s and directed my steps towards the bush, with the
expectation of finding there the object of my quest. I didn't go with
any lagging steps either, for by this time my thirst was almost
unbearable, becoming the more intense the longer I waited for water.

"I proceeded after getting into the bush to where the ground sloped down
into a sort of valley, fancying that such would be the likeliest place
for a river; but I had not got very far through the rough thicket, which
scratched my exposed skin pretty sorely by the way, when, as I emerged
again into the open, I saw before me a group of men in front amongst
some detached trees. Two or three were moving about, while the rest
were lying on the ground; so, taking them to be natives, and knowing
that the Sakalavas who inhabited this part of the coast were, unlike the
Hovas, friendly to foreigners, many Hindoo families and Portuguese being
settled amongst them, besides a few stray Frenchmen and Americans, I at
once made towards the group. Judge of my surprise, however, on coming
up to the men, to find that they were none other than Magellan and four
others of the pinnace's crew, whom I had supposed to be lost, but who
had managed to get ashore safely long before myself!

"Well, what a hand-shaking there was that went round them--why, it was
like meeting chaps that had been dead and buried over again! We none of
us could say anything for some time, the emotion of seeing each other
again being too much, for I was a pretty good favourite with all the
hands, and Magellan had told the rest about his having passed me
swimming ashore early in the day they all got to land; and then, through
my not turning up, of course they all believed I had gone down to Davy
Jones! One thing was now certain, however; and that was, that we were
the whole number that were saved; for, if you will recollect, five out
of the thirteen comprising the crew of the boat had gone down with her
when she filled and sank, leaving eight only struggling in the water.
Of these remaining eight, six of us were now together on the Madagascar
coast, and the other two, Bellamy and Russell, I had myself seen drown
when they tumbled off the raft on which I had left them in that last
deadly embrace of theirs.

"I was so knocked of a heap at meeting my old shipmates so unexpectedly
that I declare to you I forgot all about my raging thirst for the
moment; but as soon as the excitement had calmed down and all sorts of
qu