Saturday, Feb. 7. We have made but very little progress during the last two days. A slant of wind has occasionally favored us, but with the counter-current, it has been about as much as we could do to hold our own. What we gain when the wind hauls we are sure to lose when it returns to its old position. It is in our teeth, and has been there, with brief variations, for the last six days. Unless it changes we may box about her till doomsday.
Out on Cape Horn! Had it shoved itself between Pandemonium and Paradise, Milton would never have expected Lucifer to weather it. He would have sent him across the Isthmus of Panama. There ought to be a ship-canal there; not for demons, but for men. If Cheops could build himself a tomb which the rays of the new-risen sun should greet before they touched the lyre of Memnon; if Brunell could arch a pathway under the Thames for the multitudes of London, with navies on its bosom; and if Whitney can run a railroad from the Atlantic board to Oregon through the Rocky Mountains, surely the civilized powers of Europe, and those of America combined, can cut a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. I only wish all who oppose the project were obliged to double Cape Horn; they would give in before they got round, if not, a jackass might take lessons from their obstinacy.
I have swept, with the telescope, the whole horizon to find our little attendant bark, but not a vestige of her is to be seen. We parted with her two days since at nightfall. But she is still, I doubt not, afloat, and will again loom to light. Courage, my little fellow; you may outdo us yet—
“The race is not—to be got
By him what swiftest runs,
Nor is the battell—to the peopell
What’s got the longest guns.”
CHAPTER V.
PASSAGE FROM CAPE HORN TO VALPARAISO.
GALE.—HABITS OF THE ALBATROS AND PENGUIN.—THE SEA OFF CAPE HORN.—SLEET AND HAIL.—FAREWELL TO THE CAPE.—DIRECTIONS FOR DOUBLING THE CAPE.—GALE IN THE PACIFIC.—APPEARANCE OF THE STARS.—A RAINBOW.—DIVINE SERVICE.—THE RAZOR AT SEA.—THE LITTLE BARK.—PLUM-PUDDING AND TRIPE.—THE CORDILLERAS.—ARRIVAL AT VALPARAISO.