d by the
appearance of a great horde of naked blacks--giants, every one of them--on
the rocks above me.

They were tremendously excited, and greeted me first of all with a shower
of spears. Fortunately, on encountering the first lot of threatening
blacks, I had prepared a shelter for myself on deck by means of the
hatches reared up endwise against the stanchions, and so the spears fell
harmlessly around me. Next, the natives sent a volley of boomerangs on
board, but without any result. Some of these curious weapons hit the
sails and fell impotently on the deck, whilst some returned to their
throwers, who were standing on the rocks about fifty yards away, near the
edge of the water. I afterwards secured the boomerangs that came on
board, and found that they were about twenty-four inches in length,
shaped like the blade of a sickle, and measured three or four inches
across at the widest part.

They were made of extremely hard wood, and were undoubtedly capable of
doing considerable injury when dexterously and accurately thrown. The
blacks kept up a terrific hubbub on shore, yelling like madmen, and
hurling at me showers of barbed spears. The fact that they had
boomerangs convinced me that I must be nearing the Australian mainland.
All this time the current was carrying the _Veielland_ rapidly along, and
I had soon left the natives jabbering furiously far behind me.

At last I could see the open sea once more, and at the mouth of the
strait was a little low, wooded island, where I thought I might venture
to land. As I was approaching it, however, yet another crowd of blacks,
all armed, came rushing down to the beach; they jumped into their
catamarans, or "floats," and paddled out towards me.

After my previous experience I deemed it advisable not to let them get
too near, so I hoisted the mainsail again and stood for the open sea.
There was a good supply of guns and ammunition on board, and it would
have been an easy matter for me to have sunk one or two of the native
catamarans, which are mere primitive rafts or floats, and so cooled their
enthusiasm a bit; but I refrained, on reflecting that I should not gain
anything by this action.

By this time I had abandoned all hope of ever coming up with my friends,
but, of course, I did not despair of reaching land--although I hardly
knew in what direction I ought to shape my course. Still, I thought that
if I kept due west, I should eventually sight Timor or some ot