The times., 1898-02-06

VI 81, Stll eIlllTe. streaming at every
pore, but mutely testifying TO the fidel
ity and skin of her builders. For some
t time l quite lost sight of the boat in
the clouds OF spray that flew so thick
ly above the turmoil. Presently
caught sight of her comparatively neal
the ship, and still heading towards her
Then she rose. upon the back of a roller
which hurled her like a piece of drift
wood fully 200 yards at a sweep. From
that time | saw no more of her, and in q
perfect agony of sorrow I slipped from
my perch and ran to tell the boatsWain
that / believed they were lost. But be-
fore l had finished sobbing, the boat
shot into the lagoon again, her crew Sc
utterly exhausted that they could, not
paddle to the beach, but allowed her to
drift thither at here own sweet viii.
They were not only exhausted, but
heartbroken at the thought that seven
of their shipmateS eremoomed to die
almost within hail, while they were
powerless to help. Gradually they re-
covered sufficiently to crawl out of the
boat and up on the beach. where had
made fire and gotta PCT of tea ready
for them. n
Their grief and rage at their impo-
tence was ptiful to. see, Again ana
again they broke oat into incoherent
denunciations of the terrible circum-
stances. vainly attempting to tighten
| their burden of sorrow by thus unpack-
| ing their hearts of words
When suddenly the gig appeared.
! All safe on board of her, and pad
ding to shore with two hastily rough
! ed-out planks for oars and an Indian
| paddle left on board by one of the vis-
! itors at Tonala. We all sat speech
less, while the boat slowly neared us,
wondering whether we had really gone
out of our minds or not, and this was
| simply a freak of our disordered fam
| cy. But the grating of the boats keel
| upon the beach dispelled our fears, and
there was a scene. Men hugged each
other, laughing and crying by turns,
quite hysterical with joy and revulslon
| of feeling. The birds, utterly unafraid
| of us, Waddled among US, pecking i'm
| partially at our legs and getting pret-
| ty roughly handled in consequence,
| the gale reared overhead, but we were
too happy to notice anything. We were
reunited; the lost found the dead re-
| turned to life.
After the first rush of emotion was
| overcome the inevitable question to
the newcomers, How ever did you
| manage it? What did you do
They said that after watching the ef-
forts of the boatmen to reach them,
and seeing them swept away like
straws, they were inclined to give
themselves up for lost. More especial
ly since every breaker completely over
whelmed tn ship, sometimes hardly al
lowing them time to get breath or a
fresh grip before the next one come.
The ship, too, was lifted bodily by ev-
cry wave and let fall with an awful
crash. pounding the very rocks to pow
der beneath her, so that how she held
together was a miracle. In the capact-
ty of the gig to carry them ashore they
could not believe, but. sas If to destroy
every hope. they could not find a SIN
gle oar. The carpenter. suffering as he
was, managed to rough out a couple
of nondescript things which might
serve their turn. These and the be
fore mentioned paddle were their sole
equipment. The steward. careful man,
covered the bottom of the boat with
tins Of preserved provisions. feeling
that they, by their compact weight
would add TO her stability as we'll as
being most useful addition to the
food supply if ever they reached the
How they managed to launch her
without banging her to pieces like a
bundle of sticks I could never rightly
learn, except that they were hardly
clear of the ship before they were
swept on the crest of mighty roller
IKE al straw several IdAHpHlS
in 81 minute of two.
There were seven of them in the
frail craft, a fairly good load at any
time, but in a sea, like that il seemed
impossible to keep such a cockle-shell
afioat. However. that miracle was
performed for they arrived safely out
of the very jaws OF, death, as 1 have |
said.
Manifestly, the first thing necessary
was TO make some sort of a shelter, |
for in addition, to the autumnal chill, !
which was trying to our thin blood, |
a steady, soaking rain set in. The |
boats We're hauled up on the beach !
above high-water mark, where they I
were canted over and shores put under |
the upper gunwales, thus forming a |
sort of shed. The boats sails We're |
spread on the sand underneath this inn |
promptu shelter and all hands got un-
der cover with such scraps of food as |
each was able to secure Night came !
on apace, bringing no cessation of the I
gale or the doWnpour; but the solid |
earth was beneath us, SO, in spite of the |
hurry -burly above. we slept soundly. |
About midnight there was a big alarm
raised by the occupants of the gig.
which had not been hauled up high |
enough, and so got upset by a tremen-
dous wave which reached far above
hish-water mark. This was very dis
quieting. for we had imagined that no
sea would get UP inside the lagoon.
But the tide had risen so high that the
fringe of rocks no longer presented an
effectual barrier to the awful breakers
assaulting it. FThey overleaped it and
sped shorewards again, as If threaten
ing to cover the tiny islet itself
Beyond giving us a good fright and |
a little additional wetting there was |
no harm done. and the night dragged
it's slow length into morning again.
With the dawn the rain ceased, enab-
ling US to make some little progress
toward erecting a more comfortable |
habitation. An Immense fire was light
ed out of the abundance of driftwood
that was piled along the beach, hot |
food was prepared and we had a first
class meal The ship was still erect
her masts still standing, but from her
bilge protruded a large log of mahog-
any, unmistakabie evidence that her
back was broken.
Now, of our life on that island for
seven days a very good tale could be
told: but my yarn is already longer
than it ought to be. so I'll just gather
up the loose ends, as it were, and heave
to.
We were getting fairly reconciled to |
our lot--in fact. | was enjoying myself |
in prime fashion-when along came |
bound French bark that saw
our signal, hove to, and sent boat |
ashore for us. She would have given |
Us all a passage. but the old man would i
not go. He had made up his mind to
sail the pinnace to Sisal in Campeche,
about 12O miles, and invited six of the
crew to go with him. All the after
guard did so, except the bo'sun and !
away we went in the Frenchman for
Havana leaving the skipper and his |