2 14 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



" We were tossing upon the bar for an hour and twenty minutes, 

 during which time poor Bernardo was violently seasick. It made 

 us laugh to hear him apostrophising the launch in the words, ' Be 

 — she make me ' I will not conclude his sentence. 



" At length, however, the Swede coaxed the engines into once 

 more performing their appointed duties, and as putting back would 

 have been a more difficult business than going forward, we began 

 to forge slowly ahead. It was now between five and six o'clock, 

 and there was a freezino- south-west wind boomincr out of the 

 Cordillera, but when darkness fell this lulled for a short time and 

 we made the most of our chances to push forward. But, later, it 

 came on to blow heavily, the seas rose high and short, and in the 

 night-sky overhead only a few stars were visible through the 

 racing clouds. The wind veered to the south-west, and we were 

 off a lee shore set with rocks and icebergs, and there was no 

 anchorage for another twelve miles at least. 



" The wind again veered a point to the southward after a time, 

 and it soon became evident that the launch, quivering and swept 

 continually by the waves, was making but little headway, while our 

 stock of fuel was orrowinof low, and would not last us for the run to 

 the anchorao^e. 



" I shouted the facts to Cattle, who was steering at the time, and 

 he suggested that we should try to make Ascensio's Bay — the 

 place where the famous horse-stealer and Gaucho, Brunei, used to 

 hide and slay xk^^tropillas he robbed from the Indians. As Cattle 

 and I were discussing the question in shouts, a big sea swamped 

 us, almost carrying Cattle overboard with it and billowing along 

 the deck and nearly drowning out the engine-room. 



" Cattle had made some trips about Lake Argentino in a canvas 

 boat, but had never been in Ascensio's Bay. But, as the night 

 was cffowino- darker and the oale risino", we resolved to make for 

 it. At last, through the noise and battering of the grey-black 

 water, we reached the shelter of the promontory by the bay and 

 succeeded in feeling our way in. There we dropped anchors 

 from 'ooth bow and stern, drew off some water from the boiler 

 to make a male which we drank, and afterwards lying down 

 in the after-hatch instantly fell asleep. Bernardo occupied the 



