16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
we might be able to intercept them. At that
time and for some hundreds of miles after I
paid no great attention to the matter, knowing
the uncertainty of sea-voyages: and indeed of
my own, by land. Yet no sooner had I reached
Valparaiso than I received word from my
friend's correspondent in the Argentine: the
ships had cleared from Buenos Aires on Candlemas
Day; they meant to traverse the Straits
le Maire and to carry on, skirting south of
Diego Ramírez by the end of the present
month and then heading north-east for Canton.
I looked at the Abbot's map, and it occurred
to me that by spreading every sail and
straining every nerve we might get there in
time.'
'So we might,' said Jack, after a moment's
calculation; and he left the cabin. Returning
he cried, 'Oh Stephen, what are we to do with
the balsa and all those innumerable boxes,