Chapter 5
798 Words
"The Bermudas!" I exclaimed. "But how is it we are off the
Bermudas? I should have thought that a vessel sailing from
Charleston to Liverpool, would have kept northwards, and have
followed the track of the Gulf Stream."
"Yes, indeed; sir," replied Curtis, "that is the usual course;
but you see that this time the captain hasn't chosen to take it."
"But why not?" I persisted.
"That's not for me to say, sir; he ordered us eastwards, and
eastwards we go."
"Haven't you called his attention to it?" I inquired.
Curtis acknowledged that he had already pointed out what an
unusual route they were taking, but that the captain had said
that he was quite aware what he was about. The mate made no
further remark; but the knit of his brow, as he passed his hand
mechanically across his forehead, made me fancy that he was
inclined to speak out more strongly.
"All very well, Curtis," I said, "but I don't know what to think
about trying new routes. Here we are at the 7th of October, and
if we are to reach Europe before the bad weather sets in, I
should suppose there is not a day to be lost."
"Right, sir, quite right; there is not a day to be lost."
Struck by his manner, I ventured to add, "Do you mind, Mr. Curtis
giving me your honest opinion of Captain Huntly?"
He hesitated a moment, and then replied shortly, "He is my
captain, sir."
This evasive answer of course put an end to any further
interrogation on my part, but it only set me thinking the more.
Curtis was not mistaken. At about three o'clock the lookout man
sung out that there was land to windward, and descried what
seemed as if it might be a line of smoke in the north-east
horizon. At six, I went on deck with M. Letourneur and his son,
and we could then distinctly make out the low group of the
Bermudas, encircled by their formidable chain of breakers.
"There," said Andre Letourneur to me, as we stood gazing at the
distant land, "there lies the enchanted Archipelago, sung by your
poet Moore. The exile Waller, too, as long ago as 1643, wrote an
enthusiastic panegyric on the islands, and I have been told that
at one time English ladies would wear no other bonnets than such
as were made of the leaves of the Bermuda palm."
"Yes," I replied, "the Bermudas were all the rage in the
seventeenth century, although laterly they have fallen into
comparative oblivion."
"But let me tell you, M. Andre," interposed Curtis, who had as
usual joined our party, "that although poets may rave, and be as
enthusiastic as they like about these islands, sailors will tell
a different tale. The hidden reefs that lie in a semicircle
about two or three leagues from shore make the attempt to land a
very dangerous piece of business. And another thing, I know.
Let the natives boast as they will about their splendid climate,
they, are visited by the most frightful hurricanes. They get the
fag-end of the storms that rage over the Antilles; and the fag-
end of a storm is like the tail of a whale; it's just the
strongest bit of it. I don't think you'll find a sailor
listening much to your poets,--your Moores, and your Wallers."
"No, doubt you are right, Mr. Curtis," said Andre, smiling, "but
poets are like proverbs; you can always find one to contradict
another. Although Waller and Moore have chosen to sing the
praises of the Bermudas, it has been supposed that Shakspeare was
depicting them in the terrible scenes that are found in 'The
Tempest.'"
The whole vicinity of these islands is beyond a question
extremely perilous to mariners. Situated between the Antilles
and Nova Scotia, the Bermudas have ever since their discovery
belonged to the English, who have mainly used them for a military
station. But this little archipelago, comprising some hundred
and fifty different isles and islets, is destined to increase,
and that, perhaps, on a larger scale than has yet been
anticipated. Beneath the waves there are madrepores, in infinity
of number, silently but ceaselessly pursuing their labours; and
with time, that fundamental element in nature's workings, who
shall tell whether these may not gradually build up island after
island, which shall unite and form another continent?
I may mention that there was not another of our fellow-passengers
who took the trouble to come on deck and give a glance at this
strange cluster of islands. Miss Herbey, it is true, was making
an attempt to join us, but she had barely reached the poop, when
Mrs. Kear's languid voice was heard recalling her for some
trifling service to her side.
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