AN ANXIOUS QUESTION. 
333 
as we might very well he, it was possible we might 
stumble on the land sooner than we expected. I knew 
the proper course would be to lie to quietly until we 
could take an observation; but time was so valuable, and 
I was so fearful you would be getting anxious! The 
night was pretty clear. High mountains, such as we 
were expecting to make, would be seen, even at night, 
several miles off. According to our log we were still 
150 miles off the land, and however inaccurate our cal¬ 
culation might be, the error could not be of such mag¬ 
nitude as that amounted to. To throw away so fair a 
wind seemed such a pity, especially as it might be days 
before the sun appeared; we had already been at sea 
about a fortnight without a sight of him, and his 
appearance at all during the summer is not an act de 
Tigueur in this part of the world; we might spend yet 
another fortnight in lying to, and then after all have to 
poke our way blindfold to the coast; at all events it 
would be soon enough to lie to the next night. Sueh 
were the considerations, which—after an anxious con¬ 
sultation with Mr. Wyse in the cabin, and much finger¬ 
ing of the charts,—determined me to carry on during 
the night. 
