tion to the matter, but he was too much interested in his
hunt for black pearls to listen to me.

And now I pass to the fatal day that made me an outcast from civilisation
for so many weary years. Early one morning in July 1864, Jensen went off
as usual with the whole of his crew, leaving me absolutely alone in
charge of the ship. The women had often accompanied the divers on their
expeditions, and did so on this occasion, being rather expert at the
work, which they looked upon as sport.

Whenever I look back upon the events of that dreadful day, I am filled
with astonishment that the captain should have been so mad as to leave
the ship at all. Only an hour before he left, a tidal wave broke over
the stern, and flooded the cabins with a perfect deluge. Both Jensen and
I were down below at the time, and came in for an awful drenching. This
in itself was a clear and ominous indication of atmospheric disturbance;
but all that poor Jensen did was to have the pumps set to work, and after
the cabins were comparatively dry he proceeded once more to the pearl
banks that fascinated him so, and on which he probably sleeps to this
day. The tide was favourable when he left, and I watched the fleet of
little boats following in the wake of the whale-boat, until they were
some three miles distant from the ship, when they stopped for
preparations to be made for the work of diving. I had no presentiment
whatever of the catastrophe that awaited them and me.

A cool, refreshing breeze had been blowing up to his time, but the wind
now developed a sudden violence, and the sea was lashed into huge waves
that quickly swamped nearly every one of the little cockle-shell boats.
Fortunately, they could not sink, and as I watched I saw that the Malays
who were thus thrown into the water clung to the sides of the little
boats, and made the best of their way to the big craft in charge of
Captain Jensen. Every moment the sea became more and more turbulent as
the wind quickened to a hurricane. When all the Malays had scrambled
into the whale-boat, they attempted to pull back to the ship, but I could
see that they were unable to make the slightest headway against the
tremendous sea that was running, although they worked frantically at the
oars.

On the contrary, I was horrified to see that they were gradually drifting
_away from me_, and being carried farther and farther out across the
illimitable sea. I was nearly distracted at the sight,