of them was blockading the entire
group, far as the eye could reach, looking east, west and south, or along
the whole line of the southern coast. It was at first questionable
whether, and soon after it became certain, that the schooner could never
beat through such dangers. Had the wind been fair, the difficulty would
have been insurmountable; but ahead, and blowing a little gale, the matter
was out of the question. Some other course must be adopted.

There was a choice of alternatives. One was to go entirely round the whole
group, passing to the eastward of the volcano, where no one of the party
had ever been; and the other was to follow the eastern margin of the bay,
keeping inside of it, and trusting to finding some opening by which the
schooner could force her way into clear water to the northward. After a
very brief consultation with his mates, Roswell decided on attempting the
last.

As the course now to be steered was almost dead before the wind, the
little craft, lightened of so much of her upper works, almost flew through
the water. The great source of apprehension felt by our young men in
attempting this new expedient, was in the probability that the field would
drift home to the rocks in the north-east quarter of the bay, which, with
a south-west wind, was necessarily a quarter to leeward. Should this prove
to be the case, it might be found impossible to pass ahead, and the
schooner would be caught in a _cul de sac_; since it would not be in the
power of her people to track her back again in the teeth of so strong a
wind. Notwithstanding these probabilities, on Roswell went; for he saw
plain enough that at such a moment almost anything was better than
indecision.

The rate at which the little craft was flying before a fresh gale, in
perfectly smooth water, soon put our sealers in a better condition to form
closer estimates of their chances. The look-outs aloft, one of whom was
Hazard, the first officer, sent down on deck constant reports of what they
could see.

"How does it look ahead, now, Mr. Hazard?" demanded Roswell, about five in
the afternoon, just as his schooner was coming close under the smoking
sides of the volcano, which had always been an object of interest to him,
though he had never found time to visit it before. "Is there no danger of
our touching the ground, close in as we are to this island?"

"I think not, sir; when I landed here, we kept the lead going the whole
time, and we got two