but when I laid hold upon the yard with both arms, and
kicked out with both feet, I soon began to find that I was moving. Hard
work it was, and mortally slow; but in about an hour of kicking and
splashing, I had got well in between the points of a sandy bay
surrounded by low hills.

The sea was here quite quiet; there was no sound of any surf; the moon
shone clear; and I thought in my heart I had never seen a place so
desert and desolate. But it was dry land; and when at last it grew so
shallow that I could leave the yard and wade ashore upon my feet, I
cannot tell if I was more tired or more grateful. Both at least, I was:
tired as I never was before that night; and grateful to God as I trust I
have been often, though never with more cause.

CHAPTER XIV

THE ISLET

With my stepping ashore I began the most unhappy part of my adventures.
It was half-past twelve in the morning, and though the wind was broken
by the land, it was a cold night. I dared not sit down (for I thought I
should have frozen), but took off my shoes and walked to and fro upon
the sand, barefoot, and beating my breast with infinite weariness. There
was no sound of man or cattle; not a cock crew, though it was about the
hour of their first waking; only the surf broke outside in the distance,
which put me in mind of my perils and those of my friend. To walk by the
sea at that hour of the morning, and in a place so desert-like and so
lonesome, struck me with a kind of fear.

As soon as the day began to break I put on my shoes and climbed a
hill--the ruggedest scramble I ever undertook--falling, the whole way,
between big blocks of granite, or leaping from one to another. When I
got to the top the dawn was come. There was no sign of the brig, which
must have lifted from the reef and sunk. The boat, too, was nowhere to
be seen. There was never a sail upon the ocean; and in what I could see
of the land was neither house nor man.

I was afraid to think what had befallen my shipmates, and afraid to look
longer at so empty a scene. What with my wet clothes and weariness, and
my belly, that now began to ache with hunger, I had enough to trouble me
without that. So I set off eastward along the south coast, hoping to
find a house where I might warm myself, and perhaps get news of those I
had lost. And at the worst, I considered the sun would soon rise and dry
my clothes.

After a little, my way was stopped by a creek or inlet of the sea, which
se