Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
About an hour before sun-down, having stowed our water casks, we
commenced getting under weigh, and were not a little while about it;
for we were in thirty fathoms water, and in one of the gusts which came
off shore had let go our other bow anchor; and as the southerly wind
draws round the mountains and comes off in uncertain flaws, we were
continually swinging round, and had thus got a very foul hawse. We hove
in upon our chain, and after stoppering and unshackling it again and
again, and hoisting and hauling down sail, we at length tipped our
anchor and stood out to sea. It was bright starlight when we were
clear of the bay, and the lofty island lay behind us, in its still
beauty, and I gave a parting look, and bid farewell, to the most
romantic spot of earth that my eyes had ever seen. I did then, and have
ever since, felt an attachment for that island, altogether peculiar.
It was partly, no doubt, from its having been the first land that I had
seen since leaving home, and still more from the associations which
every one has connected with it in their childhood from reading
Robinson Crusoe. To this I may add the height and romantic outline of
its mountains, the beauty and freshness of its verdure, and the extreme
fertility of its soil, and its solitary position in the midst of the
wide expanse of the South Pacific, as all concurring to give it its
peculiar charm.
When thoughts of this place have occurred to me at different times, I
have endeavored to recall more particulars with regard to it. It is
situated in about 33º 30' S., and is distant a little more than three
hundred miles from Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili, which is in the
same latitude. It is about fifteen miles in length and five in
breadth. The harbor in which we anchored (called by Lord Anson,
Cumberland bay) is the only one in the island; two small bights of land
on each side of the main bay (sometimes dignified by the name of bays)
being little more than landing-places for boats. The best anchorage is
at the western side of the bay, where we lay at about three cables'
lengths from the shore, in a little more than thirty fathoms water.
This harbor is open to the N.N.E., and in fact nearly from N. to E.,
but the only dangerous winds being the south-west, on which side are
the highest mountains, it is considered very safe. The most remarkable
thing perhaps about it is the fish with which it abounds. Two of our
crew, who remained on board, caught in a few minutes enough to last us
for several days, and one of the men, who was a Marblehead man, said
that he never saw or heard of such an abundance. There were cod,
breams, silver-fish, and other kinds whose names they did not know, or
which I have forgotten.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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