16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
Graces for a great while as she sailed away
into the south-west, Stephen, Padeen and the
little girls were low in their spirits, mute. It was
not that the tropical day was oppressive, for
an agreeable breeze blew in from the sea, but
the dry hard pale-yellow ground under foot
had nothing whatsoever growing on it, no life
of any kind, and the arid sterility had a saddening
effect on minds already disappointed.
The distance to their lofty cliff had been
greater than they thought, their pace slower;
the Liverpool ship was already clear of the
coast by the time they got there, and even with
Stephen's spy-glass they could not be sure they
had seen Martin, though he had gone aboard
with no more than a hand to help him over
the gangway and had promised to sit there by
the taffrail.
In silence they walked, therefore, with the
ocean on their left and the Andes on their