are to see that there
was no slackness or negligence on the part of the anchor-watch that
night, the whole of the duty being undertaken by my own men, while I was
up and about at frequent intervals all through the night. But the hours
of darkness passed uneventfully, and when dawn appeared there had been
neither sight nor sign of savages anywhere near the ship.

At six o'clock that morning the usual routine of duty was resumed on
board, the hands being turned up to wash-decks and generally perform the
ship's toilet before breakfast, and I noticed with satisfaction, as I
went forward to get my usual shower-bath under the head-pump, that
Carter had caused the four prisoners to be released from the fore-peak.
I believed that the rest of the hands might now be safely trusted to
keep that quartette in order.

Immediately after breakfast in the forecastle the hands were again
turned up, and a good stout hawser was bent on to the kedge anchor,
which was then lowered down into the longboat and run away out broad on
the ship's port quarter. The other end of the hawser was then led
forward along the poop and main-deck to the windlass, which we believed
would be better able than the capstan to withstand the strain that we
intended to put upon it. This done, the hawser was hove taut, and the
main hatch was then lifted and a quantity of cargo was hoisted out and
deposited in the longboat alongside, all the other boats also being
lowered into the water. By the time that the longboat was as deep as
she would swim it was close upon high-water, and the men were then sent
to the windlass with orders to endeavour to get another pawl or two.
This they succeeded in doing, the ship's quarter being by this time
slewed so far off the sandbank that she now lay, with regard to the
general run of it, at an angle of nearly forty-five degrees; and then
the windlass positively refused to turn any further, even to the extent
of a single pawl. The men therefore left it, as we felt that nothing
was to be gained by snapping the hawser, which was now strained to the
utmost limit of its endurance. The fully-loaded longboat was now
dropped astern, and the longboat of the _Dolores_, in which we had been
picked up, and which, it will be remembered, Carter had felt impelled to
hoist inboard--was brought alongside in her place, and she, too, was
loaded as deeply as it was safe to venture. It was noon by this time,
the tide had turned, the ship remained