ch raft, and with each
raft half of our armed men; for though we had little or no apprehension
now that there would be any trouble with the sailors, we still deemed it
best to let them see very plainly that we were and meant to be the
masters. I went on the one raft, Lancelot--and of course Marjorie with
him--upon the other, and when all was ready we pushed away from the
Royal Christopher and trusted ourselves and our fortunes to our new
equipages.

There was happily little danger, even little difficulty, about the
enterprise. The rafts were well made; they rode on the waters like
corks. What little wind there was blew towards the islands, and the sea
was as placid as a lake, so that the men could use their big oars easily
enough. It was indeed slow work to paddle these great rafts along, but
it was quite unadventurous, so that I have little or nothing to record
of note concerning our journey. Little by little the Royal Christopher
grew smaller and smaller behind us, with her great mast sticking out so
sadly over her side; little by little the island loomed larger and
larger on our view. At last, after a couple of hours that were the most
pleasurable we had passed for many days, we came close to the island,
and could see that the colonists were all crowded together upon the
beach, waiting to receive us.

The island was very large, rocky, and thickly wooded, and the coast was
rocky too, and the water very shoaly, which made me understand how
difficult landing must have been in the stormy weather. But now, with
the sea so fair and the weather so fine, we had little or no difficulty
in getting ashore, and with the eager assistance of the colonists were
soon able to effect the landing of all our stores and belongings.

Our first great surprise on our arrival was to see no sight of Captain
Amber amongst those who were gathered upon the beach to receive us. But
his absence was soon explained in reply to our anxious inquiries. It
seemed that a great spirit of discontent prevailed among the colonists
upon that island, and that they upbraided Captain Amber very bitterly
for being the cause of their misfortunes: as is the way with
weak-spirited creatures, who have not the heart to bear a common
misfortune courageously. To make a long story short, they insisted that
he must needs endeavour to find some means of rescue for them by getting
into the sea track and persuading some ship to come to their aid and
take them from the isl