ROUTES. 265 



avoidably forced to cross it so far west ; for only two days before, 

 she crossed 5° north in 30° — an excellent position. 



In proof that the Pigeon had accomplished all that skill could 

 do and the chances against her would permit, we have the testi- 

 mony of the barque Hazard, Captain Pollard. This vessel, being 

 bound to Rio at the same time, followed close after the Pigeon. 

 The Hazard is an old hand with the Charts ; she had already made 

 six voyages to Rio with them for her guide. This was the long- 

 est of the six, the mean of which was twenty-six and a half days. 

 She crossed the line this time in 34° 30^, also by compulsion, hav- 

 ing crossed 5° north in 31°. But, the fourth day after crossing 

 the equator, she was clear of Cape St. Roque, while the Pigeon 

 cleared it in three days.* 



577. So far, therefore, chances had turned up against the Pig- 

 eon, in spite of the skill displayed by Putnam as a navigator, for 

 the Gilpin and the Fish came booming along, not under better 

 management, indeed, but with a better run of luck and fairer 

 courses before them. In this stretch they gained upon her — the 

 Gilpin seven and the Fish ten days ; so that now the abstract logs 

 show the Pigeon to be but ten days ahead. 



Evidently the Fish was most confident that she had the heels 

 of her competitors ; she felt her strength, and was proud of it ; 

 she was most anxious for a quick run, and eager withal for a trial. 

 She dashed down southwardly from Sandy Hook, looking occa- 

 sionally at the Charts ; but, feeling strong in her sweep of wing, 

 and trusting confidently in the judgment of her master, she kept, 

 on the average, two hundred miles to leeward of the right track. 

 Rejoicing in her many noble and fine qualities, she crowded on 

 her canvas to its utmost stretch, trusting quite as much to her 

 heels as to the Charts, and performed the extraordinary feat of 

 crossing, the sixteenth day out from New York, the parallel of 5° 

 north. 



The next day she was well south of 4° north, and in the Dol- 

 drums, longitude 34° west. 



Now her heels became paralyzed, for Fortune seems to have de- 

 serted her a while — at least her master, as the winds failed him, 

 feared so ; they gave him his motive power ; they were fickle, and 

 he was helplessly baffled by them. The bugbear of a northwest 

 * According to the received opinion, this was impossible. Vide ^ 376. 



