all the racket was about.

I explained the situation to him, and he was expressing his great
gratification at the fact that the ship had been got afloat again, when
Carter gave the order to let go the anchor.

"All gone, sir," answered Jones as a heavy splash sounded under the
ship's bows, instantly followed by a yell of:

"A large canoe--two of 'em--three--four--there's a whole fleet of canoes
closing in round us, sir."

"Where away?" demanded I, unceremoniously breaking away from the general
and dashing forward to the topgallant forecastle, up the ladder of which
I scrambled with considerable loss of shin-leather.

"There, sir, d'ye see 'em?" responded Jones, sweeping his arm in a wide
circle as he pointed into the fog wreaths that were whirling round us.

The fog and the darkness together rendered it extremely difficult to see
anything, but by dint of peering I at length distinguished several
shapeless dark blotches at a distance of about fifty fathoms from the
ship, arranged apparently in the form of a wide semicircle on the side
of her opposite to that on which lay the sandbank. Jones, however, was
not quite right in his statement that they were closing in upon us, for
they appeared to be lying quite stationary, or at least were only
paddling just sufficiently to avoid being swept away by the sluggish
tide that was running. But there was very little doubt in my mind that
we had very narrowly escaped an ugly surprise, and I was by no means
certain that we might not yet look to be attacked. My view of the
situation was that the natives had gathered about us in the hope that,
in the fog and darkness, they might be able to steal alongside and climb
aboard in such overwhelming numbers as to secure possession of the deck
and overpower us by taking us by surprise, and that they had been
restrained from making the attempt only by the sounds of bustle and
activity that had accompanied our endeavours to get the ship afloat.

"Lay down from aloft all hands at once!" shouted I, sending my voice
pealing up through the fog to the figures that were to be dimly-seen
sprawling on the yards and dragging at the heavy festoons of canvas.
"And you, Jones, find me a musket as smartly as you can."

"Musket, sir? Ay, ay, sir! here's one," answered the man, fishing one
out from some hiding place and thrusting it into my hand. Lifting the
piece to my shoulder I levelled it in the direction where the canoes
seemed to be congreg