walking to
China, which they believed was only separated from Australia by a
large river which existed a few hundred miles to the northward of the
settlement. Some of them died of thirst, others were slaughtered by the
blacks, and the wounded and exhausted survivors were glad to make their
way back again to their gaolers.

Cornell listened intently, and gave his promise readily. Then he rose to
go, and the Governor held out his hand.

"Good evening, Mr. Cornell. I must see you again before you sail."

II

One evening, three weeks later--so vigorously had the carpenter's mates
from the old frigate _Sirius_ got through their work--the _Ceres_ was
ready for sea. She was to sail on the following morning, and Corwell,
having just returned from the shore, where he had been to say goodbye
to the kind-hearted Governor, was pacing the deck with his wife, his
smiling face and eager tones showing that he was well pleased.

He had reason to be pleased, for unusual luck had attended him. Not
only had his ship been thoroughly and efficiently repaired, but he had
replaced six of his untrustworthy Malays by four good, sturdy British
seamen, one of whom he had appointed mate. These men had arrived at
Sydney Cove in a transport a few days after his interview with the
Governor; the transport had been condemned, and Corwell, much to his
delight, found that out of her crew of thirty, four were willing to come
with him on what he cautiously described as a "voyage of venture to the
South Seas." All of them had served in the navy, and the captain of the
transport and his officers gave them excellent characters for sobriety
and seamanship. Out of the sixty or seventy pounds which still remained
to him he had given them a substantial advance, and the cheerful manner
in which they turned to and helped the carpenters from the frigate
convinced him that he had secured decent, reliable men, to whom he
thought he could reveal the real object of his voyage later on.

*****

Two years before Cornell had been mate of a "country" ship employed
in trading between Calcutta and the Moluccas. The Ternate agent of the
owners of the ship was an Englishman named Leighton, a widower with one
daughter, whose mother had died when the girl was fifteen. With this
man the young officer struck up a friendship, and before six months had
passed he was the acknowledged suitor of Mary Leighton, with whom he
had fallen in love at first sight, and who quickly