some six weeks on end, establishing his particular administrative
methods over the best part of the North Atlantic. It looked as if
the easterly weather had come to stay for ever, or, at least, till
we had all starved to death in the held-up fleet--starved within
sight, as it were, of plenty, within touch, almost, of the
bountiful heart of the Empire. There we were, dotting with our
white dry sails the hard blueness of the deep sea. There we were,
a growing company of ships, each with her burden of grain, of
timber, of wool, of hides, and even of oranges, for we had one or
two belated fruit schooners in company. There we were, in that
memorable spring of a certain year in the late seventies, dodging
to and fro, baffled on every tack, and with our stores running down
to sweepings of bread-lockers and scrapings of sugar-casks. It was
just like the East Wind's nature to inflict starvation upon the
bodies of unoffending sailors, while he corrupted their simple
souls by an exasperation leading to outbursts of profanity as lurid
as his blood-red sunrises. They were followed by gray days under
the cover of high, motionless clouds that looked as if carved in a
slab of ash-coloured marble. And each mean starved sunset left us
calling with imprecations upon the West Wind even in its most
veiled misty mood to wake up and give us our liberty, if only to
rush on and dash the heads of our ships against the very walls of
our unapproachable home.



XXIX.