nd, although it was now dark, and the sharks
consequently much more to be dreaded, sprang overboard, and swam in
towards the native village of Utwe.

For another twenty minutes or more we remained anxiously awaiting. The
sky was as black as pitch, and there was now a tremendously high sea,
and the din and thunder of the surf on the reef a couple of cables'
length away was most appalling. I had never heard anything like it
before, nor have I since; and the weird sound of the huge seas as they
tumbled and roared upon the hollow crust of the reef made my hair stand
upon end like priming wires. The tide was low, and perhaps that had
something to do with the wild, resounding clamour of the seas upon the
long line of reef; but there was a strange humming note underlying it
all, which was new to many of our ship's company, and seemed to fill
even the rest of the Pleasant Islanders who remained on board with a
sense of dread, for they earnestly besought Hayes to let them come on
deck, for, they said, 'the belly of the world was about to burst.'

To this, most fortunately for themselves, Hayes consented, and in a
few minutes they swarmed up on deck, each man carrying his Snider
and cutlass-knife, and the women and children loaded up with their
sleeping-mats and other gear. Some of the women crawled under the long
boat, which was lying on the port side, and made themselves comfortable;
and the men brought their arms to me to stow in the trade room, for fear
of their getting wet, and then returned to their white masters, who were
grouped together on deck.

Then, quite suddenly, the jumping, tumbling sea began to subside, and
through the darkness we heard the skipper of one of the American whalers
hail us.

'What are you, going to do, Captain Hayes? I guess we're in a pretty
tight place. I'd try to tow out if I could see the hole in the wall.
We're going to get it mighty hot presently. It's coming on fast.'

'That's so,' Hayes replied, with a laugh; 'but we can't stop it. And,
say, look here, captain, as you fellows are lying further out than I am,
you might each start a cask of oil to run when the seas begin to break.
It won't help you much, but it will me.'

The whale-ship captain laughed, and said that he was afraid that his
six hundred barrels of oil would start themselves if the sea began to
break--meaning that his ship would go ashore.

The previous heavy rolling of the brig had nearly made a wreck of my
trade room, f