twenty-five in all,
since Mr Ohlsen and the seaman Harmer had died, but still this was a
large number to provide for out of the scanty stock we had left us
through the loss of nearly two-thirds of our provisions by the upsetting
of the long-boat--the few perishable articles saved when we righted her
again being uneatable from the effects of the salt water, which turned
the meat putrid and converted our flour and biscuit into the most
unpalatable paste.

Captain Billings had hoped that some of the sealing schooners that
rendezvous about the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, in search of the
blubber and skins of the marine animals frequenting the shoals there,
would have put in ere this and taken us off the inhospitable shore on
which we had been forced to take refuge, or else that some passing ship
homeward bound or sailing west into the Pacific would have picked us up;
but, never a sail hove in sight, and, as our provisions daily grew less,
although the men had been rationed down to a couple of biscuits and an
ounce of salt pork per day, something had to be done, or else starvation
would quickly stare us in the face!

The skipper therefore summoned Mr Macdougall to a consultation, at
which I also was allowed to be present, for our sad plight had united us
all together on the most brotherly terms, if I may so speak of the
relations both the mate and Captain Billings bore towards me--although
the skipper had always remembered Sam Pengelly's exhortation on parting
with me when he left me in his charge, to "remember the b'y!"

I think, too, I have already mentioned that since I had helped to save
his life, Mr Macdougall had not only completely changed in his
treatment towards me, but was an altogether different man in every
respect. The men used to say, "That bath of salt water washed all the
confounded bumptiousness out of him!"

"I have determined--that is, if you agree with me, Macdougall," said the
skipper, when we had assembled in the tent, pointing with his ringer to
a spot on a chart of the coast that he had brought with him from the
_Esmeralda_, and which the wetting it had received in our spill among
the breakers had not damaged very materially, for it looked right enough
now, spread out on top of Mr Macdougall's chest, he being lucky enough
to get his safe on shore--"I have determined," repeated Captain
Billings--"that is, if you agree with me--to make a tour of inspection
of the neighbouring islands, to see if we