to attack us.

CHAPTER TEN.

ON A LEE-SHORE.

It was useless to think of heaving the ship to, or otherwise attempting
to save the lives of the unfortunate Malays whose craft we had just
destroyed; the thing was an absolute impossibility, and any such attempt
would only have resulted in our own destruction; we had no option but to
continue our headlong flight to leeward, leaving our enemies to save
themselves, if they could, by clinging to the wreckage.

Immediately after the collision the carpenter came aft, and, without
waiting for orders, carefully sounded the pumps. The result was a
report that the hold was dry; we had therefore apparently sustained no
serious damage to our hull; while, so far as spars and rigging were
concerned, we did not appear to have parted a rope-yarn.

For fully half an hour the squall raged as madly as at the moment when
it first burst upon us; all this while the ship was scudding helplessly
before it, drawing nearer every moment to that deadly lee-shore that I
knew must be close at hand, and which I every instant expected would
bring us up all standing. At length, however, to my intense relief, the
gale slightly but perceptibly moderated its headlong fury; and
determining to at once avail myself of this opportunity, I called the
hands to the braces, and prepared to bring the ship to the wind on the
starboard tack. The moment that everything was ready I signed to the
man at the wheel to put the helm gently over; when, as I was turning
away again to give my orders to the men at the braces, one of them
startled me with the cry of--

"Land ho! ahead and on the port bow!" I caught sight of it at the same
instant, the air having momentarily cleared somewhat of the spindrift
and scud-water that had hitherto circumscribed our horizon and obscured
our view. Yes, there it was, a low, dark shadow against the now clear,
starlit sky right ahead and stretching away to port and starboard on
either bow. It could not be more than three miles distant from us--if
so much--for the air, though somewhat clearer than it had been, was
still thick, yet the loom of the land through it was clear enough;
altogether too much so, indeed, for my liking. What it was like to the
eastward I could not distinguish, for in that direction it faded quickly
into the thick atmosphere that lay that way; but westward it terminated
in a low point that already bore well out upon our larboard beam--a
sight that caused