“Our search had been fruitless. Intent upon our object, we had not observed where we were going. Now, as we looked up to search around for our other shipmates, we saw directly before us the ill-looking witch in her skiff, turning her countenance, with a malignant scowl, over her shoulder to look at us. The hideous sight seemed to drive the captain mad.
”‘Give way my men, give way,’ he shouted, in a voice trembling with earnestness; ‘give way; we’ll overtake the cursed hag, and I’ll punish her for haunting us in this way.’
“With a strange species of infatuation we bent to our oars as ordered, in the hopes of catching her. We might as well have attempted to overtake the whirlwind. The more we strained at our oars, the louder and more insulting became her cackling shrieks of derisive laughter.
”‘You hell-born hag, stay and speak, and tell me whence you come and where you are going!’ shouted Derick, but the witch did nothing but grin more maliciously, and jeer and laugh the louder. Still we continued the pursuit, but we never got an inch nearer to her, though she was going away with her sail set, right in the wind’s eye. The harder we pulled the faster she went, and at last disappeared in a squall of thick rain, which drove down upon us. This was fortunate for us, for so mad had the captain become, that I believe he would have followed her till we all dropped down from fatigue, and he was not the man, in his present mood, the boldest of us dared disobey. We now looked round for the ship. She was nowhere to be seen.
“I cannot describe to you the feelings which took possession of our hearts. It was the blankest despair: Derick alone seemed indifferent to our fate, and only felt enraged at not having been able to overtake the witch. I believe we were capable of jumping overboard, or of rushing at each other with our knives and fighting till we had stabbed each other to death, when, as I was standing upon the thwarts to look around, I saw the ship dead to leeward. I pointed her out to the captain and men.
”‘We’ll return on board then,’ he answered, coolly, as if nothing had happened. ‘And mind, let none of you talk about our chase after that accursed old hag—we shall have the people fancying next, I suppose, that the ship is doomed.’
”‘Ay, ay, sir,’ we answered; but though I said nothing about it, I believe the men did not hold their tongues a moment after, they got down into the fore-peak. As the sea went down after this we had little difficulty in getting on board again. When we did so, we found that for some time they had given us up as lost.
“Fortunately, poor Mrs Derick did not return to consciousness till just as her husband got on board, so that she was spared the misery of believing him lost. He had her taken below, and sat up watching her most tenderly till she recovered. In two days she was better, and on deck again, but I observed a great change in her. She looked pale and anxious, and all her life and spirits were gone. I fear she began to suspect that there was good reason for the old witch to haunt us. The loss of six of our best hands was very serious, especially as we had no prospect of supplying their places in any port at which we were likely to touch. On, however, we must go, and make the best of it. The wind now came ahead, and we were obliged to make tack and tack, scarcely ever getting a fair slant till we reached the latitude of Cape Horn.
“One would have supposed that we had had enough of storms and accidents for one voyage, but we had soon to learn that we had something more to go through. Mrs Derick had by this time become something like herself again, and as for the captain, though he felt more than any one, he never changed. He sang and joked as much as ever, and even sneered at the old woman and her jolly-boat, as he called it. I cannot describe what happened every day of the voyage, so I must merely mention the most remarkable events. It was in the afternoon watch, when, as I was sweeping the horizon with my glass, I observed an unusual dark appearance on the water. Some said that it was a sand-bank, others an island, some a shoal fish, but I saw that it was a heavy squall driving furiously over the hitherto smooth unruffled sea. I was not mistaken. I called Captain Derick on deck, and the hands were sent aloft to lower topgallant yards and to furl every sail, except the fore-topsail, which was closely reefed. The men sprang to their duty, for they saw that not a moment was to be lost. The ship was put before the wind just in time. Down came the squall upon us, roaring, and tearing, and hissing along the ocean. Away we flew before it like a sea-bird on the wing. Our only danger was lest we should not be far enough to the south to clear the land of the Patagonians—the renowned Cape Horn.
“Every moment the fury of the gale increased, the waves rose higher, and the wind roared louder. Everything on deck was secured, and preventer braces were put on the fore and fore-topsail yards to assist in securing them. As night approached the terrific contest increased. The sea, which ran on either beam in high mountainous surges, broke with an awful roar; the stern of the ship now lifted on the summit of a wave, and the next instant her bow was plunging madly into the dark trough which yearned apparently to engulf her. The thunder rattled loudly through the heavy sky, the vivid lightning played threateningly round the masts, and the wind howled and whistled through the rigging. Those who had never before felt fear in a storm, now trembled with alarm. On we drove with impetuous violence, the hands at the wheel scarcely able to keep the ship before the boiling seas, which, as they curled up astern, seemed ready to rush down on our decks and overwhelm us.