My heart melted within me, and I sank into the bottom of the boat, and wept, and prayed, and gave thanks. Meantime, the sea-breeze coming on to blow fresh, drove the boat quickly before it, and I had enough to do—steering with an oar to avoid the coral reefs, and spits, and banks of sand, between which I was hurried—and over which the sea went flashing in thunder. Several times the keel of the boat grazed the bottom, and we were swung round and round in the eddies and counter-currents—but still she bore me safely on, until we approached a fair sandy beach, on which the surf broke high. I could see no better landing-place, so let the boat drive, and tied myself, as well as I could, for I was more dead than alive, to an oar, that I might have a last chance of reaching the shore. In a minute or two the boat was in the broken water,—she rode over two or three fierce crests of tumbling seas very gallantly, but then a heavier breaker than common curling up astern of us, fell, as it were, down upon the boat, and I found myself faintly struggling in the white frothy water, which foamed, and buzzed, and roared in my ears, and down into which, at length, losing all sense and consciousness, I sank—a drowning man.
When I opened my eyes again, I knew not where I was, or what had happened to me. I lay in a sort of half-waking torpid state, being dimly conscious that I was stripped and in a bed, and that above me was a roof of wattled branches, and that dark figures of naked men—Indians as I deemed, were moving about me. Then I felt a cup put to my mouth, and some warm liquid, which seemed to revive and comfort me, and flow, as it were, through my poor wasted limbs, warming and refreshing them, was poured down my throat, my head being raised by some one behind me for the purpose. But all this might or might not be. For all I knew, it was a dream of delirium. I was too weak to speak, and even to think,—consciousness forsook me again, and I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
I returned again to sense and life. I was in a bed, a hammock, laid upon a cool mat. There was a roof of wattled branches above me, and there were Indians, two very old men, with grey hair and grey beards flowing down upon their swarthy breasts, sitting beside me. Furthermore, I saw that I was in a hut or cottage, artfully contrived in a recess or split of rock; that part of the walls were formed of the natural living stone, and part of very neat and artificial wattle-work, quite wind and weather tight. The door seemed to open at the end of the passage, leading upwards from the chamber, which nestled, as it were, down between the rocks; and through this door, I saw bushes and long grass waving in the wind. The light in the hut was somewhat dim and grey, but I could see around me great numbers of fishing lines, and bows, and arrows; and, looking more closely, I saw in little cupboards, or niches, wrought out of the rock, stores of provisions, with drinking-cups made from cocoa-nuts and great shells, and rude clay-pots for cooking. But all the attention I could bestow was taken up upon my hosts. They were so like each other, that I supposed they were brothers; the same lank grey hair, the same brown or chestnut hue of the skin, the same rather flat noses, the same black eyes, so full of cheerfulness and kindness, and so completely the same expression of face, that I could positively see no difference betwixt their features. In all respects, save one, the ornaments they wore were also the same. Each had a sort of fillet of different-coloured pebbles, through which a string had been passed, placed round his head, and a similar adornment round his neck. Each also wore thin plates of gold dangling from his ears, but in the fillet of one of them was fastened a wing feather of the toucan; this was the mark by which I distinguished one from the other. Their dress was very simple. It consisted merely of a sort of bead-embroidered petticoat, or kilt, tied round the waist, and reaching nearly to the knee, and a sort of mantle of strange-looking fabric, very soft and fleecy, which, when they sat down in the hut or cave, they allowed to fall from their shoulders upon the floor.
While I gazed at these Indians, they conversed softly in a language which I had never heard, but which was very soft and melodious. At length, seeing my eyes open, and fixed upon them, both rose, and standing over me, he who wore the toucan’s feather said, gravely, and in excellent Spanish—
‘Be of good cheer, stranger, for you are among friends.’ I was too weak to do aught but take their hands in mine, and try to press them to my breast. Presently the drink I had before taken was again administered to me, and one of the Indians going forth into the open air, returned with a savoury morsel of broiled fish.
‘Eat, stranger,’ he said, in most sonorous Spanish; ‘eat, and be refreshed.’
Thus these kind Indians fed me by degrees, and caused me to sleep with soothing and stilling draughts, I eating, drinking, and slumbering by turns; but all in moderation, so that at length I was enabled to sit up in the hammock, propped against a chest, and to falter forth my thanks, and ask how long I had been lying in that dreamy state? They told me, nigh three days. I asked, if they had found me upon the beach. They replied, the two often speaking together, in a low chanting tone of voice: ‘Yes, they had, flung there by the waves, and near me a broken boat.’ I think my eyes must have told them what I intended for the next question, because, before I had spoken it, the Indian who wore the feather said—
‘And also the body of a white man. We buried him beneath a palm-tree, when the moon was in the heavens and the air still. He sleeps well.’
Then the other took up the word—
‘Truly he sleeps well; but you have been preserved; for which thank the God of many names and many nations.’