ng his pipe and talking to me as he would
had we been seated at the supper table on board the _Fray Bentos_.
Yet that he was deeply anxious about our ship-mates I well knew, when,
bidding me good-night, he laid his great frame upon the sand and went to
sleep.

Chapter V

By dawn on the following morning, the hurricane had lost its strength
and settled down into a hard gale from the north-east. When we crawled
out from our shelter, a fearful scene of desolation met our eyes; not
more than a hundred coco-palms were left standing on the weather side
of the island, and enormous boulders of coral rock, torn off the reef
by the violence of the sea, were piled up in wild confusion along the
shore, while, at the north end, the surf had made a clean breach over
the land, with devastating effect. On the inner beach of the lagoon, the
destructive results of the wind and sea had not been so great, although
vast numbers of fish were lying dead on the sand, or among the soaked
and flattened undergrowth above high water mark. We at once collected a
few, lit a fire, roasted them over the coals, and made a good breakfast,
finishing up with some young drinking coconuts, hundreds of which were
lying about us.

We knew that, until the weather moderated, there was little likelihood
of our seeing the brigantine and cutter--if we ever saw either again.
The ocean for many hundreds of miles around us was full of dangers, for
it was unsurveyed, and risky even to a ship in good weather. Many of
the islands, shoals and reefs marked on the charts had no existence,
but still more were placed in wrong positions, and we both felt that it
would be something marvellous if the two vessels escaped disaster. All
we could do was to hope for the best, and wait patiently.

As the rain had ceased, and the sun was shining brightly, although the
gale was still blowing fiercely, we decided to cross to one of the
other islands and make an examination of our surroundings. First of
all, however, we examined our stock of ammunition, and found we had
thirty-five cartridges between us; the rest of our effects consisted of
about a quarter of a pound of plug tobacco, a sheath knife and a pocket
knife, a small box of vestas, and the clothes we had on.

With some difficulty we managed to wade through the shallow passage
dividing the island on which we had slept from the next, and found the
latter to be much better wooded, wider, and three or four feet higher;
a