ld
have become of the kind good Captain, the faithful and attached Smart,
and all those worthy companions, so lately forming a part of ourselves.
Darkness had long wrapped the little island in her dull mantle, but sobs
were heard in different parts of the little cavern in which we had all
been obliged to congregate for the night, and gentle whispers of prayer
to the giver of all good rose now and then in the stillness of the
night, shewing that some hearts felt too deeply to sleep; the
overwrought minds sought comfort from the bountiful fountain of love and
compassion, that increaseth as it is poured forth. And full well can we
say, our trust hath not been in vain, deeply as we suffered then and
since. But on looking back to that time, and all the subsequent trials
that have befallen us, I think this period was the most painful we ever
endured. Not only were we in miserable uncertainty about ourselves, but
we lost and bewildered ourselves in painful conjectures as as to what
could have become of our companions.

To have been told that they were really destroyed, that we should never
see them more, that we must depend upon ourselves for every thing, and
upon chance that we might be taken from the island, would I think have
been less painful to bear than the state in which we found ourselves. At
any rate then we should have known what to do, and would in all
probability have exerted ourselves to better our condition as best we
could.

But at present we were like people suddenly left in the dark, with the
additional feeling of not knowing when it would be light again, or what
we could do to free ourselves. Say that we were to sit still, and wait
with patience, hoping the best, believing it impossible that we could be
alone and deserted, this could not last, we could not sit still for
ever. Say that we immediately made up our minds to the worst; that we
were alone, and to be so for an indefinite, perhaps final period; that
we must shift for ourselves; that our welfare, peace, comfort, food,
clothing, solely depended on our own exertions; then, perhaps, after
making these exertions, after using every effort, and they would be no
slight ones, but must commence immediately with great toil, and anxious
thought, they would arrive, we should be saved, and thus have undergone
unnecessary labour and fatigue for nothing.

Yet we were at present fitted for neither of these fates. The life of
ease and enjoyment without care or thou