At last
he perceived a small chasm, perhaps scooped by some shepherd as a
couch, in which to enjoy his siesta.
In this he laid me gently
down, and taking off his enormous hat, commenced farming me with
great assiduity. By degrees I revived, and after having rested for
a considerable time, I again attempted the ascent, which, with the
assistance of my guide, I at length accomplished.
We were now standing at a great altitude between two bays: the
wilderness of waters before us. Of all the ten thousand barks
which annually plough those seas in sight of that old cape, not one
was to be descried. It was a blue shiny waste, broken by no object
save the black head of a spermaceti whale, which would occasionally
show itself at the top, casting up thin jets of brine. The
principal bay, that of Finisterra, as far as the entrance, was
beautifully variegated by an immense shoal of sardinhas, on whose
extreme skirts the monster was probably feasting. From the
northern side of the cape we looked down upon a smaller bay, the
shore of which was overhung by rocks of various and grotesque
shapes; this is called the outer bay, or, in the language of the
country, Praia do mar de fora: a fearful place in seasons of wind
and tempest, when the long swell of the Atlantic pouring in, is
broken into surf and foam by the sunken rocks with which it
abounds.
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