y in the extreme.

On counting numbers it was found that the fifteen men who formed the
prize crew including officers, had escaped, with two Spaniards out of
those who had been left on board to assist in working the ship, and
twelve negroes. To supply all these people with food, there was only a
cask of biscuits and about twelve gallons of water. How long they might
have to remain exposed to scorching heat, fierce storms, or chilling
fogs, it was impossible to say. Jack looked at Adair, and Adair looked
at Jack, to read each other's feelings in their countenances. They felt
for each other as brothers, and each trembled for the fate which might
overtake his friend.

"How far do you make it out we are from the land?" asked Adair.

"Oh, not more than a hundred miles," answered Hemming. "That is
nothing. The sea-breeze would drive us in there in the course of the
day."

He did not say this because he thought it; he wanted to keep up the
spirits of the people under his charge. Nor did he remind them that
they were five or six hundred miles from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and a
very considerable distance from Manovia in Liberia. A fore-topgallant
studding-sail had been hauled on board the raft, and this set on a spar
served them as a sail. As soon as the ship had disappeared, and
everything floating out of her had been picked up, Hemming's first care
was to arrange the people so as to trim the raft properly. He made them
sit in rows back to back, with their faces to the sea. He, with Jack
and Terence, sat in the centre by the mast on the cask of biscuits and
the water. A spar, with a plank nailed to the outer end, served as a
rudder, and two very inefficient oars were manufactured in the same way.
For some hours after the tornado they were becalmed, and then a light
air from the southward sprang up, which enabled them to steer towards
the land. After some consideration, Hemming stood up and addressed the
men. Jack and Adair admired the calm and collected, and, indeed,
dignified way in which he spoke, so different to his manner when he was
a mate. "My men," he said, "we are placed by Providence in a very
dangerous position. We must trust to the help of the Almighty, not to
our own arm to save us; still we must exert ourselves to the best of our
power to take care of our lives; we must husband our resources, we must
behave with the utmost order, we must be kind to each other, and we must
keep up our spirits and