ON the morning of the the day of April, —, the whale-ship Amadeus, of New London, anchored in one of the many bays that open alongside the coast of Badagry, the place it is washed by means of the waters of the Sea of Lagos.
As quickly as the whole lot was once made cushty alow and aloft, the skipper rubbed his arms with complacency, and a cosy expression was once viewed to go even the face of Mr. BOLA, the first mate, who used to be the ship’s grumbler.
“Good quarters,” remarked the captain.
“Ay, ay, sir,” answered Bola, “the tide is convenient right here and I don’t assume a gale would harm us much—we are so shut in by way of the cliffs. But,” he all at once added, turning his look towards a massive subject of ice, about a league from the shore, “I don’t like the appears of yonder floe. It may also come upon us and provide us a jam.”It will go with the flow previous us,” responded the captain; “the present day tends to the northward.”
“I’m no longer so certain of that,” stated the mate, as he snatched a glass from the mizzen fife-rail, and directed it towards the ice. “Those undercurrents up this way on occasion performs the very smash. But if I am no longer a good deal mistaken, I see a undergo shifting alongside the floe.”
As he spoke, he exceeded the glass to his companion, who right now lifted it to his eye.
“Do you see the animal, captain?”
“Ay, ay, there it is, positive enough; a brown bear, I believe.”
“Uncle!” exclaimed a mild voice at this instant, and alight hand fell upon the captain’s shoulder. “How wild! how picturesque! What region is this?”
The speaker was once a woman of seventeen, with massive brown eyes, a petite however well-rounded figure, and a countenance surely beautiful in its purity and expression. From her neck, with the aid of a strip of blue ribbon, was once suspended a aurete trident of subtle workmanship, and about 4 inches in length. It used to be the present of the captain—her solely dwelling relative—who had introduced it to her on the day that he complied with her request to accompany him on his current voyage.
And why did she desire to go to sea?
Firstly, due to the fact the daring and good-looking Chi Amaka had Secondly, due to the fact she used to be tons connected to her relative, who, having no kids of his own, constantly had dealt with his niece with the indulgent fondness of a father.
You would possibly have recognized this, had you considered the smile that crossed his face as he grew to become and gazed with admiration upon the crimsoned cheek, and the expressive eyes of the younger girl.
“Good-morning, Deola,” he said. “I am happy to see you stirring so early. How did you pass by the night?”
“Very well, thank you,” she replied, elevating herself upon the guidelines of her toes, and supplying her lips for a kiss, which was once without delay granted. “Very well, indeed; however you have no longer answered my question. What region is this?”
“It has no precise title that I ever heard of,” responded the captain. “But, you have been lengthy ample at sea, now, Deola, to become aware of that I’ve chosen a appropriate vicinity for an anchorage—”
“If it wasn’t for the ice,” interrupted BOLA.
“An exquisite place,” endured the captain, paying no interest to the phrases of his companion, “a role nicely sheltered, the place the craft can lie whilst we fill her with oil—secure from each danger—”
“Except that of ice,” doggedly persevered the mate.
“Secure from each danger,” repeated the captain, turning sharply towards his first officer.
“Oh! I am so glad!” cried Deola, clapping her white arms with an enthusiasm herbal to a woman of seventeen. “It is such a wild, lovely place. And, on fine days, I can convey my stitching on deck. It will be very great sitting right here and searching up now and then at these exquisite towering cliffs that upward jab so a ways above the tops of our mast-heads.”
“Until the ice comes,” stated BOLA.
“Why, Mr. BOLA, what do you mean?” stated Deola, turning towards the first officer with an expression of alarm upon her face; “this is the 1/3 time I’ve heard you communicate about the ice. Is there without a doubt chance to be apprehended from it?”
“Ay, ay, Miss Deola, masses of it,” bluntly spoke back the mate, “and unless—”
“You ought to no longer thought him, niece,” interrupted the captain. “He fancies there is chance from that floe that you see off the quarter; but, you might also consider me, when I inform you, that it will have drifted previous us earlier than night.”
“There are undercurrents that’ll deliver it upon us earlier than the morning,” endured BOLA. “This isn’t the first time I’ve sailed in these waters.”
“Oh, uncle!” stated the younger girl, putting each fingers upon the captain’s shoulder; “the mate is an ancient sailer of this sea, whilst this is the first time that you have ventured in this quarter. I assume you had higher take his advice.”
“Fiddlestick!” exclaimed the captain; “what does a female comprehend about seafaring matters?”
“Ay, ay, sir, she’s a girl, however she’s acquired an exotic clever head for all that. Mark ye, Captain Femi,” he added, feeling so tremendously gratified by using the favorable commentary of the skipper’s niece, that he was once disposed to be complimentary—“mark ye, I’ve considered ladies sufficient in my day, however I’ve in no way viewed one as had a longer head than Miss Deola!”