“Looking about me, I noticed that I had managed to fetch a low curving bay or arm of the sea considerably to the south of Cape Tangan, which I could recognise stretching away to the northward. The shore was of fine white sand; and in the background was a dense bush of jungle and forest trees, principally palms and such like tall upright trunks, that had no branches, all their foliage being on the top in a cluster like a lady’s parasol.
“My two cocoa-nut trees were evidently the outlying sentinels, or advance-guards of these; for they stood alone on the beach a hundred yards or more in front of the jungle and brushwood, which extended back from the shore in a mass of green that stood well out, in pleasant relief to the gleaming sand, as far away as the eye could reach, clothing the slopes of the high mountains which rose up in the centre of the island running like a backbone or rocky spine all along its length from its extreme nor’-easterly point down far away to the south.
“This forest belt of green encircles the whole coast of Madagascar, I’ve been told, beginning close almost to the water’s edge in some places and extending back inland until the higher levels are reached; and it is of a uniform width of some fifteen miles across, except where, of course, it has been cleared away at the different settlements and colonies at the heads of the various bays with which the coast is indented. I know, at all events, that this jungle seemed endless and impenetrable; for I had quite enough to do with it in the following ten days that I was thus brought face to face with it, as I can tell you!
“As soon as I woke up, the first thought that crossed my mind was, where could I find water? I was so parched with thirst that my tongue seemed glued to the roof of my palate, and I believe it was feeling this that roused me; so, naturally, I turned about, hunting for some brook or streamlet where I could get a drink, as rivers mostly run to the shores of the majority of islands I ever heard of. However, there were none close in sight that I could see from the beach, and all the water there was salt; and, as I argued to myself that all the green jungle must have been produced and kept alive by moisture of some sort, I abandoned the sea-shore as hopeless and directed my steps towards the bush, with the expectation of finding there the object of my quest. I didn’t go with any lagging steps either, for by this time my thirst was almost unbearable, becoming the more intense the longer I waited for water.
“I proceeded after getting into the bush to where the ground sloped down into a sort of valley, fancying that such would be the likeliest place for a river; but I had not got very far through the rough thicket, which scratched my exposed skin pretty sorely by the way, when, as I emerged again into the open, I saw before me a group of men in front amongst some detached trees. Two or three were moving about, while the rest were lying on the ground; so, taking them to be natives, and knowing that the Sakalavas who inhabited this part of the coast were, unlike the Hovas, friendly to foreigners, many Hindoo families and Portuguese being settled amongst them, besides a few stray Frenchmen and Americans, I at once made towards the group. Judge of my surprise, however, on coming up to the men, to find that they were none other than Magellan and four others of the pinnace’s crew, whom I had supposed to be lost, but who had managed to get ashore safely long before myself!
“Well, what a hand-shaking there was that went round them—why, it was like meeting chaps that had been dead and buried over again! We none of us could say anything for some time, the emotion of seeing each other again being too much, for I was a pretty good favourite with all the hands, and Magellan had told the rest about his having passed me swimming ashore early in the day they all got to land; and then, through my not turning up, of course they all believed I had gone down to Davy Jones! One thing was now certain, however; and that was, that we were the whole number that were saved; for, if you will recollect, five out of the thirteen comprising the crew of the boat had gone down with her when she filled and sank, leaving eight only struggling in the water. Of these remaining eight, six of us were now together on the Madagascar coast, and the other two, Bellamy and Russell, I had myself seen drown when they tumbled off the raft on which I had left them in that last deadly embrace of theirs.
“I was so knocked of a heap at meeting my old shipmates so unexpectedly that I declare to you I forgot all about my raging thirst for the moment; but as soon as the excitement had calmed down and all sorts of questions and answers had been asked and replied to, with much palavering and congratulating of one another, the intense feeling returned to me worse than ever—my tongue being so swollen up that it seemed to fill my mouth!
“‘Have you got any water?’ says I to Magellan; ‘I’m dying with thirst!’
“‘Bless you, my hearty!’ replied he, ‘why didn’t you say that afore? But mind now, you must go gingerly. This is all we’ve got till we find some more, and we’ve agreed to allowance ourselves. Half a pint is all you can have, shipmate, now, and if you drinks it all you’ll get no more to-day. I advise you to rinse your mouth out with it, for that’ll make it go further, bo!’
“So saying, Magellan hands me a pannikin into which he had drawn off the quantity of water he had said was the allowance out of the barrico, which I told you contained some when the pinnace was wrecked. It had floated ashore all right, fortunately for us all; and Magellan, picking it up, had had the good sense to economise it for the advantage of the lot. I can’t tell you how it felt as I drank it down! Nothing that I ever tasted before or since all the world over ever came up to that drink of water. It was like the nectar as I’ve read of that the old Greek gods used to drink on Mount Olympus, for it was sweeter than any wine or liquor that ever crossed my lips before I learnt to wear the blue ribbon!