resently on the mainmast and mizzen, which we still have
standing, when we can make a run for some islands lying close by under
the lee of Cape Horn, where I'll heave her ashore if I can; but, if the
vessel don't reach the land, you needn't be afraid of not being able to
do so in the boats, which we can take to as a last resource, so there's
no fear of your lives being lost, at any rate!"

"Hurray!" shouted out Jorrocks, leading a cheer; and Pat Doolan
seconding him heartily, the hands started at the rigging with greatly
renewed vigour, slashing at the shrouds and stays until they parted, and
the foremast was at last cut away clear, floating astern on the top of
the rolling waves.

"There it goes!" cried the skipper, "and joy go with it for deserting us
in that unhandsome way!"

"Ah, sir," observed Haxell, the carpenter, who was standing close beside
him now, quiet a bit after exerting himself like a navvy in helping to
clear the wreck, "you forgets as how the poor dear thing never recovered
that spring it had off Madeiry!"

"No; for it has lasted well, nevertheless, and I oughtn't to complain of
it now," said Captain Billings, with a responsive sigh to the
carpenter's lament over the lost foremast. Haxell looked upon all the
ship's spars as if they were his own peculiar private property, and
spoke of them always--that is, when he could be induced to abandon his
chronic taciturnity--as if they had kindred feelings and sensibilities
to his own!

The dark threatening clouds which had enveloped the heavens for the past
twenty-four hours now cleared away, although the wind still blew pretty
fresh from the south-west, and the sun coming out, Captain Billings told
me to go and fetch my sextant in order to take an observation so as to
ascertain our true position; for, first with the north-easter, and then
with the squall from the south, we had been so driven here, there, and
everywhere, that it was difficult to form any reasonable surmise as to
where we really were--especially as there was a strong current supposed
to run round Cape Horn from the Pacific towards the Atlantic Ocean at
certain tides.

I fetched my sextant and took the sun; and I may say confidently to all
whom it may concern that this was the last observation ever made by any
one on board the ill-fated _Esmeralda_!

The skipper checked me in the time, from the chronometer in the cabin;
and when I had worked out the reckoning, we compared notes on the po