describe accurately. Whether I was wounded by the shot, or whether the
girls suddenly stood up, causing me to lose my balance and fall on the
side of the canoe and cut my thigh, I do not know.

At any rate, I crashed heavily overboard in spite of Yamba's desperate
attempt to save me. The next moment I had forgotten all about the ship,
and was only conscious of Yamba swimming close by my side, and
occasionally gripping my long hair when she thought I was going under. We
righted the canoe and climbed in as quickly as we could. I think I was
dazed and incapable of any coherent thought. As I collapsed in the
bottom of the canoe, I suddenly realised that Yamba and I were alone; and
sitting up, I gasped, "The girls, the girls! Where are they? Oh, where
are they? We must save them!"

Alas! they had sunk beneath the smiling waves, and they never rose again.
True, they were expert swimmers, but I suppose the terrible excitement,
followed by the sudden shock, was too much for them, and as they sank for
the first time they probably clung to each other in the embrace of death.
God knows best. Perhaps it was better that He should take my loved ones
from me than that they should be dragged through the terrible years that
followed.

But for a long time I utterly refused to believe that my darlings were
lost--they were truly as sisters to me; and Yamba and I and the natives
dived for them time after time, searching the sea in every direction. But
at length, seeing that I was exhausted, Yamba forcibly detained me, and
told me that I myself would inevitably drown if I went into the water
again. The wound in my thigh (I am uncertain to this day whether it was
the result of the gun-shot or mere collision with the rough gunwale of
the canoe) was bleeding freely; and as it was also pointed out to me that
there was a very strong and swift current at this spot, I allowed myself
to be taken away without any further opposition.

I simply _could_ not realise my bereavement. It seemed too terrible and
stunning to think, that when God had provided me with these two charming
companions, who were all in all to me every moment of my existence, as a
consolation for the horrors I had gone through--it seemed impossible, I
say, that they should be snatched from me just at the very moment when
salvation seemed within our reach. Every detail of the incident passed
before my mental vision, but I could not grasp it--I could not seem to
think