mainmast rested on the rock, which
could now be seen as a bright flash of lightning darted from the sky.
We were the first on the spar, and making our way along it gained the
rock. A few others seeing us followed. I entreated Jack to look after
my friends, forgetting the danger to which he would be exposed in doing
so. The people coming along the mast prevented him from going, and just
then a heavy sea rolling in sent a sheet of spray over us, completely
hiding the ship. When we looked again she was gone. The sea had lifted
her, and falling off the rock she had sunk, dragging her fallen masts
with those still clinging to them.

Six people, besides Jack and me, had alone escaped, all the other human
beings on board, including my kind friends, had perished. We remained
till daylight on the rock, and at daybreak managed to get to the island,
partly by wading and partly by swimming. It was itself only a huge
rock, about three miles long, rising in some places to the height of a
couple of hundred feet above the sea.

We employed the whole day in collecting provisions and part of the cargo
washed ashore. We went in search of water and found a spring, so that
we had no fear of dying from hunger or thirst for some time to come.
One of our first cares was to erect a flagstaff as a signal to any
passing ship. I felt deeply grieved for the loss of my friends; but I
did not think so much about the fact that I was reduced from affluence
to perfect poverty. Jack told me that he knew Mynheer Vanderveldt
intended to leave me all his property.

"He made his will before he left Batavia, and I am pretty sure he had it
with him, so that if any of his chests are washed on shore, as I should
know them, there may still be a chance of finding it. Though I am no
scholar myself, you might make it out, and some day get what the good
man intended to be yours."

So impressed was Jack with this idea that he employed a considerable
portion of his time in hunting along the shore for my friend's chests.

Though we did not get them, we found several articles which were of more
use to us just then, so that the time was not fruitlessly spent.

We lived in a hut built partly of stones and partly of the wreck, and
thus suffered no great hardship. After we had spent three months on the
rock we saw a sail in the distance. She approached--our signal was
discovered. A boat came and took us off, when we found ourselves on
board an English fr