rrow compass. The sea, too, got up with a rapidity
truly astonishing. It seemed as if the giant waves had been rolling on
towards us from some far-off part of the ocean. All that day and night
we ran on. Scarcely had the first streaks of dawn appeared, when the
look-out aloft shouted--

"Land on the starboard bow!"

Startling, indeed, was the cry. Mr Henley and I, and Mr Waller, had
been watching to take observations after the captain and mate had broken
their sextants, but we had not been able to ascertain our position with
the exactness we wished; and the second mate thought the ship might have
been set by some current to the eastward of her course. The first mate
now came on deck; he examined the land as we drew in with it, and then
ordered the ship to be kept more to the southward, but still the land
appeared more and more ahead. I asked Mr Henley what he thought about
the matter.

"I have some fears that it is the coast of Africa. It may be the
north-east coast of Grand Canary," he answered; but even while we were
speaking, we observed a line of dark rocks over which the sea was
breaking furiously, heaving up on high, dense masses of foam.

Shipwreck, in one of its worst aspects, on a wild coast, without help at
hand, stared us in the face. The passengers soon got notice of the
condition of the ship, and came hurrying, pale and trembling, on deck.
Never had I seen so many horror-stricken countenances collected
together, as they gazed forth on the rock-bound desolate shore towards
which the ship was hurrying. Mr Henley had carefully been watching the
land.

"I have hopes," he observed at last, "that the land we see is Point
Arraga in Teneriffe, and if so, we shall soon see a long continued
coast-line."

Anxiously we kept our eyes fixed on the shore. Just then an apparition
appeared in the shape of the captain, his coat only half on, and his
hair streaming in the wind. He looked about him, trying to comprehend
what had occurred. Then suddenly he ordered the helm to be put to port,
with the idea of hauling up to the westward, and trying to escape the
danger in that direction. Before the order was obeyed Mr Henley
stepped boldly up to him.

"If we do that, sir, the ship will be cast away," he said firmly. "That
is the island of Teneriffe aboard of us, and we shall soon be getting
round its eastern point and into smooth water."

By this time all the cabin, as well as second-class passengers and