at the end
they asked if they should send us any provision ashore; for, as they
explained, it would take some little while to get the rope set taut
enough for our purpose, and the carrier fixed and in working order. Now,
upon reading this letter, we called out to the bo'sun that he should ask
them if they would send us some soft bread; the which he added thereto a
request for lint and bandages and ointment for our hurts. And this he
bade me write upon one of the great leaves from off the reeds, and at the
end he told me to ask if they desired us to send them any fresh water.
And all of this, I wrote with a sharpened splinter of reed, cutting the
words into the surface of the leaf. Then, when I had made an end of
writing, I gave the leaf to the bo'sun, and he enclosed it in the oilskin
bag, after which he gave the signal for those in the hulk to haul on the
smaller line, and this they did.

Presently, they signed to us to pull in again, the which we did, and so,
when we had hauled in a great length of their line, we came to the little
oilskin bag, in which we found lint and bandages and ointment, and a
further letter, which set out that they were baking bread, and would send
us some so soon as it was out from the oven.

Now, in addition to the matters for the healing of our wounds, and the
letter, they had included a bundle of paper in loose sheets, some quills
and an inkhorn, and at the end of their epistle, they begged very
earnestly of us to send them some news of the outer world; for they had
been shut up in that strange continent of weed for something over seven
years. They told us then that there were twelve of them in the hulk,
three of them being women, one of whom had been the captain's wife; but
he had died soon after the vessel became entangled in the weed, and along
with him more than half of the ship's company, having been attacked by
giant devil-fish, as they were attempting to free the vessel from the
weed, and afterwards they who were left had built the superstructure as a
protection against the devil-fish, and the _devil-men_, as they termed
them; for, until it had been built, there had been no safety about the
decks, neither day nor night.

To our question as to whether they were in need of water, the people in
the ship replied that they had a sufficiency, and, further, that they
were very well supplied with provisions; for the ship had sailed from
London with a general cargo, among which there was a