own on their knees to return thanks to the Great Being who had
preserved them.

The hardened pirates, unused as they were to prayer, felt the genial
influence, and at the spot where each happened at the moment to be, they
stopped in the work in which they were engaged, and knelt likewise in an
endeavour to imitate them in act, if not in feeling.

"To work, my friends," exclaimed Zappa. "We have no prospect of release
from hence, unless we can construct a raft by which we may escape, while
the calm which has now returned continues. I tell you, one hour's
moderate gale would render the spot on which we stand untenable, and we
must all perish; but do not despair, we may, if we employ our time to
advantage, form out of the wreck a raft, which will, with perfect
security, convey us to yonder island, where we may find shelter and
protection among friends who will gladly receive us."

The men, on hearing their chief's address, expressed their willingness
to obey him. His first care was to collect such articles as were
floating about in the water near them, and others which had been thrown
on different parts of the rock. Among them were chests, and casks, and
spars, some of the running rigging, and two or three of the lighter
sails, which had floated attached to the spars. The most welcome and
the most important prize was a cask of water--the second was a cask of
biscuit which had been taken out of an English vessel, and there were
two or three of olives; some boxes of figs, rather the worse for their
immersion in salt water, but still very acceptable, and two trunks of
wearing apparel, which had come on board with the biscuits--altogether,
on surveying the provisions, there appeared sufficient to last them with
care for several days. Tools, with which to cut up the wreck to form
the raft, were the next great desideratum, and the carpenter's chest
could not be found. They hunted in all directions without success, till
at last, in despair, they began to tear up the bulwarks with their
hands, as making a commencement of collecting materials. On doing so,
great was their satisfaction on finding three boarding axes secured with
beckets to the side. They had now tools to enable them to progress
faster with the work. They ripped off all the planking from the
bulwarks, and cut up as much of the deck as was above water, and by this
means got into one of the larboard cabins just before the bulkhead of
the state cabin. It ha