weather used
us; and besides that, the ship's instruments had been lost and our
provisions were badly damaged.

Nevertheless, we made some headway. The poor abandoned brig, seemingly
conscious of our desertion, behaved in a very singular fashion; urged
doubtless by the wind, she pursued us with pathetic struggles--now beam
on, again stern foremost, and still again plunging forward with her
nose under the water. Her pitching and lurching were straining her
heavily, and, with her hold full of water, she evidently could live but
a few minutes longer. Meanwhile, it was no small matter for us to keep
clear of her, for whether we would pull to this side or that she
followed us, and sometimes we were in danger. There came an end,
however, for the brig, now heavily water-logged, rose majestically on a
great wave and came down side on into the trough; she made a brave
struggle to right herself, but in another moment she went over upon her
beam, settled, steadied herself a moment, and then sank straight down
like a mass of lead. This brought upon us a peculiar sense of
desolation; for, so far as we knew (and Captain Campbell had sailed
these seas before), there was hardly a chance of our gaining land
alive.

Much to our surprise, we had not rowed more than twenty knots when (it
being about midnight) a fire was sighted off our port bow,--that is to
say, due west. This gave us so great courage that we rowed heartily
towards it, and at three in the morning, to our unspeakable happiness,
we dragged our boats upon a beautiful sand-beach. So exhausted were we
that with small loss of time we made ourselves comfortable and soon
were sound asleep upon firm ground.

The next sun had done more than half its work before any of us were
awake. Excepting some birds of lively plumage, there was not a living
thing in sight; but no sooner had we begun to stir about than a number
of fine brown men approached us simultaneously from different
directions. A belt was around their waists, and from it hung a short
garment, made of bark woven into a coarse fabric; and also hanging from
the belt was a heavy sword of metal. Undoubtedly the men were savages;
but there was a dignity in their manner which set them wholly apart
from the known inhabitants of these South Sea Islands. Our captain, who
understood many of the languages and dialects of the sub-tropical
islanders, found himself at fault in attempting verbal intercourse with
these visitors, but it