top of the cylinder threw themselves down
once more, while those who already lay prostrate gathered in the slack
of their slew-ropes with the utmost eagerness as the cylinder revolved
another quarter of a turn. It soon became evident that the anchor had
fairly begun to rise off the ground, for the buoy-rope, which at first
had been bowsed taught over the stern of our launch, became
quite slack.

I forget how many successive efforts were made by the natives before
the anchor was lifted; but, in the end, it certainly was raised
completely off the ground by their exertions alone. The natives,
however, complained of the difficulty being much greater than they had
expected in consequence of the great size of our anchor. In fact, when
at length they had wound the hawser on the cylinder so far that it
carried the full weight, the whole number of the natives lay stretched
on the water in a horizontal position, apparently afraid to move, lest
the weight, if not uniformly distributed amongst them, might prove too
great, and the anchor drop again to the bottom, by the returning
revolutions of the cylinder. When this was explained to Sir Samuel
Hood, he ordered the people in the launch to bowse away at the
buoy-rope. This proved a most seasonable relief to the poor natives,
who, however, declared, that, if it were required, they would go on,
and bring up the anchor fairly to the water's edge. As the
good-natured Admiral would not permit this, the huge anchor, cylinder,
natives, launch, and all, were drawn into deep water were the ship
lay. The master-attendant now explained to the natives that they had
nothing more to do than to continue lying flat and still on the water,
till the people on board the ship, by heaving in the cable, should
bring the anchor to the bows, and thus relieve them of their burden.
The officer of the launch was also instructed not to slack the
buoy-rope till the cable had got the full weight of the anchor, and
the natives required no farther help.

Nothing could be more distinctly given than those orders, so that I
cannot account for the panic which seized some of the natives when
close to the ship. Whatever was the cause, its effect was such that
many of them let go their slew-ropes, and thus cast a disproportionate
share of burden on the others, whose strength, or rather weight,
proving unequal to counterpoise the load, the cylinder began to turn
back again. This soon brought the whole strain, or nearly