ty, greasy heads of these horrid men. All the pretty silk Sunday
frocks, the shawls, the scarfs, the caps, the bonnets, the carefully
hoarded remains of our civilized attire, alas! alas! did they not also
tell these wretches what a helpless party were on the island? Everything
was recklessly thrown about, torn, and trodden under foot. Hargrave flew
from the sight, and hid her tears and stifled her sobs in the darkest
corner of the cavern. From that hour they were doomed in her estimation
as the acme of wickedness and vice.
Many times during the night were we awakened by their noise and drunken
revelry, and alas for the hopes we had formed of the Sabbath-day none
ever were less fulfilled.
The scenes of riot, quarrelling, drinking, and imprecation were so
dreadful we could not keep watch any more, but hurried as far we were
able from the sight and sounds of life so abhorrent to our nature, so
horrid to witness. With pale faces and tearful eyes, and ears yet filled
with oaths and bitter words, we proceeded to gain courage and implore
help from the throne of grace, feeling how we stood in need of such aid.
For not even when about to be a prey to the stormy elements, or the
desolate feeling when left alone in a solitary island, or the sudden
death which appeared inevitable in the jaws of the horrid snake, not
even in all these did we feel our helplessness as we did now. And it was
our own species we feared, for whose coming we had so often prayed. It
was man, once created in the image of God, that sent this pang of horror
through us.
But, enough of this; suffice it to say we were a set of miserable,
trembling, quaking women, but God in his mercy calmed and comforted us,
so that after the morning prayers we proceeded to make our hiding place
still more secure.
As I said before, the waterfall was a most effectual screen, especially
now that there was so much water in the brook. The more water that fell
of course the more liable we were to get wet as we passed in and out,
but, owing to the height from which it fell, the water cleared the rock
by some feet, and thus gave us a passage underneath. The tall ones had
always to stoop, but the little ones ran out and in like rabbits in a
burrow. At the other entrance it was almost as well concealed. Now we
got in and out, for the rock projected some ten feet out, and then just
round the corner appeared a sort of recess. This seemed exactly smooth
with the rock, but, by edging
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