some live stock, they remained on the rocks daring that night. The next
morning the captain proposed that they should make their way to Cape
Town, the Dutch settlement, to which they all unanimously consented;
certainly a most wild proposition, and showing very little judgment."

"Could they have done otherwise, my dear uncle?"

"Most certainly; they knew that they were in a country of lawless
savages, who had already come down and taken by force everything that
they could lay their hands upon. The captain calculated that they would
reach Cape Town in sixteen or seventeen days. How far his calculation
was correct, is proved by the fact that those who did reach it at last
were one hundred and seventeen days on their journey. But even
admitting that the distance could have been performed in the time stated
by the captain, the very idea of attempting to force their way through a
country inhabited by savage people, with such a number of helpless women
and children, and without any arms for their defence, was indeed an act
of folly and madness, as it eventually proved."

"What then should have been their plan?"

"Observe, Alexander, the ship was wrecked not a cable's length from the
shore, firmly fixed upon a reef of rocks upon which she had been thrown;
the water was smooth, and there was no difficulty in their
communication. The savages, content with plundering whatever was washed
on shore, had to the time of their quitting the rocks left them
uninjured. They might have gone on board again, have procured arms to
defend themselves and the means of fortifying their position against any
attempt of the savages, who had no other weapons but assaguays or
spears, and then might have obtained the provisions and other articles
necessary for their support. Armed as they might have been, and
numerous as they were, for there were one hundred and fifty souls on
board at the time of the wreck, they might have protected themselves
until they had built boats or small vessels out of the timber of the
wreck; for all their carpenters and blacksmiths were safely landed on
shore with them. By taking this course they might have coasted along
shore, and have arrived without difficulty at the Cape."

"Most certainly, sir, it would have been the most judicious plan."

"The captain must have been very deficient in judgment to have acted as
he did. He had everything to his hand--the means--the men to build the
boats--provisions, arms