The lad and his comrade, a
miserable-looking object, whose only clothing, notwithstanding the
season, was a tattered jerkin and trousers, rowed until we had advanced
about half a mile from the land; they then set up a large sail, and the
lad, who seemed to direct everything, and to be the principal, took the
helm and steered. The evening was now setting in; the sun was not far
from its bourne in the horizon; the air was very cold, the wind was
rising, and the waves of the noble Tagus began to be crested with foam. I
told the boy that it was scarcely possible for the boat to carry so much
sail without upsetting, upon which he laughed, and began to gabble in a
most incoherent manner. He had the most harsh and rapid articulation
that has ever come under my observation in any human being; it was the
scream of the hyena blended with the bark of the terrier, though it was
by no means an index of his disposition, which I soon found to be light,
merry, and anything but malevolent; for when I, in order to show him that
I cared little about him, began to hum 'Eu que sou contrabandista,'
{147a} he laughed heartily, and said, clapping me on the shoulder, that
he would not drown us if he could help it. The other poor fellow seemed
by no means averse to go to the bottom: he sat at the fore part of the
boat, looking the image of famine, and only smiled when the waters broke
over the weather side and soaked his scanty habiliments. In a little
time I had made up my mind that our last hour was come; the wind was
getting higher, the short dangerous waves were more foamy, the boat was
frequently on its beam, and the water came over the lee side in torrents.
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