Notwithstanding our assumed cheerfulness, however, we could see the
crew were becoming alarmed, and as each day added to the accumulation
of the weed which collected between us and the open sea, anxious looks
were turned to the horizon in the hope of detecting the long-expected
breeze.
So as to give the men occupation, and prevent their brooding, Hartog
gave directions to man the boats in order that an attempt might be made
to tow the ship through the weed, but after two days' fruitless effort
the attempt was abandoned. It was dreadful to contemplate our impotence
in the face of this danger, which hourly grew upon us. The seaweed, in
itself so harmless that it becomes the sport of children when washed
ashore upon the beaches at home, here, in its original and monstrous
growth became more terrifying than all the Leviathans of the deep.
There was something irresistible in this brown mantle which drew its
folds so silently and yet so surely around us that even Dirk Hartog's
indomitable spirit quailed at the thought of what might be before us.
"What demon led us hither, Peter?" he said to me when a week had
passed, and we still rode motionless in the grip of the seaweed.
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