ket of eggs, and some
cocoa-nuts. Our stock of water was contained in a dozen
cocoa-nut-shells, prepared as bottles by poor Tamaku. This stock would
not last us many days; and should it be exhausted before we could reach
another island, or fall in with a ship, we must starve.

Such were our prospects as we rowed away from the island, without chart
or compass, or any other means of guiding our course, with the exception
of the stars by night and the sun by day.

CHAPTER SIX.

WE PULL SOUTH-WEST--WANT OF WATER AND FOOD--CATCH SOME FLYING-FISH--
SUFFERINGS FROM THIRST--A BREEZE--A SAIL--TAKEN ON BOARD THE "VIOLET"--
VISIT NEW CALEDONIA--OFF THE AUSTRALIAN COAST--A HURRICANE--BRIG
WRECKED--THE PUMPS MANNED--HOPES OF GETTING HER OFF--LAND IN THE BOATS--
MY FATHER REMAINS ON BOARD.

We pulled on all night, taking it by turns; and when the sun rose next
morning we were out of sight of land. Mudge had come to the
determination of steering to the south, under the belief that the
inhabitants of the islands in that direction were less barbarous than
those we had left. We thought, also, that we should be more likely to
fall in with a whaler or sandal-wood trader belonging to New South
Wales, which Mudge understood were in the habit of visiting the islands
in those seas. Missionaries also, we knew, were settled on some of the
islands to the southward; but, unfortunately, none of us had heard much
about them, though we felt sure that, should we reach a place where one
was established, we should be treated kindly. But the London and
Wesleyan Missionary Societies had not in those days made the progress
they have since done,--the blessings of Christianity and civilisation
having been by their means carried among a very large number of the
brown and black-skinned races of the Pacific. They had for some years
been working among the Society Islands, and a few had visited Tonga,
Samoa, and Fiji; while some of the native converts had gone forth among
the more savage tribes, fearless of the perils they had to encounter.

Mudge proposed that we should at once be placed on an allowance both of
food and water, to which we all readily agreed. We rowed on all day;
but the boat was heavy, and though the water was calm we did not make
more than three knots an hour--and we knew not how many miles we might
have to go before we should reach land. During the day we each pulled
about an hour at a time; and at night, that we might enjoy