| Show op it M R 2 MCK DICK RODNEY N k S U iian a uv ai a 7 i w ib do FA AM k M i or the adventures of W w i on an eton boy ak k T ji 5 la lav BY V jeaan ca foft g b 00 ate b 0 ec eee rt CHAPTER continued alls over now said toni tom lambourne us as he grasped the tiller with a firm ban hand after caie tully rully wrapping a blanket round poor Ili slop who drooped beside him in the ebern sheets which way shall we pull asked the bowman as we paused with our oars in the rowlocks row locks it matters little mates cried tom in a loud voice with his letl left hand pt ft the side of his hig mouth to send baat waat he said forward above the roar of 0 the wind and sea we must be many hundred miles from brazil the nearest land and we can do nothing now but keep our boat alive by baling and steering till daybreak now master haslop slop he added lowering his voice how do you feel sir 1 I feel that I 1 am quite in your way my lads a useless hand aboard to consume your food and water replied Ill haslop slop faintly why sir said probart the stroke oarsman you dont think we could have left you to burn in that poor old brig no not exactly still I 1 am of no use to you and I 1 feel what sir air what asked tom anxiously heart sick and despairing moaned hislop slop letting his chin drop on his breast dont talk so sir air said lambourne stoutly despair never found a place in the heart of a british sailor you are right tom and perhaps ill gather headway and get to windward yet ot of course you will replied tom cheerfully but heres a sea coming together lads pull together despair might well have found a place in all our breasts at that awful crisis but toms bluff and cheerful way prevented our hearts from sinking though the hours of that awful night seemed dark and long well without compass chart or quadrant there we were ten in number in an open boat tossing upon a dark and stormy sea enveloped in clouds with the red lightning gleaming through their ragged openings or at the far and flat horizon ignorant of where we were where to steer tor for or what to do and full of terrible anticipations tor for the future we were silent and sleepless my lily heart was full of horror grief and vague alarm when I 1 thought of my home the quiet the happy and peaceful old rectory with all who loved me there and whom I 1 might never see again the hot tears that started to my eyes mingled with the cold spray that drenched my cheeks checks and there seemed but one consolation cun tor for me that my father my affectionate mother and sisters dear dot and little sybil could never know how I 1 perished by hunger or drowning it if such were to be my fate all the stories I 1 had heard or read of ship shipwrecked wrecked men their sufferings their endurance of gnawing hunger and burning thirst their cannibalism their mortal struggles with their dearest friends tor for the last morsel of food tor for the last drop of water and how the weak perished that the strong might live crowded upon my memory to augment the real terrors of our situation so suddenly had this final catastrophe come upon us that we had bad considerable sid erable difficulty in assuring ourselves of its reality and that it was not a dream a dream alas from which there might be no awakening so bo hour after hour passed darkly slowly and silently on the turbulence of the wind and waves abated the lightning passed away the scud ceased to whirl the vapors were divided in heaven and a taint faint light that stole tremulously upward from the horizon served to indicate the east and the dawn of the coming day CHAPTER discover land the following are the names of 0 those who escaped with me in the longboat marc hare Ill haslop slop mate thomas lambourne second mate francis probart carpenter john thomas burnett Burn etl ships cook edward carlton Carl tou henry warren hugh chute I 1 matthew william wilkins Wil klos usually called boy dill bill As the morning light came in there appeared to the southwestward a vast bank ot of mist or cloud which shrouded halt half the sky and assumed a variety of beautiful tints when tho the rising sun shone on oil it yellow and saffron deepening into purple and blue as its masses changed in the contrary currents ol of air while to the eastward in the quarter of 0 the suns ascension the rippling ocean shone as it if covered with tremulous and glittering plates of 0 mingled gold and gleen A ration of rum and water in equal proportions was now served round to each man the leathern cover of a bung being our only cup CUD as we had omitted emitted a drinking vessel among our hastily collected stores halt half of a biscuit given to each constituted our breakfast and with hope dawning with the day in our hearts we shipped our oars oara and pulled stoutly toward the west tom lambourne steered the sea was smooth the wind light and in our favor so ere long the mast was shipped and a sail hoisted to lessen the labor ot at the rowers we were anxious tor for the lense dense bank of purple cloud to clear away that we might have a more extensive view of the horizon and perhaps discover a sail but the envious vapor seemed to darken and to roll before us or rather before the wind that lore bore us aft after it about midday when we were pausing on our oars breathless and panting with heat drenched with perspiration which ran into our eyes and trickled down our breasts and when visions of at ice water and bitter beer came tantalizingly to memory tor for sea and sky were equally hot as the former seemed to welter and become oily under the blaze of the latter a sharp winged bird that skimmed past us suddenly caught the hollow eye of hislop who I 1 thought was sleeping do you see that bird tom he exclaimed halt half starting up from the stern sheets it is a man of war bird what then sir we must be near land replied the mate land reiterated every one in the boat their voices expressing joy surprise or incredulity Is it brazil asked tattooed tom with amazement in his ats singular face 1 I do not think so said hislop passing a hand wearily and reflectively over his pale forehead brazil it is impossible by the last reckoning I 1 made before that spaniard wounded me but heaven only knows where we may have drifted to since then the wind and currents may have taken us many hundred miles from where the last observation was made added carlton dut but I 1 am convinced that we are 11 near e a lan land look ok at the sea wrack that ases ud alow p passes a us now 1 and we must be out of the track 0 of f tho the gulfweed gulf culf w weed ed co continued the mate with confidence and may I 1 never see the nore again it that aint land now looming right ahead through the tog fog bank exclaimed tom starting up and shading his eyes from the sun with both hands as he peered intently westward As the reader may imagine we all gazed anxiously enough in the direction indicated by the old seaman and a swell of 0 rapture rose in the breasts of all when something in the form of a headland or bluff could be distinctly seen right ahead bearing due west about seven miles distant standing out from the bank of vapor or looming like a darker shadow within it this appearance never changed in outline but remained stationary and every moment became more defined and confirmed exclamations of joy now broke from us and we congratulated each other on making the land so soon and so unexpectedly without enduring the miseries which so frequently tall fall to the lot of 0 those who are cast away as we were in an open boat at sea but what land Is it was the general inquiry another allowance if f grog was served round the oars were again shipped we bent our backs and breasts sturdily to the task and at every stroke almost lifted the boat clean out of the shining water in our eagerness to reach this suddenly discovered shore this had such an effect upon marc haslop that though weak and sinking as he had bad been he be begged that lie he might be allowed to steer the boat a little way while tom lambourne kept a bright lookout ahead to watch tor for any ripple or surf that might indicate the locality of a treacherous coral reef as such might prove dangerous to a large and heavily laden craft like ours with every stroke of the bending oars the land seemed to rise higher and more high ere long we could make out its form clearly it was bold rocky and mountainous and as dispersed or rose upward into mid air we could see gee the dark brown bronn of 0 the bluff and some trees of strange aspect with drooping foliage on its summit were clearly defined as they stood between us and the blue sky beyond we soon made out distinctly that it was a large island the shore was somewhat level to the northeast and in the center towered an almost perpendicular cular mountain of vast height the sides of which seemed covered with furze gorse goree and brushwood elsewhere its dusky and copper col ored eiert rocks stained stai led sheer out of the sea whose waters formed a zone of snowwhite snow white surf around their base we headed the boat to the northeast where the shore seemed more ap and as we pulled along it but keeping fully three miles a off ff wo we saw high crags deep ravines shady woods and dells in the interior though no appearance of houses bouses of wigwams or ot of inhabitants many speculations were now ventured as to what island this might be may it not be land that has never beffie been discovered I 1 suggested with a gw glow of 0 pleasure in the anell in tia potion of being small among the first to tread an unexplored and hitherto unknown shore chore hislop smiled and shook his head henry warren who had been an old south sea whaler suggested that it was the island grando grande but hislop as us that this was impossible in the first place by the position at 0 the sun bun ho be could see that WO we were not so BO far ar south as aa the parallel ot of port san sail giorgio on the brazilian shore and in the second the existence of such an island was doubted can it be trinidad island Tri tristan still da cunha or the rocks ot at martin vaz naked asked tom Larn Lambo bourne ume it the latter replied Ills hislop ioD we should now be in south latitude 20 dog deg 27 min but this land in no way an aa ewers to the aspect of the martin vaz rocks did you ever see them sir air asked several no but they are described by lol la perrouse peyrouse Per rouse as appearing like five distinct headlands alter after pausing and pondering lor for a moment he suddenly added with confidence it is the afie island ot of alphonso de albuquerque how do you know I 1 inquired by the appearance of that cliff and the mountain inland 11 you have been here before asked probart never hut but I 1 know it to be ba alphonso by that cliff on the north and the mountain too which were particularly described in a spanish book I 1 lost in the eugenie eugence the mountain Is a peak doak which the author says resembles did any of you ever see a place pace like it before it Is as a like tenny reef from the port of santa cruz as one egg Is g like another exclaimed tom lain bourne exactly tom that is what the spanish author likens it to though he use the simile so it if it is the island of 0 alphonso alphonse we are now somewhere in south latitude 37 deg 6 min and west longitude 12 do dog 2 mm min pull full southward my lads the shore opens a bit beyond that headland we shall find a smooth beach probably within that bight yol yonder lder anyway were not in pilots water added tom laughing give way mates stretch out we pulled with a hearty will and ere long were close in shore so close that our larboard oars seemed almost to touch the mighty rocks which rose sheer from the sea like mighty cyclopean walls but covered with the greenest moss mass they overhung and overshadowed the dark deep water that washed their base and as aa they shielded us from the fierce noonday heat of tae run gun we found the partial coolness refreshing and delightful As hislop had foreseen on rounding the bluff the shore receded inward and anwa through a line of 0 white surf like ike that which bolls boils over the bar at a rivers mouth we dashed into a beautiful little bay the sandy beach of which was shaded by groves of bright green treis trea still we saw no trace of inhabitants but selecting a small creek which was almost concealed by trees that grew like mangroves man groves close to the edgo edge of the water we ran our boat in moored her securely where none were likely to find her save ourselves and then all save hislop and billy the cabin boy who remained to attend him we went on an exploring expedition in search of natives or whatever might turn up next to be continued |
