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great distance to be traversed seemed to frighten them. They were
hardly prepared to face the prospect of nearly a fortnight in an open
boat, even although we might reckon with tolerable certainty upon a fair
wind and moderate weather all the time. They pointed out that our stock
of provisions was wholly inadequate for such a voyage, unless we were
all prepared to go upon an exceedingly short allowance forthwith, and
they appeared to consider that, by adhering to Captain Chesney's plan,
we should stand a better chance of falling in with and being picked up
by a ship. As to whether we should make for the Azores or the Canaries,
we were pretty unanimously of opinion that, despite the much greater
distance of the latter, if we were, as we supposed, within the influence
of the trade-wind, we should stand a much better chance of fetching it;
and after some further discussion it was definitely determined to shape
the best course we could for Teneriffe.

This important matter settled, all that we had to do was to lash the
mast thwart in its place again, haul the mast and oars alongside, get
them inboard, and make sail, which we did forthwith.

For the next five days we sailed comfortably enough to the eastward,
making on an average, about eighty-five miles in the twenty-four hours,
during which not a single sail had been sighted; and then the wind
gradually died away, and it fell stark calm. This obliged us to take to
the oars; and whereas during the gale we had suffered greatly from cold
and wet, all our complaint now was of the intense heat; for the clouds
had passed away, leaving the sky a vault of purest blue, out of which
the sun blazed down upon us relentlessly for about eleven hours out of
the twenty-four. This, coupled with our exertions at the oars--and
possibly the profuse perspiration induced thereby--provoked a continuous
thirst which we had no means of satisfying; for immediately upon our
determination to make for Teneriffe, we had carefully gauged our stock
of provisions and water, and had placed ourselves upon a very short
allowance of both. And, to make matters still worse, the setting in of
the calm immediately rendered it imperatively necessary to still further
reduce our already far too scanty allowance.

There was nothing for it, however, but to toil on, hour after hour, with
ever-decreasing strength; the only redeeming feature of our case being
the knowledge that, should we now chance to sight a