en thus preserved, and when the brigantine was seen to fill
and keep away on her course, they could not help joining their men in
giving vent to their feelings in a shout of joy. They stood on all
night. Eagerly the next morning they looked out--not a sign of the
brigantine was to be seen. For several days after this they were
knocking about, making often very little way, and sometimes drifting
back again during a calm double the distance they had made good during
the last breeze.

"I do hope, sir, as how this voyage won't last much longer," observed
Needham to Adair, pointing to numberless rents and torn places in the
sails. "I don't think this here canvas would stand another stiffish
gale without flying into ribbons. I've been hunting about, and I've
found a spare boat's sail and some other stuff to mend them. To my
mind, it's the best thing we could do before another squall catches us."

Needham's advice was immediately taken, and the wind being very light,
the sails were lowered, and all hands set to work to mend them in the
best fashion they could. Needham having once belonged to the
sailmaker's crew, was a very fair hand at the work, but the rest were
anything but expert. However, all used their needles to the best of
their abilities. Adair pricked his fingers very often, and, as he
observed, he left indisputable traces of his industry. So important was
it to get their sails set again before night, that they scarcely allowed
themselves time for their meals. Having done little else than drift
about all day, it was with no little relief to their minds, that, just
as the sun went down, they once more got the sails bent and hoisted.
Murray's sextant had been broken, and as he was leaving the _Archer_, a
shipmate offered him his quadrant. It was a very indifferent one at
best, and in one of the gales to which the _Venus_ had been subject, it
had received yet further damage, so that it was often ten or even twenty
miles out of adjustment. Murray and Adair never lost an opportunity of
taking an observation, while they kept their reckoning with the greatest
care; but, after all, they often could only guess at their position.
The weather, too, was very uncertain. Day after day down came torrents
of rain--not merely English spring showers--but, as Adair observed,
regular bucketsful, which compelled them to open the ports to let the
water run off the decks, for fear of swamping the vessel. No people
could beh