ther the "Eagle" or the "Lady Alice" I felt
certain, but how she had escaped the reefs and been driven in where I
saw her I could not conjecture. As her masts appeared upright I trusted
that she was not on shore; but whether such were the case or not, she
might find it difficult to escape from her position should the savage
inhabitants of the neighbouring shores try to make her their prey, as
they had succeeded in doing other vessels under similar circumstances.
What was even now going forward on board her, who could tell? Again I
looked round in vain for the other ship, and then hastened down to join
Medley. I found him setting off with the other men for the boat, he
supposing that I had gone with Salt to look after her. He could not
even conjecture which of the ships I had seen, but he agreed with me
that we must put off to try and get on board her the moment we could
venture out to sea. He would have gone back with me to the hill, but
the men were crying out for food, and insisting on endeavouring to catch
some fish. None of the trees near us bore cocoa-nuts, nor had any water
been found, probably the reason that the island was uninhabited.

Medley served only a small portion of biscuit to each man, and warned
them all to be very careful of the water, as we might be unable to
obtain more till we reached the ship. Judging by the surf which still
beat furiously on the reef there was small prospect of our doing that
till the next day at soonest. Salt had got the lines and hooks ready,
and some shell-fish for bait, so we at once pulled out as near the
entrance of the lagoon as we could venture. We had not had our lines
down long before we began to get bites, and in a short time we had
hauled in as many fish as would give us an ample supply of food for the
day, we returned to the shore to cook and eat our prey. We again
lighted a fire at the mouth of our cave, hoping that the smoke would not
be seen by the savages, but to prevent being surprised Medley sent
Pepper to the other side of the island to give us due warning should he
see any of them coming over.

After breakfast the rest of the men lay down to sleep, while Medley and
I went to the top of the hill to ascertain by the state of the sea when
there was a probability of our getting off, and to watch for the
appearance of the other ship. We looked for her in vain. The ocean,
however, was rapidly losing the quickness of its motion, though the huge
waves we