Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
How long I lay there I could not tell, for I became delirious. When
I came to, as I thought, from my swoon, I realized that the sloop was
plunging into a heavy sea, and looking out of the companionway, to my
amazement I saw a tall man at the helm. His rigid hand, grasping the
spokes of the wheel, held them as in a vise . . . His rig was that of a for-
eign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was cockbilled over his left
ear, and all was set off with shaggy black whiskers . . . While I gazed
upon his threatening aspect I forgot the storm, and wondered if he had
come to cut my throat. This he seemed to divine. 'Señor,' said he, doff-
ing his cap, 'I have come to do you no harm.' And a smile, the faintest
in the world, but still a smile, played on his face, which seemed not un-
kind when he spoke . . . 'I am one of Columbus's crew,' he continued. 'I
am the pilot of the Pinta come to aid you. Lie quiet, señor captain,' he
added, 'and I will guide your ship tonight . . .' I was still in agony. Great
seas were boarding the Spray, but in my fevered brain I thought they
were boats falling on deck, that careless draymen were throwing from
wagons on the pier to which I imagined the Spray was now moored,
and without fenders to breast her off. 'You'll smash your boats!' I called
out again and again, as the seas crashed on the cabin over my head.
'You'll smash your boats, but you can't hurt the Spray. She is strong!' I
cried.
I found, when my pains and calentura had gone, that the deck,
now as white as a shark's tooth from seas washing over it, had been
swept of everything movable. To my astonishment, I saw now at broad
day that the Spray was still heading as I had left her, and was going
like a race-horse. Columbus himself could not have held her more ex-
actly on her course. The sloop had made ninety miles in the night
through a rough sea.
The gale eased off and Slocum slept. In his dreams the old pilot
reappeared:
