he dhow, and when
morning broke we were still all right and buoyant, although the tornado
showed no appearance of slackening, and we were quite out of sight of
land, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rolling
that high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on we
would have been swamped in an instant.

"All that day we continued driving ahead, for we could not stop, or wear
the boat round, or do anything but simply let her go where the wind
chose to take her. We could not even lower the mainsail, as if we had
done so it might have capsized her, besides which, as long as it held
out without being blown away, although it almost made the pinnace bury
her nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollers
behind from coming too close, just keeping way enough on her to be out
of their reach. But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comber
that raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft and
swamp her!

"By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, we
sighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coast
from the direction we had been sailing in ever since midnight. The land
was right ahead and some distance off yet; but approaching it rapidly as
we did, it made us tremble, for unless we could manage to steer inside
the reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the same as at Saint
Juan, we must be dashed against the cliffs. It was wonderful to think
we had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours.

"How we did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to the
force of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knots
an hour, more or less, there was a strong easterly current in the
Mozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must have
carried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands. I can't account
for it otherwise.

"Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with the
pinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she were
flying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguish
the noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct. We were
rushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power
could save the boat from being dashed to pieces.

"However, there was a power above watching over us.

"Presently I noticed from the contour of the land that we were near Cape
Tangan, wh