but, just as I had feared, we drifted rapidly off shore,
and had to drop anchor again in deeper water, and much farther off. The
two best men, a Papuan and a Malay now swam on shore, each carrying a
hatchet, and went into the jungle to seek creepers for rope. After
about an hour our anchor loosed hold, and began to drag. This alarmed
me greatly, and we let go our spare anchor, and, by running out all our
cable, appeared tolerably secure again. We were now most anxious for the
return of the men, and were going to fire our muskets to recall them,
when we observed them on the beach, some way off, and almost immediately
our anchors again slipped, and we drifted slowly away into deep water.
We instantly seized the oars, but found we could not counteract the wind
and current, and our frantic cries to the men were not heard till we had
got a long way off; as they seemed to be hunting for shell-fish on
the beach. Very soon, however, they stared at us, and in a few minutes
seemed to comprehend their situation; for they rushed down into the
water, as if to swim off, but again returned on shore, as if afraid to
make the attempt. We had drawn up our anchors at first not to check our
rowing; but now, finding we could do nothing, we let them both hang down
by the full length of the cables. This stopped our way very much, and we
drifted from shore very slowly, and hoped the men would hastily form a
raft, or cut down a soft-wood tree, and paddle out, to us, as we were
still not more than a third of a mile from shore. They seemed, however,
to have half lost their senses, gesticulating wildly to us, running
along the beach, then going unto the forest; and just when we thought
they had prepared some mode of making an attempt to reach us, we saw
the smoke of a fire they had made to cook their shell-fish! They had
evidently given up all idea of coming after us, and we were obliged to
look to our own position.

We were now about a mile from shore, and midway between two of the
islands, but we were slowly drifting out, to sea to the westward, and
our only chance of yet saving the men was to reach the opposite shore.
We therefore sot our jib and rowed hard; but the wind failed, and we
drifted out so rapidly that we had some difficulty in reaching the
extreme westerly point of the island. Our only sailor left, then
swam ashore with a rope, and helped to tow us round the point into a
tolerably safe and secure anchorage, well sheltered from the wi