oke on board. The
sleepers were all aroused, and we had to bale as fast as we could.

Presently the mate said, "We must heave her to, lads. Get the raft
rigged."

We soon had this done, but as we were rounding to a heavy sea came
rolling up, and breaking on board, nearly carried Sam Coal over the
side. The raft was hove into the water, and we lay head to wind as
before, with the oar apeak. This did not prevent the seas from
occasionally breaking on board, though they came with less violence than
they would otherwise have done; but the boat was severely strained and
shattered as they beat against her, and she now began to leak in a way
which gave us just cause for alarm.

We spent the night baling as hard as we could, all striving to save our
lives; but we hoped almost against hope that we should succeed.

At last some of the men, as before, began to despair, saying that it was
as well to die now as a few hours later, and that it would be better to
give in and let the boat sink, but seeing the mate and doctor calm and
composed as ever, I tried to imitate their example.

"God wants us to labour on, lads," cried Mr Griffiths. "He'll help us
if we do. Gales in these latitudes never last long. Perhaps to-morrow
we shall have a fine day and catch some more flying-fish, or maybe we
are not far off from an island and we shall be able to stretch our legs
and find plenty of cocoanuts, and perhaps yams and pigs. We shall soon
have a fire alight and something cooking before it, and then won't we
eat, boys!"

This sort of talk had a good effect upon the men, and they no longer had
any thought of giving in. Still, the night went by very slowly.
Sleeping, even if we had had time, with the water washing into the boat,
was next to impossible.

Daylight came back at last, and as the sun rose the clouds dispersed,
the wind rapidly dropped, and the sea went down. In a short time the
mate ordered the raft to be got on board, and we ran on as before. We
were very nearly starving, for we had had nothing to eat since we had
devoured the raw flying-fish on the previous day.

"The doctor's got some biscuit," said one of the men, and they at once
all cried out, begging that they might have it. The mate, however,
would only give us a quarter of a biscuit each, with a little water. It
just served to stay the gnawings of hunger, but as the day grew on we
wanted food as much as ever, and our spirits again sank.

For the first