The moment of surprise and hesitation caused by the
unwonted sound gave us time to pass the point; a gentle breeze, which
the dense foliage had hitherto prevented us from feeling, bulged out
our sails; the schooner bent before it, and the shouts of the
disappointed savages grew fainter and fainter in the distance as we
were slowly wafted out to sea.
Chapter XXVII
Reflections--The wounded man--The squall--True consolation
--Death.
There is a power of endurance in human beings, both in their bodies and
in their minds, which, I have often thought, seems to be wonderfully
adapted and exactly proportioned to the circumstances in which
individuals may happen to be placed--a power which, in most cases, is
sufficient to carry a man through and over every obstacle that may
happen to be thrown in his path through life, no matter how high or how
steep the mountain may be, but which often forsakes him the moment the
summit is gained, the point of difficulty passed, and leaves him
prostrated, with energies gone, nerves unstrung, and a feeling of
incapacity pervading the entire frame that renders the most trifling
effort almost impossible.
During the greater part of that day I had been subjected to severe
mental and much physical excitement, which had almost crushed me down
by the time I was relieved from duty in the course of the evening. But
when the expedition whose failure has just been narrated was planned,
my anxieties and energies had been so powerfully aroused that I went
through the protracted scenes of that terrible night without a feeling
of the slightest fatigue.
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