n it and the Queen, was yet forced to decline
the invitation, and so to depart on his westward voyage.

The Golden Hind now made slow progress through the water, her
bottom being foul with weeds and other things which had attached
themselves to it during its long voyage. The captain therefore
determined to enter the first harbor in an uninhabited island that
he came to, for at none of the places at which he had hitherto
touched had he ventured to take this step. However friendly the
inhabitants might have appeared, some causes of quarrel might have
arisen; and with the ship hauled up and bent over, it might have
fallen into the hands of the natives, and so been destroyed, and
all return to England cut off from him.

Five days after leaving Ternate he found such a place and, fetching
up in a small harbor, the whole party landed, pitched tents, and
entrenched themselves. Then they took the casks and water vessels
ashore and thoroughly repaired them, trimmed the ship and scraped
her bottom, and so put her in a state to perform the rest of the
voyage.

Greatly here were the crew astonished by the first sight of
fireflies, creatures which were new to them all. This island
swarmed with crayfish, of a size sufficient to satisfy four hungry
men at dinner. These creatures never went into the sea, but kept
themselves on land, digging holes in the roots of the trees, and
there lodging, numbers together. Strangely enough, too, these
crayfish, when they found themselves cut off from their natural
retreats, climbed up trees, and there concealed themselves in the
branches.

On December the 12th they again set sail, being now among the
Celebes, where they found the water shoal and coasting very
dangerous. The wind, too, was high and contrary, and their
difficulties greater than anything they had found. On January the
9th the wind, however, came aft, and they appeared to have found a
passage out of these dangers, sailing then at full speed.

They were, at the first watch at night, filled with consternation
at a crash, followed by silence; and the vessel was found to have
run high upon a reef, of which the surface had presented no
indication.

Not since the Golden Hind had left England had her strait been as
sore as this. The force with which she had run upon the reef seemed
to have carried her beyond all hope of extrication. All considered
that death was at hand, for they hardly hoped that the ship could
hold long together. Th