AT LAST, PATAGONIA! 3 



unable to prevent it except by knocking me sense- 

 less, I would spring with them into the boat and 

 save myself, or else perish with them in that 

 awful white surf. But one other person, more 

 experienced than myself, and whose courage took 

 another and better form, was also near and lis- 

 tening. He was the first engineer a young Eng- 

 lishman from Newcastle-on-Tyne. Seeing the 

 men making for the boat, he slipped out of the 

 engine-room, revolver in hand, and secretly fol- 

 lowed them; and when the mate gave that order, 

 he stepped forward with the weapon raised, and 

 said in a quiet but determined voice that he would 

 ishoot the first man who should attempt to obey 

 it. The men slunk away and disappeared in the 

 gloom. In a few moments more the passengers 

 began streaming out on to the deck in a great state 

 of alarm; last of all the old captain, white and 

 hollow-eyed from his death-bed, appeared like a 

 ghost among us. He had not been long standing 

 there, with arms folded on his chest, issuing no 

 word of command, and paying no attention to 

 the agitated questions addressed to him by the 

 passengers, when, by some lucky chance, the 

 steamer got off the rocks and plunged on for a 

 space through the seething, milky surf ;. then, very 

 suddenly, passed out of it into black and com- 

 paratively calm water. For ten or twelve minutes 

 she sped rapidly and smoothly on; then it was 

 said that she had ceased to move, that we were 

 stuck fast in the sand of the shore, although no 



