“By this time we could just distinguish a dark line in the water, which marked where the blacks were making their way towards the land.
”‘Poor fellows,’ said Maka. ‘Very few swim so far.’
“Our case was bad enough, for even with a couple of paddles, which we managed to make while on the raft, out of some spars we had brought for the purpose, we could scarcely hope, with the breeze against us, to reach the shore. Our water and provisions would not hold out long, and no vessel was likely to come near us.
“It was near evening when the fire broke out. The sun went down, but the flames of the burning vessel lighted up the ocean around us, and then the full moon rose, and seemed to cheer us up a little.
“Maka talked to me about my soul, for he didn’t seem to think that we should have much chance of escaping with our lives; but I begged that he would not put gloomy thoughts into my mind. He sat and talked on; the truth is, however, I couldn’t understand what he was talking about, it was all so new to me.
“Towards morning the vessel burned to the water’s edge, and then the sea rushing in, down she went, and we lay floating, with only the light of the moon to cheer us.
“When the sun rose I found that we had drifted still further from the land, which was no longer in sight.
“It is not pleasant to think of the time I spent on that raft. Several days went by, and we consumed all our meal and water. I thought I should die, and at last was more dead than alive. I lay on my back with my eyes shut, and a piece of wood under my head which Maka had put there to prevent the water washing over me, while he sat up by my side singing hymns, and keeping up his spirits in a way I could not have supposed possible.
“While I thus lay I heard him give a shout, and he helped me to sit up. I saw the land which I didn’t suppose we were near, and a canoe with four natives close to us. I suppose they were Christians, for instead of knocking us on the head, they took Maka and me on board, and welcomed him as a friend, giving us food and treating us very kindly in their village, to which they carried us. We there heard that of all the savages which had been on board the brig, only thirty had reached the shore. It’s a wonder that even they managed to do it, considering the distance. The rest had been drowned, or picked off by the sharks.
