 " I have seen Barros praying to a little wooden 
 saint in a gale of wind and then knock its head 
 off and throw it overboard because the storm 
 increased." And here he fell to talking very im- 
 piously, professing such an outrageous contempt 
 for every form of religion, and affirming so ardent 
 a belief in the goodwill of Satan and the like, that 
 I quitted my bench at last in a passion, and told 
 him that he must be the devil himself to talk so, 
 and that for my part his sentiments awoke in me 
 nothing but the utmost scorn, loathing, and horror 
 of him. 
 
 His face fell, and he looked at me with the eye 
 of one who takes measure of another and does not 
 feel sure. 
 
 1 Tut ! " cried he, with a feigned peevishness ; 
 " what are my sentiments to you, or yours to me ? 
 you may be a Quaker for all I care. Come, fill 
 your pannikin and let us drink a health to our own 
 souls ! 
 
 But though he said this grinning, he shot a 
 savage look of malice at me, and when he put his 
 pannikin down his face was very clouded- and 
 sulky. 
 
 We finished our meal in silence, and then I
 
 WE EXPLODE THE MlMBS. 45 
 
 rose, saving, " Let us now see what the gun- 
 
 powaer is going to do for us?' 
 
 My rising and saying this worked a change in 
 him. He exclaimed briskly, "Ay, now for the 
 great experiment," and made for the companion- 
 steps with an^air of bustle. 
 
 The, wind as before was in the south-west, 
 blowing without much weight ; but the sky was 
 overcast with great masses of white clouds with a 
 tint of rainbows in their shoulders and skirts, amid 
 which the sky showed in a clear liquid blue. 
 Those clouds seemed to promise wind and per- 
 haps snow anon ; but there was nothing to hinder 
 our operations. We got upon the ice, and went 
 to work to fix matches to the barrels and bags, 
 and to si ing. them by the beams we had contrived 
 ready for lowering when the matches were fired, 
 and this occupied us the best part of two hours. 
 When all was ready I fired the first match, and we 
 lowered the barrel smartly to the scope of line 
 we had settled upon ; so with the others. You 
 may reckon we worked with all imaginable wari- 
 ness, for the stuff we handled was mighty deadly, 
 and if a barrel should fall and burst with the match 
 alight, we might be blown in an instant into rags, 
 ing impossible to tell how deep the rents went. 
 
 The bags being lighter there was less to fear, 
 
 aod presently all the barrels and bags with the 
 
 < hes burning were poised in the places and 
 
 hanging at the depth we had fixed upon, and we 
 
 . returned to the -he Frenchman 
 
 breaking into a run and tumbling over the rail in 
 
 hi* alarm with the dexterity of a monkey
 
 THI FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 Each match was supposed to burn an hour, so 
 that when the several explosions happened they 
 might all occur as nearly as possible at once, and 
 we had therefore a long time to wait. The mar- 
 gin may look unreasonable in the face of our 
 despatch, but you will not think it unnecessary if 
 you consider that our machinery might not have 
 worked very smooth, and that meanwhile all that 
 was lowered was in the way of exploding. So 
 interminable a period as now followed I do believe 
 never before entered into the experiences of a 
 man. The cold was .intense, and we had to 
 move about ; but also were we repeatedly 
 coming to a halt to look at our watches and 
 cast our eyes over the ice. It was like standing 
 under a gallows with the noose around the neck 
 waiting for the cart to move off. My own 
 suspense became torture ; but I commanded my 
 face. The Frenchman, on the other hand, could 
 not control the torments of his expectation and 
 fear. 
 
 " Holy Virgin 1 " he would cry, " suppose we 
 are blown up too ? suppose we are engulphed in 
 the ice ? suppose it should be vomited up in vast 
 blocks which in falling upon us must crush us to 
 pulp and smash the decks in ? " 
 
 At one moment he would call himself an idiot 
 for not remaining on the rocks at a distance and 
 watching the explosion, and even make as if to 
 jump on the vessel, then immediately recoil from 
 the idea of setting his foot upon a floor that 
 before he could take ten strides might split into 
 chasms, with hideous uproar under him. " At
 
 Wi ExrtoDB THI Mam. 47 
 
 another moment he would run to the companion 
 
 and descend out of my sight, but reappear after a 
 minute or two wildly shaking his head and swear- 
 ing that if waiting was insupportable in the day- 
 light, it was ten thousand times worse in the gloom 
 and solitude of the interior. 
 
 I was too nervous and expectant myself to be 
 affected by his behaviour ; but his dread of the 
 explosion upheaving lumps of ice was sensible 
 enough to determine me to post myself under the 
 cover of the hatch and there await the blast, for 
 it was a stout cover and would certainly screen 
 me from the lighter flying pieces. 
 
 It was three or four minutes past the hour and 
 I was looking breathlessly at my watch when the 
 first of the explosions took place. Before the ear 
 could well receive the shock of the blast the 
 whole of the barrels exploded along with some 
 twelve or fourteen parcels. Tassard, who stood 
 beside me, fell on his face, and I believed he had 
 been killed. It was so hellish a thunder that I 
 suppose the blowing up of a first-rate could not 
 make a more frightful roar of noise. A kind ot 
 twilight was caused by the rise of the volumes of 
 white smoke out of the ice. The schooner shook 
 with such a convulsion that I was persuaded she 
 had been split. Vast showers of splinters of ice 
 fell as if from the sky, and rained like arrows 
 through the smoke, but if there were any great 
 blocks uphove they did not touch the ship. 
 Meanwhile, the other parcels were exploding in 
 their places, sometimes two and three at a time, 
 sending a sort of sickening spasms and throes
 
 THE FROZKV Pnum 
 
 through the fabric of the vessel and you 
 
 heard the most extraordinary grinding noises 
 rising out of the ice all about, as though the 
 mighty rupture of the powder crackled through 
 leagues of l he island. I durst not look forth till 
 all the powder had burst, lest I should be struck 
 by some flying piece of ice, but unless the schooner 
 was injured below she was as sound as before, 
 and in the exact same posture, as if afloat in har- 
 bour, only that of course her stern lay low with 
 the slope of her bed. 
 
 I called to Tassard and he lifted his head. 
 " Are you hurt ? " said I. 
 "No, no," he answered. " Ti i Spaniard's 
 trick to fling down to a broadside. Body of St. 
 Joseph, what a furious explosion ! " and to saying 
 he crawled into the companion and squatted 
 beside me. " What has it done for us ? " 
 
 " I don't know yet," s.iid I ; " but I believe the 
 schooner is uninjured. That was a powerful shock! " 
 I cried, as a half-dozen of bags blew up together 
 in the crevices deep down. 
 
 The thunder and tumult of the rending ice 
 'inpanied by the heavy explosions of the gun- 
 powder so dulled the hearing that it was difficult 
 to speak. That the mines had accomplished our 
 end was not yet to be known ; but there could not 
 be the least doubt that they had not only occa- 
 sioned tremendous ruptures low down in the ice, 
 but that the volcanic iniiuence was extending far 
 beyond its first effects by making one split pro- 
 duce another, one weak part give way and create 
 other weaknesses, and so on, all round about u
 
 Wl EXPLOD1 THE MlNRS. 249 
 
 and under our keel, as was clearly to be gathered 
 by the shivering and spasms of the schooner, 
 and by the growls, roars, blasts, and huddle of 
 terrifying sounds which arose from the frozen 
 floor. 
 
 It was twenty minutes after the hour at which 
 the mines had been framed to explode when the 
 last parcel burst ; but we waited another quarter 
 of an hour to make urc that it was the last, 
 during all which time the growling and roaring 
 noises deep down continued, as if there was a 
 battle of a thousand lions raging in the vaults 
 and hollows underneath. The smoke had been 
 settled away by the wind, and the prospect was 
 clear. We ran below to see to the fire and receive 
 five minutes of heat into our chilled bodies, and 
 then returned to view the scene. 
 
 I looked first over the starboard side and saw 
 the great split that had happened in the night 
 torn in places into immense yawns and gulfs by 
 the fall of vast masses of rock out of its sides ; 
 but what most delighted m was the hollow sound 
 of washing water. I lifted my hand and listened. 
 " Tis the swell of the sea flowing into the open- 
 ing 1 " I exclaimed. 
 
 " That means," said Tassard, " that this side 
 of the block is dislocated from the main." 
 
 " Yes," cried I. "And if the powder ahead of 
 the bows has done its work, the heave ef the ocean 
 will do the rest." 
 
 We made our way on to the forecastle over a 
 deep bed of splinters of ice, lying like wood- 
 shavings upoa the deck, and I teec notice as I
 
 SO Tut Fiats* Faun. 
 
 walked that every glorious crystal pendant that 
 had before adorned the yards, rigging, and spars 
 had been shaken off. I had expected to see a 
 wonderful spectacle of havoc in the ice where the 
 barrels of gunpowder had been poised, but saving 
 many scores of cracks where none was before, 
 and vast ragged gashes in the mouths of the 
 crevices down which the barrels had been lowered, 
 the scene was much as heretofore. 
 
 The Frenchman stared and exclaimed, "What 
 has the powder done? I see only a few 
 cracks." 
 
 " What it may have done, I don't know," I 
 answered ; " but depend on't such heavy charges 
 of powder must have burst to some purpose. 
 The dislocation will be below ; and so much the 
 better, for 'tis there the ice must come asunder if 
 this block is to go free." 
 
 He gazed about him, and then rapping out a 
 string of oaths, English, Italian, and French, for 
 he swore in all the languages he spoke, which, he 
 once told me, were five, he declared that for his 
 part he considered the powder wasted, that we'd 
 have done as well to fling a hand-grenade into a 
 fissure, that a thousand barrels of powder would 
 be but as a popgun for rending the schooner's bed 
 from the main, and in short, with several insulting 
 looks and a face black with rage and disappoint- 
 ment, gave me very plainly to know that I had not 
 only played the fool myself, but had made a fool of 
 him, and that he was heartily sorry he had ever given 
 himself any trouble to contrive the cursed mines or
 
 Wl BXIUODB THE MlMM. *$I 
 
 to assiit me in a ridiculous project that might have 
 resulted in blowing the schooner to pieces and our- 
 selves with it. 
 
 I glanced at him with a sneer, but took no 
 further notice of his insolence. It was not only 
 that he was so contemptible in all respects, a liar; 
 a rogue, a thief, a poltroon, hoary in twenty walks 
 of vice, there was something so unearthly. about a 
 creature that had been as good as dead for eight- 
 and-forty years, that it was impossible anything 
 he said could affect me as the rancorous 
 tongue of another man would. I feared and hated 
 him because I knew that in intent he was already 
 my assassin ; but the mere insolences of so 
 incredible a creature could not but find me imper- 
 turbable. 
 
 And perhaps in the present instance my own 
 disappointment put me into some small posture of 
 sympathy with his passion. Had I been asked 
 before the explosions^ happened what I expected, 
 I don't know that I should have found any answer 
 to make ; and yet, though I could not have ex- 
 pressed my expectations, which after all were but 
 hopes, I was bitterly vexed when I looked over 
 the bows and found in the scene nothing that 
 appeared answerable to the uncommon forces we 
 had employed. Nevertheless, I felt sure that my 
 remark to the Frenchman was sound. A great 
 show of uphove rocks and fragments of ice might 
 have satisfied the eye ; but the real work of the 
 mines was wanted below ; and since the force of 
 the mighty explosion must needs expend itself
 
 35* THS FROZEN 
 
 Somewhere, it was absurd to wish to sec its effects 
 in a part where its volcanic agency would be of 
 little or no use. 
 
 'There is nothing to be seen by staring f" 
 exclaimed the Frenchman presently, speaking 
 very sullenly. " I am hungry and freezing, and 
 shall go below!" And with that he turned 
 his back and made off, growling in his throat as he 
 went 
 
 I got upon the ice and stepped very carefully 
 to the starboard side and looked down the vast 
 split there. The sea in consequence of the slope 
 did not come so far, but I could hear the wash of 
 the water very plain. It was certain that the 
 valley in which we lay was wholly disconnected 
 from the main ice on this side. I passed to the 
 larboard quarter, and here too were cracks wide 
 and deep enough to satisfy me that its hold was 
 weak. It was forward of the bows where the 
 barrels had been exploded that the ice was thickest 
 and had the firmest grasp ; but its surface was 
 violently and heavily cracked by the explosions, 
 and I thought to myself if the fissures below are 
 as numerous, then certainly the swell of the sea 
 ought to fetch the whole mass away. But I was 
 now half frozen myself and pining for warmth. 
 It was after one o'clock. The wind was piping 
 freshly, and the great heavy clouds in swarms 
 drove stately across the sky. 
 
 "It may blow to-night, thought I; "and if 
 the wind hangs as it is, just such a sea as may 
 do our business will be set running." And ths 
 musing I entered the ship and went bUw.
 
 A CHAMQB COMES ovwt nu PKBNCHMAM . 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A CHANGE COMES OVER THE FRENCHMAN. 
 
 TASSARD was dogged and scowling. Such was 
 his temper that had I been a small or weak man, 
 or a person likely to prove submissive, he would 
 have given a loose to his foul tongue and maybe 
 handled me very roughly. But my demeanour 
 was cold and resolved, and not of a kind to im- 
 prove his courage. I levelled a deliberate semi- 
 contemptuous gaze at his own fiery stare, and 
 puzzled him, too, I believe, a good deal by my 
 cool reserve. He muttered whilst we ate, drink- 
 ing plentifully of wine, and garnishing his draughts 
 with oaths and to spare ; and then, after falling 
 silent and remaining so for the space of twenty 
 minutes, during which I lighted my pipe and sat 
 with my feet close to the furnace, listening with 
 eager ears to the sounds of the ice and the dull 
 crying of the wind, he exclaimed sulkily, "Your 
 scheme is a failure. The schooner is fixed. 
 What's to be done now ?" 
 
 ' I don't know that my scheme is a failure," 
 said I. ' What did you suppose? that the b! 
 would blow the ice with the schooner on it in 
 the ocean clear of the island? If the ice is 
 shaken as to enable the swell to detach it, my 
 scheme will have accomplished all I proposed." 
 
 "//7 J he cried scornfully and passionately. 
 " f/ml\ not deliver us nor save the treasure. I 
 tell you the schooner is fixed as fixed as the 
 damned in everlasting fire. Be it so ! " he cried,
 
 254 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 clenching his fist. " But you must meddle n 
 more ! The Boca del Dragon is mine mine, 
 d'ye see, now that they're all dead and gone but 
 me" smiting his bosom "and if ever she is to 
 float, let nature or the devil launch her : no more- 
 explosions with the risks your failure has made 
 her and me run ! " 
 
 His voice sank ; he looked at me in silence, and 
 then with a wild grin of anger he exclaimed, " What 
 made you awake me ? I was at peace neithei 
 cold, hungry, nor hopeless ! What demon forced 
 you to bring me to this to bring me back to 
 thisf" 
 
 " Mr. Tassard," said I coldly, " I don't ask youi 
 pardon for my experiment ; I meant well, and tc 
 my mind it 'is no failure yet. But for disturbing 
 your repose I do sincerely beg your forgiveness, 
 and solemnly promise you, if you will return to the 
 state in which I found you, that I will not repeat 
 the offence." 
 
 He eyed me from top to toe in silence, filled and 
 lighted his hideous pipe, and smoked with his back 
 turned upon me. 
 
 Had there .been another warm place in the 
 schooner I should have retired to it, and left this 
 surly and scandalous savage to the enjoyment of 
 his own company. His temper rendered me ex- 
 tremely uneasy. The arms-room was full of 
 weapons ; he might draw a pistol upon me and 
 shoot me dead before I should have time to clench 
 my hand. Nor did I conceive him to have his 
 right mind. His panic terrors and outbursts 
 of rage were such extremes of behaviour as
 
 A CHANGE COMBS OVER ram FRKMCHMA*. 355 
 
 suggested some sort of organic decay within. 
 He had been for eight-and-forty years insensible ; 
 in all that time the current of life had been frozen 
 in him, not dried up and extinguished ; therefore, 
 taking his age to be fifty-five when the frost 
 seized him, he would now be one hundred and 
 three years old, having subsisted into this great 
 span of time in fact, though confronting me with 
 the aspect of an elderly man merely. Death ends 
 time, but this man never had been dead, or surely 
 it would not have been in the power of brandy and 
 chafing and fire to arouse him ; and though all 
 the processes of nature had been checked in him 
 for near half a century, yet he must have been 
 throughout as much alive as a sleeping man, and 
 consequently *hen he awoke he arose with the 
 weight of a hundred and three years upon his 
 brain, which may suffice to account for the pre- 
 ternatural peculiarities of his character. 
 
 After sitting a long while sullenly smoking in 
 silence, he fetched his mattress and some covers, 
 lay down upon it, and fell fast asleep. I admired 
 and envied this display of confidence, and 
 heartily wished myself as safe in his hands as he 
 was in mine. The afternoon passed. I was on 
 deck a half-dozen times, but never witnessed the 
 least alteration in the ice. My spirits 'sank very 
 low. There was bitter remorseless defiance in the 
 white, fierce rigid stare of the ice, and I could not 
 but believe with the Frenchman that all our labour 
 and expenditure of powder was in rain. Th<*re 
 was no more noticeable weight in the wind, but 
 the sea wai beginning to beat with some strength
 
 TftB FftOZBX PlftATB. 
 
 upon the coast, and the schooner sometimes 
 trembled to the vibrations of the blows. There 
 was also a continuous crackling noise coming up 
 out of the ice, and just as I came on deck on my 
 third visit, a block of ice, weighing I dare say a 
 couple of hundred tons, fell from the broken 
 shoulder on the starboard quarter, and plunged 
 with a roar like a thunderclap into the chasm that 
 had opened in the night. 
 
 I sat before the furnace extremely dejected, 
 whilst the Frenchman snored on his mattress. I 
 could no longer flatter myself that the explosions 
 had made the impression I had expected on the 
 ice, and my mind was utterly at a loss. How to 
 deliver myself from this horrible situation I could 
 aot imagine. As to the treasure, why, if the 
 chests had all been filled with gold, they might 
 have gone to the bottom there and then for me, 
 o utterly insignificant did their value seem as 
 against the pricelessness of liberty and the joy of 
 delirerance. Had I been alone I should have had 
 a stouter heart, I dare say, for then I should have 
 been able to do as I pleased ; but now I was asso- 
 ciated with a bloody-minded rogue whose soul was 
 in the treasure, and who was certain to oppose 
 any plan I might propose for the construction of 
 a boat or raft out of the material that formed the 
 schooner. The sole ray of hope that gleamed 
 upon me broke out of the belief that this island 
 was going north, and that when "we had come to 
 the height of the summer in these seas, the wast- 
 ing of the coast or the dislocation of the northern 
 mass would release us.
 
 A CHUTGI COMES orot TRB FKSMCHMA*. 157 
 
 Yet this was but poor comfort too ; it threatened 
 a terrible long spell of waiting, with perhaps dis- 
 appointment in the end, and months of enforced 
 association with a wretch with whom I should 
 have to live in fear of my life. 
 
 \Vhen I was getting supper Tassard awoke, 
 quitted his mattress, and came to his bench. 
 
 " Has anything happened whilst I slept?" said he. 
 
 " Nothing," I answered. 
 
 I The ice shows no signs of giving ?" 
 " I see none/* said I. 
 
 II Well," cried he, with a sarcastic sneer, " hart 
 you any more fine schemes ? " 
 
 " Tis your turn now," I replied. " Try your 
 hand. If you fail, I promise you I shall not be 
 disappointed." 
 
 " But you English sailors," said he, wagging his 
 head and regarding me with a great deal of wild- 
 ness in his eye, " speak of yourselves as the finest 
 seamen in the world. Justify the maritime reputa- 
 tion of your nation by showing me how we are to 
 escape with the schooner from the ice." 
 
 " Mr. Tassard," said I, approaching him and 
 looking him full in the face, " I would advise you 
 to sweeten your temper and change your tone. I 
 have borne myself very moderately towards you, 
 submitted to your insults with patience, and have 
 done you some kindness. I am not afraid of you. 
 On the contrary, I look uporryou as a swaggering 
 bully and a hoary villain. Do you understand 
 me ? I am a desperate man in a desperate situa- 
 tion. But if I don't fear death, depend upon it, I 
 don't fearjw and I take God to witness that if
 
 t5t THI FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 you do not use me with the civility I hare a 
 to expect, I will kill you." 
 
 My temper had given way ; I meant every word 
 I spoke, and my air and sincerity rendered my 
 speech very formidable. I approached him by 
 another stride ; he started up, as I thought, to 
 seize me, but in reality to recoil, and this he did 
 so effectually as to tumble over his bench, and 
 down he fell, striking his bald head so hard that 
 he lay for several minutes motionless. 
 
 I stood over him till he chose to sit erect, 
 which he presently did, rubbing his poll and look- 
 ing at me with an air of mingled bewilderment and 
 fear. 
 
 " This is scurvy usage to give a shipmate in 
 distress," said he. " 'Od's life, man ! I had 
 thought there was some sense of humour in you. 
 Your hand, Mr. Rodney ; I feel dazed." 
 
 I helped him to rise, and he then sat down in a 
 somewhat rickety manner, rubbing his eyes. It 
 might have been fancy, it might have been the 
 illusion of the furnace light combined with the 
 venerable appearance his long hair and naked pate 
 gave him, but methought in those few minutes 
 he had grown to look twenty years older. 
 
 " Never concern yourself about my humour, 
 Mr. Tassard," said I, preserving my determined 
 air and coming close to him again. " How is it 
 to stand between us ? I leave, the choice to you. 
 If you will treat rne civilly you'll not find me want- 
 ing in every disposition to render our miserable 
 state tolerable ; but if you insult me, use me in- 
 uriously, and act the pirate over me, who am an
 
 A CHAMGI COMES ovim ran FEIMCHUAX. 159 
 
 honest man, by God, Mr. Tassard, I will kill 
 you." 
 
 He stooped away from me, and raised Hit hand 
 in a posture as if to fend me off, and cried in a 
 whining manner, " I lost my head this gunpowder 
 business hath been a hellish disappointment, look 
 you, Mr. Rodney. Come ! We will drink a can 
 to our future amity ! " 
 
 I answered coldly that I wanted no more wine 
 and bade him beware of me, that he had gone far 
 enough, that our hideous condition had filled my 
 soul with desperation and misery, and that I would 
 not have my life on this frozen schooner made 
 more abominable than it was by his swagger, lies, 
 and insults, and I added in a loud voice and in a 
 menacing manner that death had no terrors for me, 
 and that I would dispatch him with as little fear 
 as I should meet my doom, whatever shape it took. 
 
 I marched on deck, not a little astounded by 
 the cowardice of the old rascal, and very well 
 pleased with the marked impression my bearing 
 and language had produced on him. Not that I 
 supposed for a moment -that my bold comport- 
 ' would save me from his knife or his pistol 
 i he should think proper to make away with 
 me. No. All I reckoned upon was cowing him 
 into a civiller posture of mind, and checking his 
 aggressions and insolence. As to his murdering 
 me, I was very sure he would not attempt such an 
 act whilst we remained imprisoned. Loneliness 
 would have more horrors for him than for me ; 
 and though my machinery of mines had apparently 
 failed, he was shrewd enough, despite his rage o!
 
 s6o Tm FROZIM PIRAT& 
 
 disappointment, to understand that more was to 
 be done by two men than by one, and that between 
 us something might be attempted which would be 
 impracticable by a simple pair of hands, and 
 particularly old hands, such as his. 
 
 I stayed but a minute or two on deck. Such 
 was the cold that I do not know I had ever felt it 
 more biting and bitter. The sound of foaming 
 waters filled the wind, and the wind itself was 
 oiowing fairly strong, in gusts that screamed in 
 the frozen rigging or in blasts that had the deep 
 echo of the thunder-claps of the splitting ice. 
 The clouds were numerous and dark with the 
 shadow of the night ; and the swiftness of their 
 motion as they sailed up out of the south-west 
 quarter was illustrated by the leaping of the few 
 bright stars from one dusky edge to another. 
 
 I returned below and sat down. The French- 
 man asked me no questions. He had his can in 
 the oven and his death's head in his great hand, 
 and puffed out clouds of smoke of the colour of 
 his beard, and indeed in the candle and fire light 
 looked like a figure of old Time with his long nose 
 and bald head. I addressed one or two civil re- 
 marks to him, which he answered in a subdued 
 manner, discovering no resentment whatever that 
 I could trace in his eyes or the expression of his 
 countenance ; and being wishful to show that I 
 bore no malice I talked of pirates and their 
 usages, and asked him if the Boca del Dragon 
 fought under the red or black flag. 
 
 " Why, the black flag, certainly/' said he ; " but 
 if we met with resistance, it was our custor
 
 A CHAMOB coins ovn THI FKCVCHMAM. 
 
 haul it down and hoist the red flag, to let 
 opponents know we should give no quarter." 
 
 1 Where is your flag locker ? " said I. 
 
 "In my berth," he answered. 
 
 "I should like to see the black flag," I ex- 
 claimed : "'tis the one piece of bunting, I believe, 
 I have never Yiewed." 
 
 " I'll fetch it," said he, and taking the lanthorn 
 went aft very quietly, but with a certain stagger 
 in his walk, which I should have put down to the 
 wine if it was not that his behaviour was free from 
 all symptoms of ebriation. The change in him 
 surprised me, but not so greatly as you might 
 suppose ; indeed, it excited my suspicions rather 
 than my wonder. Fear worked in him unques- 
 tionably, but what I seemed to see best was some 
 malignant design which he hoped to conceal by 
 an air of conciliation and a quality of respectful 
 bonhomie. 
 
 He came back with a flag in his hand, and we 
 spread it between us ; it was black, with a yellow 
 skull grinning in the middle, over this an hourglass, 
 and beneath a cross-bones. 
 
 " What consternation has this signal caused and 
 does still cause ! " said I, surveying it, whilst a 
 hundred faicies of the barbarous scenes it had 
 flown over, the miserable cries for mercy that had 
 swept up past it to the ear of God, crowded into 
 my mind. " I think, Mr. Tassard," said I, " that 
 our first step, should we ever find ourselves afloat 
 in this ship, must be to commit this and all other 
 flags of a like kind on board to the deep. There is 
 evidence in this piece of drapery to hang an angel"
 
 Ftoziir 
 
 lie let fall his ends of the flag and sat down 
 
 suddenly. 
 
 1 Yes," he answered, sending a curious rolling 
 glance around the cook-room and at the same 
 time bringing his hand to the back of his head, 
 " this is evidence to dangle even an honester man 
 than ^ou, sir. All flags but the ensign we resolve 
 to sail under must go all flags, and all the wear- 
 ing apparel, and and but "here he muttered a 
 curse " we are fixed there is to be no sailing." 
 
 He shook his head and covered his eyes. His 
 manner wai strange, and the stranger for his 
 quietude. 
 
 I said to him, " Are you ill ? " 
 
 He looked up sharply and cried vehemently, 
 1 No, no 1" then stretched his lips in a very 
 ghastly grin and turned to take the can from 
 the oven, but his hand missed it, and he appeared 
 to grope as if he were blind, though he looked at 
 the can all the time. Then he catched it and 
 brought it to his mouth, but trembled so much 
 that he spilt as much as he drank, and after 
 putting the can back sat shaking his beard and 
 stroking the wet off it, methought, in a very 
 mechanical lunatic way. 
 
 1 thought to myself, " Is this behaviour some 
 stratagem of his ? What device can such a bear- 
 ing hide ? If he is acting, he plays his part 
 well." 
 
 I rolled the black flag into a bundle and flung 
 it into a corner, and, resuming my seat and my 
 pipe, continued, more for civility's sake than 
 because of any particular interest I took in the
 
 A CHANGE COMES OVER THE FRENCHMAN. *6j 
 
 bubjeet, to ask him questions about the customs 
 and habits of pirates. 
 
 " I believe, ' said I, " the buccaneers are so 
 resolute in having clear ships that they have 
 neither beds nor seats on board." 
 
 " The English," he answered, speaking slowly 
 and letting his pipe droop whilst he spoke with 
 his eyes fixed on deck, " not the Spanish. Tis 
 the custom of most English pirates to eat and 
 sleep upon the decks for the sake of a clear ship, 
 as you say. The Spaniard loves comfort -you 
 may observe his fancy in this ship." 
 
 " How is the plunder partitioned ?" I asked. 
 
 " Everything is put into the common chest, as 
 we call it, and brought to the mast and sold by 
 auction Strange ! " he cried, breaking of! and 
 putting his hand to his brow. " I find my speech 
 difficult Do you notice I halt and utter 
 thickly?" 
 
 I replied, No ; his voice seemed to be the 
 same as hitherto. 
 
 <( Yet I feel ill. Holy Mother of God, what is 
 this feeling coming upon me ? O Jesus, how faint 
 and dark ! " 
 
 He half rose from his bench, but sat again, 
 trembling as if the palsv had seized him, and I 
 noticed his head dotted with beads of sweat. He 
 had drunk so much wine and spirits throughout 
 the day that a dram would have oeen of no use to 
 him. 
 
 I said, " I expect it will be the blow on the 
 of vour head, when you fell just now, that 
 naa produced this teenng ui giddiness. Let me
 
 THI FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 kelp YOU to lie down" (for his mattreis was o* 
 deck) ; " the sensation will pass, I don't doubt." 
 
 If he heard he did not heed me, but fell a- 
 muttering and crying to himself. And now I did 
 certainly remark a quality in his Toice that was 
 new to my ear ; it was not, as he had said, a 
 labour or thickness of utterance, but a dryness 
 and parchedness of old age, with many breaks 
 from high to low notes, and a lean noise of 
 dribbling threading every word. He sweated 
 and talked and muttered, but this was from sheer 
 terror ; he did not swoon, but sat with a stoop, 
 often pressing his brows and gazing about him 
 like one whose senses are all abroad. 
 
 "Gracious Mother of all angels I " he ex- 
 claimed, crossing himself several times, but with 
 a feeble, most agitated hand, and speaking in 
 French and English, and sometimes interjecting 
 an invocation in Italian or Spanish, though I give 
 you what he said in my own tongue ; " surely I 
 am dying. O Lord, how frightful to die! O 
 holy Virgin, be merciful to me. I shall go to hell 
 -O Jesu, I am past forgiveness for the love of 
 heaven, Mr. Rodney, some brandy I Oh that 
 some saint would interpose for me I Only a few 
 years longer grant me a few years longer I 
 beseech for time that I mar repent ! " and he 
 extended one quivering hand for the brandy (of 
 which a draught stood melted in the oven) and 
 made the sign of the cross upon his breast with the 
 other, whilst he continued to whine out in Kfs 
 cracked pipes the wildest appeals for mercy, sav- 
 ing a vast deal that I durst not venture to set
 
 A CBAVGB OOMM onm nnt PKKMCHMAH. t4j 
 
 down, so plentiful and awful were his clamours for 
 time that he might repent, though he never lapsed 
 into blasphemy, but on the contrary discovered 
 an agony of religious horror. 
 
 I was much astonished and puzzled by this ill- 
 ness that had come upon him, for, though he 
 talked of darkness and faintness and of dying, he 
 continued to sit up on his bench and to take pulls 
 at the can of brandy I had handed to him. It 
 might be, indeed, that a sudden faintness had 
 terrified him nearly out of his senses with a pro- 
 spect of approaching death ; but that would not 
 account for the peculiar note and appearance of 
 age that had entered his figure, face, and voice. 
 Then an extraordinary fancy occurred to me: 
 Had the whole weight of the unhappy wretch's 
 years suddenly descended upon him ? Or, if not 
 wholly arrived, might not these indications in him 
 mark the first stages of a gradually increasing 
 pressure ? The heat, the vivacity, the fierceness, 
 spirits, and temper of the life I had been instru- 
 mental in restoring to him probably illustrated 
 his character as it was eight-and-forty years since ; 
 that had flourished artificially from the moment 
 of his awakening down to the present hour ; but 
 now the hand of Time was upon this man, whose 
 age was above an hundred. He might be decay- 
 ing and wasting, even as he sat there, into such 
 an intellectual condition and physical aspect as he 
 would possess and submit had he come without a 
 break into his present age. 
 
 I was fascinated by the mystery of his vitality, 
 and breathlessly watched him as if I expected to
 
 266 THE FROZEN PiR.vnu 
 
 witness some harlequin change in his face and 
 mark the transformation of his polished brow into 
 the lean austerity of wrinkles. His voice sank 
 into a mere whisper at last, and then, ceasing to 
 speak altogether, he dropped his chin on to his 
 :n and began to sway from side to side, 
 hing himself from falling with several para- 
 lytic starts, but without lifting his head or opening 
 his eyes that I could see, and manifesting every 
 symptom of extreme drowsiness. 
 
 I got up and laid rny hand on his shoulder, oh 
 which he turned his face and viewed me with one 
 eye closed, the other scarce open. 
 
 " How are you feeling now ? " said I. 
 
 " Sleepy, very sleepy," he answered. 
 
 "I'll put your mattress into your hammock," 
 said I, "and the best thing you can do is to go 
 and turn in properly and get a long night's rest, 
 and to-morrow morning you'll feel yourself as 
 hearty as ever." 
 
 He mumbled some answer which I interpreted 
 to signify " Very well I" so I shouldered his mat- 
 tress and slung a ianthorn in his cabin, and then 
 returned to help him to bed. He sat reeling on 
 the bench, his chin on his breast, catching him- 
 self up as before with little sharp terrified 
 recoveries, and I was forced to put my hand on 
 him again to make him understand I had come 
 back. He then made as if to rise, but trcin 
 so violently that he sank down again with a groan, 
 and 1 was obliged to put my whole strength to the 
 lifting of him to get him on to his legs. He 
 leaned heavily upon me, breathing hard, stooping
 
 THE ICE BREAKS AWAY. 167 
 
 much and trembling. When we got to hit 
 cabin I perceived that he would never be able to 
 climb into his hammock, nor had I the power to 
 hoist a man of his bulk so high. To end the 
 perplexity I cut the hammock down and laid it on 
 the deck, and covering him with a heap of clothes, 
 unslung the lanthorn, wished him good-night, 
 closed the door, and returned to the furnace. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE ICK BREAKS AWAY. 
 
 IT was not yet eight o'clock. I was restless in 
 my mind, under a great surprise, and was not 
 sleepy. I filled a pipe, made me a little pannikin 
 of punch, and sat down before the fire to think. 
 If ever I had suspected the accuracy of my con- 
 jecture that the Frenchman's sudden astonishing 
 indisposition was the effect of his extreme age 
 coming upon him and breaking down the artificial 
 vitality with which he had bristled into life under 
 my hands, I must have found fifty signs to set my 
 misgivings at rest in his drowsiness, nodding, 
 bowed form, weakness, his tottering and trembling, 
 and other features of his latest behaviour. If I 
 was right, then I had reason to be thankful to 
 Almighty God for this unparalleled and most 
 happy dispensation, for now I should have nothing 
 to fear from the old rogue's vindictiveness and 
 horrid greed. Supposing him to be no more than 
 a hundre '. the infirmities of five score years would 
 stand between him and me, and protect me ai 
 effectually as his death. I had nothing to dread
 
 63 TOT FROZEH PTRATB. 
 
 from a man who could scarce stand, whose palsied 
 hand could scarce clasp a knife, whose evil tongue 
 could scarce articulate the terrors of his soul or 
 the horrors of his recollection. 
 
 The wonder of it all was so great it filled me 
 with admiration and astonishment. Had he been 
 dead and come to life again, as Lazarus, or one of 
 those bodies which arose during the time our Lord 
 hung upon the cross, then, questionless, he must 
 have picked up the chain of his life at the link 
 which death had broken, and continued his 
 natural walk into age and decay (though inter- 
 rupted by a thousand years of tne sepulchre) as 
 if his life had been without this black hiatus, and 
 he was proceeding steadily and humanly from the 
 cradle. But collecting that the vital spark could 
 never have been extinguished in him, I understood 
 that time, which has absolute control over life, 
 still knew him as its prey during all those forty- 
 eight years in which he had lain frozen ; that it 
 had seized him now and suddenly, and pinned 
 upon his back the full burden of his lustres. This 
 I say, I believed; but the morrow, of course, 
 would give me further proof. 
 
 Well, 'twas a happy and gracious deliverance 
 for me. He could ao me no hurt ; the scythe had 
 sheared his talons, and all without occasioning 
 my conscience the least uneasiness whatever: 
 whereas, but for this interposition, I did truly and 
 solemnly believe that it must have come to my 
 kivinjg had to slay him that I might preserve my 
 wn life. 
 
 Thus I sat for an hour smoking and wetting my
 
 BREAKS AWAY. 369 
 
 lips with the punch, whilst the fire burned low, so 
 exulting in the thought of my escape from the 
 treacherous villain I had recovered from the grave, 
 and in the feeling that I might now be able to go 
 to rest, to move here and there, to act as I pleased 
 without being haunted and terrified by the shadow 
 of his foul intent, that I hardly gave my mind for 
 a moment to the situation of the schooner nor to 
 the barren consequences of my fine scheme of 
 mines. 
 
 The wind blew strong. I could hear the hum- 
 ming of it in every fibre of the vessel. The bed 
 on which she rested trembled to the blows of the 
 seas upon the rocks. From time to time, in the 
 midst of my musing, I started to' the sharp claps 
 of parted ice. Stifl feeling sleepless, I threw a 
 few coals on the fire, and catching sight of the 
 pirate flag opened it on the deck as wide as the 
 space would permit, and sat down to contemplate 
 the hideous insignia embroidered on it. My mind 
 filled with a hundred fancies as my gaze went 
 from the skull on the black field to the death's- 
 head pipe that had fallen from the grasp of 
 Tassard and lay on the deck, and I was sitting 
 lost in a deep dreamlike contemplation, when I 
 was startled and shocked into instantaneous 
 activity by a blast of noise, louder than any 
 thunder-clap that ever I heard, ringing and boom- 
 ing through the schooner. This was followed by 
 a second and then a third, at intervals during 
 which you might have counted ten, and I became 
 : ble of a strange sickening motion, which 
 ibout twenty or thirty moments, such as
 
 2/o THE FROZEN PIRATK. 
 
 might be experienced by one swiftly descending 
 in a balloon, or in falling from a height whilst pent 
 up in a coach. 
 
 For a little while the schooner heeled over so 
 violently that the benches and all things movable 
 in the cook-room slided as far as they could go, 
 and I heard a great clatter and commotion among 
 the freight in the hold. She then came upright 
 again, and simultaneously with this a vast mass 
 of water tumbled on to the deck and washed over 
 my head, and then fell another and then another, 
 all in such a way as to make me know that the 
 ice had broken and slipped the schooner close to 
 the ocean, where she lay exposed to its surges, 
 but not free of the ice, for she did not toss or roll. 
 
 I seized the lanthorn and sprang to the cabin, 
 where I hung it up, and mounted the companion- 
 steps. But as I put my hand to the door to 
 thrust it open a sea broke over the side and filled 
 the decks, bubbling and thundering past the com- 
 panion-hatch in such a way as to advise me that 
 I need but open the door to drown the cabin. I 
 waited, my heart beating very hard, mad to see 
 what had happened, but not daring to trust my- 
 self on deck lest I should be immediately swept 
 into the sea. Twas the most terrible time I had 
 yet lived through in this experience. To every 
 blow of the billows the schooner trembled fear- 
 fully ; the crackling noises of the ice was as 
 though I was in the thick of a heavy action. The 
 full weight of the wind seemed to be upon the 
 ship, and the screeching of it in the iron-like 
 shrouds pierced to my ear through the hissing
 
 THB ICE BREAKS AWAY. 171 
 
 tearing sounds of the water washing along the 
 decks, and the volcanic notes of the surges break- 
 ing over the vessel. I say, to hear all this and 
 not to be able to see, to be ignorant of the situa- 
 tion of the schooner, not to know from one second 
 to another whether she would not be crushed up 
 and crumbled into staves, or be hurled off her bed 
 and be pounded to fragments upon the ice rocks 
 by the seas, or be dashed by the cannonading of 
 the surge into the water and turned bottom up, 
 made this time out and away more terrible than 
 the collision between the Laughing Mary and the 
 iceberg. 
 
 I drew my breath with difficulty, and stood 
 upon the companion-ladder hearkening with 
 straining ears, my hand upon the door. I was 
 now sensible of a long-drawn, stately, solemn kind 
 of heaving motion in the schooner, which I put 
 down to the rolling of the ice on which she rested ; 
 and this convinced me that the mass in whose 
 hollow she had been fixed had broken away and 
 was afloat and riding upon the swell that under- 
 ran the billows. But I was far too much alarmed 
 to feel anv of those transports in which I must 
 have indulged had this issue to my scheme hap- 
 pened in daylight and in smooth water. I was 
 terrified by the apprehensions which had occurred 
 to me even whilst I was at work on the mines; I 
 mean, that if the bed broke away the schooner 
 would make it top-heavy and that it would cap- 
 size ; and thus I stood in a vry agony of 
 expectancy, caged like a rat, and at helpless as 
 the dead.
 
 THF. FROZEN PIUATI. 
 
 Hatf an hour must have passed, during which 
 time the decks were incessantly swept by the 
 seas, insomuch that I never once durst open the 
 door even to look out. But nothing having 
 happened to increase my consternation in this 
 half-hour, though the movement in the schooner 
 was that of a very ponderous and majestical 
 rolling and heaving, showing her bed to be afloat, 
 I began to find my spirits and to listen and wait 
 with some buddings of hope and confidence. At 
 the expiration of this time the seas began to fall 
 less heavily and regularly on to the deck, and pre- 
 sently I could only hear them breaking forward, 
 but without a quarter their former weight, and 
 nothing worse came aft than large brisk showers 
 of spray. 
 
 I armed myself with additional clothing for the 
 encounter of the wet, cold, and wind, and then 
 pushed open the door and stepped forth. The 
 sky was dark with rolling clouds, but the ice put 
 its own light into the air, and I could see as plain 
 as if the first of the dawn had broken. It was as 
 I had supposed : the mass of the valley in which 
 the schooner had been sepulchred for eight-and- 
 forty years had come away from the main, and 
 lay floating within a cable's length of the 
 coast. A stranger, wonderfuller picture human 
 eye never beheld. The island shore ran a ram- 
 part of faintness along the darkness to where it 
 died out in liquid dusk to right and left, The 
 schooner sat upon a bed of ice that showed a 
 surface of about half an acre ; her stern was close 
 to the sea, and about six feet above it On her
 
 TWI Id BUAKS AWAY. 7$ 
 
 Iari>oard quarter the dope or shoulder of the ac- 
 clivity had been broken by the rupture, and you 
 looked over the side into the clear sea beyond the 
 limit of the ice there ; but abreast of the fore- 
 shrouds the ice rose in a kind of wall, a great 
 splinter it looked of what was before a nail 
 broad-browed hill, and the wind or the sea having 
 caused the body on which the schooner lay to 
 veer, this wall stood as a shield betwixt the vessel 
 and the surges, and was now receiving those 
 blows which had heretofore struck her starboard 
 side amidships and filled her decks. 
 
 Oh for a wizard's inkhorn, tha I might make 
 you see the picture as I view it now, even with 
 the eye of memory ! The posture of the little 
 berg pointed the schooner's head seawards, about 
 west ; the ice-terraces of the island lay with the 
 wild strange gleam of their own snow radiance 
 upon them upon the larboard quarter; around 
 the schooner was the whiteness of her frozen seat, 
 and her outline was an inky, exquisitely defined 
 
 nfiguration upon it ; above the crystal wall on the 
 Urboard bow rose the spume of the breaking surge 
 
 pallid bodies, glancing for an instant, and some- 
 times shaking a thunder into the ship when a 
 portion of the seething water was flung by the 
 wind upon the forecastle deck ; at moments a 
 1 uger sea than usual overran the ice on the lar- 
 board beam and quarter, and boiled up round 
 about the buttocks of the schooner. To leeward 
 the smooth backs of the billows rolled away in 
 jet, but the fitful throbbings and feeble flashings 
 of froth commingled with the dim shine of tk* iec
 
 974 THE FROZE* PIRAT** 
 
 were over all, tincturing the darkness with i 
 spectral sheen, giving to everything a quality of 
 unearthliness that was sharpened yet by the 
 sounds of the wind in the gloom on high and 
 the hissing and foaming of waters sending their 
 leagues-distant voices to the ear upon the wings 
 of the icy blast. 
 
 The wind, as I have said, blew from the south- 
 west, but the trend of the island-coast was north- 
 east, and as the mass of ice I was upon in parting 
 from the main had floated to a cable's length from 
 the cliffs, there was not much danger, whilst the 
 wind and sea held, of the berg (if I may so term 
 it) being thrown upon the island. That the ice 
 under the schooner was moving, and if so, at 
 what rate, it was too dark to enable me to know 
 by observing the marks on the coast. There 
 was to be no sleep for me that night, and 
 knowing this, I stepped below and built up a 
 good fire, and then went with the lanthorn to 
 see how Tassard did and to give him the news ; 
 but he was in so deep a sleep, that after pulling 
 him a little without awakening him I let him 
 lie, nothing but the sound of his breathing per- 
 suading me that he had not lapsed into his old 
 frozen state again. 
 
 Of all long nights this was the longest I 
 passed through. I did truly believe that 
 day was never to break again over the oc 
 I must have gone from the fire to the 
 thirty or forty times. The schooner conti 
 upright. oversetting ; 
 
 sat v showed but a
 
 THE ICE BREAKS AWAY. 175 
 
 small head iter, and as the body 
 
 of it lay pretty flat, then, even supposing its 
 submerged bulk was small, there was little 
 chance of its capsizing. I also noticed that 
 we were setting seawards that is to say, to 
 the westward by a noticeable shrinking of the 
 pallid coast. But I never could stay long 
 enough above to observe with any kind of 
 narrowness, the wind being full of the wet that 
 was flung over the ice-wall and the cold un- 
 endurable. 
 
 All- night I kept the fire going, and on several 
 occasions visited the Frenchman, but found him 
 motionless in sleep. I kept too good a look- 
 out to apprehend any sudden calamity short of 
 capsizal, which I no longer feared, and during 
 the watches of that long night I dreamt a 
 hundred waking dreams of my deliverance, of 
 my share of the treasure, of my arriving in 
 England, quitting the sea for ever, and setting 
 up as a great squire, marrying a nobleman's 
 daughter, driving in a fine coach, and ending 
 with a seat in Parliament and a stout well- 
 sounding handle to my name. 
 
 At last the day broke; I went on deck and 
 found the dawn brightening into morning. The 
 wind had fallen and with it the sea; but there 
 still ran a middling strong surge, and the breeze 
 was such as f in sailors' language, you would have 
 shown your top-gallant sails to. I could now 
 take measure of our situation, and was not a little 
 astonished and delighted to observe the island to 
 b at kait a mile distant from us, and the north-
 
 THE FROZEN 
 
 ait n4 lying very plain, the ocean showing be- 
 yond it, though in the south-west the ice died out 
 upon the sea-line. That we had been set away 
 from the main by some current was very certain. 
 There was a westerly tendency in all the b 
 which broke from the island, the small 
 moving more quickly than the large, for the 
 sea in the north and west was dotted with at least 
 fifty of these white masses, great and little. On 
 the other hand, the wind and seas were answer- 
 able for the progress we had made to the north. 
 
 The wall of ice (as I call it) that had stood over 
 against the larboard bow was gone, and the seas 
 tumbled with some heaviness of froth and much 
 noise over the ice, past the bows, and washed 
 past the bends on eltner side in froth rising as high 
 as the channels. I noticed a great quantity of 
 broken ice sinking and rising in the dark green 
 curls of the billows, and big blocks would be 
 hurled on to the schooner's bed and then be swept 
 off, sometimes fetching the bilge such a thump as 
 seemed to swing a bellow through her frame. It 
 was only at intervals, however, that water fell upon 
 the decks, for the ice broke the beat of the 
 moderating surge and forced it to expend its 
 weight in spume, which there was not strength of 
 wind enough to raise and heave. Since the vessel 
 continued to lie head to sea, my passionate hope 
 was that these repeated washings of the waves 
 would in time loosen the ice about her keel, in 
 which case it would not need much of a bi; 
 smiting her full bows fair, to slide her clean c 
 and off her bed and so launch her. The
 
 THB ICE BREAKS AWAY. 
 
 many clouds in the heavens, but the blue was very 
 
 pure between. The morning brightening with the 
 rising of the sun, I directed an earnest gaze along 
 the horizon, but there was nothing to see but ice. 
 Som'e of the bergs, however, and more particularly 
 the distant ones, stole out of the blue atmo- 
 sphere to the sunshine with so complete a resem- 
 blance to the lifting canvas of ships that I would 
 catch myself staring fixedly, my heart beating 
 fast. But there was no dejection in these dis- 
 appointments ; the ecstasy that filled me on 
 beholding the terrible island, the hideous frozen 
 prison whose crystal bars I had again and again 
 believed were never to be broken, now lying at a 
 distance with its northern cape imperceptibly 
 opening to our subtle movement, was so violent 
 that I could not have found my voice for the tears 
 in my heart. 
 
 This, then, was the result of my scheme ; it was 
 no failure, as Tassard had said ; as he owed his 
 life to me, so now did he owe me his liberty. 
 Nay, my transports were so great that I would not 
 suffer myself to feel an instant's anxiety touching 
 the condition of the schooner I mean whether 
 she would leak or prove sound when she floated 
 and how we two men were to manage to navi- 
 gate so large a craft, that was still as much 
 spellbound aloft in her frozen canvas and tackle 
 as ever she had been in the sepulchre in which I 
 discovered her. 
 
 I went below, and put the provisions we needed 
 for breakfast into the oven, and entered Tassard's 
 cabin. On bringing the lanthorn to his face as he
 
 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 lay under half a score of coats upon the deck, 1 
 perceived that he was awake, and, my heart being 
 full, I cried out cheerily, " Good news ! good news ! 
 the gunpowder did its work ! The ice is ruptured 
 and we are afloat, Mr. Tassard, afloat and pro- 
 gressing north I " 
 
 He looked at me vacantly, and giving his head 
 a shake exclaimed, " How can I crawl from this 
 mound ? My strength is gone." 
 
 If I was amazed that the joyful intelligence I 
 had delivered produced no other response than 
 this querulous inquiry, I was far more astonished 
 by the sound of his voice. It was the most 
 cracked and venerable pipe that ever tickled the 
 throat of old age, a mingling of wailing falsettos 
 and of hollow gasping growls, the whole very 
 weak. I threw the clothes off him, and said, " Do 
 you wish to rise ? I will bring your breakfast here 
 if you wish." 
 
 He looked at me, but made no answer. I 
 bawled again, and observed (by the dim lanthorn 
 light) that he watched my lips with an air of 
 attention ; and whilst I waited for his reply he 
 said, " I don't hear you." 
 
 Anxious to ascertain to what extent his hear- 
 ing was impaired, I kneeled on the deck, and 
 putting my lips to his ear said, not very loud, 
 ' Will you come to the cook-house ? " which he did 
 nol hear; and then louder, "Will you come to the 
 cook-house?" which he did not hear either. I 
 believed him stone-deaf till, on roaring with all 
 the power of my lungs, he answered " Y< 
 
 I took him by the hands arid hauled him gently
 
 Tiff ?HE BREAKS AWAY* 
 
 on to his feet, and had to continue holding him or 
 he must have fallen. Time was beginning with 
 him when he had gone to bed, and the remorseless 
 old soldier had completely finished his work whilst 
 his victim slept. I viewed the Frenchman whilst 
 I grasped his hands, and there stood before me a 
 shrunk, tottering, deaf, bowed, feeble old man. 
 What was yesterday a polished head was now a 
 shrivelled pate, as though the very skull had 
 shrunk and left the skin to ripple into wrinkles 
 and sit loose and puckered. His hands trembled 
 excessively. But his lower jaw was held in its 
 place by his teeth, and this perpetuated in the 
 aged dwindled countenace something of the like- 
 ness o. the fierce and sinister visage that had 
 confronted me yesterday. I was thunderstruck 
 by the alteration, and stood overwhelmed with 
 awe, confusion, and alarm. Then, re-collecting 
 my spirits, I supported the miserable relic to the 
 fire, putting his bench to the dresser that he might 
 Have a back to lean against. 
 
 He could scarce feed himself indeed, he could 
 hardly hold his chin off his breast. He had gone 
 to bed a man, as I might take it, of fifty-six, and 
 during the night the angel of Time had visited 
 him, and there he sat, a hundred and three 
 years of age I 
 
 He looked it. Ha, thought I, I was dreading 
 your treachery yesterday ; there is nothing more 
 to fear. Besides that he was nearly stone deaf, 
 he could hardly see ; and I was sure, if he should 
 be able to move at all, he could not stir a leg with- 
 out the help of sticks. 1 was going to roar out to
 
 2&o THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 him that we were adrift, but he looked so imbecile 
 that I thought, to what purpose ? If there be 
 aught of memory in him, let him sit and chew the 
 cud thereof. He cannot last long ; the cold must 
 soon stop his heart. And with that I went on 
 eating my breakfast in silence, but greatly affected 
 by this astonishing mark of the hand of Provi- 
 dence, and under a very heavy and constant sense 
 of awe, for the like of such a transformation I am 
 sure had never before encountered mortal eyes, 
 and it was terrifying to be alone with it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE FRENCHMAN DIBS. 
 
 HOWEVER, if I expected my Frenchman to sit 
 very long silent, he toon undeceived me by begin- 
 ning to complain in his tremulous aged voice of 
 his weakness and aching limbs. 
 
 "Tis the terrible cold that has affected me," 
 said he, whilst his head nodded nervously. " I feel 
 the rheumatism in every bone. There is no weak- 
 ness like the rheumatic, I have heard, and 'tis 
 true, 'tis true. It may lay me along yes, by the 
 Virgin, 'tis rheumatism what else?" Mere he 
 was interrupted by a long fit of coughing, and 
 when it was ended he turned to address me l\. 
 but looked at the bulkhead on my right, as if his 
 vision could not fix me. " But my capers are not 
 over ! " he cried, setting up his rickety shrill 
 throat ; " no, no I Vive 1'amour ! vive la joie ! 
 The sun i^ coming the sun is the fountain of life 
 ay, mon brave, there are some shakes in these
 
 THE FRENCHMAW DIES. 281 
 
 stout legs yet ! " He shook his head with a fine 
 air of cunning and knowingness, grinning very 
 oddly ; and then, falling grave with a startling 
 suddenness, he began to dribble out a piratical 
 love-story he had once before favoured me with, 
 describing the charms of the woman with a 
 horrid leer, his head nodding with the nervous 
 affection of age all the time, whilst he looked 
 blindly in my direction a hideous and yet pitiful 
 object ! 
 
 I could not say that his mind was gone, but he 
 talked with many breaks for breath, and not very 
 coherently, as though the office of his tongue was 
 performed by habit rather than memory, so that 
 he often went far astray and babbled into sen- 
 tences that had no reference to what had gone 
 before, though on the whole I managed to collect 
 what he meant. I was sure he had not power 
 enough of vision to observe me in the dim reddish 
 light of the cook-room, and this being so, he 
 could not know I was present, more particularly 
 as he could not hear me, yet he persisted in his 
 poor babble, which was a behaviour in him that, 
 more than even the matter of his speech, per- 
 suaded me of his imbecility. 
 
 He made no reference to our situation, and in 
 solemn truth I believe his memory retained no more 
 than a few odds and ends of the evil story of his 
 life, like bits of tarnished lace and a rusty button 
 or two lying in the bottom of a dark chest that 
 has long been emptied of the clothes it once 
 held. 
 
 But my condition made such heavy demands
 
 * THB FROZE* PnumL 
 
 upon my thoughts that I had very much its.- ttten- 
 tion to give to this surprising phenomenon of 
 senility than its uncommon merits deserved. It 
 has puzzled every member of the faculty that I 
 have mentioned it to, the supposition being that, 
 given the case of suspended animation, there is 
 no waste, and the person would quit his stupor 
 with the same powers and aspect as he possessed 
 when he entered it, though it lasted a thousand 
 years. But granting there is no waste, Time is 
 always present waiting to settle accounts when 
 the sleeper lifts his head. There may be an arti- 
 ficial interval, during which the victim might 
 show as my pirate did, but the poised load of 
 years is severed on a sudden by the scythe and 
 becomes superincumbent, and with the weight 
 comes the transformation ; and this theory, as 
 the only eye-witness of the marvellous thing, I will 
 hold and maintain whilst I have breath in my 
 body to support it. 
 
 I left him gabbling to himself, sometimes grin- 
 ning as if greatly diverted, sometimes lifting a 
 trembling hand to help his ghostly recital by an 
 equally ghostly dumb-show, and went on deck, 
 satisfied that he was too weak to get to the fire 
 and meddle with it, but sufficiently invigorated 
 by his long night's rest to sit up without tumbling 
 Dff the bench. 
 
 This time I carried with me an old perspec- 
 tive glass I had noticed in the chest in my cabin 
 the chest in which were the nautical instru- 
 ments, charts, and papers and levelled it along 
 oast of the island, but it was a poor glass,
 
 THE FRENCHMAN DIM. 183 
 
 and I found I could manage nearly as well with 
 the naked eye. There was no change of any 
 kind, only that there was a sensible diminution in 
 the blowing of the wind and a corresponding 
 decrease in the height of the seas. The ice 
 stretched in a considerable bed on either hand 
 the ship and ahead of her ; the water frothed 
 freely over it, and there was a great jangling and 
 flashing of broken pieces, but the hull was no 
 longer heavily hit by them. 
 
 I got into the main chains to view the body of 
 the vessel, and noticed with satisfaction that the 
 constant pouring of the sea had thinned down the 
 frozen snow to the depth of at least a foot. This 
 encouraged me to hope that the restless tides 
 would sap to her keel at least, and put her into a 
 posture to be easily launched by the blow of a 
 surge upon her bows that is if fortune con- 
 tinued to keep her head on. But by this time 
 my transports having moderated, I was growr 
 fully sensible of the extreme peril of our position. 
 Should the sea rise and the ice bring her broad- 
 side to it, it was inevitable, it seemed to me, that 
 she must go to pieces. Or if the ice on which 
 she floated, fouled some other berg it might cost 
 us all our spars. Then again occurred the dismal 
 question, Suppose she should launch herself, 
 would she float ? For eight-and-forty years she 
 had been high and dry ; never a caulker's hammer 
 had rung upon her in all that time. Tassard had 
 spoken of her as a stout ship, and so she was, I 
 did not doubt ; but the old rogue talked as if 
 she had been stranded six mi I had
 
 284 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 no other hope than that the intense cold had 
 
 treated her timbers as it had treated the bodies of 
 her people, an expectation not unreasonable when 
 I considered the state of her stores and the mani- 
 fest substantiality of her inward fabric. 
 
 I regained the deck and stepped over to the 
 pumps. There were two of them, but built up in 
 snow. My business was to save my life if I 
 could, and the schooner too, for the sake of the 
 great treasure in her. Nothing must disco; 
 me I said to myself I must spare no labour, but 
 act a hearty sailor's part and ask for God's coun- 
 tenance. So I trotted below, and selecting some 
 weapons from the arms-room, such as a toma- 
 hawk, a spade-headed spear, a pike and a 
 chopper, I returned to the pumps and fell upon 
 them with a will. The ice flew about me, but I 
 continued to smite, the exercise making me hot 
 and renewing my spirits, and in an hour but it 
 took me an hour I had chopped, hacked, and 
 beaten one of the pumps pretty clear of its thick 
 crystal coat. They were what is called brake- 
 pumps that is to say, pumps which are worked 
 by handles. The ice, of course, held them im- 
 movable, but they looked to be perfectly sound, 
 in good working order, though there would be 
 neither chance nor need to test them until the 
 schooner went afloat. 
 
 I cleared the other one and was well satisfied 
 with my morning's work. But I did bitterly 
 lament the lack of a little crew. Even the 
 Frenchmaa s* he was yesterday would have 
 my turn, for between us we might hare
 
 THE FRENCHMAN DIM. 985 
 
 made shift to clamber aloft, and with hatchets 
 break the saiU free of their ice bonds, and so 
 expose canvas enough to hold the wind, which 
 could not have failed to impart a swifter motion 
 to the berg. But with my single pair of hands I 
 could only look up idly at the yards and gaffs 
 standing hard as granite. Still, even such sur- 
 face as the spars and rigging offered to the 
 breeze helped our progress. We were but a very 
 little berg, nay, not a berg, but rather a sheet of 
 ice lying indifferently flat upon the sea, and, as I 
 believe, without much depth. Our spars and 
 gear were as if the ice itself were rigged as a ship, 
 and then there was the height of the hull besides 
 to offer to the breeze a tolerable resistance for its 
 offices of propulsion. In this way I explain our 
 progress ; but whatever the cause, certain it was 
 that our bed of ice was fairly under weigh, and at 
 noon the island of ice bore at least half a league 
 distant from us, and we had opened the sea 
 broadly past its northern cape. 
 
 I have often diverted myself with wondering 
 what sort of impression the posture of our 
 schooner would have made on the minds of 
 sailors sighting us from their deck. We looked 
 to be floating out of water, and mariners who 
 regard the devil as a conjuror must have accepted 
 us as one of his pet inventions. 
 
 The many icebergs which encumbered the sea 
 filled me with anxiety. We were travelling faster 
 than they, and it seemed impossible that we could 
 miss striking one or another of them. Yet 
 perilous as they were, 1 could not but admire
 
 THE FROZEN PIRATB, 
 
 their beautiful . appearance as they floated upon 
 the dark blue of the running waters, flashing out 
 very gloriously to the sun with a sparkling of 
 tints upon their whiteness as if fires of twenty 
 different colours had been kindled upon their 
 cra ggy steeps, and then fading into a sulky 
 watcnet to the dull violet shadowing of the passing 
 clouds. I particularly marked a very brilliant 
 scene on the opening of five or six of them to 
 the sunshine. They lay in such wise that the 
 shadow of the cloud covered them all as with a 
 veil, the skirts of which, trailing, left them to leap 
 one after the other into the noontide dazzle ; and 
 as each one shot from the shadow the flash was 
 like a volcanic spouting of white flame enriched 
 with the prismatic dyes of emeralds, rubies, sap- 
 phires, and gems of lovely hue. 
 
 To determine the hour and our position I 
 fetched a quadrant from my cabin, and was 
 happily just in time to catch the sun crossing the 
 meridian. My watch was half an hour fast, so I 
 had been out of my reckoning to the extent of 
 thirty minutes ever since I hacTbeen cast away. 
 I made our latitude to be sixty-four degrees 
 twenty-eight minutes south, and the computation 
 was perhaps near enough. 
 
 This business ended, I went to the cook-house 
 to prepare dinner, and the first object I saw was 
 Tassard flat upon his face near the door that 
 opened into the cabin. He groaned when I 
 picked him up, which I managed without much 
 exertion of strength, for so much had he 
 shrunk that I dart say more than half his weight
 
 TKB FUEVCHMAV DOOL 
 
 lar in his clothes ; and set him upon his bench 
 with his .back to the dresser. I put my mouth to 
 his ear and roared, " Are you hurt ? M His head 
 nodded as if he understood me, but I question if 
 he did. He was the completest picture of old 
 age that you could imagine. I fetched a couple 
 of spears from the arms-room, and, cutting them 
 to his height, put one in each hand that he might 
 keep himself propped ; and whilst my own dinner 
 was broiling I made him a mess of broth with 
 which I fed him, for now that he had the sticks 
 he would not let go of them. But in any case I 
 doubt if his trembling hand could have lifted the 
 spoon to his lips without capsizing the contents 
 down his beard. 
 
 With some small idea of rallying the old villain, 
 I mixed him a very stiff bumper of brandy, which 
 he supped down out of my hand with the utmost 
 avidity. The draught soon worked in him, and 
 he began to move his head about, seeking me 
 in his blind way, and then cried in his broken 
 notes, " I have lost the use of my legs and cannot 
 walk. Mother of God, what shall I do 1 O holy 
 St. Antonio, what is to become of me?" 
 
 I guessed from this that, impelled by habit or 
 some small spur of reason, he had risen to go on 
 deck and fallen. He went on vapouring pitifully, 
 gazing with sufficient steadfastness to let me 
 understand that his vision received something of 
 my outline, though he would fix his eyes either 
 to left or right of me, as though he was not able 
 to see if he looked straight; and this and his 
 mournful cackle and his nodding head, bowed
 
 288 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 form, propped hands, and diminished face made 
 him as distressful and melancholy a picture of Time 
 as ever mortal man viewed. He broke off in his 
 rambling to ask for more brandy, taking it for 
 granted that I was still in the cook-room, for I 
 never spoke, and I filled a can for him and as 
 before held it to his mouth, which he opened wide, 
 a piece of behaviour which went to show that 
 some of his wits still hung loose upon him. This 
 was a strong dose, and co-operating with the 
 other, soon seized hold on his head, and presently 
 he began to laugh to himself and talk, and even 
 broke into a stave or two some French song 
 which he delivered in a voice like the squeaking 
 of a rat alternating with the growling of a terrier. 
 
 I guess his stumbling upon this old French 
 catch (which I took it to be from seeing him 
 feebly flourish one of his sticks as if inviting a 
 chorus) put him upon speaking his own tongue 
 altogether, for though he continued to chatter 
 with all the volubility his breath would permit 
 during the whole time I sat eating, not one 
 word of English did he speak, and not one word 
 therefore did I understand. Seeing how it must 
 be with him presently, I brought his mattress 
 and rugs from his cabin, and had scarce laid 
 them down when he let fall one of his sticks and 
 drooped over. I grasped him, and partly lifting, 
 partly hauling, got him on his back and covered 
 him up. In a few minutes he was asleep. 
 
 I trust I shall not be deemed inhuman if I con- 
 fess that I heartily wished his end would come. 
 If he went on living he promised to be an intoler-
 
 THl FUENCHMAM DIM. S$9 
 
 able burden to me, being quite helpless. Besides, 
 he was much too old for this world, in which a 
 man who reaches the age of ninety is pointed to 
 as a sort of wonder. 
 
 As there was nothing to be done on deck, I 
 filled my pipe and made myself comfortable before 
 the furnace, and was speedily sunk in meditation. 
 I reviewed all the circumstances of my case and 
 considered my chances, and the nimble heels of 
 imagination carrying me home with this schooner, 
 I asked myself, suppose I should have the good 
 fortune to convey the treasure in safety to 
 England, how was I to secure it ? Let me imagine 
 myself arrived in the Thames. The whole world 
 stares at the strange antique craft sailing up the 
 river ; she would be boarded and rummaged by 
 the customs people, who of course would light 
 upon the treasure. What then ? I knew nothing 
 of the law ; but I reckoned, since I should have 
 to tell the truth, that the money, ore, and jewellery 
 would be claimed as stolen property, and I dis- 
 missed with a small reward for bringing it home. 
 There was folly in such contemplation at such a 
 time, when perhaps at this hour to-morrow the 
 i.-hests might be at the bottom of the sea, and 
 myself a drowned sailor floating three hundrc 1 
 fathoms deep. But man is a froward child, who 
 builds mansions out of dreams, and, jockeyed 
 by hope, sets out at a gallop along the visionary 
 road to his desires ; and my mind was so much 
 taken up with considering how I should manage 
 when I brought the treasure home, that I spent 
 a couple of hours in a conflict of schemes,
 
 90 
 
 during which time it never once occurred to m 
 to reflect that I was a good way from home still, 
 and that much must happen before I need give 
 myself the least concern as to the securing of the 
 treasure. 
 
 Nothing worth recording happened that day. 
 The wind slackened, and the ice travelled so slow 
 that at sundown I could not discover that we had 
 made more than a quarter of a mile of progress to 
 the north since noon, though we had settled by 
 half as much again that distance westwards. 
 Whilst I \vas below I could hear the ice crackling 
 pretty briskly round about the ship, which gave 
 me some comfort ; but I could never see any 
 change of consequence when I looked over the 
 side or bows, only that at about four o'clock, 
 whilst I was taking a view from the forecastle, 
 a large block broke away from beyond the star- 
 board bow with the report of a swivel gun. 
 
 I had not closed my eyes on the previous 
 night, and was tired out when the evening 
 arrived, and, as no good could come of my keep- 
 ing a watch, for the simple reason that it was not 
 in my power to avert anything that might happen, 
 I tumbled some further covering over the French- 
 man, who had lain on the deck all the afternoon, 
 sometimes dozing, sometimes waking and talking 
 to himself, and appearing on the whole very easy 
 and comfortable, and went to my cabin. 
 
 I slept sound the whole night through, and on 
 waking went on deck before going to the cook- 
 house and lighting the furnace (as was my cus- 
 tom), so impatient was I to observe our state and
 
 Tra FucvcncAV MM. 91 
 
 to hear tuck news as the ocean had for me. It 
 was a very curious day, somewhat darksome, 
 and a dead calm, with a large long swell out 
 of the south-east. The sky was full of clouds, 
 with a stooping appearance in the hang of 
 them that reminded you of the belly of a ham- 
 mock; they were of a sallow brown, very un- 
 common ; some of them round about sipped the 
 sea-line, and their shadows, obliterating those 
 parts of the cincture which they overhung, broke 
 the continuity of the horizon as though there were 
 valleys in the ocean there. A good part of our 
 bed of ice was gone, at least a fourth of it ; but 
 the schooner still lay as strongly fixed as before. I 
 had come to the deck half expecting to find her 
 afloat from the regular manner of her heaving, and 
 was bitterly disappointed to discover her rooted 
 as strongly as ever in the ice, though the irritation 
 softened when I noticed how the bed had 
 diminished. The mass with the ship upon it rose 
 and sank with the sluggish squatting motion of a 
 water-logged vessel. It was an odd sensation to 
 my legs after their long rest from such exercise. 
 The heaving satisfied me that the base of the bed 
 did not go deep, but at the same time it was all 
 too solid for me, I could not doubt, for had the 
 sheet been as thin as I had hoped it, it must have 
 given under the weight of the schooner and re- 
 leased her. 
 
 The island lay a league distant on the larboard 
 beam, and looked a wondrous vast field of ice 
 going into the south, and it stared very ghastly 
 ipon the dark green sea out of the clouds whose
 
 29* THE FROZEN PHUT*. 
 
 gloom sank behind it. I could not observe that 
 we had drifted anything to the north, whilst our 
 set to the westwards had been steady though 
 snail-like. The sea in the north and north-west 
 swarmed with bergs, like great snowdrops on the 
 green undulating fields of the deep. Now and 
 again the swell, in which fragments of ice floated 
 with the gleam of crystal in liquid glass, would bo 
 too quick for our dull rise and overflow the bed, 
 brimming to the channels with much noise of 
 foam and pouring waters, but the interposition of 
 the ice took half its weight out of it, and it never 
 did more than send a tremble through the 
 vessel. 
 
 What to make of the weather I knew not, 
 Certainly, of~all the caprices of this huge cold sea, 
 its calms are the shortest lived, but this knowledge 
 helped me to no other. The clouds did not stir. 
 In the north-east a beam of sunshine stood like a 
 golden waterspout, its foot in a little flood of glory. 
 It stayed all the while I was on deck, showing 
 that the clouds had scarce any motion, and made 
 the picture of the sea that way beyond nature to 
 my sight, by the contrast of the defined shaft of 
 gold, burning purely, with the dusk of the clouds 
 all about, and of the pool of dazzle at its foot 
 with the ugly green of the water that melted 
 into it. 
 
 I went oelow and got about lighting the fire. 
 The Frenchman lay very quiet, under as many 
 clothes as would fill a half-dozen of sacks. It 
 was bitterly cold, sharper in the cook-house than 
 I had ever remembered it, and I co;:
 
 THS FRENCHMAN one*. 93 
 
 reive why this should be, until I recollected that 
 I had forgotten to close the companion-hatch 
 before going to bed. I prepared some broth for 
 my companion, and dressed some ham for myself, 
 and ate my breakfast, supposing he would mean- 
 while awake. But after sitting some time and 
 observing that he did not stir, a suspicion flashed 
 into my mind ; I kneeled down, and clearing his 
 face, listened. He did not breathe. I brought 
 the lanthorn to him, but his countenance had 
 been so changed by his unparalleled emergence 
 from a state of middle life into extreme old age, 
 he was so puckered, hollowed, gaunt, his features 
 so distorted by the great weight of his years that I 
 was not to know him dead by merely viewing him. 
 I threw the clothes off him, listened at his mouth 
 breathlessly, felt his hands, which were ice-cold. 
 Dead indeed ! thought I. Great Father, 'tis Thy 
 will ! And I rose very slowly and stood surveying 
 the silent figure with an emotion that owed its 
 inspiration partly to the several miracles of vitality 
 I had beheld in him during our association, and 
 to a bitter feeling of loneliness that swelled up 
 in me. 
 
 Yes ! I had feared and detested this man, but 
 his quick transformation and silent dark exit 
 affected me, and I looked down u'pon him sadly. 
 Yet, to be perfectly candid with you, I recollect 
 that, though it occurred to me to test if life was 
 out of him by bringing him close to the fire and 
 chafing him and giving him brandy, I would not 
 stir. No, I would not have moved a finger to 
 recover htm, even though I should have been
 
 t*4 TIM FROZEN PIRATM. 
 
 able to do so by merely putting him to the furnace. 
 He was dead, and there was an end; and without 
 further ado I carried him into the forecastle and 
 threw a hammock over him, and left him to lie 
 there till there should come clear water to the ship 
 to serve him for a grave. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THB SCHOONER FREES HERSELF. 
 
 ALL day long the weather remained sullen and 
 still, and the swell powerful. I was on deck at 
 noon, looking at an iceberg half a league distant 
 when it overset. It was a small berg, though 
 large compared with most of the others ; yet such 
 a mighty volume of foam boiled up as gave me a 
 startling idea of the prodigious weight o? the mass. 
 The sight made me very anxious about my own 
 state, and to satisfy my mind I got upon the ice 
 and walked round the vessel, and to get a true 
 view of her posture went to the extreme end of the 
 rocks beyond her bows, and finally came to the 
 conclusion that, supposing the ice should crumble 
 away from her sides so as to cause the weight of 
 the schooner to render it top-heavy, her buoyancy 
 on touching the water would certainly tear her 
 keel out of its frosty setting and leave her floating. 
 I ndeed, so sure was I of this that I saw, next to 
 the ice splitting and freeing her in that way, the 
 best thing that could happen would be its capsizal. 
 I regained the ship, and had paused an instant 
 to look over the side, when I perceived the very 
 block of ice on which I had come to a halt break
 
 Tn SCHOONER FREES HERSELF. 295 
 
 from the bed with a smart clap of noise, and 
 completely roll over. Only a minute before had I 
 been standing on it, and thus had sixty seconds 
 stood between me and death, for most certainly 
 must I have been drowned or killed by being 
 beaten against the ice by the swell ! I fell upon 
 my knees and lifted up my hands in gratitude to 
 God, feeling extraordinarily comforted by this 
 further mark of His care of me, and very strongly 
 persuaded that He designed I should come off 
 with my life after all, since His providence would 
 not work so many miracles for my preservation if 
 I was to perish by this adventure. 
 
 These thoughts did more for my spirits than I 
 can well express ; and the intolerable sense of 
 loneliness was mitigated by the knowledge that I 
 was watched, and therefore not alone. 
 
 The day passed I know not how. The shadow 
 as of tempest hung in the air, but never a cats- 
 paw did I see to blurr the rolling mirror of the 
 ocean. The hidden sun sank out of the breathless 
 sky, tingeing the atmosphere with a faint hectic, 
 which quickly yielded to the deepest shade of 
 blackness. The mysterious desperate silence, 
 however, that on deck weighed oppressively on 
 every sense, as something false, menacing, and 
 malignant in these seas, was qualified below by the 
 peculiar straining noises in the schooner's hold 
 caused by the swinging of the ice upon the 
 swell. 1 was very uneasy ; I dreaded a gale. It 
 was impossible but that the vessel must quickly 
 go to pieces in a heavy sea upon the ice if she 
 did not liberate herself. But though this excited
 
 196 THI FROZKM PIKATB. 
 
 a depression melancholy enough, nothing else 
 that I can recollect contributed to it. When I 
 reviewed the apprehension the Frenchman had 
 raised, and reflected how unsupportable a burden 
 he must have become, I was very well satisfied 
 to be alone. Time had fortified me ; I had 
 passed through experiences so surprising, en- 
 countered wonders so preternatural, that super- 
 stition lav asleep in my soul, and I found nothing 
 to occasion in me the feast uneasiness in thinking 
 of the lifeless shrivelled figure of what was just 
 now a fierce, cowardly, untamed villain, lying in the 
 forecastle. 
 
 I made a good supper, built up a large fire, and 
 mixed myselT a hearty bowl of punch, not with 
 the view of drowning my anxieties God forbid ! 
 I was too grateful for the past, too expectant of 
 the future, to be capable of so brutish a folly 
 but that I might keep myself in a cheerful pos- 
 ture of mind ; and being sick of my own company 
 took the lanthorn to the cabin lately used by the 
 Frenchman, and found in a chest there, among 
 sundry articles of attire, a little parcel of books, 
 some in Dutch and Portuguese, and one in English. 
 
 It was a little old volume, the author's name 
 not given, and proved to be a relation of the 
 writer's being taken . by pirates, and the many 
 dangers he underwent. There was nothing in it, 
 to be sure, that answered to my own case, yet it 
 interested me mightily as an honest unvami^ 
 narrative of sea perils; and I see myself no 
 fancy reading it, the lanthorn hanging byalanurd 
 close beside my head, the book in one hand, my
 
 THB SCHOONER FREES HERSKLF* 197 
 
 in the other, the furnace roaring pleasantly, my 
 feet close to it, and the atmosphere of the oven 
 fragrant with the punch that I put there to prevent 
 it from freezing. I had come to a certain page and 
 was reading this passage : l< Soon after we were on 
 hoard we all went into the great cabin, where we 
 found nothing but destruction. Two scrutores 1 
 had there were broke to pieces , and all the fine goods 
 and necessaries in them were all gone. Moreover, 
 two large chests that had books in them were empty, 
 and I was afterwards informed they had been all 
 thrown overboard ; for one of tke pirates on opening 
 them swore then was jaw-work enough (as he 
 called if) to serve a nation, and proposed that they 
 might be cast into the sea, for he feared there might 
 be some books amongst them that might breed mis- 
 chief enough, and prevent some of their comrades 
 from going on in their voyage to hell, whither they 
 were all bound" I say, I was reading this 
 passage, not a little affected by the impiety of the 
 rascal, for whose portrait my dead Frenchman 
 might very well have sat, when I was terrified by 
 an extraordinary loud explosion, that burst so near 
 and rang with such a prodigious clear note of 
 thunder through the schooner that I vow to God 
 I believed the gunpowder below had blown up. 
 And in this suspicion I honestly supposed myself 
 right for a moment, for on running into the cabin 
 I was dazzled by a crimson flame that clothed the 
 whole interior with a wondrous gush of fire ; but 
 this being instantly followed by such another clap 
 as the former/I understood a thunderstorm had 
 broken over the schooner.
 
 39* THI FROZEN PIRAT*. 
 
 It was exactly overhead, and that accounted 
 for the violence of the crashes, which were indeed 
 so extreme that they sounded rather like the split- 
 ting of enormous bodies of ice close to, than the 
 flight of electric bolts. The hatch lay open ; I 
 ran on deck, but scarce had passed my head 
 through the companion when down came a storm 
 of hail, every stone as big as a pigeon's egg, and 
 in all my time I never heard a more hellish 
 clamour. There was not a breath of air. The 
 hail fell in straight lines, which the fierce near 
 lightning flashed up into the appearance of giant 
 harp strings, on which the black hand of the night 
 was playing those heavy notes of thunder. I sat 
 in the shelter of the companion, very anxious and 
 alarmed, for there was powder enough in the hold, 
 to blow the ship into atoms ; and the lightning 
 played so continuously and piercingly that it was 
 like a hundred darts of fire, violet, crimson, and 
 sun-coloured, in the grasp of spirits who thrust at 
 the sea, all over its face, with swift movement of 
 the arms, as though searching for the schooner 
 to spear her. 
 
 The hailstorm ceased as suddenly as it had 
 burst. I stepped on to the deck, and 'twas like 
 treading on shingle. There was not the least 
 motion in the air, and the stagnation gave an 
 almost supernatural character to the thunder and 
 lightning. The ocean was lighted up to its 
 furthest visible confines by the flames in the sky, 
 and the repeated explosions of thunder exceeded 
 the roaring of the ordnance of a dozen squadrons 
 in hot fight. The ice-coast in the east, and the
 
 Tn SCHOOVB& FREES HERSELF. 999 
 
 two score bergs in the north and west leapt out of 
 one hue into another ; and were my days in this 
 world to exceed those of old Abraham, I should 
 to my last breath remember the solemn and 
 terrible magnificence of that picture of lightning- 
 coloured ice, the sulphur-tinctured shapes of the 
 swollen bodies of clouds bringing their dark 
 electric mines together in a huddle, the answering 
 flash of the face of the deep to the lancing of each 
 spiral dazzling bolt, with the air as still as the 
 atmosphere of a cathedral for the thunder to roll 
 its echoes through. 
 
 There was a second furious shower of hail, and 
 when that was over I looked forth, and observed 
 that the storm was settling into the north-east, 
 whence I concluded that what draught there might 
 be up there sat in the south-west. Nor was I 
 mistaken ; for half an hour after the first of the 
 outburst, by which time the lightning played weak 
 and at long intervals low down, and the thunder 
 had ceased, I felt a crawling of air coming put of 
 the south-west, which presently briskened into a 
 small steady blowing. But not for long. It 
 freshened yet and yet ; the wrinkles crisped into 
 whiteness on the black heavings ; they grew into 
 small surges with sharp cubbish snarlings pre- 
 ludious of the lion's voice; and by ten o'clock it 
 was blowing in strong squalls, the seas rising, 
 and the clouds sailing swiftly in smoke-coloured 
 rags under the stars. 
 
 The posture of the ice inclined the schooner's 
 starboard bow to the billows ; and in a very short 
 time she was trembling in every bone to the blows
 
 300 THI FXOZKW 
 
 of the surges which rolled boiling over the ice 
 there and struck her, flinging dim clouds of spume 
 in the air, which soon set the scuppers gushing. 
 My case was that of a stranded ship, with this 
 difference only, that a vessel ashore lies solid to 
 the beating of the waves, whereas the ice was 
 buoyant, it rose and fell, sluggishly it is true, and 
 so somewhat mitigated the severity of the shocks 
 of water. But, spite of this, I was perfectly sure 
 that unless the bed broke under her or she slipt 
 off it, she would be in pieces before the morning. 
 It was not in any hull put together by human 
 hands to resist the pounding of those seas. The 
 weight of the mighty ocean along whose breast 
 they raced was in them, and though the wind was 
 no more than a brisk gale, each billow by its 
 stature showed itself the child of a giantess. The 
 ice-bed was like a whirlpool with the leap and 
 flash and play of the froth upon it. The black 
 air of the night was whitened by the storms of 
 foam-flakes which flew over the vessel. The 
 roaring of the broken waters increased the horrors 
 of the scene. I firmly believed my time was 
 come. God had been merciful, but I was to die 
 now. As to making any shift to keep myself 
 alive after the ship should be broken up, the 
 thought never entered my head. What could I 
 do ? There was no boat. I might have contrived 
 some arrangement of booms and casks to serve 
 as a raft, but to what purpose ? How long would 
 it take the wind and sea to freeze me? 
 
 I crouched in the companion-waj hearkening 
 to the uproar around, feeling the convulsions of
 
 Tm SCHOOMKX FKEKS HcRSBLT. $01 
 
 the schooner, fully prepared for death, dogged 
 and hopeless, No, I was not afraid. Suffering 
 and expectation had brought me to that pass that 
 I did not care. " 'Tis such an end as hundreds 
 and thousands of sailors have met," I remember 
 thinking ; " it is the fittest exit for a mariner. I 
 have sinned in my time, but the Almighty God 
 knows my heart." To this tune ran my thoughts. 
 I held my arms tightly folded upon my breast, 
 and with set lips waited for the first of those 
 crashing and rending sounds which would betoken 
 the ruin and destruction of the schooner. 
 
 So passed half an hour ; then, being half 
 perished with the cold, I went to the furnace, for 
 when the vessel went to pieces it would matter 
 little in what part of her I was, and warmed my- 
 self and took a dram as a felon swallows a draught 
 on his way to the scaffold. Were I to attempt to 
 describe the character of the thunderous noises 
 in the ship I should not be believed. The seas 
 raised a most deafening roaring as they boiled 
 over the ice and rolled their yolumes against the 
 vessel's sides. Every curl swung a load of broken 
 frozen pieces against the bows and bends, and the 
 shocks resounded through her like blows from 
 cyclopean hammers. It was as if I had been 
 seated in the central stagnant heart of a small 
 revolving hurricane, feeling no faintest sigh of air 
 upon my cheek, whilst close around whirled the 
 hellish tormenting conflict of white waters and 
 yelling blasts. 
 
 On a sudden in a breath I felt the vessel 
 rise. She was swung up with the giddy velocity
 
 JM Tin Fran Puura 
 
 I a hunter clearing a tall gat* ; she sank again, 
 and there was a mighty concussion forward, then 
 a pause of steadiness whilst you might have 
 counted five, then a wild upward heave, a sort of 
 sharp floating fall, a harsh grating along her keel 
 and sides, as though she was being smartly warped 
 over rocks, followed by an unmistakable free pitch- 
 ing and rolling motion. 
 
 I had sprung to my feet and stood waiting. 
 But the instant I gathered by the movements of 
 her that she was released I prang like a madman 
 tip the companions-steps. The sea, breaking on 
 her bow, flew in heavy showers along the deck 
 and half blinded me. But I was semi-delirious, 
 and having sat so long with Death's hand in mine 
 was in a passionately defiant mood, with a perfect 
 rage of scorn of peril in me, and I walked right on 
 to the forecastle, giving the flying sheets of water 
 there no heed. In a minute a block of sea 
 tumbled upon me and left me breathless ; the 
 iciness of it cooled my mind's heat, but not my 
 resolution. I was determined to judge as best I 
 could by the light of the foam of what had 
 happened, and holding on tenaciously to whatever 
 came to my hand and progressing step by step I 
 got to the forecastle and looked ahead. 
 
 Where the ice was the water tumbled in milk ; 
 'twas four or five ship's lengths distant, and I 
 could distinguish no more than that. I peered 
 orer the lee bow, but could see no ice. The 
 vessel had gone clear ; how, I knew not and 
 cam never know, but my own fancy is that she 
 pik UM k*d with her own weight when the sea
 
 Tn SCHOOVBK nun HMLSBLF. 
 
 rose and threw the ice up, for she had floated on 
 a sudden, and the noises which attended her re- 
 lease indicated that she had been forced through 
 a channel. 
 
 T returned aft, barely es caping a second deluge, 
 and looked over the quarter; no ice was there 
 visible to me. The vessel rolled horribly, and I 
 perceived that she had a decided list to starboard, 
 the result of the shifting of what was in htr when 
 the ice came away from the main with her, and it 
 was this heel that brought the sea washing over 
 the bow. I took hold of the tiller to try it, but 
 either the helm was frozen immovable Of the 
 rudder was jammed in its gudgeons or in some 
 other fashion fixed. 
 
 Had she been damaged below? was she taking 
 in water ? I knew her to be so thickly sheathed 
 with ice that, unless it had been scaled off in 
 places by the breaking of her bed, I had little fear 
 (until this covering melted or dropped off by the 
 working of the frame) of the hull not proving 
 tight. I should have been coated with ice myseR 
 had I stayed but a little longer in my wet clothes 
 in that piercing wind, so I ran below, and bring- 
 ing an armful of clothes from my cabin to the 
 cook-room, was very soon in dry attire, and making 
 an extraordinary figure, I don't question, in the 
 buttons, lace, and fripperies of the old-fashioned 
 garments. 
 
 The incident of the schooner's release from the 
 ice had come upon me so suddenly, and at a time 
 too when my mind was terribly disordered, that 
 I scarce realised the full meaning of k mtfl I bad
 
 304 THE FROZIN PI*AT. 
 
 shifted myself and fortified my heart with a dram 
 and got warm in the glow of the furnace. By 
 this time she had fallen into the trough and was 
 labouring like a cask; that she would prove a 
 heavy roller in a seaway a single glance at her fat 
 buttocks and swelling bilge might have persuaded 
 me, but I nevef could have dreamt she would 
 wallow so monstrously. The oscillation was 
 rendered more formidable by her list, and there 
 were moments when I could not keep my feet. 
 She was shipping water very freely over her star- 
 board rail, but this did not much concern me, for 
 the break of the poop-deck kept the after part of 
 the vessel indifferently dry, and the forecastle and 
 main hatches were well secured. But there was 
 one great peril I knew not how to provide against 
 I mean the flotilla of icebergs in the north and 
 west. They lay in a long chain upon the sea, and 
 though to be sure there was no doubt a wide 
 channel between each, through which it might 
 have been easy to carry a ship under control, yet 
 there was every probability of a vessel in the de- 
 fenceless condition of the schooner, without a 
 stitch of sail on her and under no other govern- 
 ment of helm than a fixed rudder, being swept 
 against one of those frozen floating hills when 
 indeed it would be good-night to her and to me 
 too, for after such a catastrophe the sun would 
 never rise for me or her again. 
 
 Meanwhile I was crazy to ascertain if the 
 schooner was taking in water. If there wa* a 
 sounding-rod in the ship I did not know where to 
 lay my bands upon it. But he it a poor sailor who
 
 THE SCHOOWK* FHEW HK*SW<F. 305 
 
 - !ow at substitutes. There were several spears 
 in the arms-room (piratical plunder, no doubt) 
 with mere spikes for heads, like those weapons 
 used by the Caffres and other tribes in that coun- 
 try ; they were formed of a hard heavy wood, 
 .took a length of ratline line and secured it to one 
 of these spears, and carried it on deck with the 
 powder-room bulPi-eve lamp ; but when I probed 
 the sounding-pipe I found it full of ice, and as it 
 was impossible to draw the pumps, I flung my in- 
 genious sounding-rod down in a pawion of gnef 
 and mortification. 
 
 Yet was I not to be beaten. Such was my temper, 
 had the devil himself confronted me, I should 
 have defied him to do his worst, for I had made 
 up my mind to weather him out. I entered 
 forecastle, lanthorn in hand, prized open the hatch 
 and dropped into the hold. It needed an experi- 
 enced ear to detect the sobbing of internal waten 
 amid the yearning gushes, the long gurgling 
 washings, the thunderous blows, and shrewd rain- 
 like hissings of the seas outside. I listened with 
 strained hearing for some minutes, but distin- 
 guished no sounds to alarm me with assurance of 
 water in the hold. I could not mistake, 
 hearkened with all my might, but the noise was 
 outside. I thanked God very heartily, and got 
 out of the hold and put the hatch on. There was 
 no need to go aft and listen. The schooner WAI 
 by the head, and there could be no water in the 
 run that would not be forward too. 
 
 Being reassured in respect of the staunchness 
 of the hull, I returned to the fire and proceeded
 
 fo6 THE Fftoonir Pnun, 
 
 to equip myself for a prolonged watch on deck. 
 Whilst I was drawing on a great pair of boots I 
 heard a knocking in the after part of the vessei. 
 I supposed she had drifted into a lit'le field of 
 broken ice, and that she would go clear presently, 
 and I finished arming myself for the weather ; but 
 the knocking continuing, I went into the cabin 
 where I heard it very plain, and walked as far as 
 the lazarette hatch, where I stood listening. The 
 noises were a kind of irregular thumping accom- 
 panied by a peculiar grinding sound . In a moment 
 I guessed the truth, rushed on deck, and by the 
 dim light in the air saw the long tiller mowing to 
 and fro ! The beat of the beam seas had un- 
 locked the froien bonds of the rudder, and there 
 swung the tiller, as though like a dog the ship was 
 wagging her tail for joy T 
 
 The vessel lay along, rolling so as to bring her 
 starboard rail to a level with the sea ; her main 
 deck was full of water, and the froth of it com- 
 bined witk the ice that glased her made her look 
 like a fabric of marble as she swung on the black 
 fold ere it broke into snow about her. I seixed 
 the tiller and ran it over hard a-starboard, and I 
 had not held it in that posture half a minute when 
 to my inexpressible delight I observed that she 
 was paying off. Her head fell slowly from the 
 sea ; she lurched drunkenly, and some tons of 
 black water rolled over the bulwarks ; she reeled 
 consumedlv to larboard, and rose squarely and 
 ponderously to the height of the surge that was 
 now abaft the beam, in a few moments she was 
 dead before it, the helm amidships UM wind biow-
 
 Tm SCHOOMB* runs Hmaur. joy 
 
 ing sheer ever the stern with half its weight 
 seemingly gone through the vessel running, the 
 tall seas chasing her high stern and floating it up- 
 wards, till looking forward was like gating down 
 the slope of a hill. 
 
 My heart was never fuller tfean then. I was 
 half crazy with the passion of JOT that possessed 
 me. Consider the alternations of hope and bitter 
 despair which had been crowded into that night 1 
 We may wonder in times of security that life 
 should be sweet, and adroit the justice of the 
 arguments which several sorts of writers, and the 
 poets even more than the parsons, use in defence 
 of death. But when it comes to the pinch human 
 nature breaks through. When the old man in 
 JEsop calls upon Death to relieve him, and the 
 skeleton suddenly rises, the old man changes his 
 mind, and thinks he will go on trying for him- 
 self a little longer. I liked to live, and had no 
 mind for a wet shroud, and this getting the 
 schooner before the wind, along with the old 
 familiar feeling of the decks reeling and soaring 
 and sinking under my feet, was so cordial in 
 assurance of life that, I tell you, my heart was 
 full to breaking with transport. 
 
 However, I was still in a situation that made 
 prodigious demands upon my coolness and wits. 
 The wind was south-west, the schooner wa 
 running north-east ; the. bulk of the icebergs lay 
 on the larboard bow, but there were others right 
 ahead, and to starboard, where also Uy the ex- 
 tremity of the island, though I did not fear thai if I 
 could escape the rest. It was a dark night;
 
 THE FROZEN Pnurm. 
 
 methinks there should have been a young moon 
 curled somewhere among the stars, but she was 
 not to be seen. The clouds flew dark and 
 hurriedly, and the frosty orbs between were too 
 few to throw a light. The ocean ahead and around 
 was the duskier for the spectral illumination of the 
 near foam and the glimmer of the ice-coated 
 ship. I tested the vessel with the tiller and found 
 she responded but dully ; she would be nimbler 
 under canvas no doubt, but it was enough that 
 she should answer her helm at all. Oh, I say, I 
 was mighty thankful, most humbly grateful. My 
 heart was never more honest to its Maker than 
 then. 
 
 She crushed along, pitching pitifully, the dark 
 seas on either hand foaming to her quarters, and 
 her rigging querulous with the wind. Had the 
 Frenchman been alive to steer the ship, I might 
 have found strength enough for my hands in the 
 vigour of my spirit to get the spritsail yard 
 square and chop its canvas loose nay, I might 
 have achieved more than that even ; but I could 
 not quit the tiller now. I reckoned our speed at 
 about four miles an hour, as fast as a hearty man 
 could walk. The high stern, narrow as it was, 
 helped us ; it was like a raizzen in its way ; and 
 all aloft being stout to start with and greatly 
 thickened yet by ice, the surface up there gave 
 plenty for t he gale to catch hold on ; and so we 
 drove along. 
 
 I could just make out the dim pallid loom of 
 the coast of ice upon the starboard beam, and a 
 blob or iwo of faintness most elusive and not to
 
 Tm SCHOONER FREES HERSELF, 309 
 
 be fixed by the eye staring straight at them on 
 the larboard bow. But it was not long before 
 these blobs, as I term them, grew plainer, and 
 half a score swam into the dusk over the bowsprit 
 end, and resembled dull small visionary openings 
 in the dark sky there, or like stars magnified and 
 dimmed into the merest spectral light by mist, 
 passed the first at a distance of a quarter of a mile ; 
 it slided by phantasmally, and another stole out 
 right ahead. This I could have gone widely clear 
 of by a little shift of the helm, but whilst I was in 
 the act of starboarding three or four bergs sud- 
 denly showed on the larboard bow, and I saw 
 that unless I had a mind to bring the ship into 
 the trough again I must keep straight on. So I 
 steered to bring the berg that was right ahead a 
 little on the bow, with a prayer in my soul that 
 there might be no low-lying block in the road for 
 the schooner to split upon. It went by within a 
 pistol-shot. I was very much accustomed to the 
 sight of ice by this time, yet I found myself 
 glancing at this mass with pretty near as much 
 wonder and awe as if I had never seen such a 
 thing before. It was not above thirty feet high, 
 but its shape was exactly that of a horse's head, 
 the lips sipping the sea, the ears cocked, the neck 
 arching to the water. You would have said it was 
 some vast courser rising out of the deep. The 
 peculiar radiance of ice trembled off it like a 
 luminous mist into the dusk. The water boiled 
 about its nose, and suggested a frothing caused 
 by the monster steed's expelled breath. Lt a fire 
 been kindled to glow red where you looked lot
 
 Tn Fiona PULATB. 
 
 the eye, and the illusion would hare Wwi fright- 
 fully grand. 
 
 The poet speaks of the spirits of the, vasty 
 deep ; it you want to know what exquisite artists 
 they are, enter the frozen silences of the south. 
 
 Thus threading my way I drove before the 
 seas and wind, striking a piece of ice but once 
 only, and that a small lump which hit the vessel 
 on the bow and went scraping past, doing the 
 fabric no hurt ; but often forced to slide perilously 
 close by the bergs. I needed twenty instead of 
 one pair of eyes. With ice already on either 
 bow, on a sudden it would glimmer out right 
 ahead, and I had to form my resolution on the 
 instant. If ever you have been amid a pack oi 
 icebergs on a dark night in a high sea you \vih 
 understand my case ; if not, the pen of a Fielding 
 or a Defoe could not put it before you. For what 
 magic has ink to express the roaring of swoller. 
 waters bursting into tall pale clouds against the 
 motionless crystal heights, the mystery of the con- 
 figuration of the faintness under the swarming 
 shadows of the flying night, the sudden glares oi 
 breaking liquid peaks, the palpitating darkness 
 beyond, the plunging and rolling of the ship, 
 making her rigging ring upon the air with the 
 reeling of her masts, the gradual absorption of 
 the solid mass of dim lustre by the gloom astern, 
 the swift spectral dawn of such another light ovei 
 the bows, with many phantasmal outlines slipping 
 by on either hand, like a procession of giant oc 
 
 >. veiling nd secretly towards the 
 
 silent dominions of the Pole ?
 
 TmOUBLBD BY THOUGHTS OF THB TlBASUKB. JII 
 
 Half this ice came from the island, the rest of 
 it was formed of bergs too tall to have ever be- 
 longed to the north end of that great stretch. It 
 took three hours to pass clear of them, and then 
 I had to go on clinging to the tiller and steering 
 in a most melancholy famished condition for 
 another long half-hour before I could satisfy my- 
 self that the sea was free. 
 
 But now I was nearly dead with the cold. I 
 had stood for five hours at the helm, during all 
 which time my mind had been wound up to the 
 fiercest tension of anxiety, and my eyes felt as if 
 they were strained out of their sockets by their 
 searching of the gloom ahead, and nature having 
 done her best gave out suddenly, and not to have 
 saved my life could I have stood at the tiller 
 for another ten minutes. 
 
 The gear along the rail was so iron-hard that I 
 could not secure the helm with it, so I softened 
 some lashings by holding them before the fire, and 
 finding the schooner on my return to be coming 
 round to starboard, I helped her by putting the 
 tiller hard a port and securing it. I then went 
 below, built up the fire, lighted my pipe, and sat 
 down for warmth and rest. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 I AM TROUBLED BY THOUGHTS OF THE 
 TREASURE. 
 
 THE weight of the wind in the rigging steadied 
 the schooner somewhat, and prevented her from 
 rolling too heavily to starboard, whilst her list
 
 31* THE FROZEN PTRATB. 
 
 corrected her larboard rolls. So as I tat below 
 
 she seemed to me to be making tolerably good 
 weather of it. Not much water came aboard ; 
 now and again I would hear the clatter of a fall 
 forwards, hut at comfortably long intervals. 
 
 I sat against the dresser with my back upon 
 it, and being dead tired must have dropped 
 asleep on a sudden indeed, before I had half 
 smoked my pipe out, and I do not believe I 
 gave a thought to my situation before I slum- 
 bered, so wearied was I. The cold awoke me. 
 The fire was out and so was the candle in the 
 lanthorn, and I was in coffin darkness. This the 
 tinder-box speedily remedied. I looked at my 
 watchseven o'clock, as I was a sinner ! so that 
 my sleep had lasted between three and four hours. 
 
 I went on deck and found the night still black 
 upon the sea, the wind the same brisk gale that 
 was blowing when I quitted the helm, the sea no 
 heavier, and the schooner tumbling in true Dutch 
 fashion upon it. I looked very earnestly around 
 but could see no signs of ice. There would be 
 daylight presently, so I went below, lighted the 
 fire, and got my breakfast, and when I returned 
 the sun was up and the sea visible to its furthest 
 reaches. 
 
 It was a fine wintry piece ; the sea green and 
 
 running in ridges with frothing heads, the sky 
 
 pale among the dark snow-laden clouds, the 
 
 sun darting a ray now and again, which was 
 
 swung into the north by the shadows of the clouds 
 
 until they extinguished it. Remote in the north- 
 
 nun m of an iceberg; there was
 
 TlOUBLED BY THOUGHTS OF THE TREASW.B. 313 
 
 nothing else in sight. Yes something that com- 
 forted me exceedingly, though it was not very 
 many days ago that a like object had heavily 
 scared me an albatross, a noble bird, sailing on 
 the windward close enough to be shot. The sight 
 of this living thing was inexpressibly cheering ; it 
 put into my head a fancy of ships being at hand, 
 thoughts of help and of human companions. In 
 truth, my imagination was willing to accept it as 
 the same bird that I had frightened away when in 
 the boat, now returned to silently reproach me for 
 my treatment of it. Nay, my lonely eye, my 
 subdued and suffering heart might even have 
 witnessed the good angel of my life in that solitary 
 shape of ocean beauty, and have deemed that, 
 though unseen, it had been with me throughout, 
 and was now made visible to my gaze by the light 
 of hope that had broken into the darkness of my 
 adventure. 
 
 Well, supposing it so, I should not have been 
 the only man who ever scared his good angel 
 away and found it faithful afterwards. 
 
 I unlashed the tiller and got the schooner 
 before the wind and steered until a little before 
 noon, letting her drive dead before the sea, which 
 carried her north-east. Then securing the helm 
 amidships I ran for the quadrant, and whilst wait- 
 ing for the sun to show himself I observed that 
 the vessel held herself very steadily before the 
 wind, which might have been owing to her high 
 stern and the great swell of her sides and her 
 round bottom; but be the cause what it might, 
 he ran aa fairly with her helm amidships as if I
 
 Si4 THI FROZE* PIRATB. 
 
 had been at the tiller to check her, a most fortu- 
 nate condition of my navigation, for it privileged 
 me to get about other work, whilst, at the same 
 time, every hour was conveying me nearer to the 
 track of ships and further from the bitter regions 
 of the south. 
 
 I got an observation and made out that the 
 vessel had driven about fifteen leagues during the 
 night. She must do better than that, thought I ; 
 and when I had eaten some dinner I took a 
 chopper, and, going on to the forecastle, lay out 
 upon the bowsprit, and after beating the spritsail- 
 yard block clear of the ice, cut a way the gaskets that 
 confined the sail to the yard, heartily beating the 
 canvas, that was like iron, till a clew of it fell. I 
 then came in and braced the yard square, and the 
 wind, presently catching the exposed part of 
 sail, blew more of it out, and yet more, until tl 
 was a good surface showing ; then to a SIK 
 hard blast of wind the whole sail flew open 
 a mighty crackling, as though indeed it 
 formed of ice; but to render it useful I ha 
 haul the sheets aft, which I could n 
 without the help of the Cackles we had 
 slinging the powder over the side; so th 
 with one hindrance and another, the setting of 
 that sail took me an hour and a half. 
 
 But had it occupi< ill day it would r. 
 
 been worth doin^. T< 
 
 its effect upon \vas like that 
 
 cordial upon a faint i It was not that she 
 
 sensibly showed w Is to it ; its lifting 
 
 tendency en to ride the under-running
 
 seas more buoyantly, and if it increased her speed 
 by half a knot an hour it was worth a million to 
 me, whose business it was to take the utmost 
 possible advantage of the southerly gale. 
 
 I returned to the helm, warm with the exercise, 
 and gazed forward not a little proud of my work. 
 Though the sail was eight-and -forty years old and 
 perhaps older, it offered as tough and stout a 
 surface to the wind as if it was fresh from the 
 sail maker's hands, so great are the preserving 
 qualities of ice. I looked wistfully at the topsail, 
 but on reflecting that if it should come on to blow 
 hard enough to compel me to heave the brig to 
 she would never hull with that canvas abroad, I 
 resolved to let it lie, for I could cut away the 
 spritsail if the necessity arose and not greatly 
 regret its loss ; but to lose the topsail would be a 
 serious matter, though if I did not cut it adrift it 
 might carry away the mast for me ; so, as I say, I 
 would not meddle with it. 
 
 Finding that the ship continued to steer her 
 self very well, and the better for the spritsail, I 
 thought I would get the body of the old French- 
 man overboard and so obtain a clear hold for my- 
 self so far as corpses went. I carried the lanthorn 
 into the forecastle, but when I pulled the ham- 
 mock off him I confess it was not without a stupid 
 fear that I should find him alive. Recollection of 
 his astounding vitality found something imperish- 
 able in that ugly anatomy, and though he lay 
 before me as dead and cold as stone, I yet had a 
 fancy that the seeds of life were still in him, that 
 'twas only the current of his being that had frozen,
 
 THE FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 that if I were to thaw him afresh he might re- 
 cover, and that if I buried him I should actually 
 be despatching him. 
 
 But though these fancies possessed, they did 
 not control me. I took his watch and whatever 
 else he had in that way, carried him on deck and 
 dropped him over the side, using as little cere- 
 mony as he had employed in the disposal of his 
 shipmates, but affected by very different emotions ; 
 for there was not only the idea that the vital 
 spark was still in him ; I could not but handle 
 with awe the most mysterious corpse the eye 
 had ever viewed, one who had lived through a 
 stupor or death-sleep, for eight-and- forty years, 
 in whom in a few hours Time had compressed 
 the wizardry he stretches in others over half a 
 century; who in a night had shrunk from the 
 aspect of his prime into the lean, puckered, 
 bleared-eyed, deaf, and tottering expression of a 
 hundred years. 
 
 But now he was gone 1 The bubbles which 
 rose to the plunge of his body were his epitaph ; 
 had they risen blood-red they would have better 
 symbolized his life. The albatross stooped to the 
 spot where he had vanished with a hoarse salt 
 scream like the laugh of a delirious woman, and 
 the wind, freshening momentarily in a squall, 
 made one think of the spirit of Nature as eager 
 to purify the air of heaven from the taint of the 
 dead pirate's passage from the bulwarks to the 
 water's surface. 
 
 All that day and through the night that fol- 
 lowed the schooner drove, rolling and
 
 THOUBLKD r THOUGHTS OF mm TUUSUEB. 317 
 
 before the seas, into the north-east, to the pulling of 
 the spritsail. 1 made several excursions into the 
 forehold, but never could hear the sound of water 
 in the vessel. Her sides in places were still 
 sheathed in ice, but this crystal armour was gra- 
 dually dropping off her to the working of her 
 frame in the seas, so that, since she was prov- 
 ing herself tight, it was certain her staunchness 
 owed nothing to the glassy plating. I had seen 
 some strange craft in my day ; but nothing to 
 beat the appearance this old tub of a hooker 
 submitted to my gaze as I viewed her from the 
 helm. How so uncouth a structure, with her tall 
 stern, flairing bows, fat buttocks, sloping masts, 
 forecastle-well, and massive head-timbers ever 
 managed to pursue and overhaul a chase was only 
 to be unriddled by supposing all that she took 
 to be more unwieldy and clumsy than herself. 
 What would a pirate of these days, in his clean- 
 lined polacca or arrowy schooner, have thought of 
 such an instrument as this for the practice of his 
 pretty trade ? The ice aloft still held for her 
 spars and rigging the resemblance of glass, and to 
 every sunbeam that flashed upon her from between 
 the sweeping clouds she would sparkle out into 
 many-coloured twinklings, marvellously delicate in 
 colour, and changing their tints twenty times over 
 in a breath through the swiftness of the reeling of 
 the spars. 
 
 I should but fatigue you to follow the several 
 little stories of these hours one by one ; how I got 
 my food, snatched at sleep, stood at the helm, 
 gazed around the sea-line and the like. Just
 
 llAT*. 
 
 before sundown I saw a large iceberg in the north, 
 two leagues distant ; no others were in sight, but 
 one was enough to make me uneasy, and I spent 
 a very troubled night, repeatedly coming on deck 
 to look about me. The schooner steered herself 
 as if a man stood at the helm. The spritsail further 
 helped her in this, for, if the curl 01 a sea under 
 her forefoot brought her to larboard or starboard, 
 the sail forced her back again. Still, it was a very 
 surprising happy quality in her, the next best 
 thing to my having a shipmate, and a wonderful 
 relief to me who must otherwise have brought 
 her to, under a lashed helm, every time I had 
 occasion to leave the deck. 
 
 The seaworthiness of the craft, coupled with the 
 reasonable assurance of presently falling in with a 
 ship, rendered me so far easy in my mind as to 
 enable me to think very frequently of the treasure 
 and how I was to secure it. If \ fell in with an 
 enemy's cruiser or a privateer I must expect to be 
 stripped. This would be the fortune of war, and \ 
 must take my chance. My concern did not lie 
 that way ; how was I to protect this property 
 that was justly mine, against my own countrymen, 
 suppose I had the good fortune to carry the 
 schooner safely into English waters ? I had a 
 brother-in-law, Jeremiah Mason, Esq., a Turkey 
 merchant in a small way of business! whose office 
 was in the 'City of London, and, if I could manage 
 to convey the treasure secretly to him, he would, 
 I knew, find me a handsome account in his 
 settlement of this affair. But it was im possible to 
 strike out a plan. I must wait aad attend the
 
 TROUBLED BY THOUGHTS OF THE TREASURE, 319 
 
 jourse of events. Yet riches being things which 
 fever the coldest imaginations, I could not look 
 ahead without excitement and irritability of fancy, 
 I should reckon it a hard fate indeed after my 
 cruel experiences, my freeing the vessel from the 
 ice, my sailing her through some thousand of miles 
 of perilous seas, and arriving finally in safety, to 
 be dispossessed of what was strictly mine as 
 much mine as if 1 had fished it up from the 
 bottom of the sea, where it must otherwise have 
 lain till the crack of dn 
 
 I remember that, among other ideas, it entered 
 my head to tell the master of the first ship I met, 
 if she were British, the whole story of my adven- 
 ture, to acquaint him with the treasure, to offer to 
 tranship it and myself to his vessel and abandon 
 the schooner, and to propose a handsome reward 
 for his offices. But 1 rould not bring my mind to 
 trust any stranger with so great a secret. The 
 mere circumstance of the treasure not being mine, 
 in the sense of my having earned it, of its being 
 piratical plunder, and as much one's as another's, 
 might dull the edge even of a fair-dealing conscience 
 and expose me to the machinations of a heavily 
 tempted mind. 
 
 Therefore, though I had no plan, I was resolved 
 at all hazards to stick to the schooner, and, with a 
 view to providing against the curiosity or rummag- 
 ing of any persons who should come aboard 1 fell to 
 the following work after getting my breakfact 
 hung lanthomi in the run and hatchways and cabin 
 to enable me to past ai!v toandfro; I therv*nv? 
 one of the chests in my cabin and carried it to whet*
 
 Tin FKOZKM PIIATB. 
 
 the treasure was. The chest I filled nearly three- 
 parts full with money, jewellery, &c., which sank 
 the contents of the other chests to the depth I 
 wanted. I then fetched a quantity of small arms, 
 such as pistols and hangers and cutlasses, and 
 filled up the chests with them, first placing a thick- 
 ness of canvas over the money anojewellery, that 
 no glitter might show through. To improve the 
 deception I brought another chest to the run, and 
 wholly filled it with cutlasses, powder-horns, pistols, 
 and the like, and so fixed it that it must be the 
 first to come to hand. My cunning amounted to 
 this : that, suppose the run to be rummaged, the 
 contents of the first chest were sure to be turned 
 out, but, on the other chests being opened, and 
 what they appeared to contain observed, it was as 
 likely as not that the rummagers would be satis- 
 fied they .were arms-chests, and quit meddling 
 with them. 
 
 Herenow might I indulge in a string of reflections 
 on the troubles and anxieties which money brings, 
 quote from Juvenal and other poets, and hold my. 
 self up to your merriment by a contemptuous ex- 
 hibition of myself, a lonely sailor, labouring to 
 conceal his gold from imaginary knaves, toiling in 
 the dark depth of the vessel, and never heeding 
 that, even whilst he so worked, his ship might split 
 upon some half-tide rock of ice, and founder with 
 him and his treasure too, and so on, and so on. 
 But the fact is I was not a fool. Here was money 
 enough to set me up as a fine gentleman for life, 
 and I meant to iiid keep it too, if I could. 
 
 A man on his deathbed, a man in such peril that
 
 TXOUBUK wt TaoecurrB or mm Tuusum*. jti 
 
 hii end is certain, can afford to be sentimental. 
 He is going where money is dross indeed, arid he 
 is in a posture when to moralize upon human 
 greed and the vanity of wishes and riches becomes 
 biro. But would not a man whose health is hearty, 
 and who hopes to save his life, be worse off than a 
 sheep in the matter of brains not to keep a firm 
 grip of Fortune's hand when she extended it ? I 
 know I was very well pleased with my morning's 
 work when I had accomplished it, and had no mind 
 to qualify my satisfaction by melancholy and 
 romantic musings on my condition and the uncer- 
 tainty of 'the future. This was possibly owing to 
 the fineness of the weather ; a heavy black gale 
 from the north would doubtless have given a very 
 different turn to my humours. 
 
 The wind at dawn had weakened and come intc 
 the west. There was a strong swell indeed there 
 always is in this ocean but the seas ran small. 
 The sky looked like marble, with its broad spread- 
 ings of high white clouds and the veins of blue sky 
 between. I wished to make all the northing that 
 was possible, but there was nothing to be done in 
 that way with the spritsail alone. Had not the 
 capstan been frozen 1 should have tried to get the 
 mainsail upon the ship, but without the aid of ma- 
 chinery I was helpless. So, with helm amidships, 
 the schooner drove languidly along with her head 
 'due east, lifting as ponderously as a line-of- battle 
 ship to the floating launches of the high swell, and 
 the albatross hung as steadfastly in the wake of 
 my lonely ocean path as though it had been some 
 messenger sent by God to watch me into safety.
 
 THE FROZEM PIRATE. 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 I ENCOUNTER A WHALER. 
 
 I HAD been six days and nights at sea, and the 
 
 morning of the seventh day had come. With 
 the exception of one day of strong south-westerly 
 winds, which ran me something to the northwards, 
 the weather h.id been fine, bitterly cold indeed, 
 but bright and clear. In this time I had run a 
 distance of about six hundred and fifty miles to 
 the east, and with no other cloths upon the 
 schooner than her spritsail. 
 
 I confess, as the hours passed away and nothing 
 hove into view, I grew dispirited and restless ; but, 
 on the other hand, I was comforted by the bright 
 weather and the favourable winds, and particularly 
 by the vessel's steering herself, which enabled me 
 to get rest, to keep myself warm with the fire, and 
 to dress my food, yet ever pushing onwards (how- 
 ever slowly) into the navigated r egions of thii 
 sea. 
 
 On the morning of the seventh day f came on 
 deck, having slept since four o'clock. The wind 
 was icy keen, pretty brisk, about west by south ; 
 the movement in the sea was from the south, and 
 rolled very grandly ; there was a fog that way, 
 too, that hid the horizon, bringing the ocean-line 
 to within a league of the schooner ; but the othet 
 Quarters swept in a dark, clear, blue line against 
 ine sky, and there was such a clarity of atmo- 
 sphere as made the distances appear infinite. 
 
 I went below and lighted the firt and got my
 
 A WHALJBU 
 
 breakfast, all very leisurely, and when I was done 
 I sat down and smoked a pipe. It was so keen 
 on deck that I had no mind to leave the fire, and, 
 as all wa well, I lounged thiough the best part of 
 .two hours in the cook-house, when, thinking it 
 was now time to take another survey of the scene 
 1 went on deck. 
 
 On looking over the larboard bulwark rail, the 
 first thing I saw was a ship about two miles off. 
 She was on the larboard tack, under courses, top- 
 sails, and main-topgallant sail, heading as if to 
 cross my bows. The sunshine made her canvas 
 look as white as snow against the skirts of the 
 body of vapour that had trailed a little to leeward 
 of her, and her black hull flashed as though she 
 discharged a broadside every time she rose wet to 
 the northern glory out of the hollow of the swell 
 with a curl of silver at her cutwater. 
 
 My heart came into my throat ; I seemed not 
 to breathe; not to have saved my life could I 
 have uttered a cry, so amazed and transported 
 was I by this unexpected apparition. I stared 
 like one in a dream, and my head felt as if all the 
 blood in my body had surged into it. But then, 
 all on a sudden, there happened a revulsion of 
 feeling. Suppose she should prove a privateer 
 a French war-vessel of a nation hostile to my 
 own ? Thought so wrought in me that I trembled 
 like an idiot in a fright. The telescope was too 
 wreak to resolve her, I could do better with ray 
 eyes; and ! stood at the bulwarks gazing and 
 g.i/ing as if she were the spectr* nhip &l the 
 Scandinavian legend.
 
 THE FROZE* PIRATE, 
 
 Thert were flags below and I could 
 hoisted a signal of distress : but to what purpose ? 
 If the appearance of the schooner did not suffi- 
 ciently illustrate her condition, there was certain!) 
 no virtue in the language and declarations ff 
 bunting to exceed her own mute assurance. 1 
 watched her with a passion of anxiety, never 
 doubting her intention to speak to me, at all 
 events to draw close and look at me, wholly con- 
 cerning myself with her character. The swell 
 made us both dance, and the blue brows of the 
 rollers would -often hide her to the height of hei 
 rails ; but we were closing each other middling fast 
 she travelling at seven and I at four miles in the 
 hour, and presently I could see that she carried a 
 number of boats. 
 
 A whaler, thought I ; and after a little I was 
 sure of it by perceiving the rings over her top- 
 gallant rigging for the look-out to stand in. 
 
 On being convinced of this, I ran below for a 
 shawl that was in my cabin, and, jumping on to 
 the bulwarks, stood flourishing it for some minutes 
 to let them know that chere was a man aboard. 
 She luffed to deaden her way, that I might 
 swim close, and as we approached each 
 other I observed a crowd of heads forward 
 looking at me, and several men aft, all staring 
 intently. 
 
 A man scrambled on to the rail, and with an 
 arm clasping a backstay hailed me : 
 
 " Schooner ahoy ! " he bawled, with a strong 
 nasal twang in his * ' What ship's that ? " 
 
 "Ti.
 
 I nooumx A WHALWL j*?5 
 
 " Where are you from, and where are you bound 
 to?" 
 
 " I have been locked up in the ice," I cried, 
 "and am in want of help. What ship are 
 you?" 
 
 " The Susan Tucker, whaler, of New Bedford, 
 twenty-seven monthi out," he returned. M Where 
 in creation got you that hooker ? M 
 
 " I'm the only man aboard," I cried, " and 
 have no boat. Send to me, in the name of God, 
 and let the master come ! " 
 
 He waved his hand, bawling, * Put your hd 
 down you're forging ahead! mad 00 saying, 
 dismounted, 
 
 I immediately cast the tUler adrift, put ft hard 
 over, and secured it, then jumped on to the 
 bulwarks again to watch them. She was Yankee 
 beyond doubt ; I had rather met mv own country- 
 men ; but, next to a British, I would have 
 chosen an American ship to meet. Somehow, 
 despite the Frenchman, I felt to have been alone 
 throughout my adventure ; and so sore was 
 the effect of tnat solitude upon my spirits that 
 it seemed twenty years since I had seen a ship, 
 and since I haa held commune with my own 
 species. I was terribly agitated, and shook in 
 every limb. Life must have been precious 
 always ; but never before had it appeared M 
 precious as now, whilst I gazed at that homely 
 ship, with her main-topsail to the mast, swing- 
 ing stately upon the swell, the faces of the 
 seamen plain, the smoke of her galley-fin 
 breaking from the chimney, the sounds f
 
 3*4 TW* FaoziN PIIUT*. 
 
 creaking blocks and groaning parrels stealing 
 from her. Such a fountain of joy broke out of 
 my heart that my whole being was flooded with 
 it, and had that mood lasted I believe I should 
 have exposed the treasure in the run, and in- 
 vited all the men of the whaler to share in it 
 with me. 
 
 They stared fixedly ; little wonder that they 
 should be astounded by such an appearance as 
 my ship exhibited. One of the several boats 
 which hung at her davits was lowered, the oars 
 flashed, and presently she was near enough to 
 be hit with a biscuit ; but when there the master, 
 as I supposed him to be, who was steering, 
 sung out, H 'Vast rowing ! " the boat came to a 
 stand, and her people to a man stared at me with 
 their chins upon their shoulders as if I had been 
 a fiend. It was plain as a pikestaff that they were 
 frightened, and that the superstitions of the fore- 
 castle were hard at work in them whilst they 
 viewed me. They looked a queer company : two 
 were negroes, the others pale-faced bearded men, 
 wrapped up in clothes to the aspect of scarecrows. 
 The fellow who steered had a face as long as a 
 wet hammock, and it was lengthened yet to the 
 by a beard like a goat's hanging at the ex- 
 tremity of his chin. 
 
 He stood up a tall, lank figure, with legs 
 a pair of compasses and hailed me afresh, but 
 the high swell, regular as the swing of a pendulum, 
 interposed its brow between him and me, so that 
 At one moment he was a sharply-lined figure 
 against the sky of the hori/on, an4 the next he
 
 I ENCOUNTER A WHALER. *? 
 
 and his boat and crew were sheer gone out oi 
 sight/and this made an exchange of sentences 
 slow and troublesome. 
 
 " Say, master," he sung out, " what d'ye say tho 
 schooner's name is ? " 
 
 " The Boca del Dragon!' I replied. 
 " And who are you, matey ? " 
 " An English sailor who has been cast away on 
 an island of ice," I answered, talking very shortly 
 that the replies might follow the questions before 
 the swell sank him. 
 
 " Ay, ay," says he, " that's very well ; but when 
 was you cast away, bully ?" 
 I gave him the date. 
 " That's not a month ago," cried he. 
 41 It's long enough, whatever the time," said I. 
 Here the crew fell a-talking, turning from one 
 another to stare at me, and the negroes' eyes 
 showed as big as saucers in the dismay of their 
 regard. 
 
 " See, here, master," sung out the long man, 
 " if you han't been cast away more than a month, 
 how come you clothed as men went dressed a 
 century sin', hey ? " 
 
 The reason of their misgivings flashed upon 
 me. It was not so much the schooner as my 
 appearance. The truth was, my clothes having 
 been wetted, I had ever since been wearing 
 such thick garments as I met with in the 
 cabin, keeping my legs warm with jackb 
 and I had become so used to ihe garb t 
 forgot I had it on. You will judge ,^ th 
 I must have presented a figure very nicely <
 
 THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 t excite the wonder and apprehension of 
 a body of men whose superstitious instincts were 
 already sufficiently fluttered by the appearance 
 of the schooner, when I tell you that, in 
 addition to the jackboots and a great fur cap, 
 my costume was formed of a red plush waist- 
 coat laced with silver, purple breeches, a coat 
 of frieze with yellow braiding and huge caffs, 
 and the cloak that I had taken from the body 
 of Mendoia. 
 
 " Captain/* cried I, " if so be you are the 
 captain, in the name of God and humanity < ome 
 aboard, sir." Here I had to wait till he icap- 
 peared. " My story is an extraordinary one. 
 You have nothing to fear. I am a plain Eng- 
 lish tailor; my snip was the LAUfktmf Mary, 
 bound m ballast from Callao to the Cape." 
 Here I kad to wait again. " Pray, sir, come 
 aboard. There is nothing to fear. I am alone 
 in grievous distress, and in want of kelp. Pray 
 come, sir ! " 
 
 There was so little of the goblia m this appeal 
 that it resolved him. The crew hung in the wind, 
 but he addressed them peremptorily. I heard 
 him damn them for a set of curs, and tell them 
 that if they put him aboard they might lie off till 
 he was ready to return, where they would be safe, 
 as the devil could not swim ; and presently they 
 buckled to their oars again and the boat came 
 alongside. The long man, watching his chance, 
 sprang with great agility into the chains, and 
 stepped on deck. 1 ran up to him aad seised his 
 hand with both mine.
 
 " Sir," cried I, speaking with difficulty, to great 
 was the tumult of my spirits and the joy and 
 gratitude that swelled my heart, " I thank vou a 
 thousand times over for this visit. I am in the 
 most helpless condition that can be imagined. I 
 am not astonished that you should have been 
 startled by the appearance of this veisel and by 
 the figure I make in these clothes, but, ir, you 
 will be much more amazed when you hare heard 
 my story." 
 
 He eyed me iteadfastly, examining me very 
 earnestly from my boots to my cap, and then cast 
 a glance around him before he made any reply to 
 my address. He had the gauntness, sallownesi 
 of complexion, and deliberateness of manner 
 peculiar to the people of New England. And 
 though he was a very ugly, lank, uncouth man, I 
 protest he was as fair in my sight as if he had 
 been the ambrosial angel described by Milton. 
 
 " Well, cook my gizzard/' he exclaimed pre- 
 sently, through his nose, and after another good 
 look at me and along the decks and up aloft, " if 
 this ain't mi-raculous, tew. Durned it we didn't 
 take this hooker for tome {host ship riz from the 
 sea, in charge of a merman rigged out to fit her 
 age. V are all alone, air you ? 
 
 " All alone," said I. 
 
 " Broach me every barrel aboard kf erer I soo 
 sich a vessel," he cried, his astonishment rising 
 with the searching glances he directed aloft aad 
 aiow. "How old be she?" 
 
 *' She was cast away in seventeen iiadfod sad 
 Wry-three," said I.
 
 330 THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 "Well, I'm dumed. She's froze hard, sirree 
 I reckon she'll want a hot sun to thaw her. Split 
 me, mister, if she ain't worth sailing home as a 
 show- box." 
 
 I interrupted his ejaculations by asking him to 
 step below, where we could sit warm whilst I 
 related my story, and I asked him to invite his 
 boat's crew into the cabin that I might regale 
 them with a bowl of such liquor as I ventured to 
 say had never passed their lips in this life. On 
 this he went to the side, and, hailing the men, 
 ordered all but one to step aboard and drink to 
 the health of the lonesome sailor they had come 
 across. The word " drink " acted like a charm ; 
 they instantly hauled upon the painter arid brought 
 the boat to the chains and tumbled over the 
 one of the negroes remaining in her. The 
 together in a body, and surveyed me and the ship 
 with a hundred marks of astonishment. 
 
 ' Mv lads," said I, " my rig is a strange one, 
 but I'll explain all shortly. The clothes I 
 cast away in are below, and I'll show you t 
 I'm no spectre, but as real as you ; though I hav 
 gone through so much that, if" I am not a ghost, i 
 is no fault of old ocean, but owing to the n 
 of God. My name is Paul Rodney, and I'm a 
 native of London. You, sir," says "l 
 the long man, " are, I presume, the master of the 
 Susan Tucker? " 
 
 " At your sarvice Josiah Tucker is my r 
 and that ship is my wife Susan." 
 
 " Captain Tucker, and you, men, will you i 
 step below/' says I. "The weather pro* 
 
 e 
 
 it
 
 1 BVCOUMT1K A WliALBfc. ||I 
 
 1 have much to tell, and there is that in 
 tfu. cabin whidi will give you patience to hear me." 
 
 1 descended the companion-stairs, and they all 
 followed, making the interior that had been so long 
 siient ring with their heavy tread, whilst from time 
 to time a gruff, hoarse whisper broke from one of 
 them. But superstition lay strong upon their 
 imagination, and they were awed and quiet. The 
 daylight came down the hatch, but for all that the 
 cabin was darksome* 
 
 I waited till the last man had entered, and then 
 said, " Before we settle down to a bowl and a 
 yarn, captain, I should like to show you this 
 ship. It'll save me a deal of description and 
 explanation if you will be pleased to take a view." 
 
 " Lead on, mister," said he ; " but we shall hare 
 to snap our eyelids and raise fire in that way, for 
 dumed if I, for one, can see in the dark." 
 
 I fetched three or four lanthorns, and, lighting 
 the candles, distributed them among the men, 
 and then, in a procession, headed by the captain 
 and me, we made the rounds. I had half-cleared 
 the arms-room, but there were weapons enough 
 left, and they stared at them like yokels in a 
 booth. 1 showed them the cook-house and the 
 forecastle, where the deck was still littered with 
 clothes, and chests, and hammocks ; and, after 
 carrying them aft to the cabins, gave them a sight 
 of the hold. I never saw men more amazed. 
 They filled the vessel with their exclamations. 
 They ne^nr offered to touch anything, being too 
 much awed, but stepped about with their heads 
 uncovered, ** quietly a* they couid t ma though
 
 Tin FIOZXM Puuura. 
 
 tfctjr bad been ma crypt, and UM influence el 
 
 strange and terrifying memoriali was upon them. 
 I also showed them the clothes I had come away 
 from the Laughing Mary in ; and, that I might 
 submit such an aspect to them ai should touch 
 their sympathies, I whipped off the cloak and put 
 on my own pilot-cloth coat. 
 
 There being nothing more to see, I led them to 
 the cook-room, and there brewed a great hearty 
 bowl of brandy-punch, which I seasoned witn 
 lemon, sugar, and spices into as relishable a 
 draught as my knowledge in that way could com- 
 pass, and, giving every man a pannikin, bade him 
 dip and welcome, myself first drinking to them 
 with a brief speech, yet not so brief but that I 
 broke down towards the close of it, and ended 
 with a dry sob or two. 
 
 They would have been unworthy their country 
 and their calling not to have been touched by my 
 natural manifestation of emotion; besides, the 
 brandy was an incomparably fine spirit, and the 
 very perfume of the steaming bowl was sufficient 
 to stimulate the kindly qualities of sailors who had 
 been locked up for months in a greasy old ship, 
 with no diviner smells about than the stink of the 
 try-works. The captain, standing up, called upon 
 his men to drink to me, promising me that he was 
 very glad to have fallen in with my schooner, and 
 then, looking at the others, made a sign, where- 
 upon they all fixed their eyes upon me and drank 
 as one man, every one emptying his pot and in- 
 verting it as a proof, and fetching a routing sigh 
 of satisfaction.
 
 I ENCOUNTER A WHALUL 33$ 
 
 Thif ceremony ended, I began my story, be- 
 ginning with the loss of the Laughing Mary, and 
 proceeding step by step. I told them of the dead 
 body of Mendoza, but said nothing about the 
 Frenchman and the mate, and the Portugal boat- 
 swain, lest I should make them afraid of the 
 vessel, and so get no help to work her. As to 
 acquainting them with my recovery of Tassard, 
 after his stupor of eight-and-forty years, I should 
 have been mute on that head in any case, for so 
 extraordinary a relation could, from such people, 
 have earned me but one of two opinions : either 
 that I was mad and believed in an impossibility, 
 or that I was a rogue and dealt in magic, and to 
 be vehemently shunned. Yet there were wonders 
 enough in my story without this, and I recited it 
 to a running commentary of all sorts of queer 
 Yankee exclamations. 
 
 There were seven seamen and the captain and 
 ( made nine, and we pretty nearly filled the cook- 
 room. 'Twas a scene to be handled by a Dutch 
 brush. We were a shaggy company, in several 
 kinds of rude attire, and the crimson light of the 
 furnace, whose playing flames darted shadows 
 through the steady light of the lanthorns, caused 
 us to appear very wild. The mariners' eyes 
 gleamed redly as their glances rove round the 
 place, and, had you come suddenly among us, I 
 ve you would have thought this band of pale, 
 fire-touched, hairy men, with the one ebon visage 
 among them, rendered the vessel a vast deal more 
 tly than ever she could have shown when 
 sailing along with me alone on board.
 
 334 TUB FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 They were a good deal puzzled when I told 
 them of the mines I had made and sprung in the 
 ice. They reckoned the notion fine, but could 
 not conceive how I had, single-handed, broken out 
 the powder-barrels, got them over the side, and 
 fixed them. 
 
 ' Why," said I, " 'twas slow, heavy work, of 
 course ; but a man who labours for his life will do 
 marvellous things. It is like the jump of a hunted 
 
 stag.' 
 
 ' True for you," says the captain. " A swim 
 of two miles spends me in pleasurin'; but I've swum 
 eight mile to save my life, and stranded fresh 
 as a new-hooked cod. What's your intentions, 
 sir ? " 
 
 ' To sail the schooner home," said I, "if I can 
 get help. She's too good to abandon. She'll 
 fetch money in England." 
 
 " Ay, as a show." 
 
 ' Yes, arid as a coalman. Rig her modernly, and 
 carry your forecastle deck into the head, captain 
 and she's a brave ship, fit for a Baltimore eye." 
 
 He stroked down the hair upon his chin. 
 
 " Dip, captain, dip, my lads ; there's enough of 
 this to drown ye in the hold," said I, pointin: 
 the bowl. " Coine, this is a happy meeting for 
 me ; let it be a merry one. Captain, I drink to 
 the Susan Tucker" 
 
 " Sir, your servant. Here's to your sweetheart, 
 be she wife or maid. Bill, jump on deck and take 
 a look round. See to the boat." 
 
 One of the men went out. 
 
 " Captain," said I, " you are a full ship ? "
 
 I ENCOUNTER A WHALER. 335 
 
 "That's so.' 1 
 
 " Bound home ? " 
 
 * Right away." 
 
 ' You have men enough and to spare. Lend 
 me three of your hands to help me to the Thames, 
 and I'll repay you thus; there should be near a 
 hundred tons of wine and brandy, of exquisite 
 vintage, and choice with age beyond language in 
 the hold. Take what you will of that freight ; 
 there'll be ten times the value of your lay in your 
 pickings, modest as you may prove. Help your- 
 self to the clothes in the cabin and forecastle ; 
 they will turn to account. For the men you will 
 spare, and who will volunteer to help me, this will 
 be my undertaking : the ship and all that is in 
 her to be sold on her arrival, and the proceeds 
 equally divided. Shall we call it a thousand 
 pounds apiece ? Captain, she's well found : her 
 inventory would make a list as long as you, I'd 
 name a bigger sum, but here she is, you shall 
 overhaul her hold and judge for yourself." 
 
 I watched him anxiously. No man spoke, but 
 every eye was upon him. He sat pulling down 
 the hair on his chin, then, jumping up on a sudden 
 and extending his hand, he cried, " Shake I it's a 
 bargain, if the men '11 jine." 
 
 14 I'll jine ! " exclaimed a man. 
 
 There was a pause. 
 
 "And me," said the negro. 
 
 I was glad of this, and looked earnestly at the 
 others. 
 
 " Is she tight ? " said a man. 
 
 " As a bottle," said I.
 
 Tta FROZEN PI&ATB. 
 
 They fell silent again. 
 
 M Joe Wilkinson and Washington Crotnwefl 
 them two jines," said* the captain. " Bullies, he 
 wants a third. Don't speak all together." 
 
 The man named " Bill " at this moment returned 
 to the cook-room, and reported all well above. 
 My offer was repeated to him, but he shook his 
 head. 
 
 " This is the Horn, mates," said he. " There's 
 a deal o' water 'tween this and the Thames. How 
 do she sail ? no man knows." 
 
 " I want none but willing men," said I. " Ame- 
 ricans make as good sailors as the English. 
 What an English seaman can face any of you 
 can. There is another negro in the boat. Will 
 you let him step aboard, captain? He may 
 join." 
 
 A man was sent to take his place. Presently 
 he arrived, and I gave him a cup of punch. 
 
 ''Splain the business to him, sir," said the 
 captain, filling his pannikin ; " his name's Billy 
 Pitt." 
 
 I did so ; and when I told him that Washing 
 ton Cromwell had offered, he instantly said, " All 
 right, massa, I'll be ob yah." 
 
 This was exactly what I wanted, and had there 
 been a third negro I'd have preferred him to the 
 white man. 
 
 'But how are you going to navigate this craft 
 home with three men?" said the man ".Bill" tc 
 me. 
 
 " There'll be four ; we shall do. The fewer thf 
 
 re dollars, hey, Wilkinson?"
 
 A BAKGAIV WITH TMI YAVUOL 337 
 
 He grinned, and Cromwell broke into a rentrml 
 laugh. 
 
 They seemed very well satisfied, and to waj I. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 I STRUCK A BARGAIN WITH TH1 YANKBK. 
 
 THE captain put his cup down; the bowl was 
 empty ; I offered to brew another jorum, but he 
 thanked me and said "no, adding significantly that 
 he would have no more here, by which he meant 
 chat he would brew for himself in nis own ship 
 inon. The drink had made him cheerful and 
 good-natured. He recommended that we should 
 go on deck and set about transhipping whilst 
 the weather held, for he was an old nand in 
 these seas and never trusted the sky longer 
 than a quarter of an hour. 
 
 ' This here list," says he, " wants remedying 
 and that'll follow our easin' of the hold." 
 
 f Yes," said I, "and I should be mighty thank- 
 ful if some of your men would see all clear aloft 
 for me., that we might start with running rigging 
 that will travel, capstans that'll revolve, and sails 
 that'll spread." 
 
 "Oh, we'll manage that for you," said he. 
 1 Tru-ly, she's been bad froze, very bad froze. 
 Durned if ever I see a worse freeze." 
 
 So saying he called to " Bill," who seemed 
 the principal man of the boat's crew, and gave 
 him some directions, and immediately afterwards 
 all the men entered the boat and rowed away to 
 the ship.
 
 338 THE FROZE* PIRATK. 
 
 Whilst they were absent I carried the capUm 
 into the hold and left him to overhaul it. I told 
 him that all the spirits, provisions, and the like 
 were in the hold and lazarette, which was true 
 enough, wanting to keep him out of the run, 
 though, thanks to the precaution I had taken, I 
 was in no fear even if he should penetrate so deep 
 aft. Before he came out five-and-twenty stout 
 fellows arrived in four boats from the ship, and 
 when we went on deck, we found them going the 
 rounds of the vessel, scraping the guns to get a 
 view of them, peering down the companion, over- 
 hauling the forecastle-well, as I call the hollow 
 beyond the forecastle, and staring aloft with 
 their faces full of grinning wonder. The cap- 
 tain sang out to them and they all mustered 
 aft. 
 
 " Now, lads," said he, " there's a big job before 
 v OU a big job for Cape Horn, I mean ; and you'U 
 have to slip through it as if you was grease. 
 When done there'll be a carouse, and I'll warrant 
 ye all such a sup that the most romantic 
 among ye' 11 never cast another pining thought 
 in the direction o' your mother's milk." 
 
 Having delivered this preface, he divided the 
 men into two gangs; one, under the boatswain, 
 to attend to the rigging, clear the canvas of 
 the ice, get the pumps and the capstans to 
 work, and see all ready for getting sail on the 
 schooner; the other, under the second mate, to 
 get tackles aloft and break out the cargo, taking 
 care to trim ship whilst so doingr 
 
 They fell to their several job* with a will.
 
 A BARGAIN WITH THS YAVKE* 
 
 339 
 
 Tis the habit of our countrymen to sneer at 
 
 the Americans as sailors, affirming that if ever 
 
 they win a battle at sea it is by the help of 
 
 British renegades. But this I protest ; after 
 
 witnessing the smartness of those Yankee whale- 
 
 men, I would sooner charge the English than the 
 
 Americans with hibberliness came the nautical 
 
 merits of the two nations ever before me to decide 
 
 upon. They had the hatches open, tackles aloft, 
 
 and men at work below whilst the mariners of 
 
 other countries would have been standing looking 
 
 on and "jawing " upon the course to be taken. 
 
 Some overran the fabric aloft, clearing, cutting 
 
 -iway, pounding, making the ice fly in storms; 
 
 others sweated the capstans till they clanked; 
 
 others fell to the pumps, working with hammers 
 
 ;md kettles of boiling water. The wondrous old 
 
 'schooner was never busier, no, not in the heyday 
 
 of her flag, when her guns were blazing and her 
 
 people yelling. 
 
 I doubt whether even a man-of-war could hare 
 given this work the despatch the whaler furnished. 
 She had eight boats and sixty men, and every 
 boat was afloat and alongside us ready to carry 
 what she could to the ship. I wished to help, but 
 the captain would not let me do so ; he kept me 
 walking and talking, asking me scores of questions 
 about the schooner, and all so shrewd that, with- 
 out appearing reserved, I professed to know little. 
 The great show of clothes puzzled him. He also 
 isked if the crucifix in the cabin was silver. I 
 *aid I believed it was, fetched it, and asked him 
 to accept it, saying if he would give me the
 
 340 
 
 THE FK 
 
 smallest of his boats tor u i should be very much 
 obliged. 
 
 " Oh, yes," says he, " you can hare a boat. 
 The men would not sail with you without a boat ; M 
 and after weighing the crucifix without the least 
 exhibition of veneration in his manner, he put it in 
 his pocket, saying he knew a man who would give 
 him a couple of hundred dollars for the thing on 
 his telling him that the Pope had blessed it. 
 
 " Ay, but," says I, " how do you know the Pope 
 has blessed it ? 
 
 " Then -Til bless it," cried he; "why, am I a 
 cold Johnny-cake that my blessing ain't as good 
 as another man's ? " 
 
 I was glad I had hidden the black flag; I 
 mean, that I had stowed it away in the cabin of 
 the Frenchman after he was dead. The Yankee 
 needed but the sight to make his suspicions of the 
 original character of the/toa dtl Dragon flame 
 up ; and you may suppose that I was exceeding!} 
 anxious he should not be sure that the schooner 
 had been a pirate, lest he might have been tempted 
 to scrutinize her rather more closely than would 
 have been agreeable to me. 
 
 He asked me if I had met with any money in 
 her : and I answered evasively that in searching 
 the dead man on the rocks, I had discovered a few 
 pieces in his pocket, but that I had left them, 
 being much too melancholv and convinced of my 
 approaching end to meddle with such a useless 
 commodity. From time to time he would ^uit 
 me to go to the hatch and ting down orders to 
 the second Mate in the hold. How m*mj caaku
 
 I STRIKE A BAKOAUI WITH THE YAXKBE. 541 
 
 he meant to take I did not know; when he asked 
 me how much I would give, I replied : " Leave me 
 enough to keep me ballasted ; that will satisfy me." 
 
 The high swell demanded caution, but they 
 managed wonderfully well. They never swung 
 more than three casks into a boat, and with this 
 cargo she would row away to the ship that lay 
 hove-to close, and the men in her hoisted the 
 casks aboard. 
 
 The wind remained light till half-past three; 
 it then freshened a bit. Though all hands had 
 knocked off at noon to get dinner and a fine meal 
 I gave thein of ham, tongue, beef, biscuits, wine, 
 and brandy by half-past three they had eased 
 the hold of ten boatloads of casks, besides clear- 
 ing out the whole of the clothes from the forecastle 
 along with "as much of the bedding as we did not 
 require ; and I began to think that my Yankee 
 intended to leave me a clean ship to carry home, 
 though I durst not remonstrate. Yet was my 
 turn handsomely served too. The pumps had 
 been cleared and tried, and found to work well, 
 and which was glad news to me the well found 
 dry. The running rigging had been overhauled, 
 and it travelled handsomely. The sails had been 
 loosed and hoisted and lowered again, and the 
 canvas found in good condition. The jibboom 
 had been run out, and the stays set up. The 
 stock of fresh xamined and found 
 
 plentiful, a& ; the head brought out 
 
 and secure^ ck. In short, the 
 
 American boatswain had worked with the judgment 
 .and care of a master-rigger, of a great artist in
 
 34* THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 ropes, booms, and sails, and the schooner was 
 left to my hands as fit for any navigation as the 
 whaler that rose and fell on our quarter. 
 
 But, as I have said, at half-past three in the 
 afternoon, the breeze began to sit in dark curls 
 upon the water, and there was evidence enough 
 in the haziness in the west, and in the loom of 
 the shoulders of vapour in the dark-blue obscure 
 there, to warrant a sackful for this capful pre- 
 sently. 
 
 " I reckon," says the captain to me, after look- 
 ing into the west, "that we'd best knock off now. 
 There's snow and wind yonder, and we'd better 
 see all snug while there's time." 
 
 He called to one of the men to tell the second 
 mate to come up from below and get the hatches 
 on, and bringing me to the rail, he pointed to a 
 boat, and asked if that would do ? I said yes, and 
 thanked him heartily for the gift, which was hand- 
 some, I must say, the boat being a very good one. 
 though, to be sure, he had got many times its 
 value out of the schooner ; and a party of men 
 were forthwith told off to get the boat hoisted and 
 stowed. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Rodney," said the captain, standing 
 in the gangway, " how can I serve you farther ? ' 
 
 <( Sir," said I, " you are very obliging. "\ 
 things I stand sadly in need of: a chart of these 
 waters and a chronometer." 
 
 " I'll send you a chart," said he, " that'll carry 
 you as high as San Roque ; but I've only got on- 
 chronometer, sir, and can't spare him." 
 
 "Well then," said I, "if, wlu-ri .
 
 A BARGAIN WITH THE YANKEE. 343 
 
 you'll give me the time by your chronometer, I'll 
 set my watch by it; but I'll thank you very much 
 for the chart. The tracings below are as shapeless 
 as the moon setting in a fog." 
 
 ' You shall have the chart," said he, and then 
 called to Wilkinson and the two negroes. 
 
 ;< Lads," said he, "you're quite content, I hope ? " 
 
 They answered " Yes." 
 
 "You've all three. a claim upon me for the 
 amount of what's owing ye," said he, "and when 
 you turn up at New Bedford you shall have it 
 that's square. I see fifteen hundred dollars a 
 man on this job, if so be as ye don't broach 
 too thirstily as you go along. Mr. Rodney, 
 Joe here's a steady, 'spectable man, and'll make 
 you a good mate. Cromwell and Billy Pitt are 
 black only in their hides ; all else's as good as 
 white." 
 
 He then shook me by the hand, and, calling 
 a farewell to Wilkinson and the negroes, scrambled 
 into the chains and dropped into his boat, very 
 highly satisfied, I make no doubt, with the busi- 
 ness he had done that day. 
 
 A boat's crew were left behind to help us to make 
 sail. But the weather looking somewhat wild in 
 the west with the red light of the sun among the 
 clouds there, and the dark heave of the swell 
 running into a sickly crimson under the sun 
 and then glowing out dusky again, I got them to 
 treble-reef the mainsail- and hoist it, and then 
 thanking them, advised them to be off. Then, 
 putting Cromwell to the tiller, I went forward with 
 is and set the topsail and forestaysail ((.he
 
 344 THE FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 ipritsail lying furled), which would be show enouglr 
 of canvas till I saw what the weather was to be 
 like. I krpt the topsail aback, waiting for a boat 
 to arrive with my chart, and in a few minutes 
 the boat we had cheered returned with what I 
 wanted. 
 
 Meanwhile they were shortening sail on the 
 whaler, an;l though she was ncrbeauty, yet, I tell 
 you, I found her as picturesque as any ship I had 
 ever beheld as she lay with her main topgallant- 
 sail clewed up, her topsail . yards on the caps, 
 and the heads of men knotting the reef-points 
 showing black over the white cloths, her hull 
 floating up out of the hollow and flinging a wet 
 orange gleam to the* west, a tumble of creamy 
 foam about her to her rolling, shadows like the 
 passage of phantom hands hurrying over her sails 
 to the swaying of her masts, and the swelling sea 
 darkling from her into the east. 
 
 I hollowed my hands, and, hailing the captain, 
 who was on the quarter-deck, asked him for the 
 time by his chronometer. He flourished his arm 
 and disappeared and, presently returning, shouted 
 to know if I was ready. I put the key in 
 watch and answered yes, and then he gave me 
 the time. M\ ^tch, though antique, was a noble 
 piece of mechanism, and I have little doub 
 trustworthy as his chronometer. But I was care- 
 ful to let it lie snu^ in my hand. I did not want 
 the negro at the tiller nor the others to se 
 They would wonder a jewelled piece 
 
 as this should be in the possession of tru 
 mate of a little bri^, and it was my business to
 
 ? STRIKE A BARGAIX WITH TH YAXKBE, 345 
 
 manage that they never should kar cause to 
 wonder at anything in that way. 
 
 The dusk of the evening came quick out of the 
 east, and the wind freshened with a long cry in 
 our rigging as if the eastern darkness was a foe 
 it was rushing out of the west to meet. I brought 
 the schooner north-north-east by my compass 
 and watched her behaviour anxiously. The swell 
 was on the quarter, and the wind and sea a trifle 
 abaft the larboard beam ; she leaned a little to 
 the weight of her clothes, but was surprisingly stiff 
 considering how light she was. Wilkinson and the 
 negro came and stood by my side. The sea broke 
 heavily from the weather bow, and the water roared 
 white under the lee bends and spread astern in a 
 broad wake of foam. The whaler did not brace 
 his yards up till after we had started, and now 
 hung a pale faint mass in the windy darkness on 
 the quarter. A tincture of rusty red hovered like 
 smoke coloured by the furnace that produces it, 
 in the west, but the night had drawn down quick 
 and dark; the washing noise of the water was 
 sharp, the wind piercingly cold ; each sweep of 
 the schooner's masts to windward was followed 
 by a dull roaring of the blast rushing out ot 
 the hollows of the canvas, and she swung to the 
 seas with wild yaws, but with regularity suffi- 
 cient to prove the strict government of the 
 helm. 
 
 But it was being at sea ! homeward bound too ! 
 There was no wish of mine, engendered by my 
 hideous loneliness on the ice, by my abhorred 
 association with the Frenchman, that I could not
 
 34$ THB FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 refer to as, down to this moment, gratified. My 
 heart bounded ; my spirits could not have been 
 higher had this ocean been the Thames, and 
 yonder dark flowing hills of water the banks of 
 Erith and the Gravesend shore. 
 
 I turned to the three men : " My lads," said I, 
 " you prove yourselves fine bold fellows by thus 
 volunteering. Do not fear : if God guides us 
 home to my home, I mean you shall find a 
 handsome account in this business." 
 
 " Six more chaps would have jined had 
 th'ole man bin willin'," said Wilkinson. " But 
 best as it is, master, though she's a trifle, short- 
 handed/' 
 
 " Wn 7 y es /' .said I ; " but being fore and aft, 
 you know 1 It isn't as if we'd got courses to hand 
 and topsails to reef." 
 
 " Ay, ay, dat's de troof," cried Billy Pitt " I 
 tort o' dat. Fore an 1 aft makes de difference. 
 Don't guess I should hab volunteer had she been 
 a brig." 
 
 " There are four of us," said I. " You're my 
 chief mate, Wilkinson. Choose your watch." 
 
 " I choose Cromwell," said he ; " he was in my 
 watch aboard the whaler." 
 
 ' Very well," I exclaimed ; and this being 
 settled, and both negroes declaring themselves 
 good cooks, we arranged that they should alter- 
 nately have the dressing of our victuals, that 
 Wilkinson should have the cabin next mine, and 
 the negroes the one in which the Frenchman had 
 slept, one taking the other's place as he was 
 relieved.
 
 I ITEIKB A BARGAIN WITH THE YANKEE. 347 
 
 I asked Wilkinson what he thought of the 
 schooner. He answered that he was watching 
 her. 
 
 " There's nothing to find fault with yet," said 
 he; "she's a whale at rolling, sartinly. I guess 
 she walks, though. I reckon she's had enough 
 of the sea, like me, and's got the scent o' the 
 land in her nose. I guess old Noah wasn't far off 
 when her lines was laid. Mebbe his sons had the 
 building of her. There's something scriptural in 
 her cut. How old's she, master?" 
 
 [< Fifty years and more," said I. 
 
 " Dere's nuffin' pertickler in dat," cried Crom- 
 well. " I knows a wessel dat am a hundred an' 
 four year old, s'elp me as I stand." 
 
 14 1 don't know how the whaler's heading," said 
 I, " but this schooner's a canoe if we aren't drop- 
 ping her!" 
 
 Indeed she was scarce visible astern, a mere 
 windy flicker hovering upon the pale flashings of 
 ;he foam. It might be perhaps that the whaler 
 was making a more northerly course than we, 
 and under very snug canvas, though ours was 
 snug enough, too; but be this as it may, I was 
 mighty pleased with the slipping qualities of the 
 schooner. I never could have dreamt that so 
 odd and ugly a figure of a ship would show such 
 heels. But I think this : we are too prone to view 
 the handiwork of our sires with contempt. I do 
 not know but that their ships were as fast as ours. 
 They made many good passages. They mignt 
 have proved themselves fleeter navigators had they 
 had the sextant and chr<v ; n them
 
 TH* FROZIH Pnum 
 
 along. Fifty year* heace perhaps mankind will 
 be laughing at our crudities ; at us, by heaven, who 
 flatter ourselves that the art of ship-building and 
 navigation will never be carried higher than the 
 pitch to which we hare raised them ! 
 
 Cromwell being at the tiller, I told Billy Pitt to 
 go below and get supper, instructing him what to 
 dress and how much to melt for a bowl, for as 
 you know there was nothing but spirits and wine 
 to season our repasts with. I saw Cromwell grin 
 widely into the binnacle candle flame when he 
 heard me talk of ham, tongue, sweetmeats, mar- 
 malade and the like for supper, together with a 
 can of hot claret, and knowing sailor's nature 
 middling well, I did not doubt that the fare of the 
 schooner would bring the three men more into love 
 with the adventure than even the reward that was 
 to follow it, 
 
 I had noticed that the bundles which had been 
 sent from the whajer as belonging to the poor 
 fellows were meagre enough and showed indeed 
 like the end of a long voyage, and I detained 
 Billy Pitt a minute whilst I told them that there 
 was a handsome stock of clothes in the cabins, 
 together with linen, boots, and other articles of that 
 sort ; that, though the coats, breeches, and 
 waistcoats were of bright colour and old-fashioned, 
 they would keep them as warm as if they had 
 been cut by a tailor of to-day. 
 
 " These things," said I, "you can wear at sea, 
 keeping your own clothes ready to slip on should 
 we be spoken or to wear when we arrive in 
 England. To-morrow they shall be divided
 
 349 
 
 arnong you, and they will become your property. 
 7ne suit you saw me in to-day is all that I shall 
 need/' 
 
 Both negroes burst into a most diverting !&ugh 
 of joy on hearing this. Nothing delights a black 
 man more than coloured apparel. They had 
 seen the clothes in the forecastle and guessed 
 the kind of garments I meant to present them 
 with. 
 
 Whilst supper was getting, I walked the deck 
 with Wilkinson, both of us keeping a bright look- 
 out, for it was blowing fresh ; the darkness lay 
 thick about us, there might be ice near us, and 
 the schooner was storming under her reefed main- 
 sail, topsail, and staysail through the hollow seas, 
 thundering with a great roaring seething noise 
 into the trough, and lifting to the foaming slope 
 with her masts wildly aslant. I talked to my 
 companion very freely, being anxious to find out 
 what kind of person he was, and I must say that 
 there was something in his conversation that im- 
 pressed me very favourably. He told me that he 
 had a wife at New Bedford, that he was heartily 
 sick of the sea, and that he hoped the money he 
 would get by this adventure, added to his lay, 
 would enable him to set up for himself ashore. 
 
 ' Well," said I, " we will see to-morrow what 
 cargo Captain Tucker has left us. But that you 
 may be under no misapprehension, Wilkinson, if 
 we are fortunate enough to bring the ship safely 
 to Englarfd, I will enter into a bond to pay you 
 five hundred pounds sterling for your tVarc one 
 week after the date of our arrival."
 
 35 
 
 THB FKOZM PT*AT. 
 
 He answered that if he rw\'-.\ g< t that sum ht 
 would be a made man for life. "But it's too 
 much to expect, sir," says he. 
 
 I told him that he had no idea of the value of the 
 cargo. The wines and spirits were of such a quality 
 I would stake my interest in the schooner in 
 their fetching a large sum of money. 
 
 " That'll depend," said he, " on how much the 
 capt'n left us." 
 
 41 He helped himself freely," I answered, " but 
 we are well off too. You shall judge to-morrow. 
 Then there's the schooner as she stands: 
 besides a noble stock of stores of all kinds, sails, 
 ropes, tools, ammunition and several chests of 
 small arms. I tell you I will give you five hundred 
 pounds for your share." 
 
 riis satisfaction was expressed by his silence. 
 "But," continued I, "we must act with judg- 
 ment. What we have we must keep. Are the 
 negroes trustworthy men ? M 
 
 "Yes, they are honest fellows. I wouldn't 
 have shipped with them else." 
 
 "We shall not require much for ourselves, 
 said I, " and the rest we'll batten down and keep 
 snug. There'll be some manoeuvring needed in 
 order to come off clear with this booty when we 
 arrive: but there's plenty of time to think that 
 over, and our business till then is to look after 
 the ship and pray for luck to keep clear of any- 
 thing hostile.' 
 
 And then we fell to other talk ; in the course < 
 which he told me he was an Englishman born, 
 out having bee* pressed into a man-o-war,
 
 I YALUI TRB LADIMG. $51 
 
 deserted her tt Halifax and made several voyages 
 in American ships. He was wrecked on the P-ru- 
 vian coast and became a beachcomber, and tnen 
 got a berth in a whaler. He married at New 
 Bedford and sailed with Captain Tucker this 
 was his second whaling trip, he said, and he 
 wanted no more. I told him I was glad to \earn 
 that he was a countryman of mine, but not sur- 
 prised. His speech was well-larded with ameri- 
 canisms, " but," said I, " the true twang is 
 wanting, and," added I, laughing, "I should 
 know you for Hampshire for all your reckons and 
 guesses if I had to eat you should I be mis- 
 taken." 
 
 ' The press-gang's the best friend the Yankees 
 has," said he a little sheepishly. " Do any man 
 suppose I hadn't sooner hail from my native town 
 Southampton than from New Bedford ? Half the 
 American foksles is made up of Yankees who'd 
 prove hearts of oak if it wasn't for the press." 
 
 His candour gratified me as showing that he 
 already looked upon me as a shipmate to be 
 trusted, and, as I have- said, this first chat 
 with, the man left me strongly disposed to 
 consider myself fortunate in having him as an 
 associate. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 I VALUE THE LADING. 
 
 THE day had been so full of business, theve nad 
 been so much to engage my mind, that it was not 
 until I was seated at supper in the old cook-room
 
 THE FROZEN PIKATM. 
 
 j* which I had passed so many melancholy hours, 
 r hat I found myself able to take a calm survey of 
 *y situation, ana to compare the various motions 
 of my fortunes i could scarcely indeed believe 
 t^at I was not in a dream from which I should 
 a^vake presently, and discover myself still securely 
 imprisoned in the ice, and - all those passages of 
 the powder-blasts, the liberation of the schooner, 
 my lonely days in her afloat, my encounter with 
 the whaler, as visionary and vanishing as those 
 dusky forms of vapour which had swarmed in 
 giant-shape over my little open boat. 
 
 But even if confirmation had been wanting in 
 the sable visage of Billy Pitt, who sat near the 
 furnace munching away with prodigious enjoyment 
 of his food and bringing his can of hot spiced 
 wine from his vast blubber lips with a mighty sigh 
 of deep delight, I must have found it in each 
 hissing leap and roaring plunge of the old piratical 
 bucket, so full of the vitality of the wind-swollen 
 canvas, so quick with all the life-instincts of a 
 vessel storming through the deep with buoyant 
 keel and under full control. Oh, heaven ! how 
 different from the dull ambling of the morning, 
 tne sluggish pitching and rolling to the weak 
 pulling of the spritsail ! 
 
 Wilkinson and Cromwell kept the deck whilst 
 Billy Pitt and I got our supper, and I had some 
 talk with my negro, who seemed to be a very 
 s : moi* childish fellow, heartily in love with his 
 stomach and very eager to see England. He told 
 me that he had heard it was a fine country, and his 
 wish to see it was one reason of his volunteering.
 
 I VALUE THE LADING. 353 
 
 " Dcy say," said he, " dat Lunnon's a very fine 
 place, sah, bigger dan Philadelphy, and dat a 
 man s skin don' tell agin him among de yaller gals 
 
 Ud tT 
 
 I laughed and said, that in my country people 
 were judged rather by the colour of their hearts 
 than by the hue of their faces. 
 
 " But dollars count for something too, sah I 
 spects ? " said he. 
 
 ' Why, yes," said I, " with dollars enough you 
 can make black white in England." 
 
 ' Hum ! " cried he, scratching his head. " I 
 guess it 'ud take an almighty load of dollars to 
 make me white, massa." 
 
 ^Put money in your pocket and chink it," said 
 I, "and your face'll be found white enough I 
 warrant." 
 
 " By golly ! ' cried he, " I'll do it den. S'elp 
 me de Lord, massa, I'd chink twenty year for a 
 white face. Dat comes ob bein' civilized. Tell'ee 
 what dey dew, massa, dey makes you feel like a 
 man, but dey lets you keep black, blast 
 
 'nite 
 
 checked his excitement by telling him that 
 in my country he would find that the negro was a 
 person held in very high esteem, that the women 
 m particular valued him for that very dinginess 
 which the Americans found distasteful, and told 
 him that I could name several ladies of quality 
 who had married their black servants. 
 
 He looked surprised, but not incredulous, and 
 said in his peculiar dialect that he had no doubt 
 I spoke the truth, as he had always heard that
 
 J54 THK FROZEN PIRATI. 
 
 England was a line country to live in. i then led 
 him insensibly from this topic to talk of the sea 
 and his experiences, and tound that he had seen 
 a very great deal, having been freed when young, 
 and keeping to the ocean ever since in many 
 different sorts of craft. Indeed, I was as much 
 pleased with him as with Wilkinson, but then I had 
 foreseen a simplicity in both the negroes, and in ex- 
 pectation of finding this quality, so useful to one in 
 my strange position, I was overjoyed when they con- 
 sented to help me sail the schooner to the Thames. 
 
 We went on deck to relieve Wilkinson and 
 Cromwell. Billy Pitt took the tiller and I walked 
 to either rmil and stared into the darkness. It 
 was very thick with occasional squalls of snow, 
 which put a screaming as of tortured cats into 
 the wind as they swung through it. The sea was 
 high, but the schooner was making excellent 
 weather of it, whilst she rolled and pitched through 
 the troubled darkness at seven knots in the hour. 
 'Twas noble useful sailing, yet a speed not to be 
 relished in these waters amid so deep a shadow. 
 Still the temptation to "hold on all," as we 
 say, was very great ; every mile carried us by so 
 much nearer to the temperate parallels, and 
 shortened to that extent the long, long passage 
 that lay before us. 
 
 I was pacing the deck briskly, for the wind was 
 horribly keen, when Pitt suddenly called out, " I 
 say, massa t" 
 
 "Hullo," I replied. 
 
 " Sah," he cried, " I smefl ic ! " 
 
 i knew that this was a capacity not
 
 I YALVB rmm LADOTO. 
 
 155 
 
 c >minon among men who had voyaged much in 
 the frosty regions of the deep, and instantly 
 exclaimed, "Luff, then, luff ! shake the way out 
 of her ! ' sniffing as I spoke, but detecting no 
 added shrewdness in the air that was already 
 freezingly cold. He put the helm down, and I 
 called to the others below to come on deck and 
 flatten in the main sheet. They were up in a trice 
 and tailed on with me, asking no questions, till we 
 had the boom nearly amidships. 
 I was about to speak when Wilkinson cried out, 
 [ smell ice." He sniffed a moment: "Yet, 
 there's an island aboard. Anybody see it ? " 
 
 "Ay, dere it am, sure enough ! " cried Crom- 
 well " Dere on de lee-bow tee it, sah ? See 
 it, Billy?" 
 
 Yes, I saw it plain enough when I knew when 
 to look for it. Twas just such another lump of 
 famtness as had wrecked the Lvughing Mary, a 
 mass of dull spectral light upon the throbbing 
 blackness, and it lay exactly in a Kne with the 
 course we had been steering when Pitt first called 
 out, so that assuredly we had not shifted our 
 helm a minute too soon. We chopped and wal- 
 lowed past it slowly, keeping a sharp look-out for 
 like apparitions in other quarters, and when it had 
 disappeared, I made up my mind to heave the 
 schooner to and keep her in that posture till 
 daylight, unless the night cleared. So we got 
 the mainsail down and stowed it, clewed up the 
 top-sail (which I lent a hand to roll up), and let 
 the vessel lie ui-.ler a reefed foresail with her 
 helm lashed. The weather, however, Bust hare
 
 356 THI FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 ultimately compelled what the thickness 
 required ; for by ten o'clock it was blowing a 
 hard gale, with a frequent hoariness of ' ^ouds 
 of snow upon the blackness, the seas vei^ iii^n 
 foaming, and the wind crying madly in the rigging. 
 
 I let some time go by, and then sounded the 
 well and found no more water than the depth at 
 which the pumps sucked. This did wonders in the 
 way of reassuring the men, who were rendered 
 uneasy by the violent motions of the unwieldy 
 vessel, and by the very harsh straining noises 
 which rose out of the hold, which latter they would 
 naturally attribute to the craziness of the fabric, 
 though the true cause of it lay in the number of 
 loose, movable bulkheads. 
 
 " It's amazin' to me that she holds together at 
 all," cried Wilkinson, " so ancient she is ! " 
 
 " She's only old," said I, " in the sound of the 
 years she's been in existence. The ice has kept 
 her young. Would the hams and tongues we're 
 eating be taken to be half a century old ? yet 
 where could you buy sweeter and better meat of 
 the kind ashore ? A ship's well is your only honest 
 reporter of her condition. Ours has vouched in a 
 way that should keep you easy." 
 
 " Arter de Soosan lucker dis is like bein' hung 
 up to dry," exclaimed one of the negroes. " It 
 war pump, pump dere and no mistake. I call dis 
 a werry beautiful little sheep, massa ; yes, s'elp me 
 de Lord, dere's nuffin could persuade me she ain't 
 what I says she am." 
 
 However, I was up and down a good deal during 
 the night. But for the treasure I should have
 
 I TALUK THI LADWC 357 
 
 been less anxious, I dare say. I had come o 
 
 successfully to this point that I was resolved, if 
 my hopes were to miscarry, the misfortune should 
 not be owing to want of vigilance on my part ; and 
 there happened an incident which inevitably tended 
 to sharpen my watchfulness, though I was per- 
 fectly conscious there was a million to one against 
 its occurring a second time. I came on deck to 
 relieve Wilkinson, at midnight, after a half-hour*! 
 nodding doze by the furnace below. He went ta 
 his cabin ; I stood under the lee of a cloth seiied 
 in the weather main rigging. Pitt arrived, and ] 
 told him he could return to the cook-house and 
 stay there till 1 called him. The helm being 
 lashed, and the schooner doing very well, nothing 
 wanted watching in particular, yet I would not 
 have the deck abandoned, and meant to keep a 
 look-out, turn and turn about with Pitt, as Wilkin- 
 son and Cromwell had. The snow had ceased ; 
 but it was very dark and thick, the ocean a roaring 
 shadow, palpitating upon the eyes in rolling 
 folds of blackness, with the quick expiring 
 flash of foam to windward. On a sudden, looking 
 over the weather quarter, methought I discerned 
 a deeper shade in the night there than was else- 
 where perceptible. It was like a great blot of 
 ink upon the darkness. Even whilst I specu- 
 lated, it drew out in the shape of a ship running 
 before the gale. She seemed to be heading 
 directly for us. The roof of mv mouth turned dry 
 as desert-sand ; my tongue ana limbs refused their 
 office ; I could neither cry nor stir, being indeed 
 paralyzed by the terrible suddenness ef tkat
 
 TH FROZEN PTHATII. 
 
 apparition and the imminence of our peril. It all 
 happened whilst you could have told thirty. The 
 great black mass surged up with the water boiling 
 about the bows ; she brought a thunder along 
 with her in her rigging and sails as she soared to 
 the crowns of the seas she was sweeping before. 
 I could not tell what canvas she was under, but 
 her speed was a full ten knots, and as I did not 
 see her till she was close, she looked to come 
 upon us as with a single bound. She passed us 
 to windward within a stone's throw, and vanished 
 like a dark cloud melting into the surrounding 
 blackness. Not a gleam of light broke from her ; 
 you heard nothing but the boiling at her bows and 
 the thunderous pealing of the gale in her canvas. 
 A quarter turn of the wheel would have sent us to 
 the bottom, and her, no doubt, on top of us. 
 Whether she was the Susan Tucker, or some 
 other whaler, or a big South-Sea-man driven low 
 and getting what easting she could out of the 
 gale, I know not. She was as complete a mystery 
 of the ocean night as any spectral fabric, and a 
 heavier terror to me than a phantasm worked by 
 ghosts could have proved. 
 
 I knew such a thing could not happen again, 
 yet when I called Pitt I talked to him about it as 
 though we must certainly be run down if he did 
 not keep a sharp look-out, and when my watch 
 below came round at four o'clock, I was so agitated 
 that I was up and down till daybreak, as though 
 my duty did not end till then. 
 
 The gale moderated at sunrise, and, though it 
 was a gloomy, true Cape Horn morning, with dark
 
 I VALUI THE LADING. 359 
 
 driving clouds, the sea a dusky olive, very hollow, 
 and frequent small quick squalls of sleet which 
 brought the wind to us in sharp guns, yet as we 
 could see where we were going, I got the schooner 
 before it, heading her east-north-east, and under a 
 reefed topsail, mainsail, and staysail, the old bucket 
 stormed through it with the sputter and rage of a 
 line-of-battle ship. There was a log-reel and line 
 on deck, and I found a sand-glass in the chest in 
 my cabin in which I had met with the quadrants, 
 perspective glass, and the like, and I kept this log 
 regularly going, marking a point of departure on 
 the chart the American captain had given me, 
 which I afterwards found to be within two leagues 
 and a half of the true position. But for three days 
 the weather continued so heavy that there was 
 nothing to be done in the shape of gratifying the 
 men's expectations by overhauling what was kf' 
 of the cargo. Indeed, we had no leisure for such 
 work ; all our waking hours had to be sU 
 dedicated to the schooner, and in keeping a look- 
 out for ice. But the morning of the fourth day 
 broke with a fine sky and a brisk breeze from a 
 little .to the east of south, to which we showed 
 every cloth the schooner had to throw abroad, 
 and being now by dead reckoning within a few 
 leagues of the meridian of sixty degrees, I shaped 
 a course north by east by my compass, with the 
 design of getting a view of Staten Island that I 
 might correct my calculations. 
 
 When we had made sail and got our breakfast, 
 I told Wilkinson and Cromwell (Pitt being at the 
 tiller) 'that now was a good opportunity for -
 
 THE FROZEN Pi*/ 
 
 ting the contents of the hold; and (not to 
 be tedious in this part of my relation, howe. 
 may have sinned in this respect elsewhere) we 
 carried lanthorns below, and spent the better part 
 of the forenoon in taking stock. From a copy of 
 the memorandum I made on that occasion (still in 
 my possession), we discovered that the Yankee 
 captain had left us the following : thirty casks 
 of rum, twenty-eight hogsheads of claret, seventy- 
 five casks of brandy, fifty of sherry, and eighteen 
 cases of beer in bottles. In addition to this were 
 the stores in the lazarette (besides a quantity of 
 several kinds of wine in jars, &c.) elsewhere 
 enumerated, besides all the ship's furniture, her 
 guns, powder, small-arms, &c., as well as the 
 ship herself. I took the men into the run and 
 showed them the chests, opening the little one 
 which I had stocked with small-arms, and lifting 
 the lids of two or three of th~e others. They were 
 perfectly satisfied, fully believing all the chests to 
 be filled with small-arms and nothing else, and 
 so we came away and returned to the cabin, 
 where, to please them, I put down the value of 
 the cargo at a venture, setting figures against 
 each article, and making out a total of two thou- 
 sand six hundred and forty pounds. This of course 
 included the ship. 
 
 " How rruch '11 dat be a man, massa?" asked 
 Cromwell. 
 
 " Six hundred and sixty pounds," I answered. 
 
 The poor fellow was so transported that, after 
 staring at me in silence with the corners of his
 
 THE LADIVG. 361 
 
 mouth stretched to his ears, he tossed up his hands, 
 burst into a roar of laughter, and made several 
 skips about the deck. 
 
 " Of course," said I, addressing Wilkinson, 
 "- my figures may be ahead or short of the truth. 
 But if you are disposed to take the chance, I'll 
 tell you what I'll do ; I'll stand by my figures, 
 accepting the risk of the value of the lading being 
 less than what I say it is, and undertake to give 
 each man of you six hundred and sixty pounds 
 for your share." 
 
 " Well, sir," said he, " I don't know that I ought 
 to object. But a few pounds is a matter of great 
 consequence to me, and I reckon if these here 
 goods and the wessel should turn out to be worth 
 more than ye offer, the loss 'ud go agin tiie grit, 
 ay, if 'twere twenty dollars a man." 
 
 I laughed, and told him to let the matter rest, 
 there was plenty of time before us ; I should be 
 willing to stand to my offer even if I lost by it, so 
 heartily obliged was I to them for coming to my 
 assistance. And in this I spoke the truth, though, 
 as you will understand who know my position, I 
 had to finesse. It went against my conscience 
 to make out that the chests were full of small- 
 arms, but I should have been mad to tell them 
 the truth, and, perhaps, by the truth made devils 
 of men who were, and promised to remain, st< 
 temperate, honest fellows. I was not governed 
 by the desire to keep all the treasure to myself ; 
 no, I vow to God I should have been glad to give 
 them a moiety of it, had I not apprehended the
 
 THB FIOKBM PIRAT*. 
 
 vry grave* consequence! if i were candid witfc 
 them. But this, surely, must be to plain that h 
 is idle to go on insisting on it. 
 
 The fine weather, the golden issue that was to 
 attend our successful navigation, the satisfactory 
 behaviour of the schooner, put us into a high 
 good-humour with one another ; and when it came 
 to my collecting all the clothes in the after cabins 
 and distributing them among the three men, I 
 thought Billy Pitt and Cromwell would have gone 
 mad with delight. To the best of my recollection 
 the apparel that had been left us by the American 
 captain (who, as you know, had cleared the fore- 
 castle of the clothes there) consisted of several 
 coats of cut velvet, trimmed with gold and silver 
 lace, some frocks of white drab with large plate 
 buttons, brocade waistcoats of blue satin and 
 green silk, crimson and other coloured cloth 
 breeches, along with some cloaks, three-corner 
 hats, black and white stockings, a number of 
 raffled shirts, and other articles, of which I recol- 
 lect the character, though my ignorance of the 
 costumes of that period prevents me from naming 
 them. 
 
 Any one acquainted with the negro's delight in 
 coloured clothes will hardly need to be told of the 
 extravagant joy raised in the black breasts of 
 Crorrrvell and Pitt by my distribution of this fine 
 attire. The lace, to be sure, was tarnished, and 
 some of the colours faded, but all the same the 
 apparel furnished a brave show ; and such was 
 the avidity with which the poor creatures snatched 
 at the garments as I offered them first to one and
 
 TUB LADIBO. 363 
 
 then another, that I believe they would have been 
 perfectly satisfied with the clothes alone as pay- 
 ment for their services. I made this distribution 
 on the quarter-deck, or little poop, rather, that all 
 might be present : Wilkinson was at the tiller, 
 and appeared highly delighted with the bundle 
 allotted him, saying that he might reckon upon a 
 hearty welcome from his wife when she came to 
 know what was in his chest. The negroes were 
 wild to clothe themselves at once ; I advised them 
 to wait for the warm weather, but they were too 
 impatient to put on their fine feathers to heed my 
 advice. They ran below, and were gone half an 
 hour, during which time I have no doubt they 
 put on all they had ; and when at last they 
 returned, their appearance was so exquisitely 
 absurd that I laughed till I came near to suffocat- 
 ing. Each negro had tied a silver laced hat on to 
 his woolly head ; one wore a pair of crimson, the 
 other a pair of black, velvet breeches ; over their 
 cucumber shanks they had drawn white silk 
 stockings, regardless of the cold ; their feet were 
 encased in buckled shoes, and their costumes 
 were completed by scarlet and blue waist c. 
 which fell to their knees, and crimson and blue 
 coats with immense skirts. What struck me as 
 most astonishing was their gravii.y. Their self- 
 complacency was prodigious ; they eyed each 
 other with dignified approbation, and strutted 
 with the air of provincial mayors and aldermen 
 newly arrived from the presence of royalty. 
 
 " They're in keepin' with the schooner, any 
 ways/' said Wilkinson.
 
 304 
 
 And so perhaps they were. The antique fabrk 
 
 needed the sparkle of those costumes on her deck 
 to make her aspect fit in with the imaginations sht 
 bred. But, as I had anticipated, the cold proved 
 too powerful for their conceit, and they wen 
 presently glad to ship their more modern trousers 
 though they clung obstinately to their waistcoats 
 and could not be persuaded to remove their hats or 
 any account whatever. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 OUR PROGRESS TO THE CHANNEL. 
 
 WHEN I started to relate my adventure I neve? 
 designed to write an account of the journey horn* 
 at large. On the contrary, I foresaw that, by th< 
 time I had arrived at this part, you would have ha<? 
 enough of the SCA. Let me now, then, be as brie' 
 as possible. 
 
 The melting of the ice and the slowly increas 
 ing power of the sun were inexpressibly consoling 
 to me who had had so much of the cold that I dr 
 protest if Elysium were bleak, no matter hon 
 radiant, and the abode of the fiends as hot as if 
 is pictured, I would choose to turn my back upor 
 the angels. 1 cannot say, however, that the 
 schooner was ^properly thawed until we were hard 
 upon the parallels of the Falkland Islands ; she 
 then showed her timbers naked to the sun, and 
 exposed a brown solid deck rendered ugly by 
 several dark patches which, scrape as we might, 
 we could not obliterate. We struck the guns 
 into the hold for the better ballasting of the
 
 Otnt PROGRBM TO THE CHANNEL. 365 
 
 raael, got studding-sail booms aloft, overhauled 
 her suits of canvas and found a great square sail 
 wnich proved of inestimable importance in light 
 winds and in running. After the ice was wholly 
 melted out of her frame she made a little water, 
 yet not so much but that half an hour's spell at the 
 pump twice a day easily freed her. But, curi- 
 ously enough, at the end of a fortnight she 
 became tight again, which I attribute to the 
 swelling of her timbers. 
 
 We were a slender company, but we managed 
 extraordinarily well. The men were wonderfully 
 content; I never heard so much as a murmur 
 escape one of them ;. they never exceeded 
 their rations nor asked for a drop more of liquor 
 than we had agreed among us should be served 
 out. But, as I had anticipated, our security lay 
 in our slenderness. We were too few for disaffec- 
 tion. The negroes were as simple as children, 
 Wilkinson looked to find his account in a happy 
 arrival,~and if I was not, strictly speaking, their 
 captain, I was their navigator without whom their 
 case would Tiave been as perilous as mine was on 
 the ice. 
 
 Outside the natural dangers of the sea we had 
 but one anxiety, and that concerned our being 
 chased and taken. This fear was heartily shared 
 by my companions, to whom I also represented that 
 it must be our business to give even the ships of 
 our country a wide berth ; for, though I had long 
 since flung all the compromising bunting over- 
 board, and destroyed all the papers I could come 
 across, which being written in a language 1
 
 J66 Turn Fftoau Puurm. 
 
 ignorant of, might, for all 1 knew, contain some 
 damning information, a British ship would be 
 sure to board us and I should have to tell the 
 truth or take the risks of prevaricating. If I told 
 the truth, then I should have to admit that the 
 lading of the vessel was piratical plunder; and 
 though I knew not how the law stood with regard 
 to booty rescued from certain destruction after 
 the lapse of hard upon half a century, ret it was 
 a hundred to one that the whole would be claimed 
 in the king's name under a talk of restitution, 
 which signified that we should never hear more of 
 it. On the other hand prevarication would not 
 fail to excite suspicion, and on our not being able 
 to satisfactorily account for our possession of the 
 ship and what was in her, it might end in our 
 actually being seized as pirates and perhaps 
 executed. 
 
 This reasoning went very well with the men and 
 filled them with such anxiety that they were for 
 ever on the look-out for a sail. But, as you may 
 guess, my own solicitude sank very much deeper ; 
 For, supposing the schooner to be rummaged by 
 an English crew, it was as certain as that my 
 hand was affixed to mv arm that the chests of 
 treasure would be transhipped and lost to me by 
 the law's trickery. 
 
 Now, till we were to the north of the equator 
 we sighted nothing ; no, in all those days not a 
 single sail ever hove into view to break the 
 melancholy continuity of the sea-line. But 
 between the parallels of la" and 22* N. we met 
 witk no lets than eight ships, tko
 
 Ova PftooftMi * rmm QUUTML. jft? 
 
 withia a league. Wt watched them as cats 
 watch mice ; making a point to bear away if they 
 were going our road, or, if they were coming 
 towards us, to shift our helm but never very 
 markedly so as to let them pass us at the widest 
 possible distance. Some of them showed a 
 colour, but we never answered their signals. 
 That they were all harmless traders I will not 
 affirm ; but none of them offered to chase us. 
 Yet could I have been sure of a ship, I should have 
 been glad to speak. My longitude was little more 
 than guess-work ; my latitude not very certain ; and 
 my compass was out. However, I supported my 
 own and the spirits of my little company by telling 
 them of the early navigators ; how Columbus, 
 Candish, Drake, Schouten and other heroic 
 marine worthies of distant times had navigated the 
 globe, discovered new worlds, penetrated into the 
 most secret solitudes of the deep without any 
 notion of longitude and with no better instruments 
 to take the sun's height than the forettaff and 
 astrolabe. We were better off than ttay, and I 
 had not the least doubt, I told them, ol bringing 
 the old schooner to a safe berth off Deal or 
 Gravesend. 
 
 But it happened that we were chased when on 
 the polar verge of the North- East Trade- vind. It 
 was blowing brisk, the sea breaking in si vow upon 
 the weather bow, th sky overcast with clouds, 
 and the schooner washing through it under a 
 single-reefed maipsail and whole topsail. It was 
 noon : I was taking an observation, when Pitt at 
 tho tiller sang out "Sail hot" aa4 lo*kia* I
 
 368 THB FROZE* Pit ATO, 
 
 spied the swelling cloud-like canvas of a vessel mi 
 a line with our starboard cathead. I told Pitt to 
 let the schooner fall off three points, and with 
 slackened sheets the old Boca del Dragon 
 hummed through it brilliantly, flinging the- foam 
 as far aft as the gangway. The strange sail rose 
 rapidly, and the lifting of her hull discovered her 
 to be a line-of-battle ship. We held on as we 
 were, hoping to escape h^r notice ; but whether 
 she did not like our appearance, or that there was 
 something in the figure we cut that excited her 
 curiosity, she, on a sudden, put her helm up and 
 steered a true course for us. 
 
 At the first sight of her I had called Wilkinson 
 and Cromwell on deck, and I now cried out, 
 " Lads, d'ye see, she's after us. If she catches 
 us our dream of dollars is over. Lively now, boys, 
 and give her all she can stagger under ; and what 
 she can't carry she must drag." And we sprang 
 to make sail briskly as apes, and every one work- 
 ing with two-man power. I knew the old Bocas 
 best point ; it was with the wind a point abaft the 
 beam ; we put her to that, got the great square-sail 
 on her, shook out all reefs, and gave all she had to 
 the wind. The wake roared away from her like a 
 white torrent that flies from the foot of a foaming 
 cataract. She had the pirate's instincts, and 
 being put to her trumps, was nimble. God ! how 
 she did swing through it ! Never had I driven the 
 aged bucket before like this, and I understood 
 that speed at sea is not irreconcilable with odd 
 bodies. But the great ship to windward hung 
 steady; a cloud of bland *nd swelling cloth*.
 
 Orm PROGICS* TO TH* CHAWYXL. 369 
 
 When we had set the studding-sail we had nothing 
 more to fly with ; and so we stood looking. She 
 slapped six shots at us, one after another, as a 
 haughty hint to us to stop ; but we meant to 
 escape, and at last we did, outsailing her by 
 thirteen inches to her foot one foot to 
 her twelve though she stuck to our skirts the 
 whole afternoon and kept us in an agony of 
 anxiety. 
 
 The sun was setting when she abandoned us : 
 she was then some five or six miles distant on our 
 weather quarter. What her nation was I did not 
 know ; but Wilkinson reckoned her French when 
 she gave us up. We rushed steadily along the 
 same course into the darkness of the night and 
 then, shortening sail, brought the schooner to the 
 wind again, after which we drank to the frisky 
 old jade in an honestly-earned bowl. 
 
 It was on the 5th of December that we sighted 
 the Scilly Isles. I guessed what that land was, 
 but so vague had been my navigation that I durst 
 not be sure ; until, spying a smack with her nets 
 over, I steered for her and got the information I 
 needed from her people. They answered us with 
 an air of fear, and in truth the fellows had reason ; 
 for, besides the singular appearance of the ship, 
 the four of us were af^paneied in odds and ends 
 of the antique cloth**, and I have little doubt 
 they considered us lunatics of another country, 
 who had run awa/y with a ship belonging to 
 where the teu^s and fashions were behind 
 the age. 
 
 Now, as you may suppose, by this time I had
 
 370 THB Fnozi* Pi*AT t 
 
 settled my plans and as we sailed up channel, I 
 unfolded them to my companions. I pointed out 
 that before we entered the river it would be neces- 
 sary to discharge our lading into some little vessel 
 that would smuggle the booty ashore for us. 
 The figure the schooner made was so peculiar 
 she would inevitably attract attention ; she 
 would instantly be boarded in the Thames on our 
 coming to anchor, and, if I told the truth, she 
 would be seized as a pirate, and ourselves dis- 
 missed with a small reward, and perhaps witr 
 nothing. 
 
 " My scheme," said I, "is this : I have a rela 
 tive in London to whom 1 shall communicate tht 
 news of ray arrival and tell him my story. You, 
 Wilkinson must be the bearer of this letter. He 
 is a shrewd, active man, and I will leave k to him 
 to engage the help we want. There is no lack 
 of the right kind of serviceable men at Deal, and 
 if they are promised a substantial interest in 
 smuggling our lading ashore, they will run the 
 goods successfully, do not fear. As there is sure 
 to be a man-of-war stationed in the Downs, we 
 must keep clear of that anchorage. I will land 
 you at Lydd, whence vou will make your way to 
 Dover and thence to London. Cromwell and Pitt 
 will return and help me to keep cruising. My 
 letter to my relative will tell him where to seek 
 me, and I shall know his boat by her flying a jack. 
 When we have discharged our lading we will sail 
 to the Thames, and then let who will come aboard, 
 for we shall have a clean hold. This," continued 
 I, " is the beat scheme I can devia*. HM risk
 
 Ovm PROGUM TO TRB CKAWBL. 
 
 of smuggling attend it, to be sure ; but against 
 those risks we have to put the certainty of our 
 forfeiting our just claims to the property if 
 we carry the schooner to thtr Thames. Even 
 suppose when there, that we should not be 
 immediately visited, and so be provided with an 
 opportunity to land our stuff whom have we to 
 trust ? The Thames abounds with river thieves, 
 with lumpers, scuffle- hunters, mud-larks, glutmen, 
 rogues of all sorts, to hire whom would mean to 
 bribe them with the value of half the lading and 
 to risk their stealing the other half. But this is 
 the lesser difficulty ; the main one lies in this : 
 there are some sixteen hundred men employed in 
 the London Custom House, most of whom are on 
 river duty as watchmen ; thirty of these people 
 are clapped aboard an East Indiaman, five or six 
 on West India ships, and a like proportion in other 
 vessels. So strange a craft as ours would be 
 visited, depend on 't, and smartly, too. D'ye see 
 the danger, lads ? What do you say, then, to 
 my scheme ? " 
 
 The negroes immediately answered that they 
 left it to me ; I knew best ; they would be satis- 
 fied with whatever I did. 
 
 Wilkinson mused a while and then said, 
 li Smuggling was risky work. How would it be 
 if we represented that we had found the schooner 
 washing about with nobody aboard ? " 
 
 ' The tale wouldn't be credited," said I. 
 
 ' The age of the vessel would tell against such 
 
 a story, even if you removed all other evidence 
 
 by throwing the clothes and small -arms over-
 
 3/f TH FROZE* Praxm 
 
 board and whatever else might go to prove thai 
 the schooner must have been floating about 
 abandoned since the year 1 750 1 " 
 
 " Musn't lose de clothes, massa, on no account," 
 cried Pitt. 
 
 " Well, sir," says Wilkinson, after another spell 
 of reflection, " I reckon you're right. If so be the 
 law would seize the vessel and goods on the 
 grounds that she had been a pirate and all that's 
 in her was plunder, why, then, certainly, I don't 
 see nothin' else but to make a smuggling job 
 of it, as you say, sir." 
 
 This being settled (Wilkinson's concurrence 
 being rendered the easier by my telling him 
 that, providing the lading was safely run, I 
 would adhere to mv undertaking to give them 
 six hundred and sixty pounds each for their 
 share), I went below and spent half an hour 
 over a letter to Mr. Jeremiah Mason. There 
 was no ink, but I found i pencil, and for paper 
 I used the fly-leaves of the books in my cabin. 
 I opened with a sketch of my adventures, and 
 then went on to relate that the Boca was 
 a rich ship ; that as she had been a pirate, I 
 risked her seizure by carrying her to London ; 
 that I stood grievously in need of his counsel 
 and help, and begged him not to lose a moment 
 in returning with the messenger to Deal, and 
 there hiring a boat and coming to me, whom he 
 would find cruising off Beachy Head. That I 
 might know his boat, I bade him flv a jack a 
 little below the masthead. " As for tne Bota d*l 
 Dragon" I added, " Wilkinson would recognize her
 
 Qua PROGRESS TO THK CHAVMIL. 373 
 
 if she were in the middle of a thousand sail, and 
 indeed a farmer's boy would be able to distin- 
 guish her for her uncommon oddness of figure." 
 I was satisfied to underscore the words " a rich 
 ship," quite certain his imagination would be 
 sufficiently fired by the expression. At anything 
 further I durst not hint, as the letter would be 
 open for Wilkinson to read. 
 
 When I had finished, I took a lanthorn and the 
 keys of the chest and went very secretly and expe- 
 ditiously to the run, and removing the layers of 
 small-arms from the top of the case that held the 
 money, I picked out some English pieces, quickly 
 returned the small-arms, locked the chest, and 
 returned. 
 
 All this time we were running up Channel before 
 a fresh westerly wind. It was true December 
 weather, very raw, and the horizon thick, but I 
 knew my road well, and whilst the loom of the 
 land showed, I desired nothing better than this 
 thickness. 
 
 But wary sailing delayed us ; and it was not 
 till ten o'clock on the night of the seventh that 
 we hove the schooner to off the shingly beach of 
 Lydd within sound of the wash of the sea upon 
 it. The bay sheltered us ; we got the boat over ; 
 I gave Wilkinson the letter and ten guineas, bid- 
 ding him keep them hidden and to use them 
 cautiously with the silver change he would receive, 
 for they were all guineas of the first George and 
 might excite comment if he, a poor sailor, ill-clad, 
 should pull them out and exhibit them. Happily, 
 in the hurry of the time, he did not think U
 
 174 TMM FKOCBV PIKAT*. 
 
 me how I had come by them. He thrust them 
 into his pocket, shook my hand and dropped into 
 the boat, and the negroes immediately rowed him 
 ashore. 
 
 I stood holding a Ian thorn upon the rail to 
 serve them as a guide, waiting for the boat to 
 return, and never breathed more freely in my life 
 than when I heard the sound of oars. The two 
 negroes came alongside, and, clapping the tackles 
 on to the boat, we hoisted her with the capstan, 
 and then under very small canvas stood out to 
 sea again. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 I SHOULD require to write to the length of this 
 beok over again to do full justice by description 
 to the difficulties and anxieties of the days that 
 now followed. If it had not been thick weather all 
 the time, I do not know how I should have fared, 
 I am sure. I was between two fires, so to say ; 
 on the one side the French cruisers and privateers, 
 and on the other side the ships of my own country, 
 and particularly the revenue cutters and the 
 sloops and the like cruising after the smugglers. 
 As I knew that my relative could not be with me 
 jnder four davs, I steered out of sight of land 
 into the middle of the Channel, betwixt Beachy 
 Head and the Seine coast, and there dodged 
 about under very small canvas, heartily grateful 
 for the haze that shroud rd the sea to within * 
 mile of me. I scarcely closed my y* in sleep,
 
 THI HMD. 375 
 
 and though my worries were now of a rery 
 different kind from those which had racked me on 
 the ice, they were, in their way, to the full as tor- 
 menting. Every sail that loomed in the dinginess 
 filled me with alarm. Several ships passed me 
 close, and I could scarce breathe till they were out 
 of sight. Indeed, I lay skulking out upon that 
 sea as if I was some common thief broken loose 
 from jail. However, it pleased heaven that I 
 should manage to keep out of sight of those 
 whom I most strenuously desired not to see ; and 
 the afternoon of the fourth day found the Boca 
 lying off Beachy Head, and I peering over the 
 rail, with a haggard face, at the dark shadow of the 
 land. 
 
 It had been blowing and snowing all day. The 
 seas ran short and spitefully. It was a dismal 
 December afternoon, and the more sensibly dis- 
 gusting to us who were fresh from several weeks 
 of the balm and glory of the tropics. And yet I 
 would not have exchanged it for a clear fine day 
 for all that I was like to be worth. 
 
 It was the most reasonable thing in the world 
 that a vessel should be hove-to in such sombre 
 weather, and so I was under no concern that our 
 posture in this respect would excite suspicion, 
 should we be descried. The hours stole away 
 onr by one. Now and again a little coaster 
 would pass, some hoy bound west, a sloop for the 
 T/iames, a lugger on some unguessable mission : 
 aJj small ships, oozing dark and damp out of the 
 s (ow and mist and passing silently. I kept the 
 } nd close aboard to be out of the way of the
 
 TH* FROZEN PIEATI. 
 
 bigger craft, and held the vessel in the wind rifl 
 it was necessary to rrach to our station. The 
 three of us were mighty pensive and eager, staring 
 incessantly with all our eyes ; but it looked as if 
 we were nr* to expect anything that day when the 
 night put its darkness into the weather. Then, 
 as I foresaw a serious danger if the wind shifted 
 into the south, and as I could not obtain a glimpse 
 of a shore-light, I resolved to bring up and ride 
 till dawn. Long ago we had got the schooner*! 
 old anchors at the catheads and the cables bent, 
 so, lowering the mainsail and hauling down the 
 stay foresail, we let fall the itarboard anchor, and 
 the ship came to a stand. I put the lead over 
 the side that we might know if she dragged, hung 
 a lantern on the forestay and one en either quarter 
 that our presence might be marked by my relative 
 should he be out in quest of us, and went below, 
 leaving Cromwell to keep the look-out. 
 
 I was extremelv fretful and anxious and had 
 no patience to talk with Billy Pitt. There were 
 too many risks, too many vague chances in this 
 exploit to render contemplation of it tolerable. 
 Suppose my relative should be dead ? Suppose 
 Wilkinson should be robbed of his money ? fall 
 to the cutting of capers, as a sailor newly delivered 
 to the pleasures of the land with ten guineas in 
 his pocket? Get locked up for breaking the 
 peace? Blab of us in his cups and start the 
 Customs on our trail ? There was no end to such 
 conjectures, and I made myself so melancholy 
 that I was fool enough to think that the treasure 
 was no better than a curse, and that oo the whole
 
 TH HMD. 377 
 
 I was better of! on the ice than here with the 
 anchor in English ground and my native soil with- 
 in gunshot. 
 
 I was up and about till midnight, and then, 
 be-lng in the cabin and exhausted, I fell asleep 
 across the table, and in that posture lay as one 
 dead. Some one dragging at my arm, with 
 renr little tenderness, awoke me. I was in the 
 midst of a dream of the schooner having been 
 boarded by a party of French privateersmen, with 
 Tassard at their head, and the roughness with which 
 I was aroused was exactly calculated to extend 
 into my waking the horror and grief of my sleep. 
 
 I instantly sprang to my feet and saw Wash- 
 ington Cromwell. 
 
 " Massa Rodney," he bawled, " Massa Rodney, 
 de gent's 'longside him an' Wilkinson yaas, by 
 degood Lord dey'se both dere ! Dey hail me 
 an' I answer and say who are you, and dey say are 
 you de Boca ? We am, I say, and dey say " 
 
 I had stood stupidly staring at him, but my full 
 understanding coming to me on a sudden, I 
 jumped to the ladder and darted on deck. I 
 heard voices aver the starboard side and ran there. 
 It was not so dark but that I could see the out- 
 line of a Deal lugger. Whilst I was peering, the 
 voice of my man Wilkinson cried out, " On deck, 
 there ! Cromwell Billy where's Mr. Rodney ? " 
 Here I ami" cried I. 
 
 " My God, Paul ! " exclaimed the voice of Mr. 
 Mason, " this encounter is fortunate indeed." 
 
 I shouted to the negroes to show a light, and 
 in a few minutes Mr. Mason, Wilkinson, and a
 
 17* TH FBOOM PDLATB. 
 
 couple of Deal boatmen came orer the side. ; 
 grasped my relative by both hands. I had hot 
 seen him for four years. 
 
 " This is good of you, indeed ! " I cried. " But; 
 you must be perished with the cold of that open 
 boat Come below at once come Wilkinson, 
 and you men there's a fire in the cook-room and 
 drink to warm us ;" and down I bundled in the 
 wildest condkion of excitement, followed by 
 Mason and the others. 
 
 My relative was warmly clad and did not seem to 
 suffer from the cold. He took me by the hand and 
 brought me to the lanthorn-iight, and stood view- 
 ing me. 
 
 " Ay," said he, "you are your eld self: a bj| 
 worried looking, but that'll pass. Stout and 
 burnt Odd's heart ! Paul, if you have passed 
 through the experiences Wilkinson has given me 
 a sketch of, we must have your life, man, we 
 toust have your life for the booksellers." 
 
 Well, I need not detain you by reciting ail the 
 civilities and congratulations ' which he and I 
 exchanged. He and Wilkinson had arrived at 
 Deal at three o'clock that afternoon, and, after a 
 hurried meal, had hired a lugger and started at 
 once for Beachy Head. It was now three o'clock 
 in the morning ; and what I may consider a truly 
 extraordinary circumstance is, that they had 
 sailed as true a course for the schooner as if she 
 had lain plain to the gaze at the very start; 
 that since the night had drawn down they had 
 met no vessel of any kind or description, until 
 they came* up to us ; that in all probability they
 
 Tm 
 
 would ha^ ran stem on into us if they had 
 not seen wr lights, and that their seeing our 
 lights had caused them to hail us, their " ship 
 ahoy 1 " being instantly answered by Cromwell. 
 
 " Well," said I, " there are stranger things to 
 tell of than this, even. Now, Wilkinson, and you 
 Billy, and Cromwell, get us a good supper and 
 mix a proper bowl. How many more of you are 
 in the lugger ? " 
 
 " Four, sir," says one m be boatmen. 
 
 ' Then fetch as many as . nay safely leave the 
 boat," said I. " Billy, get candles and make a 
 good light here. Throw on coal, boys ; there's 
 enough to carry us home." 
 
 1 saw Mason gazing curiously about him. 
 
 Tis like a tale out of the Arabian NighU, 
 Paul/' he exclaimed. 
 
 " Ay," said I, " but written in bitter prose, and no 
 hint of enchantment anywhere. But, thank God, 
 you are come ! I have passed a dismal time of ex- 
 pectation, I promise you." I added softly, " I have 
 lomething secret we will sup first, man 1 shall 
 amaze you ! We must talk apart presently." 
 
 He bowed his head. 
 
 Three more boatmen arrived, giving us the 
 company of five of them. Soon there was a 
 hearty sound of frying and a smell of good things 
 upon the air. Pitt put plates and glasses upon 
 the cabin table, two great bowls of punch were 
 brewed, and in a little time we had all fallen to. 
 I whispered Wilkinson, who sat next me, " These 
 boatmen know nothing of our business ; I shall 
 to take Mr. Mason apart and anange with
 
 THE FROZEN PIRATB. 
 
 him. These fellows may not b* fit for our 
 service. Let no hint escape you." 
 
 " Right, sir," said he. 
 
 This I said to disarm his suspicions should he 
 see me talking alone with Mr. Mason. He enter- 
 tained us with an account of his excursion to 
 London ; and then, partly to appease the pro- 
 found curiosity of the boatmen and partly to save 
 time when I should come to confer with my 
 relative, I gave them the story of my shipwreck, 
 and told how I had met with the schooner and 
 how I had managed to escape with her. 
 
 " And now, Mason," said I, " whilst our friends 
 here empty these bowls, come you with me 
 to the cook-room.*' And with that we quitted 
 the cabin. 
 
 " D'ye mean to tell me, Paul," was the first 
 question my relative asked, " that this vessel was 
 on the ice eight-and-forty years ? " 
 
 " Yes," I replied. 
 
 " Surely you dream?" 
 
 " I think not." 
 
 " What we have been eating and drinking is 
 that forty-eight years old, too ? " 
 
 " Ay, and older." 
 
 " Well, such a thing shall make me credulous 
 enough to duck old women for witches. But what 
 brandy what brandy ! Never had spirit such a 
 bouquet. Every pint is worth its weight in guineas 
 to a rich man. To think of Deal boatmen and 
 niggers swilling such nectar ! " 
 
 " Mason," said I, speaking low, " give me now 
 your attention. In the run of this schooner are
 
 THE EMD. 581 
 
 ten chests loaded with money, bars *f silver and 
 gold, and jewellery. This vessel was a pirate, and 
 her people valued their booty at ninety to a 
 hundred thousand pounds. 
 
 His jaw fell ; he stared as if he knew not whether 
 it was he or I that was mad. 
 
 " Here is evidence that I speak the truth," 
 said I. "A little sample only but look at it ! " 
 And I put the pirate captain's watch into his 
 hand. 
 
 He eyed it as though he discredited the intelli- 
 gence of his sight, turned it about, and returned 
 it to me with a faint " Heaven preserve me I " 
 Then said he, still faintly, " You found some of 
 the pirates alive ? " 
 
 " No. 1 ' 
 
 " Who told you that the people of the vessel 
 valued their plunder at that amount?" 
 
 I answered by giving him the story of the 
 recovery of the Frenchman. 
 
 He listened with a gaze of consternation : I saw 
 how it was ; he believed my sufferings had affected 
 my reason. There was only one way to settle 
 his mind ; I took a lanthorn, and asked him to 
 follow me. As we passed through the cabin I 
 whispered Wilkinson that I meant to show my 
 relative the lading below, and bade him keep the 
 Deal men about him. I had the keys of the 
 chests in my pocket : lifting the after-hatch, we 
 entered the lazarette, and Mason gazed about 
 him with astonishment. But I was in too great 
 a hurry to return to suffer him to idly stand and 
 stare. I opened the second hatch and descended j
 
 382 THI FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 into the run, and crawling to the jewel chest opened 
 it, removed a few of the small-arms, and bade him 
 look for himself. 
 
 " Incredible 1 incredible ! " he cried. 
 possible 1 is it possible! Well, to be sure! 
 And for some moments he could find no more to 
 say, so amazed and confounded was he. 
 
 I quickly showed him the gold and silver ingot 
 and then 'returned the firearms and locked 
 
 chests. 
 
 " Tfost" said I emphatically, pointing t 
 cases, " have been my difficulty ; not the lading, 
 though there is value there too. My crew know 
 nothing of these chests : of their value, I mea 
 tfiey believe them cases of small-arms. How am 
 I to get them ashore? If I tell the truth, they 
 will be seized as piratical plunder. 
 cate, I may tumble into a pit of difficulties. 
 durst not carry them to the Thames, the n\ 
 swarms with thieves and Custom House people 
 I am terrified to linger here, lest I be board 
 and the booty discovered. There is but one pi; 
 I think : we must hire some Deal smugglers 
 run these chests and the cargo for us. 
 now alongside might serve, and 1 donjt dou 
 en are to be had at their own price.' 
 
 My relative had regained his wits, which 
 
 ight of the treasure had temporarily scattere- 
 
 and surveyed me thoughtfully whilst [ spok< 
 then said, " Let us return to the fire; 1 
 have a better scheme than yours." 
 
 The men still sat around the table tall 
 Some liquor yet lay in one of the bowl;
 
 r fcll WS w ?* hapwr enou gh. I smiled at 
 Wilkinson as I passed, that he might suppose 
 our inspection below very satisfactory, and I 
 saw him look meaningly and pleasantly at 
 Washington Cromwell, who sat with a laced hat 
 on his head. 
 
 " Paul," said Mason, sitting down and folding 
 us arms, " your smuggling plan will not do. It 
 be the height of madness to trust those 
 chests to the risks of running and to the honesty 
 of the rogues engaged in that business." 
 'What is to be done? 1 ' 
 'Tell me your lading," said he. 
 I gave it to him as accurately as I could. 
 1 Why, 1 ' he exclaimed, " a single boat would 
 | a long time to discharge ye observe the 
 >enls several boats would mean a large number 
 t men; they would eat you up; they would 
 mand so much, you would have nothing left 
 And suppose they opened the chests I No, your 
 fcheme is worthless. 
 
 ' What's to do, then, in God's name r" 
 
 I tell you! " he exclaimed, smiling with the 
 omplacency of a man who is master of a great 
 I shall sail to Dover at once. 'Tis i now 
 i quarter past four. Give me twelve hours to 
 nake Dover: I shall post straight to London and 
 there by early morning. Now, Paul, attend 
 i to this. To-day is Wednesday ; by to-morrow 
 night you must contrive to bring your ship to an 
 anchor off Barking Level." 
 'The Thames I" I cried. 
 He nodded.
 
 384 THE Tkoztii PIRATE. 
 
 I looked at him anxiously. He leaned to me, 
 putting his hand on my leg. 
 
 " I own a lighter," said he : " she will be 
 alongside of you at dusk. I have people of my 
 own whom I can trust. The lighter will empty 
 your hold and convey the lading to a ship 
 chartered by me, arrived from the Black Sea on 
 Sunday and lying in the Pool The stuff can be 
 sold from that ship as it is " 
 
 14 But the chests the chests, Mason I " 
 
 " They shall be lowered into another boat, and 
 taken ashore and put into a waggon that will be 
 in waiting I in it and driven to my home." 
 
 I clapped him on the shoulder in a transport. 
 
 " Nobly schemed indeed I " I cried ; " but have 
 we nothing to fear from the Customs people ? " 
 
 " No, not low down the river and at dark. 
 You bring up for convenience, d'ye see. Mind it 
 is dark when you anchor. A lighter and boat 
 shall be awaiting you. Kt is down the river, you 
 know, that all the lumpers drop with the lighters 
 they go adrift in from ships' sides. There's more 
 safety in smuggling over Thames mud than on 
 this coast shingle. One thought more: you 
 say that Wilkinson believes the chests hold small- 
 arms?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Then account to him for sending the chests 
 away separately by saying that I have found a 
 purchaser, and that they are going to him direct. 
 You have your cue- j ou see ail 1 ' 
 
 " All'' 
 
 " Ut me hurry, then, Paul ; that brandy should
 
 THB BUD. 385 
 
 fetch you half a guinea a pint. You are in luck's 
 way, Paul. See that you bring your ship along 
 safely. Till to-morrow night ! " 
 
 He clasped and wrung my hand and ran into 
 
 the cabin. 
 
 Now, lads, off with us!" he cried. "Off to 
 Dover! Put me ashore there smartly and you 
 shall find your account. Off now time presses." 
 
 Five minutes afterwards the boat was gone. 
 
 When fortune falls in love with a man she 
 makes him a bounteous mistress. Everything 
 fell out as I could have desired. We got our 
 anchor at five, and by daybreak were off Hastings 
 jogging quietly along towards London .river, the 
 weather conveniently obscure, the wind south, and 
 forty hours before us to do the run in. I 
 exactly explained my relative's scheme to Wilkin- 
 son and the others, who declared themselves 
 perfectly satisfied, Wilkinson adding that though 
 he had not objected to the Deal smuggling pro- 
 ject he throughout considered the risk too heavy 
 to adventure. I told them that Mr. Mason 
 believed he could immediately find a purchaser 
 for the small-arms, in which case they would have 
 to be sent privately ashore; and to give a. proper 
 colour to this ruse I made them pack away all 
 the remaining weapons in the arms-room and 
 carry them to the run, ready to be taken with the 
 other chests. 
 
 Once fairly round the Forelands half my 
 anxieties fell from me. There was no longer the 
 French cruiser or privateer to be feared, and how- 
 ever wonderingly the people of my own country*!
 
 386 THE FROZE* PIRATB, 
 
 vessels might stare at the uncommon figure of my 
 schooner, they could find no excuse to board us. 
 Besides, as I have said, I was greatly helped bv 
 the weather, which continuing hazy, thougfi 
 happily never so thick as to oblige me to stop, 
 delivered me to the sight only of such vessels 
 as passed close, and offered me as a m^re 
 smudge to the shore. 
 
 We arrived off Barking Level on the Thursday 
 night, and dropped anchor close to a lighter 
 that lay there with a large boat hanging by 
 her. It was then very dark. The first person 
 to come on board was Mason. He was 
 followed by several men, one of whom he 
 introduced to me as his head clerk, who would 
 see to the unloading of the schooner and to the 
 transhipment of the goods to the ship in the Pool. 
 He informed me that there was a covered van 
 waiting on shore ; and telling Wilkinson that the 
 small-arms had been discos \ of, and that Mi. 
 Mason would hand over the proceeds on our 
 calling at his office, I went with a party of my 
 relative's men into the run and presently had the 
 whole of the chests in the boat. Mason went 
 with her. 
 
 Then, as she disappeared in the darkness, but 
 Hot till then, did I draw the first easy breath 
 1 had fetched since the liour of the coll 
 of the Laiighing . Mary with the iceberg. 
 sob shook me : I had gone through much : 
 many wonderful things had happened to me: I 
 had been delivered from such perils ; 
 mere recollection of them will stir mj hair, tru
 
 PosTsciurr. 387 
 
 it is years since; my duty I knew, and I dis- 
 cnarged it by withdrawing to my cabin and kneel- 
 ing with humble and grateful heart before 
 the throne of that Being to whom I owed every- 
 thing. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 HERE concludes the remarkable narrative of Mr. 
 Paul Rodney. It is to be wished that he had found 
 the patience to tell us a little more. The circum- 
 stance of his dying in 1823, worth 3i,ooo/., leads 
 me to suspect that his associate Tassard greatly 
 exaggerated the value of the treasure. I am 
 assured that he lived very quietly, and that the 
 lady he married, who bore him two children, both 
 of whom died young, was of a nunlike simplicity 
 of character and loved show and extravagance 
 as little as her husband. Hence there is 
 no reason to suppose that he squandered any 
 portion of the fortune that had in the most 
 extraordinary manner ever heard of fallen into his 
 hands. I have ascertained that he very substan- 
 tially discharged the great obligation that his 
 relative Mason laid him under, and that his three 
 men received a thousand pounds apiece. It is 
 possible, then, that the pirates were themselves 
 deceived, that what they had taken to be gold or 
 silver ingots were not all so ; or it might be that 
 the case of jewellery was less valuable than the 
 admiring and astonished eyes of a plain sailor, 
 who admits that he had never before seen such a 
 sight, figured it. Be this, however, as it may, k
 
 388 THE FROZEN PIRATE. 
 
 is nevertheless certain, as proved by Mr. Rodney's 
 last will and testament, that he did uncommonly 
 well out of his adventure on the ice. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of his story of the 
 Frenchman's restoration to life, in other directions 
 Mr. Rodney's accuracy seems unimpeachable. 
 It is quite conceivable that a stoutly-built vessel 
 locked up in the ice and thickly glazed, should 
 continue in an excellent state of preservation for 
 years. The confession of his superstitious fears 
 exhibits honesty and candour. It is related th;it 
 a Captain Warren, master of an English merchant- 
 ship, found a derelict (in August, 1775) thai 
 long been ice-bound, with her cabins filled with 
 the bodies of the frozen crew. " His own sailors, 
 however, would not suffer him to search the 
 vessel thoroughly, through superstition, and 
 wished to leave her immediately.' A pity 
 did not try their hands at thawing one of thr 
 fellows: the result mu7hthav kept Mr. K 
 strange experience in coumenanr 
 
 Accounts of vast bodies of ice, such as : 
 which Mr. Rodney fell in with, will be found in the 
 South Atlantic Directory. For instance : 
 
 " Sir James C. Ross crossed Weddel's track in 
 Lat. 65 S., and where he had found an open sea, 
 Ross found an ice-pack of an impassable cha- 
 racter, along which he sailed for 160 miles; arid 
 again, when only one degree beyond the track of 
 Cook, who had no occasion to enter the pack, 
 Ross was navigating among it for fifty- six 
 days, 
 
 " Hut theie appear insignificant when compared
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 389 
 
 with a body of ice reputed to have been passed 
 by twenty-one ships during the months of 
 December, 1854, and January, February, March, 
 and April, 1855, floating in the South Atlantic 
 from Lat 44 S., Long. 28 W., to Lat. 40 S., Long. 
 26 W. Its elevation in no case exceeded 300 
 feet. The first account of it was received from the 
 Great Britain, which in December, 1854, was 
 reported to have steamed 50 miles along the 
 outer side of the longer shank." One ship was 
 lost upon it : others embayed* 
 
 TNC CUD.
 
 mig Corner 
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 Julius Ca;sar. 
 
 As You Like It. 
 
 The Tempest. 
 
 A Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 King John. 
 
 King Richard II. 
 
 King Lear. 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra, 
 
 A Winter's Tale. 
 
 Coriolattus. 
 
 Timon of Athens. 
 
 For Bale by all booksellers or sent on receipt of price by 
 
 Jlonoliue Brothers, 
 
 407 429 Dearborn St., CHICAGO.
 
 Quarto 
 Books. 
 
 AMERICA PHOTOGRAPHED. 
 
 Including portfolio of photographs covering points of scenic 
 and historic interest in North America. The greatest works 
 of art and nature in the United States, Alaska, Canada and Mex- 
 ico. Over 160 pages of beautiful half tone illustrations, size 
 12)^x10^ inches, with descriptive text under each, printed on 
 the highest quality coated paper and substantially bound in silk 
 cloth binding with aluminum stamp made from a unique and 
 striking die. The most comprehensive, elaborate and extensive 
 series of American views ever gathered together within the 
 scope of one volume. 
 
 Price, $1.50* 
 
 ALSO LAND OF CHRIST, 
 
 160 pages, . . . . , $1.50 
 
 OUR NEW POSSESSIONS, 
 ISO pagts, $i.3 
 
 UNITED STATES ARHY AND NAVY, 
 
 180 pages $1.50 
 
 For sale by all booksellers or sent on receipt ef price 
 ...by... 
 
 Donohue Brothers, 
 
 407-429 Dearborn St., CHICAGO, ILL.
 
 A 000127679 9 

 
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