ar and Spratt another, and we had
two black men whom the chief mate had observed were first-rate hands at
turning turtles. Mr Henley had brought the boat's masts and sails,
because, as he observed, a breeze might spring up, and we might find
them useful. As we pulled away from the _Orion_ I could not help
admiring her size and build, and regretting that she was not better
commanded.

"There are many like her, and there will be, till young men intended for
the sea are educated and brought up as gentlemen and Christians,"
observed Mr Henley, divining my thoughts. "All I can hope is that
before we leave Colombo Captain Seaforth will come out and take command.
I wrote home from the Cape entreating him to do so."

This was good news, and the bare hope of having a change for the better
on board put me in good spirits. I had never encountered any heat equal
to what we were now enduring. The sea was as smooth as glass, and
glittered like a sheet of polished silver; there was not a breath of
air, and the sun was almost perpendicular. Oh, how hot it was!--the
perspiration was running from every pore. The sight of some trees,
however, on the islands we were approaching encouraged us to persevere,
and we contemplated the satisfaction of enjoying their cool shade, and
then a plunge in some quiet pool before we returned on board. But as we
drew near we began to fear that our anticipations would be disappointed,
for on every side appeared a line of surf beating against what Mr
Henley at once pronounced to be a coral bank.

"Still, there may be an opening which may lead to the island," he
remarked. "We'll not give up till we have tried in every direction."

Accordingly, keeping at a little distance from the thin white line of
surf, we continued pulling slowly round to the eastward of the island.
The island had, I observed, a peak rising in the centre to a
considerable elevation, and Mr Henley remarked that it looked like the
cone of a volcano. After pulling on for another half hour a space
appeared where the water was as smooth and glassy as that on which we
floated. We instantly pulled in towards it, and, passing between the
end of the lines of surf, found ourselves in a small bay lined with pure
white sand, and here and there dark rocks rising up among it, while
cocoa nut and other palm-trees came almost close down to the water's
edge. I had never seen a prettier or more romantic spot. Here and
there along the shore