“If we get much nearer the shore, we must bring up, and perhaps the anchor will hold until the wind moderates. It is the only chance we have of saving the ship. If we were to go about now, we might miss stays, and there is not room to weal without getting perilously close to the breakers,” he observed.
At the rate we were sailing, we must have gone over thirty or forty miles from the point where we exchanged signals with the shore, and as most probably the country was inhabited by a different tribe, who might be at enmity with the white men, those of us who might reach the shore would run a great chance of being slaughtered or carried off into slavery. I said as much to Harry and Charley. The same idea had occurred to them.
“It may be the case, but we may fall among friends, and we will hope for the best,” observed Charley.
Dawn was at length approaching, but there was no abatement of the gale, while it was too clear that we were drifting nearer and nearer to the coast. Every moment I expected to hear the mate give the word to furl the sails and let go the anchor. I suggested to Tubbs that he should advise him to do so.
“He would not listen to me; although he may know it is the best thing to be done, he’ll just put off doing it until it’s too late,” he answered.
Gradually the coast became more and more distinct, and we could make out the white line of breakers as they burst upon it. We stood watching it with straining eyes, the minutes turned into hours, the ship all the time rushing through the water at a furious rate. Presently a headland appeared on the starboard bow. It seemed impossible that we could weather it. Still the mate issued no order except to the man at the helm.
“Luff all you can,” he shouted out; “we don’t want to cast the ship away on that point if we can help it.”
In a few minutes—how many I cannot say—we saw the breakers close under our lee, the ship was almost among them, but on she stood. Again the land appeared to recede.
“Can there be a harbour in anywhere here?” I asked of Tubbs.
“The mate doesn’t think so, or we should be running into it,” was the answer.