t portion of the reef, and beaten through the terrific surf
that everlastingly broke upon it. Our decks had been swept of
everything animate and inanimate in the process, until the vessel had
settled down on the top of the reef in the comparatively smooth water
that then surrounded us, which, though it boiled and seethed all round
the wreck, had power only to cause her to stir gently and at intervals
upon her coral bed when an extra heavy swell swept across the reef.

Of course the wreck ought not to have occurred; but Parker, the
boatswain, who was in charge of the ship when she piled herself up,
unfortunately happened to overhear Mrs Vansittart remark, only the day
before the disaster, that we were then in a part of the ocean which was
not only very sparsely used, but, according to the charts, was supposed
to be absolutely void of dangers. Hence I imagine he must not only have
grown careless himself, but must also have permitted the look-outs to
become so also; with the result that, on such a pitch-dark night as the
preceding one had been, the ship would be absolutely on top of the
danger, and escape from it impossible, before its existence was
discovered.

Well, our plight, although bad enough in all conscience, might easily
have been a good deal worse. For if the ship had remained afloat a few
minutes longer than she actually did, she would have driven completely
across the reef and sunk in the lagoon, when probably the whole of us
who happened to be below would have gone down with her, and the disaster
would have been complete. As it was, there were half a dozen of us who
had escaped drowning, although our prospects for the future were
anything but brilliant. To start with, the diminutive sandbank astern
of the wreck was impossible as a place of prolonged residence, though we
might, perhaps, if driven to it, contrive to exist for a few days upon
the shellfish which no doubt might be collected along the margin of the
inner beach, assisted, perhaps, by a few sea-birds' eggs. But there was
no fresh water, so far as I could discover with the aid of the ship's
telescope, nor was there so much as a blade of grass in the way of
shelter.

Therefore it was perfectly evident that we must stick to the wreck until
something came along to take us off, or until I could put together
something in the nature of a craft or raft capable of being handled
under sail and of making a voyage to the nearest civilised land. That,