was not out of danger. The
schooner might any moment go down, and he might be left, without a plank
to rest on, to the mercy of the ravenous sharks which swarmed around.
His first impulse was to look out for the brig. She was in the offing,
standing away to the westward. He had no hope from any help she could
render him. Then he looked back over the bar, in the expectation of
seeing the other boat coming out; but nowhere was she to be discovered.
He saw, meantime, that the wreck was drifting to the southward down the
coast, and at no great distance from it. He calculated the distance,
and thought to himself that he could swim on shore. If he delayed, the
vessel might drift farther out to sea, and the feat might be impossible.

"The sooner it is done, the better," he thought to himself. "I have
swum as far in a worse sea before now." Before slipping off into the
water, he commended himself with a hearty prayer to the care of a
Merciful Providence. He was on the very point of letting go his hold,
when, as he looked into the water, his eye fell on a dark triangular
object, just rising out of it, slowly moving past. He looked again with
a shudder, for he recognised the fin of a shark. Another and another
passed by. Truly thankful did he feel that he had not trusted himself
voluntarily within the power of their voracious jaws. If the vessel
sank though, where would he be? He could not help thinking of that. He
got up and gazed around. He was beginning to feel very hungry, and to
his other dangers the risk of starvation was now added. Still, he did
not allow himself to despair. He hoped that his old schoolfellows and
Hemming would soon recross the bar, and, seeing the wreck, come and find
him. After a little time, as he was casting his eye to the southward,
he thought he saw a dark object moving along close in-shore, just
outside the surf. He soon made out that it was a canoe, and then that
she was manned by blacks. As they drew near, it was evident that they
saw him on the wreck, for they at once pulled towards him. He scarcely
knew whether to hail them as friends or foes. They were very
ill-looking fellows he thought. There were also two white men in the
stern-sheets of the canoe. He did not like their looks at all either.
They were soon alongside, and when they saw his uniform, they looked up
at him with no very friendly eye. Having held a short parley among
themselves, they hailed him, but what th