The Liberdade
CHAPTER X
Across the bar—The run to Santos—Tow to Rio by the steamship—At Rio.
The efficiency of our canoe was soon discovered: On the 24th of June, after having sailed about the bay some few days to temper our feelings to the new craft, and shake things into place, we crossed the bar and stood out to sea, while six vessels lay inside "bar-bound," that is to say by their pilots it was thought too rough to venture out, and they, the pilots, stood on the point as we put out to sea, crossing themselves in our behalf, and shouting that the bar was crudo. But the Liberdade stood on her course, the crew never regretting it.
The wind from the sou'west at the time was the moderating side of a pampeiro which had brought in a heavy swell from the ocean, that broke and thundered on the bar with deafening roar and grand display of majestic effort.
But our little ship bounded through the breakers like a fish—as natural to the elements, and as free!