er to
get the food down, with our throats so dry, yet we did manage it, and
held on to dear life. We were, howsomedever, almost giving up, when we
caught sight of a sail coming over the water to us. She was a native
craft; but whether or not the people on board her might knock us on the
head, we could not tell. Still, anything was better than staying where
we were. We had not our choice, though, for the people aboard the prow
caught sight of us, and came up to the mast. They were pretty
peaceable-looking fellows, though their skins were brown enough. We
managed to make them understand that our ship had been cast away:
indeed, our mast showed them that; and we were not long in tumbling on
board, and making our salaams to an old chap, who seemed to be their
captain. He was rather vexed when he could not understand what we said,
or we understand what he said to us. However, he observed that we might
rig ourselves in mats while our clothes were drying, and had some dishes
of rice and smoked fish put before us. When the sea went down, they got
out their sweeps, and pulled round where they supposed the ship had
struck, in the hopes of getting something up from her; and there were
some fellows on board who seemed to be well up to diving. However, they
were not successful; and suddenly they got out their sweeps, and pulled
away to the northward. A strange sail which appeared some little way
off was, we supposed, the cause of their doing this. Probably they took
her for a pirate."

"Very likely that was the craft we were on board," I observed. "It
would have been curious if we had come up with you."

"Well, for your sakes, I am rather glad you did not," said the
boatswain. "In a little time, our friends, who seemed bound to a
distance, began to think that our room would be pleasanter than our
company. They had a strange cargo on board,--bales of that
nasty-looking stuff, the sea-slug, and birds' nests, and mother-of-pearl
shell, and I do not know how many other odd things. Two or three days
afterwards, coming in sight of an island, they quietly made signs to us
to get into a boat; and though we at first talked of showing fight, and
declaring we would do no such thing, yet at last we agreed, seeing we
had no arms to fight with except our fists, that it would be better to
obey. To make a long story short, we were shoved on shore on a desolate
island; we supposing that we were to find some houses, and people to
l