having preserved me so long and brought me through such awful
perils, as well as for the good health I had always enjoyed. As the boat
began to ripple through the inclosed waters of the lagoon, the spirits of
the four blacks rose so high that I was afraid they would capsize the
little craft in their excitement.

There was a strong, warm breeze blowing in our favour, and soon my island
home was receding swiftly from our view. The last thing to remain in
sight was the shell hut, but this, too, disappeared before we had covered
three miles. It would have been visible from a big ship at a much
greater distance, but no one would ever imagine what it really was. Yamba
sat near me in the stern, but her husband curled himself up at the
opposite end of the boat; and from the time we reached the open sea
practically until we gained the main, he did not relax his attitude of
reserve and dogged silence. He ate and drank enormously, however. You
would have thought we were in a land flowing with milk and honey, instead
of an open boat with limited provisions and an unknown journey in front
of us. He did exert himself sufficiently on one occasion, however, to
dive overboard and capture a turtle. He was sitting moodily in the prow
of the boat as usual one afternoon, when suddenly he jumped up, and with
a yell took a header overboard, almost capsizing our heavily laden boat.
At first I thought he must have gone mad, but on heaving to, I saw him
some little distance away in the water struggling with a turtle. He
managed to get it on its back after a time, and though I felt annoyed at
his recklessness, I could not help laughing at his antics and the comical
efforts made by the turtle to escape. The turtle was duly hauled aboard,
and we then continued our voyage without delay. I was dreadfully afraid
of being caught in a storm. Our boat must inevitably have foundered had
the seas been at all rough.

Fortunately never once did the wind change, so that we were able to sail
on steadily and safely night and day, without deviating in the least from
our course. We travelled fully four knots an hour, the wind and current
being nearly always in our favour. It was, however, a painfully
monotonous and trying experience to sit thus in the boat, cramped up as
we were, day after day and night after night. About the fifth day we
sighted a small island--probably Barker Island, in the vicinity of
Admiralty Gulf--and landed upon it at once s