Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XII.

  "Sound trumpets, ho!--weigh anchor--loosen sail-- The seaward-flying banners chide delay; As if't were heaven that breathes this kindly gale, Our life-like bark beneath it speeds away.--" PINKNEY.

  The stout ship Crisis had, like certain persons, done a good thingpurely by chance, Had her exploit happened in the year 1519, instead ofthat of 1800, the renowned passage we had just escaped from wouldhave been called the Crisis Straits, a better name than the mongrelappellation it now bears; which is neither English, nor Portuguese. Theship had been lost, like a man in the woods, and came out nearer home,than those in her could have at all expected. The "bloody currents"had been at the bottom of the mistake, though this time they did good,instead of harm. Any one who has been thoroughly lost on a heath, or ina forest, or, even in a town, can comprehend how the head gets turned onsuch occasions, and will understand the manner in which we had mystifiedourselves.

  I shall remember the feelings of delight with which I looked around me,as the ship passed out into the open ocean, to my dying day. There laythe vast Pacific, its long, regular waves rolling in towards the coast,in mountain-like ridges, it is true, but under a radiant sun, and ina bright atmosphere. Everybody was cheered by the view, and never didorders sound more pleasant in my ears, than when the captain called out,in a cheerful voice, "to man the weather braces." This command was giventhe instant it was prudent; and the ship went foaming past the last capewith the speed of a courser. Studding-sails were then set, and, whenthe sun was dipping, we had a good offing, were driving to the northwardunder everything we could carry, and had a fair prospect of an excellentrun from the neighbourhood of Terra del Fuego, and its stormy seas.

  It is not my intention to dwell on our passage along the western coastof South America. A voyage to the Pacific was a very different thing inthe year 1800, however, from what it is to-day. The power of Spain wasthen completely in the ascendant, intercourse with any nation but themother country, being strictly prohibited. It is true, a species ofcommerce, that was called the "forced trade on the Spanish Main" existedunder that code of elastic morals, which adapts the maxim of "yourpurse or your life" to modern diplomacy, as well as to the habits ofthe highwayman. According to divers masters in the art of ethics nowflourishing among ourselves, more especially in the atmosphere of thejournals of the commercial communities, the people that "_can_ tradeand _won't_ trade, _must be made to trade_." At the commencement of thecentury, your mercantile moralists were far less manly in the avowal oftheir sentiments, though their practices were in no degree wanting inthe spirit of our more modern theories. Ships were fitted out, armed,and navigated, on this just principle, quite as confidently andsuccessfully as if the tongue had declared all that the head hadconceived.

  Guarda-Costas were the arguments used, on the other side of this knottyquestion, by the authorities of Spain; and a very insufficient argument,on the whole, did they prove to be. It is an old saying, that vice istwice as active as virtue; the last sleeping, while the former is hardat work. If this be true of things in general, it is thrice true asregards smugglers and custom-house officers. Owing to this circumstance,and sundry other causes, it is certain that English and American vesselsfound the means of plundering the inhabitants of South America, at theperiod of which I am writing, without having recourse to the no longerreputable violence of Dampier, Wood, Rogers, or Drake. As I feel boundto deal honestly with the reader, whatever I may have done by theSpanish laws, I shall own that we made one or two calls, as we proceedednorth, shoving ashore certain articles purchased in London, and takingon board dollars, in return for our civility. I do not know whether Iam bound, or not, to apologize for my own agency in these irregulartransactions--regular, would be quite as apposite a word--for, had Ibeen disposed to murmur, it would have done my morals no good, nor thesmuggling any harm. Captain Williams was a silent man, and it wasnot easy to ascertain precisely what he _thought_ on the subject ofsmuggling; but, in the way of _practice_, I never saw any reason todoubt that he was a firm believer in the doctrine of Free Trade. As forMarble, he put me in mind of a certain renowned editor of a well-knownNew York journal, who evidently thinks that all things in heaven andearth, sun, moon, and stars, the void above and the caverns beneath us,the universe, in short, was created to furnish materials for newspaperparagraphs; the worthy mate, just as confidently believing that coasts,bays, inlets, roadsteads and havens, were all intended by nature, asmeans to run goods ashore wherever the duties, or prohibitions, renderedit inconvenient to land them in the more legal mode. Smuggling, inhis view of the matter, was rather more creditable than the regularcommerce, since it required greater cleverness.

  I shall not dwell on the movements of the Crisis, for the five monthsthat succeeded her escape from the Straits of Magellan. Suffice it tosay, that she anchored at as many different points on the coast; thatall which came up the main-hatch, went ashore; and all that cameover the bulwarks, was passed down into the run. We were chased by_guarda-costas_ seven times, escaping from them on each occasion, withease; though we had three little running fights. I observed that CaptainWilliams was desirous of engaging these emissaries of the law, as easilyas possible, ordering us to fire altogether at their spars. I have sincethought that this moderation proceeded from a species of principle thatis common enough--a certain half-way code of right and wrong--whichencouraged him to smuggle, but which caused him to shrink from takinghuman life. Your half-way rogues are the bane of honesty.

  After quitting the Spanish coast, altogether, we proceeded north, withthe laudable intention of converting certain quantities of glass-beads,inferior jack-knives, frying-pans, and other homely articles of the samenature, into valuable furs. In a word, we shaped our course for thatdistrict which bids fair to set the mother and daughter by the ears, oneof these days, unless it shall happen to be disposed of _a la Texas_,or, what is almost as bad, _a la Maine_, ere long. At that time thewhole north-west coast was unoccupied by white men, and I felt noscruples about trading with the natives who presented themselves withtheir skins as soon as we had anchored, believing that they had the bestright to the country and its products. We passed months in this traffic,getting, at every point where we stopped, something to pay us for ourtrouble.

  We went as far north as 53 deg., and that is pretty much all I ever knew ofour last position. At the time, I thought we had anchored in a bay onthe main land, but I have since been inclined to think it was in oneof the many islands that line that broken coast. We got a very secureberth, having been led to it by a native pilot who boarded us severalleagues at sea, and who knew enough English to persuade our captain thathe could take us to a point where sea-otter skins might be had for theasking. Nor did the man deceive us, though a more unpromising-lookingguide never had charge of smuggling Christians. He carried us into avery small bay, where we found plenty of water, capital holding-ground,and a basin as smooth as a dock. But one wind--that which blew from thenorth-west--could make any impression on it, and the effects ofeven that were much broken by a small island that lay abreast of theentrance; leaving good passages, on each side of it, out to sea. Thebasin itself was rather small, it is true, but it did well enough for asingle ship. Its diameter may have been three hundred yards, and I neversaw a sheet of natural water that was so near a circle. Into a placelike this, the reader will imagine, we did not venture without takingthe proper precautions. Marble was sent in first, to reconnoitre andsound, and it was on his report that Captain Williams ventured to takethe ship in.

  At that time, ships on the North-West Coast had to use the greatestprecautions against the treachery and violence of the natives. Thisrendered the size of our haven the subject of distrust; for, lying inthe middle of it, where we moored, we were barely an arrow's flight fromthe shore, in every direction but that which led to the narrow entrance.It was a most secure anchorage, as against the dangers of the sea, buta most insecure one as against the dangers of the savages. This we allfelt, as soon as our anchors were down; but, intendin
g to remain onlywhile we bartered for the skins which we had been told were readyfor the first ship that should offer, we trusted to vigilance as oursafeguard in the interval.

  I never could master the uncouth sounds of the still more uncouthsavages of that distant region. The fellow who carried us in had a nameof his own, doubtless, but it was not to be pronounced by a Christiantongue, and he got the _sobriquet_ of the Dipper from us, owing to themanner in which he ducked at the report of our muskets, which had beendischarged by Marble merely with the intention to renew the cartridges.We had hardly got into the little basin, before the Dipper left us,returning in an hour, however, with a canoe loaded to the water's edge,with beautiful skins, and accompanied by three savages as wild-looking,seemingly as fierce, and certainly as avaricious as he was himself.These auxiliaries, through various little circumstances, were knownamong us that same afternoon, by the several appellations of Smudge,Tin-pot, and Slit-nose. These were not heroic names, of a certainty, buttheir owners had as little of the heroic in their appearance, asusually falls to the lot of man in the savage state. I cannot tell thedesignation of the tribes to which these four worthies belonged, nor doI know any more of their history and pursuits than the few facts whichcame under my own immediate observation. I did ask some questions of thecaptain, with a view to obtain a few ideas on this subject, but allhe knew was, that these people put a high value on blankets, beads,gun-powder, frying-pans, and old hoops, and that they set a remarkablylow price on sea-otter skins, as well as on the external coveringsof sundry other animals. An application to Mr. Marble was still lesssuccessful, being met by the pithy answer that he was "no naturalist,and knew nothing about these critturs, or any wild beasts, in general."Degraded as the men certainly were, however, we thought them quitegood enough to be anxious to trade with them. Commerce, like misery,sometimes makes a man acquainted with strange bed-fellows.

  I had often seen our own Indians after they had become degraded by theirintercourse with the whites and the use of rum, but never had I beheldany beings so low in the scale of the human race, as the North-Westernsavages appeared to be. They seemed to me to be the Hottentots of ourown continent. Still they were not altogether without the means ofcommanding our respect. As physical men they were both active andstrong, and there were gleams of ferocity about them, that all theiravarice and art could not conceal. I could not discover in their usages,dress, or deportment, a single trace of that chivalrous honour whichforms so great a relief to the well-established cruelty of the warriorof our own part of the continent. Then, these sea-otter dealers had someknowledge of the use of fire-arms, and were too well acquainted with theships of us civilized men to have any superstitious dread of our power.

  The Dipper, and his companions, sold us one hundred and thirty-threesea-otter skins the very afternoon we anchored. This, of itself, wasthought to be a sufficient reward for the trouble and risk of cominginto this unknown basin. Both parties seemed pleased with the resultsof the trading, and we were given to understand that, by remainingat anchor, we might hope for six or eight times our present number ofskins. Captain Williams was greatly gratified with the success withwhich he had already met, and having found that all the Dipper hadpromised came true, he determined to remain a day or two, in his presentberth, in order to wait for more bargains. This resolution was no soonercommunicated to the savages than they expressed their delight, sendingoff Tin-pot and Slit-nose with the intelligence, while the Dipperand Smudge remained in the ship, apparently on terms of perfectgood-fellowship with everybody on board. The gentry of the North-WestCoast being flagrant thieves, however, all hands had orders to keepa good look-out on our two guests, Captain Williams expressing hisintention to flog them soundly, should they be detected in any of theirusual light-fingered dexterity.

  Marble and myself observed that the canoe, in which the messengers leftus, did not pull out to sea, but that it entered a small stream, orcreek, that communicated with the head of the bay. As there was no dutyon board, we asked the captain's permission to explore this spot; and,at the same time, to make a more thorough examination of our haven,generally. The request being granted, we got into the yawl, with fourmen, all of us armed, and set out on our little expedition. Smudge, awithered, grey-headed old Indian, with muscles however that resembledwhip-cord, was alone on deck, when this movement took place. He watchedour proceedings narrowly, and, when he saw us descend into the boat,he very coolly slipped down the ship's side, and took his place in thestern-sheets, with as much quiet dignity as if he had been captain.Marble was a good deal of a ship's martinet in such matters, and he didnot more than half like the familiarity and impudence of the procedure.

  "What say you, Miles," he asked, a little sharply, "shall we take thisdried ourang-outang ashore with us, or shall we try to moisten him alittle, by throwing him overboard'!"

  "Let him go, by all means, Mr. Marble. I dare say the man wishes to beof use, and he has only a bad manner of showing it."

  "Of use! He is worth no more than the carcase of a whale that has beenstripped of its blubber. I say, Miles, there would be no need of thewindlass to heave the blanket off of this fish!"

  This professional witticism put Marble in good humour with himself, andhe permitted the fellow to remain. I remember the thoughts that passedthrough my mind, as the yawl pulled towards the creek, on that occasion,as well as if it had all occurred yesterday. I sat looking at thesemi-human being who was seated opposite, wondering at the dispensationof Divine Providence which could leave one endowed with a portion of theineffable; nature of the Deity, in a situation so degraded. I had seenbeasts in cages that appeared to me to be quite as intelligent, andmembers of the diversified family of human caricatures, or of thebaboons and monkeys, that I thought were quite as agreeable objects tothe eye. Smudge seemed to be almost without ideas. In his bargains, hehad trusted entirely to the vigilance of the Dipper, whom we supposed tobe some sort of a relation; and the articles he received in exchangefor his skins, failed to arouse in his grim, vacant countenance, thesmallest signs of pleasure. Emotion and he, if they had been acquainted,now appeared to be utter strangers to each other; nor was this apathy inthe least like the well-known stoicism of the American Indian; but hadthe air of downright insensibility. Yet this man assuredly had a soul,a spark of the never-dying flame that separates man from all the otherbeings of earth!

  The basin in which the Crisis lay was entirely fringed with forest. Thetrees in most places even overhung the water, forming an impenetrablescreen to everything inland, at the season when they were in leaf. Not asign of a habitation of any sort was visible; and, as we approached theshore, Marble remarked that the savages could only resort to the placeat the moments when they had induced a ship to enter, in order to tradewith them.

  "No--no," added the mate, turning his head in all directions, inorder to take a complete survey of the bay; "there are no wigwams, orpapooses, hereabouts. This is only a trading-post; and luckily for us,it is altogether without custom-house officers."

  "Not without smugglers, I fancy, Mr. Marble, if contriving to get otherpeople's property without their knowledge, can make a smuggler. I neversaw a more thorough-looking thief than the chap we have nick-named theDipper. I believe he would swallow one of our iron spoons, rather thannot get it!"

  "Ay, there's no mistake about him, 'Master Mile,' as Neb calls you. Butthis fellow here, hasn't brains enough to tell his own property fromthat of another man. I would let him into our bread-lockers, withoutany dread of his knowing enough to eat. I never saw such a vacancy in ahuman form; a down-east idiot would wind him up in a trade, as handilyas a pedlar sets his wooden clocks in motion."

  Such was Marble's opinion of the sagacity of Mr. Smudge; and, to ownthe truth, such, in a great measure, was my own. The men laughed at theremarks--seamen are a little apt to laugh at chief-mates' wit--and theirlooks showed how thoroughly they coincided with us in opinion. All thistime, the boat had been pushing ahead, and it soon reached the mouth ofthe little creek.

 
We found the inlet deep, but narrow and winding. Like the bay itself,it was fringed with trees and bushes, and this in a way to render itdifficult to get a view of anything on the land; more especially asthe banks were ten or fifteen feet in height. Under the circumstances,Marble proposed that we should land on both sides of the creek, andfollow its windings on foot, for a short distance, in order to get abetter opportunity to reconnoitre. Our dispositions were soon made.Marble and one of the boat's crew, each armed, landed on one side ofthe inlet, while Neb and myself, similarly provided, went ashore on theother. The two remaining men were ordered to keep abreast of us in theboat, in readiness to take us on board again, as soon as required.

  "Leave that Mr. Smudge in the boat, Miles," Marble called out across thecreek, as I was about to put foot on the ground. I made a sign to thateffect to the savage, but when I reached the level ground on the top ofthe bank, I perceived the fellow was at my elbow. It was so difficult tomake such a creature understand one's wishes, without the aid of speech,that, after a fruitless effort or two to send him back by means ofsigns, I abandoned the attempt, and moved forward, so as to keep thewhole party in the desired line. Neb offered to catch the old fellowin his arms, and to carry him down to the yawl; but I thought it moreprudent to avoid anything like violence. We proceeded, therefore,accompanied by this escort.

  There was nothing, however, to excite alarm, or awaken distrust. Wefound ourselves in a virgin forest, with all its wildness, dampness,gloomy shadows, dead and fallen trees, and unequal surface. On my sideof the creek, there was not the smallest sign of a foot-path; and Marblesoon called out to say, he was equally without any evidences of thesteps of man. I should think we proceeded quite a mile in this manner,certain that the inlet would be a true guide on our return. At length acall from the boat let us know there was no longer water enough to floatit, and that it could proceed no farther. Marble and myself descendedthe banks at the same moment, and were taken in, intending to return inthe yawl. Smudge glided back to his old place, with his former silence.

  "I told you to leave the ourang-outang behind," Marble carelesslyobserved, as he took his own seat, after assisting in getting the boatround, with its head towards the bay. "I would rather have a rattlesnakefor a pet, than such a cub."

  "It is easier said than done, sir. Master Smudge stuck to me as close asa leech."

  "The fellow seems all the better for his walk--I never saw him look halfas amiable as he does at this moment."

  Of course this raised a laugh, and it induced me to look round. Forthe first time, I could detect something like a human expression in thecountenance of Smudge, who seemed to experience some sensation a littleakin to satisfaction.

  "I rather think he had taken it into his head we were about to desertthe coppers," I remarked, "and fancied he might lose his supper. Now, hemust see we are going back, he probably fancies he will go to bed on afull stomach."

  Marble assented to the probability of this conjecture, and theconversation changed. It was matter of surprise to us that we had metno traces of anything like a residence near the creek, not the smallestsign of man having been discovered by either. It was reasonable toexpect that some traces of an encampment, at least, would have beenfound. Everybody kept a vigilant look-out at the shore as we descendedthe creek; but, as on the ascent, not even a foot-print was detected.

  On reaching the bay, there being still several hours of day-light,we made its entire circuit, finding nowhere any proof of the formerpresence of man. At length, Marble proposed pulling to the small woodedisland that lay a little without the entrance of the haven, suggestingthat it was possible the savages might have something like an encampmentthere, the place being more convenient as a look-out into the offing,than any point within the bay itself. In order to do this, it wasnecessary to pass the ship; and we were hailed by the captain, whowished to know the result of our examinations. As soon as he learned ourpresent object, he told us to come alongside, intending to accompany usto the island in person. On getting into the boat, which was small anda little crowded by the presence of Smudge, Captain Williams made a signfor that personage to quit the yawl. He might as well have intimatedas much to one of the thwarts! Laughing at the savage's stupidity, orobstinacy, we scarce knew which to term it, the boat was shoved off, andwe pulled through the entrance, two hundred yards outside perhaps, untilour keel grated against the low rocks of this islet.

  There was no difficulty in landing; and Neb, who preceded the party,soon gave a shout, the proof that he had made some discovery. Everyman among us now looked to his arms, expecting to meet an encampmentof savages; but we were disappointed. All that the negro had discoveredwere the unequivocal traces of a former bivouac; and, judging from afew of the signs, that of no very recent occupation. The traces wereextensive, covering quite half of the interior of the island; leavingan extensive curtain of trees and bushes, however, so as completely toconceal the spot from any eyes without. Most of the trees had been burntdown, as we at first thought, in order to obtain fuel; but, fartherexamination satisfied us, that it had been done as much by accident, asby design.

  At first, nothing was discovered in this encampment, which had everyappearance of not having been extensively used for years, though thetraces of numerous fires, and the signs of footsteps, and a springin the centre, indicated the recent occupation, of which I have justspoken. A little further scrutiny, however, brought to light certainobjects that we did not note without much wonder and concern. Marblemade the first discovery. It was impossible for seamen to mistake theobject, which was the head of a rudder, containing the tiller-hole, andwhich might have belonged to a vessel of some two hundred and fifty,or three hundred tons. This set all hands of us at work, and, in a fewminutes we found, scattered about, fragments of plank, top-timbers,floor-timbers, and other portions of a ship, all more or less burnt, andstripped of every particle of metal. Even the nails had been drawn bymeans of perseverance and labour. Nothing was left but the wood, whichproved to be live-oak, cedar and locust, the proofs that the unfortunatecraft had been a vessel of some value. We wanted no assurance of this,however, as none but a North-West trader could well have got as high upthe coast, and all vessels of that class were of the best description.Then the locust, a wood unknown to the ship-builders of Europe, gaveus the nearly certain assurance that this doomed craft had been acountryman.

  At first, we were all too much occupied with our interesting discoveryto bethink us of Smudge. At length, I turned to observe its effect onthe savage. He evidently noted our proceedings; but his feelings, if thecreature had any, were so deeply buried beneath the mask of dullness,as completely to foil my penetration. He saw us take up fragmentafter fragment, examine them, heard us converse over them, though in alanguage he could not understand, and saw us throw them away, one afteranother, with seemingly equal indifference. At length he brought ahalf-burned billet to the captain, and held it before his eyes, as if hebegan to feel some interest in our proceedings. It proved to be merelya bit of ordinary wood, a fragment of one of the beeches of the forestthat lay near an extinguished pile; and the act satisfied us all, thefellow did not comprehend the reason of the interest we betrayed. Heclearly knew nothing of the strange vessel.

  In walking around this deserted encampment, the traces of a pathway tothe shore were found. They were too obvious to be mistaken, and led usto the water in the passage opposite to that by which the Crisis hadbeen carried in by the Dipper, and at a point that was not in view fromher present anchorage. Here we found a sort of landing, and many of theheavier pieces of the wreck; such as it had not been thought necessaryto haul up to the fires, having no metal about them. Among other thingsof this sort, was a portion of the keel quite thirty feet long, thekeelson bolts, keelson, and floor-timbers all attached. This was theonly instance in which we discovered any metal; and this we found,only because the fragment was too strong and heavy to be manageable.We looked carefully, in all directions, in the hope of discoveringsomething that might give us an insight into the nature
of the disasterthat had evidently occurred, but, for some time without success. Atlength I strolled to a little distance from the landing, and took a seaton a flat stone, which had been placed on the living rock that facedmost of the island, evidently to form a resting-place. My seat provedunsteady, and in endeavouring to adjust it more to my mind, I removedthe stone, and discovered that it rested on a common log-slate. Thisslate was still covered with legible writing, and I soon had the wholeparty around me, eager to learn the contents. The melancholy record wasin these precise words: viz.--

  "The American brig Sea-Otter, John Squires, master, _coaxed_ into thisbay, June 9th, 1797, and seized by savages, on the morning of the 11th.Master, second-mate, and seven of the people killed on the spot. Briggutted first, then hauled up _here_, and burnt to the water's edge forthe iron. David King, first-mate, and six others, viz., George Lunt,Henry Webster, Stephen Stimpson and John Harris, seamen, Bill Flint,cook, and Peter Doolittle, boy, still living, but God only knows what isto be our fate. I shall put this slate beneath the stone I now sit on,in the hope it may one day let our friends learn what has happened."--

  We looked at each other, astounded. Both the captain and Marbleremembered to have heard that a brig in this trade, called theSea-Otter, was missing; and, here, by a communication that was littleshort of miraculous, we were let into the secret of her disappearance.

  "_Coaxed_ in--" repeated the captain, running his eye over the writing,which had been thus singularly preserved, and that, in a situation whereone would think it might have been discovered a thousand times.--"Yes,yes--I now begin to understand the whole matter. If there were any wind,gentlemen, I would go to sea this very night."

  "That would be hardly worth our while, Captain Williams," the chief-mateanswered, "since we are now on our guard, and I feel pretty certain thatthere are no savages in our neighbourhood. So far, the Dipper and hisfriends have traded with us fairly enough, and it is likely they havemore skins to dispose of. This chap, whom the people have christenedSmudge, takes matters so coolly, that I hardly think he knows anythingabout the Sea-Otter, which may have been cut off by another gang,altogether."

  There was good reason in these remarks, and they had their effect on thecaptain. The latter, however, determined to put Smudge to the proof,by showing him the slate, and otherwise bringing him under sucha cross-examination as signs alone could effect. I dare say, anindifferent spectator would have laughed at witnessing our efforts toconfound the Indian. We made grimaces, pointed, exclaimed, hallooed,swore, and gesticulated in vain. Smudge was as unmoved at it all, as thefragment of keel to which he was confronted. The fellow either did not,or would not understand us. His stupidity defied our tests; and Marblegave the matter up in despair, declaring that "the beast knows nothingof anything, much less of the Sea-Otter." As for the slate, he did notseem to have the smallest notion what such a thing meant.

  We returned to the ship, carrying with us the slate, and the reportof our discoveries. All hands were called, and the captain made usa speech. It was sufficiently to the point, though it was not in theleast, of the "God-like" character. We were told how ships were lostby the carelessness of their crews; reminded we were on the North-WestCoast, where a vessel with a few boxes of beads and bales of blankets,to say nothing of her gunpowder, firearms, and metals, was as valuable,as a vessel laden with gold dust would be in one of our own ports.Vigilance, while on watch, and obedience to the orders of the vessel, inthe event of an alarm, were the principal things dwelt on. By observingthese two great requisites, we should all be safe enough; whereas, bydisregarding them, we should probably share the fate of the people ofthe brig, of which we had just discovered some of the remains.

  I will confess, I passed an uncomfortable night. An unknown enemyis always a formidable enemy; and I would rather have fought three_guarda-costas_ at once, than lie where we did, in a bay as smooth asa looking-glass, surrounded by forests as silent as a desert, and in awell-armed ship, that was prepared at all points, to meet her foes, evento her boarding-nettings.

  Nothing came of it all. The Dipper and Smudge eat their supper with theappetites of injured innocence, and slept like tops. If guilty, weall agreed that they must be utterly destitute of consciences. As forourselves, we were on the alert until near morning, the very moment whenthe danger would probably be the greatest, provided there were any atall; and then weariness overcame all who were not on the look-out, andsome who were. Still, nothing happened. The sun returned to us in dueseason, gilding the tree-tops with its beams; our little bay began tobask in its glory, and with the cheerfulness that usually accompaniessuch a scene, vanished most of our apprehensions for the moment. A nightof reflection had quieted our fears, and we all woke up next morning, asindifferent to the fate of the Sea-Otter, as was at all decent.