A half hour served to
clear all away, and she was suffered to drive on with her topmast
studding-sail set, it being as much as she could stagger under.
During all this day and the next night, we went on under the same
sail, the gale blowing with undiminished force; two men at the wheel
all the time; watch and watch, and nothing to do but to steer and look
out for the ship, and be blown along;- until the noon of the next day-
Sunday, July 24th, when we were in latitude 50 deg. 27' S.,
longitude 62 deg. 13' W., having made four degrees of latitude in the
last twenty-four hours. Being now to northward of the Falkland
Islands, the ship was kept off, north-east, for the equator; and with
her head for the equator, and Cape Horn over her taffrail, she went
gloriously on; every heave of the sea leaving the Cape astern, and
every hour bringing us nearer to home, and to warm weather. Many a
time, when blocked up in the ice, with everything dismal and
discouraging about us, had we said,- if we were only fairly round,
and standing north on the other side, we should ask for no more:- and
now we had it all, with a clear sea, and as much wind as a sailor
could pray for.
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