Chapter 14 - Page 2

was about. As a sealer, he had several times
penetrated as far south as the ne plus ultra of Cook; but it had ever
before been in subordinate situations. This was the first time in which he
had the responsibility of command thrown on himself, and it was no more
than natural that he should feel the weight of this new burthen. So long
as the Sea Lion of the Vineyard was in sight, she had presented a centre
of interest and concern. To get rid of her had been his first care, and
almost absorbing object; but, now that she seemed to be finally thrown out
of his wake, there remained the momentous and closely approaching
difficulties of the main adventure directly before his eyes. Roswell,
therefore, was thoughtful and grave, his countenance offering no bad
reflection of the sober features of the atmosphere and the ocean.

Although the season was that of summer, and the weather was such as is
deemed propitious in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, a feeling of
uncertainty prevailed over every other sensation. To the southward a cold
mistiness veiled the view, and every mile the schooner advanced appeared
like penetrating deeper and deeper into regions that nature had hitherto
withheld from the investigation of the mariner. Ice, and its dangers, were
known to exist a few degrees farther in that direction; but islands also
had been discovered, and turned to good account by the enterprise of the
sealers.

It was truly a great thing for the Sea Lion of Oyster Pond to have thrown
off her namesake of the Vineyard. It is true both vessels were still in
the same sea, with a possibility of again meeting; but, Roswell Gardiner
was steering onward towards a haven designated in degrees and minutes,
while the other craft was most probably left to wander in uncertainty in
that remote and stormy ocean. Our hero thought there was now very little
likelihood of his again falling in with his late consort, and this so much
the more, because the islands he sought were not laid down in the vicinity
of any other known land, and were consequently out of the usual track of
the sealers. This last circumstance was fully appreciated by our young
navigator, and gave him confidence of possessing its treasures to himself,
could he only find the place where nature had hid them.

When the sun went down in that vast waste of water which lies to the
southward of this continent, the little Sea Lion had fairly lost sight of
land, and was riding over the long southwestern ground-swell like a gull
that holds its way steadily towards its nest. For many hours her course
had not varied half a point, being as near as possible to south-southwest,
which kept her a little off the wind. No sooner, however, did night come
to shut in the view, than Roswell Gardiner