ike to hear. Do promise
us, now." Thus appealed to, Mr Clare gave the desired promise; and on
this the skipper, blowing his nose with his red bandanna, which he
afterwards placed across his knees, began what I will call:--

THE CASTAWAYS.
A TALE OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA.

"Land, ho! Land, ho!" was shouted one morning, soon after daybreak,
from the mast-head. I was on my first voyage to the West Indies, in the
good ship _Banana_.

"Where away?" asked the captain, whom the sound called out of his berth
on deck.

"A little on the starboard bow," was the answer.

The ship was kept away towards the point indicated, while the captain,
with his glass slung on his back, went aloft. The passengers, of whom I
forgot to say we had several, and all the crew, were on the lookout,
wondering what land it could be. We found, after the captain came below
and had consulted his chart, that it was a little rock or key to the
southward of Barbadoes.

"We'll get a nearer look at them, in case any poor fellows may have been
cast away there. I have known the survivors of a ship's company remain
on them for weeks together, and in some instances they have died of
starvation before relief has reached them."

As we approached the rock all the glasses on board were directed towards
it, to ascertain if there were signs of human beings there. The spot
looked silent and deserted.

"If there are any poor fellows there, how eagerly they will watch our
approach--how anxious they will be lest we should sail away without
looking for them," I said to myself.

While these thoughts were passing through my mind, I heard the first
mate say that he could make out something white on the shore, which he
took for a tent or a boat's sail. As we drew nearer it became evident
that there was a tent, but no human being was stirring that we could
see. Nearer still a boat was observed, drawn up on the rocks. On
further inspection she was discovered to be a complete wreck.
Melancholy indeed was the spectacle which told so clearly its own
story--how the shipwrecked mariners had been cast on the island in their
boat--how they had gone on waiting for relief, and how at length famine
had carried them off, one by one, till none remained. Still our captain
was not a man to quit the spot after so cursory an inspection. The
ship, having got under the lee of the land, was hove to, and a boat was
lowered. Charley