r.

Hoping that at last a moderate breeze would spring up, I shook the reefs
out of the sail, and again hoisted it. Still there was no change. The
sun was setting over the island, and I expected to have my difficulties
increased by the approaching darkness. The weather also still looked
very threatening. Scarcely had the sun disappeared behind a cliff on
the left, when the wind again suddenly sprang up, and blew with even
greater violence than before. I now wished that I had not shaken the
reefs out of the sail, but I could not venture to leave the helm to make
any alteration.

On flew the boat as before, the foaming seas rising up on either hand.
I could but dimly distinguish the cliff. At length it was lost to
sight. As I looked out on the larboard side, I fancied that I saw a
line of white breakers, indicating a reef running off from it. How far
it might extend I could not tell; perhaps a mile, or a couple of miles.
It would be destruction, should I haul up too soon and strike on it;
indeed, with the sail I had set, I dared not do that. My only resource
was to stand on, hoping that the squall would pass away as quickly as it
had sprung up. I knew that I was leaving the land farther and farther
astern. In vain in my anxiety I called to poor Dick to help me.
Sometimes the horrid thought came over me that he was dead, the
splashing of the water and the howling of the wind drowning the sound of
his breathing. My anxiety--or, I may confess it, my alarm--made me feel
very ill; and I began to fancy that I too had been poisoned, either by
the fish or the wild-fowl we had eaten.

I scarcely know how many hours thus passed. At last, as I had expected,
the wind suddenly fell to a gentle breeze. I immediately hauled aft the
sheet, hoping to be able to beat up to the island again by daybreak; but
scarcely had I stood on for a quarter of an hour when it dropped
altogether, and the boat lay rocking on the heaving waters. As there
was no use in keeping the sail set, I lowered it, and sat down with my
arm round the mast, intending to keep awake till the breeze should again
get up; while I heartily prayed that it might come from a direction
which might enable me to fetch the island. I could hear Dick breathing;
but though I called to him he did not answer, and appeared quite as
unconscious as at first. I felt very tired, after the excitement I had
gone through; still I did my utmost to keep awake. All my efforts,