第45章 THE VOYAGE(33)

All these good qualities,however,they always leave behind them on shipboard;the sailor out of water is,indeed,as wretched an animal as the fish out of water;for though the former hath,in common with amphibious animals,the bare power of existing on the land,yet if he be kept there any time he never fails to become a nuisance.The ship having had a good deal of motion since she was last under sail,our women returned to their sickness,and Ito my solitude;having,for twenty-four hours together,scarce opened my lips to a single person.This circumstance of being shut up within the circumference of a few yards,with a score of human creatures,with not one of whom it was possible to converse,was perhaps so rare as scarce ever to have happened before,nor could it ever happen to one who disliked it more than myself,or to myself at a season when I wanted more food for my social disposition,or could converse less wholesomely and happily with my own thoughts.To this accident,which fortune opened to me in the Downs,was owing the first serious thought which I ever entertained of enrolling myself among the voyage-writers;some of the most amusing pages,if,indeed,there be any which deserve that name,were possibly the production of the most disagreeable hours which ever haunted the author.

Monday.--At noon the captain took an observation,by which it appeared that Ushant bore some leagues northward of us,and that we were just entering the bay of Biscay.We had advanced a very few miles in this bay before we were entirely becalmed:we furled our sails,as being of no use to us while we lay in this most disagreeable situation,more detested by the sailors than the most violent tempest:we were alarmed with the loss of a fine piece of salt beef,which had been hung in the sea to freshen it;this being,it seems,the strange property of salt-water.The thief was immediately suspected,and presently afterwards taken by the sailors.He was,indeed,no other than a huge shark,who,not knowing when he was well off,swallowed another piece of beef,together with a great iron crook on which it was hung,and by which he was dragged into the ship.I should scarce have mentioned the catching this shark,though so exactly conformable to the rules and practice of voyage-writing,had it not been for a strange circumstance that attended it.This was the recovery of the stolen beef out of the shark's maw,where it lay unchewed and undigested,and whence,being conveyed into the pot,the flesh,and the thief that had stolen it,joined together in furnishing variety to the ship's crew.

During this calm we likewise found the mast of a large vessel,which the captain thought had lain at least three years in the sea.It was stuck all over with a little shell-fish or reptile,called a barnacle,and which probably are the prey of the rockfish,as our captain calls it,asserting that it is the finest fish in the world;for which we are obliged to confide entirely to his taste;for,though he struck the fish with a kind of harping-iron,and wounded him,I am convinced,to death,yet he could not possess himself of his body;but the poor wretch escaped to linger out a few hours with probably great torments.

In the evening our wind returned,and so briskly,that we ran upwards of twenty leagues before the next day's [Tuesday's]observation,which brought us to lat.47degrees 42'.The captain promised us a very speedy passage through the bay;but he deceived us,or the wind deceived him,for it so slackened at sunset,that it scarce carried us a mile in an hour during the whole succeeding night.

Wednesday.--A gale struck up a little after sunrising,which carried us between three and four knots or miles an hour.We were this day at noon about the middle of the bay of Biscay,when the wind once more deserted us,and we were so entirely becalmed,that we did not advance a mile in many hours.My fresh-water reader will perhaps conceive no unpleasant idea from this calm;but it affected us much more than a storm could have done;for,as the irascible passions of men are apt to swell with indignation long after the injury which first raised them is over,so fared it with the sea.It rose mountains high,and lifted our poor ship up and down,backwards and forwards,with so violent an emotion,that there was scarce a man in the ship better able to stand than myself.Every utensil in our cabin rolled up and down,as we should have rolled ourselves,had not our chairs been fast lashed to the floor.In this situation,with our tables likewise fastened by ropes,the captain and myself took our meal with some difficulty,and swallowed a little of our broth,for we spilt much the greater part.The remainder of our dinner being an old,lean,tame duck roasted,I regretted but little the loss of,my teeth not being good enough to have chewed it.