"Then we are out of the Mozambique Channel?"
"Yes; or nearly so. By noon we shall be quite out of it."
"Thank Heaven! I wish we were only a little nearer Port Louis."
"We shall soon be so, Ethel, after leaving this shore."
"Don't deem me foolish, dearest; but, after all we have suffered, I always tremble when I think of—of——"
"What, Ethel?
"Of those three piratical proas which the captain speaks about. I dreamt of them last night, and saw them quite full of wild black fellows, with spears, plumes, and war-paint—just like the pictures we have seen of the savages who killed Captain Cook."
"The coast hereabout looks wild and solitary indeed."
"A few miles eastward lies Fort Dauphin," said the doctor; "it was an old French settlement, but was deserted and ruined long ago."
Anxious, we have said, to procure water, the captain stood close in towards one of the little isles that lie about the south-western extremity of Madagascar; and now every man on board, except the convalescent Mr. Basset, had to work hard in taking in and stowing some of the fore-and-aft canvas, getting the kedge anchors and warps ready, having the boats clear, and the soundings had to be attended to without intermission.