ce--undoubtedly their unhappiness
would have been avoided. We promised the dying man that we would attend
his wishes. He heard us, but his strength was exhausted; his wound
welled forth afresh, and, before the surgeon could apply a restorative,
his spirit had flown to its eternal rest. I will not describe the grief
of the widow. Grief had worked a most beneficial effect on her, and she
appeared a totally, different person to what she had before been.

The surgeon now turned the whole of his attention to little Maria. She
had been wounded in the side by a splinter; but, though she was weak
from the loss of blood, he assured me that he did not apprehend any
danger. She was, though, suffering much from pain, which she bore most
meekly.

When I first entered the cabin, I thought I had observed an object
moving in the corner, but I took no notice of it. I had sat down by the
little girl's side, and, having taken one of her hands in mine, I was
endeavouring to soothe her for the loss of her uncle, of which she was
aware, when I felt my other hand, which hung by my side, seized hold of
by a cold paw. I turned round, and what should I see but little Ungka,
looking up towards me with a face as expressive of grief as that of any
human being! He seemed fully aware of what had occurred. He then put
his hands to his head, and chattered and rolled about in a way which, in
spite of his gravity, was so highly ludicrous, that at any other time I
should have burst into fits of laughter. When he had come on board, no
one knew; for when he first made his appearance following the captain,
the seamen thought he was some little Malay imp, and had thrust him back
again, so that he also had a very narrow escape for his life. I
suspected that he had caught hold of the end of a rope hanging over the
side of the vessel, and had clambered up it when the fight was done.

It was with great sorrow we heard that the two lady passengers, of whom
I have spoken, and nearly all the Dutch crew, were missing, and there
was every probability they had been destroyed in the burning wreck. The
crew of the jolly-boat had been taken on board one of the other prahus;
but what their fate was, no one knew. Thus out of the crew and
passengers of the ill-fated _Cowlitz_, only six people had escaped. We,
who were among the number, had therefore reason to be grateful to Heaven
for the mercy shown us.

The brig cruised about in the neighbourhood for two