Again was hope deferred. The ship was sinking fast! It was perceptible to all. Down—down—she was gradually settling—there was no mistaking the feeling!
The excitement of another struggle with the element which had destroyed the fire now took place. The pumps were manned, and buckets, tubs, everything was used to bale out the water.
Captain Castle, always collected, soon found that one quarter was blown out of the ship, while the stern and the other quarter still held together. He rapidly formed a temporary breakwater of plank and canvas, to keep out the body of the sea; then hooking relieving tackles on the rudder outside of the ship (for the tiller and head of the rudder were burnt away), he manœuvred his vessel, which was under steam, until he got her in such a position that the injured portion of the vessel was sheltered from the violence of the sea. He then built a temporary bulkhead, and with the pumps going night and day, he brought the “Sarah Sands,” without a compass, sextant, or chronometer, into Port Louis, a distance of two hundred miles from that spot on the Indian Ocean where this disaster originated.
The officers and their families lost everything; and indeed the ladies landed at Mauritius in canvas dresses made by them out of the ship’s stores. The hospitable reception afforded to all on board the “Sarah Sands” by the people of Mauritius can never be forgotten by the grateful recipients; while the memory of Captain Castle, his coolness and courage, will be the theme of admiration wherever the name of the “Sarah Sands” is heard. And yet—must I write it?—no reward has been conferred on him for saving a regiment which afterwards did such gallant service in India, and contributed to the saving of our Eastern Empire.
CHAPTER VI.
France and Madagascar—Radama, Sovereign of the whole Island—Mayotte, the French Gibraltar—Nossi-bé and Hell Town—Holy Fathers in St. Augustine Bay—Malagasy Children taken to Réunion and educated by the Jesuits—Recent Attempt of the French to Revolutionize Madagascar—M. Lambert—Madam Ida Pfeiffer—Père Jean—Laborde—The Plot thickens—The Queen discovers all—The Conspirators banished from the Island—Death of Ida Pfeiffer—Products—Means proposed for securing the Independence of Madagascar.
At Mauritius, the neighbouring island of Madagascar is a constant subject of interest, dependent, as that island and Réunion are, upon Madagascar for supplies of cattle, rice, &c.
Its history has already been made known to us by the Reverend William Ellis, while the more recent work of that talented and adventurous missionary has made us more intimately acquainted with the present social state of that island.
To France this island has been an object of desire ever since the days of Cardinal Richelieu, who, foreseeing the important position which the island must eventually hold in commanding the commerce of the East, in the Indian Ocean, both by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and also by the Red Sea, granted, about two hundred and fifty years ago, to a company of merchants the right of trading with Madagascar, evidently with the intention of eventually obtaining possession of that island for the crown of France.