The poor boy, seeing himself carried away like a cork, called out in the most heart-rending tones for help. I never heard anything so agonising as that cry for help, and we could render none.
Hitherto we had done nothing to aid him, though he was struggling with all his strength against the impetuous tide; but now one of the men, with a noble disregard of self, which I glory to say is the great characteristic of British seamen, dashed boldly after him. The poor boy, though nearly exhausted, no sooner saw him, than hope gave him new strength, and he breasted the tide more vigorously than ever. Swimming with the current soon brought the man within hail of him, and they then turned, and swam across the tide, and to our great astonishment we now saw them taken by hn eddy of the current and carried back towards us as swiftly as they were before carried away from us. Now aiding and now encouraging him, the man brought the gallant boy nearer and nearer to the landing-place. Several times they were whirled round and carried almost to the edge of the current, but the Almighty, who cares for the meanest of his creatures, preserved them from this danger, and the poor boy was landed in safety, but he fainted as soon as he was hauled up on to the landing-place.
Fortunately we had some rum left in our bottle, and I soon restored the youngster to his senses by pouring down his throat a good quantity of the cheering spirit. He was a tall lad of his age, and handsome withal, although slightly made. I could not help noticing his figure as he lay almost in an unconscious state. He had no shoes or stockings on, and his very wide trowBers, which in fact was all the covering he had on, he having thrown off* his jacket and shirt when the boat broke adrift, showed a finely- shaped leg, full of sinew and muscle; while his sun-burnt face contrasted finely with his broad chest and beautifully moulded neck and shoulders. His forehead was high, and his form, though muscular, had all the plumpness of a woman.
Having served out a good caulker of old rum, we next proceeded to look after the boat. It was now about half -past four, and I could see that the tide was falling fast, and that in a short time the boat would be high and dry. The swell too was subsiding, the breeze having decreased as evening approached, and we had every prospect of saving our provisions, as well as getting the masts and sails to make a tent. At length the tide had so far ebbed that we could reach the boat. I found her bilged, and nearly full of water, and that she was firmly imbedded between two rocks. It was therefore no use thinking of making her serviceable. Happily for us, she had been got ready for a drogging expedition, and was well supplied with necessaries. Besides a quantity of provisions, which for the most part were dry, we found a couple of tarpaulins and a lot of old sails, a quantity of coals, and a cooking-stove and iron pot. My first care was to get all these safe on the top; and we then with a small crow-bar, which we found in her bows, and a stout shovel, broke up the boat, and took her materials up to our perch among the boobies. I do not think we lost anything, for the boy’s jacket and shirt were found hanging to one of the rocks, the shirt actually dried ready to put on. It is a very easy thing to say we got all these things up; but it may be imagined that if we found it difficult to ascend in the morning when we had nothing to encumber us, we found it much more so now.
But give sailors a line, a spar, and a block, and they will soon rig themselves a purchase by means of which they could overcome greater difficulties than we had to surmount.
Having got our stores together, we went to work to make ourselves a tent. The day was waning fast, and it would not do to be very particular, so we dug a hole and stuck the main-mast on end, with the halyards rove; and then lashing the fore and main lugs together, and making the halyards fast in mid-ships, we pegged the foot down to the ground, and then hauled the halyard taut; and behold, we had a first-rate tent, though open at both ends. This was soon obviated by making one of the spare sails fast to one end; and covering the ground with the tarpaulins, and then laying down the old sails, we had a house that was not to be sneezed at.
While we had been thus engaged, the boy Tom, now perfectly recovered from his sousing, had got a fire under weigh, and had made some coffee; salt junk and hard biscuits were also placed before us, and we commenced operations with great zeal and determination. The biscuits vanished by dozens, and the huge mahogany-like junks of beef disappeared as if they had been the tenderest chickens. I am sure that none of us ever made a better or more comfortable meal, and when we wound up with a stiffish glass of grog and a pipe I felt quite exhilarated.
It would have been an interesting sight to have seen us seated on the top of this barren rock surrounded by the debris of our boat, and environed by boobies in all stages of maturity. The old ones were quietly nestling on their eggs, but the young ones were squabbling wofully because some one had intruded on their premises. The fact was, that we had dislodged a great number to erect our tent, and there was a perfect skirmish for places.
I make no doubt the old ones were greatly surprised at having their domains invaded in such an unceremonious fashion, for they kept flying over our heads, passing and repassing, and looking at us in a most impertinent manner; now sailing past us in a smooth, noiseless flight, coming so near that the motion of the eye and every feather could be seen, the bird being all the time motionless, except a slight inclination of the head when opposite you. Then, as some new-comers arrived from seaward, the whole fraternity would rise in a cloud, and kick up such a row as would have frightened all the old women in Christendom into fits if they could have heard it.
And now the sun reached the horizon, and its purple glory spread like a carpet over both sea and land; even the scanty grass which grew on the island, tinged with its rich colouring, looked like a velvet mantle, clothing its barren carcass
with beauty. All nature seemed hushed. A bank of clouds hung away to the southward, their