"God bless you, my hearty, God bless you!" returned the old captain,
grasping Tite's hand warmly. "It's you shall have the credit of it if
she weathers the point. Yes, sir, you. Killin' a whale is killin' a
whale. Gives a sailor fair play in a square fight. But this being run
down by an iceberg, and ship and all hands crushed to powder, gives a
sailor no chance to show what there is in him. When a man gets killed
according to his liking, why, then he's satisfied. But there's no way
you could get satisfaction in being killed by an iceberg. It was'nt my
own life I was thinking about, Mr. Toodlebug. Not a bit of it." Here he
again grasped Tite firmly by the hand, and lowered his voice to a
whisper. "It was my good old woman, sir, and the two little ones. Heaven
bless them and keep them from harm!"

The ship still made fearful surges, and the ice grated and cut her
planking; but she neared the point gradually, and this brought a feeling
of relief to all on board. Open water beyond, and the bold, sharp lines
of the point, made it almost certain that the berg terminated there. The
point was reached at last. The ship seemed to give a leap ahead, and, as
if by mutual consent, payed off and parted from the icy grasp of the
monster. Cheer after cheer went up as the old ship, in her distressed
condition, swung away and was out of danger.

The ship was now headed for Puntas Arenas, where many years ago the
Spaniards founded a penal settlement. Intermarrying has, however,
reduced the people to mere dwarfs in stature; and they have so
retrograded in civilization that they are the greatest thieves and the
worst savages to be found along the coast.