orthern anchorage; and astern of
us, at a distance of four miles, lay Cayo Grande, with Cayo de Sal about
the same distance on our larboard beam. Now that it was daylight it was
a perfectly simple and easy matter to identify our surroundings with the
aid of the chart.

By the time that dinner was over the gale had so far moderated that, in
our sheltered position, it had become perfectly safe to lower a boat. I
therefore ordered away the gig, and, taking the ship's telescope with
me, landed upon the rock which had afforded us so welcome and timely a
shelter, and climbed to its summit to see whether any portion of the
wreck of the unfortunate stranger that had been in company with us
during the preceding night still hung together. To my surprise I found
that quite a considerable portion of her was visible; indeed at times it
appeared to me that I could see almost if not quite the whole of her
hull; but as she was some eight miles distant I could not be at all
certain of this. The sea appeared to be still breaking heavily over her
at times, but she seemed to have beaten almost entirely across the reef,
there being but little broken water between us and her; and to this
circumstance I attributed the fact that she was still in existence. I
spent quite half an hour upon the summit of the rock, gazing upon the
strange, wild scene by which I was surrounded; and when at length I
rejoined the boat the wind had moderated to such an extent that,
although it was still rather too strong for an eight-mile pull to
windward, there was no reason why we should not sail as far out as the
wreck, to see whether any of her crew still survived. I therefore
returned to the schooner, and, procuring the boat's mast and sails,
started upon our expedition. But we were rather late in getting away;
so that it took us until within half an hour of sunset to work up to the
wreck, and even then we could not approach her nearer than within a
cable's length because of the broken water; but we got near enough to
enable us to make out that she was an armed ship--she had all the look
of a small frigate--and I took her to be Spanish. But although her hull
was not nearly so much battered about as I had expected it would be,
there was no sign of life aboard her, at which I was not surprised when
I looked at the broad belt of still angry surf through which she had
beaten. But I saw enough to determine me to pay the wreck a visit
before leaving the group,