Every one was anxious to get a view of the new place.
A chain of high hills, beginning at the point, (which was on our
larboard hand, coming in,) protected the harbor on the north and west,
and ran off into the interior as far as the eye could reach. On the
other sides, the land was low, and green, but without trees. The
entrance is so narrow as to admit but one vessel at a time, the
current swift, and the channel runs so near to a low stony that the
ship's sides appeared almost to touch it. There was no town in sight,
but on the smooth sand beach, abreast, and within a cable's length of
which three vessels lay moored, were four large houses, built of rough
boards, and looking like the great barns in which ice is stored on the
borders of the large ponds near Boston; with piles of hides standing
round them, and men in red shirts and large straw hats, walking in and
out of the doors. These were the hide-houses. Of the vessels: one, a
short, clumsy, little hermaphrodite brig, we recognized as our old
acquaintance, the Loriotte; another, with sharp bows and raking masts,
newly painted and tarred, and glittering in the morning sun, with the
blood-red banner and cross of St.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195