ng within it a coin with the king's head. This cross was fixed to a
great cedar tree in memory of their deliverance. To the tree was also
nailed a copper plate with a fitting inscription.

About nine in the morning, the wind being fair, the whole of the company
went on board. The _Patience_ led the way, with the admiral and those
who had built her on board. The _Deliverance_, in which Mistress Audley
and her family were passengers, followed.

While all were in high spirits at finding themselves once more at sea, a
severe blow was felt; the ship quivered from stem to stern, and a cry
was raised, "We are on shore! we are on shore!" But the captain
ordering the helm to be put up to larboard, and the starboard
head-braces hauled aft and the after-sails clewed up, she glided on,
carrying away a portion of the soft rock on which she had struck. The
well was sounded, but no leak was discovered, though for some time it
was feared that, after the many months' labour bestowed on the ship,
they might have to return. For two days the vessels were threading the
narrow channels amid those dangerous rocks, feeling, as it were, every
inch of their way, with the dread each instant of striking.

Happily the weather remained calm, but even thus the time was one of
great anxiety to all on board. At length, to their infinite joy, the
captain announced that they were clear of all danger. The ship and
pinnace shaped a course west and north to Virginia. Seven days after
leaving the islands the colour of the water was seen to have changed,
and branches of trees and other objects from the shore floated by.
Sounding the next day, the ship was found to be in nineteen and a half
fathoms of water. Lettice and Vaughan had remained late on deck, their
hearts filled with anxiety, for on the morrow they might know whether
those they loved were among the living or dead. Each tried to encourage
the other, and as they stood watching the bright stars overhead and the
calm ocean suffused with the silvery light of the moon, or gazing
towards the land which they hoped ere long to see, they became sensible
of a delicious odour of fruit and flowers wafted by the night breeze
from the shore. The sails flapped against the masts, the vessel was
taken aback, but the yards being braced round she stood on once more.

"To your cabin, Mistress Lettice, to your cabin," said Captain Newport,
"we will, in God's good providence, take you in safely to-morrow;