ad also sprung a leak, and
a number of stores were landed, to enable her to be taken up into
shallow water and heeled over, in order that the leak might be got at.

The captain hurried on the work with all speed.

"Had it not been for this," Charlie heard him say to Mr. Ashmead, "I
would have rigged a jury-mast and proceeded; but I can't stop the leak
from the inside, without shifting a great portion of the cargo, and
our hold is so full that this would be difficult in the extreme. But I
own that I do not like delaying a day longer than necessary, here. The
natives have a very bad reputation, besides which it is suspected that
one, if not more, pirates have their rendezvous in these seas. Several
of our merchantmen have mysteriously disappeared, without any gale
having taken place which would account for their loss.

"The captain of a ship which reached England, two or three days before
we sailed, brought news that when she was within a fortnight's sail of
the Cape, the sound of guns was heard one night, and that afterwards a
ship was seen on fire, low down on the horizon. He reached the spot
soon after daybreak, and found charred spars and other wreckage; but
though he cruised about all day, he could find no signs of any boats.
Complaints have been made to government, and I hear that there is an
intention of sending two or three sloops out here to hunt the pirates
up. But that will be of no use to us."

Upon the day of their arrival at the island, a native sailing boat was
seen to pass across the mouth of the bay. When half across, she
suddenly tacked round and sailed back in the direction from which she
had come.

Before proceeding to lighten the ship, the captain had taken steps to
put himself in a position of defence. For some distance along the
centre of the bay the ground rose abruptly, at a distance of some
thirty yards from the shore, forming a sort of natural terrace. Behind
this a steep hill rose. The terrace, which was forty feet above the
water level, extended for about a hundred yards, when the ground on
either side of the plateau dropped away, as steeply as in front.

The guns were the first things taken out of the ship, and, regardless
of the remonstrances of the passengers at what they considered to be a
waste of time, Captain Thompson had the whole of them taken up on the
terrace. A small battery was thrown up by the sailors, at the two
corners, and in each of these two of the thirty-two pounders