time, and just
picture to yourselves what our condition will be if, through suffering
ourselves to be delayed by calms, these provisions--and our water--
should become exhausted before we reach land or are picked up. My idea
is that four of us should pull while the fifth steers, and that at the
end of one hour by the watch he who steers should relieve one of us at
the oars, so that every four hours each of us will get one hour's rest.
Now, what say you, lads? It is Mr Cunningham's watch, therefore let
him take the first spell at the yoke lines."

It was easy enough to see that the others did not like the idea of
working at the oars in that blistering sun, nor was that to be wondered
at; but my reminder to them of the possibilities in store for us should
our provisions and water be exhausted before relief in some shape or
other came to us had its effect. With many grumblings and imprecations
at the inopportune calm, they set to work to strike the mast, ship the
rowlocks, and get out the oars; and five minutes later, myself pulling
stroke, and Cunningham in the sternsheets with the yoke lines in his
hands and his compass charm on the seat beside him, we were moving
quietly and easily to the westward at a speed of quite three knots.

Fortunately for us the gig was a particularly good boat of the whaleboat
type, built for speed, long and flat on the floor, with beautiful lines;
and apart from the low swell, which did not trouble us at all, the water
was smooth as oil. When, therefore, we had once got way upon the boat
it was an easy matter to keep her going without very much exertion. But
hot! Only those who have been exposed in an open boat at sea in a
tropical calm can in the least understand or appreciate what we
suffered. The sun's rays, striking almost vertically down upon our
heads, and reflected upward again from the shining surface of the water,
scorched us like fire, and before the first hour had passed my face was
_so_ painful that I scarcely dared touch it. And oh, how we perspired!
In less than ten minutes my singlet and drawers--which were all that I
had on, having like the rest stripped off all the rest of my clothing--
were as wet as though I had been overboard. And the natural result of
such profuse perspiration was that we soon became intolerably thirsty.
I don't know which of us was the first to suffer from this cause, but I
know that I had not been at my oar more than twenty minutes when I began