e bridle of the kite, and so he had all ready for paying
out to the wreck.

And now, having nothing to do, we gathered round to watch, and,
immediately, the bo'sun giving the signal, Jessop cast the kite into
the air, and, the wind catching it, lifted it strongly and well, so
that the bo'sun could scarce pay out fast enough. Now, before the kite
had been let go, Jessop had bent to the forward end of it a great
length of the spun yarn, so that those in the wreck could catch it as
it trailed over them, and, being eager to witness whether they would
secure it without trouble, we ran all of us to the edge of the hill to
watch. Thus, within five minutes from the time of the loosing of the
kite, we saw the people in the ship wave to us to cease veering, and
immediately afterwards the kite came swiftly downwards, by which we
knew that they had the tripping-line, and were hauling upon it, and at
that we gave out a great cheer, and afterwards we sat about and smoked,
waiting until they had read our instructions, which we had written upon
the covering of the kite.

Presently, maybe the half of an hour afterwards, they signaled to us to
haul upon our line, which we proceeded to do without delay, and so,
after a great space, we had hauled in all of our rough line, and come
upon the end of theirs, which proved to be a fine piece of three-inch
hemp, new and very good; yet we could not conceive that this would stand
the stress necessary to lift so great a length clear of the weed, as
would be needful, or ever we could hope to bring the people of the ship
over it in safety. And so we waited some little while, and, presently,
they signaled again to us to haul, which we did, and found that they had
bent on a much greater rope to the bight of the three-inch hemp, having
merely intended the latter for a hauling-line by which to get the heavier
rope across the weed to the island. Thus, after a weariful time of
pulling, we got the end of the bigger rope up to the hill-top, and
discovered it to be an extraordinarily sound rope of some four inches
diameter, and smoothly laid of fine yarns round and very true and well
spun, and with this we had every reason to be satisfied.

Now to the end of the big rope they had tied a letter, in a bag of
oilskin, and in it they said some very warm and grateful things to us,
after which they set out a short code of signals by which we should be
able to understand one another on certain general matters, and