wamped. To tell you the truth,
Mr Dicey, I don't think we shall overhaul her, however, we must not
give way to despair. If the worst comes to the worst, we must try and
make a little island which lies midway between the coast of South
America and Africa, called Trinidada. It is a barren spot, but I have
heard that water is to be procured there, and it is said that a few
runaway seamen, with negro wives, manage to pick up a livelihood on it.
If so, we shall not want for food, as where they exist we can manage to
support ourselves till a ship passes within hail.' By the mate's
calculation, the island he spoke of was about a hundred and twenty miles
away to leeward. It was, however, but a small dot in the ocean to hit
to a certainty; still he thought we should not fail to pass within sight
of it. `However,' he concluded, `mind, I don't think that it is
impossible we may, after all, be in sight of the ship at daylight.' The
boat was making fine weather of it, and slipping at the rate of five or
six knots an hour through the water, so that, had we possessed something
to eat and drink, we should have had less cause for anxiety.
Notwithstanding this, the men kept up their spirits wonderfully, and as
they were roused up one after the other to take their watch, each man
had a joke on his lips. The thing they chiefly seemed to sigh for was a
pipe of tobacco. Tom had had some in his pocket, he declared, when he
went overboard, but it must have slipped out, and he mourned its loss
more than that of his hat.

"When morning broke, you may be sure we eagerly looked out for the ship,
but she was nowhere to be seen. `Then, lads,' exclaimed the mate, in a
cheerful voice, `what we have now to do is to steer for the island I
have been telling Mr Dicey about. No fear as to getting there, and we
may live like Robinson Crusoe, the lords of all we survey, till some
craft comes by to take us off, and then we can go or not as we have a
mind to do.' `Hurra for Trinidada,' shouted the men, inquiring of the
mate what sort of a place it was. As the wind was right aft, we rigged
the square-sail with the boathook as a yard, and though the sea was
still running pretty heavily, we calculated that we were making a good
six knots an hour. The mate advised the men to take a reef in their
belts when they felt hungry. `Ay, ay, sir,' answered Tom, laughing,
`it's the best way to keep hunger out, when there happens to be no
plum-dough to stow ab