called Golden Dust, and am sent to the
Port, to inform the governor, that a ship from France has anchored upon the
island of Amber, and fires guns of distress, for the sea is very stormy.'
Having said this, the man left us, and pursued his journey.

"'Let us go,' said I to Paul, 'towards that part of the island, and meet
Virginia. It is only three leagues from hence.' Accordingly we bent our
course thither. The heat was suffocating. The moon had risen, and it was
encompassed by three large black circles. A dismal darkness shrouded the
sky; but the frequent flakes of lightning discovered long chains of thick
clouds, gloomy, low hung, and heaped together over the middle of the
island, after having rolled with great rapidity from the ocean, although we
felt not a breath of wind upon the land. As we walked along we thought we
heard peals of thunder; but, after listening more attentively, we found
they were the sound of distant cannon repeated by the echoes. Those sounds,
joined to the tempestuous aspect of the heavens, made me shudder. I had
little doubt that they were signals of distress from a ship in danger. In
half an hour the firing ceased, and I felt the silence more appalling than
the dismal sounds which had preceded.

"We hastened on without uttering a word, or daring to communicate our
apprehensions. At midnight we arrived on the sea shore at that part of the
island. The billows broke against the beach with a horrible noise, covering
the rocks and the strand with their foam of a dazzling whiteness, and
blended with sparks of fire. By their phosphoric gleams we distinguished,
notwithstanding the darkness, the canoes of the fishermen, which they had
drawn far upon the sand.

"Near the shore, at the entrance of a wood, we saw a fire, round which
several of the inhabitants were assembled. Thither we repaired, in order to
repose ourselves till morning. One of the circle related, that in the
afternoon he had seen a vessel driven towards the island by the currents;
that the night had hid it from his view; and that two hours after sun-set
he had heard the firing of guns in distress; but that the sea was so
tempestuous, no boat could venture out; that a short time after, he thought
he perceived the glimmering of the watch-lights on board the vessel, which
he feared, by its having approached so near the coast, had steered between
the main land and the little island of Amber, mistaking it for the point of
Endeavour, near whi