the wind aloft,
gathered sternway. "Let go the anchor," shouted Captain Weber. "Let go
the anchor!" roared Mr Lowe, from his post on the quarter-deck. A
heavy splash followed, and the next moment the "Halcyon," her starboard
bulwarks gone for a length of two yards abaft, the forechains, the
remains of her gig swinging at the davits, her fore-topmast and jib-boom
gone, her foremast, main, and main-topmasts only standing, her
first-mate lying hundreds of fathoms deep in the salt sea, rode on an
even keel by a single anchor in Saint Augustine's Bay, the gale roaring,
and the dark masses of clouds flying over head.

Volume 2, Chapter III.

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S BAY.--THE MISSIONARY'S TALE.

By sunrise the following morning the gale had pretty nearly blown itself
out. The heavy masses of clouds had rolled away, and a bright sun was
shining on the smooth water of the bay. Outside, the ocean was still
boiling and seething under the influence of the late heavy gale, but the
waves, though tipped with foam, were rolling sluggishly, as if tired
with their wild efforts.

The "Halcyon," late her Majesty's brig "Torch," did not look by any
means the same vessel that had sailed from Quillimane. Neither of her
masts were wholly standing. The main-topgallant mast with yards and
gear was gone; the fore-topmast with all above it had disappeared, while
the bowsprit looked a naked stump, and the splintered white edge of the
smashed bulwarks fully attested the violence of the ordeal she had gone
through. Not a regular trader, and being fitted out for a long cruise,
Captain Weber was in no hurry to make a port. Having little cargo, and
that selected for trading purposes, the brig was well provided with
spare spars and sails, and, with the exception of Santa Lucia Bay on the
coast of Natal, a better harbour for refitting her could hardly have
been found. The rigging was covered with wet clothing, shaking about in
the breeze. From the able seaman's tarpaulin and long boots to the
captain's pea-jacket, and Donna Isabel's drenched cloak, all were there
drying in the sunshine. The "Halcyon" rode with her bows to seaward,
while astern lay the beach shaped like a crescent, and composed of fine
sand glittering in the beams of the morning sun. The luxuriant forest
growth swept down nearly to the water's edge, and the long straight
stems of the cocoa-nut trees, with their tufts of thin leaves, shot up
here and there like giants from among