nearly two hours' hard and strenuous exertion,
completely foiled and weary, I had to give that
up.

In this state of affairs, I took out my pipe,
and, with a strange feeling of despair, began to
smoke, letting the boat drift. A sense of utter
helplessness and hopelessness stole over me. I
felt as if all that was passing were a hideous
dream. How long I remained in this state, I
can hardly say. I took no note of time. But
when I roused myself, and looked once more
around, I found the sun setting, and a thin
grey mist slowly creeping along the land, quietly
veiling it from my sad and lingering gaze.
Thank God there was a moon! I can hardly
say how its light comforted me. Even now I
scarcely dare to think how that long and weary
night would have passed, had it been dark and
cloudy.

I knew that far away out at sea were a group
of three small islands. I had heard the
natives frequently speak of them as being high,
rocky, and covered with forest. I had, moreover,
heard of canoes having drifted out there,
carried onward by the very wind which was
then blowing. By degrees it dawned upon me
that I might reach them. I accordingly once
more set sail, and ran all night before a steady
mild breeze. Oh, how long that night seemed!

The day—so eagerly longed for, and yet bringing
with it a dreary consciousness of affording
no relief—at length came: first, a light grey
streak along the eastern horizon, gradually
assuming a rosy hue, then changing to a deeper
crimson flush. The sun, round, large, and
red, rose like a vast ball of blood, softening
to a brilliant gold: the whole sky being
flecked with little golden clouds. I remember h
ow I marked each change of the dawn;
how dreamily I watched the sun rise; and
then, waking up as it were with a start, how
I placed my hand over my eyes, and looked long
and eagerly in the direction where I thought
the islands lay. Afar off on the distant horizon,
I saw what at first I thought were clouds low
down and resting on the water. I looked again
when a short time had elapsed. The outline
was unchanged, but more distinctly defined,
and, as the sunlight glinted on it, I
discerned the peaks of some high lands. I
steered straight towards them. I kept on my
course. I then ate some of my cold potatoes,
and drank eagerly of the water, the first food
that had passed my lips since I had started. I
then lighted a pipe, and patiently awaited the
course of events. Here a new and unexpected
shock awaited me. Happening to look behind
my boat, I saw a huge shark following silently
in my wake. I can hardly describe the cold
thrill of horror that tingled through my veins
at the sight. Every moment my excited
imagination made me think it was going to attack me.
Already I pictured myself as being torn to
pieces. I was fascinated, and could not turn
away my gaze, as the creature quietly followed
every motion of my boat: seeming instinctively
to know the predicament I was in, and looking
upon me as its lawful prey. About noon I was
sufficiently near the shore to mark the outlines
of the coast, which seemed to be rocky and
precipitous, gloomy and forbidding; the hill-
summits crowned with large trees. When I
approached within two miles of the land I
tacked, and ran along shore until I rounded a
rocky point and saw a small bay with a wall of
rocks on each side, about, as near as I could
guess, two hundred yards wide and one hundred
and fifty deep. Here I hauled down my sails,
put out my paddles, and pulled on shore, landing
on a steep pebbly beach. I took out
my blankets to have a sleep, for I felt exceedingly
weary; first, however, fastening my boat
a short distance out from the beach, letting
out a small grapnel from the bows, a large
stone fastened in a noose from the stern, and
taking the further precaution of carrying a
long rope I always had with me in the boat, on
shore, and fastening it to a large tree that
sprang out from a cleft in the rocks. I then
rolled myself up in my blankets, and fell fast
asleep.

III.

When I woke, the moon was shining bright
and clear high up in the sky. I was roused
from my sleep by a thumping grating sound
on the beach, which mingled strangely with
my dreams. I started up, and found my boat
bumping on the beach. It was high water when
I had landed, and the ebb of the tide had partly
stranded her. The stone had slipped out of the
noose, and the boat had swung round. The
wind during my sleep had freshened, and a
heavy surf rolled in. I untied the rope on
shore, and pulling up my grapnel, got into the
boat and tried to paddle out from the beach.
I saw a small indent in the rocks on the right
side of the bay, past which the breakers rolled,
and, concluding that it was somewhat more
sheltered in there, I thought I would pull the boat
thither. I managed with no small difficulty to
get about fifty yards from the beach, when I
heard a dull heavy roar behind me, and, looking
round, I saw a large breaker rolling in, rearing
up its white-crested mane, and seeming as if
it would overlap and tumble in. I gave one
short terrified glance, let go my oars, threw
my arms round the middle thwart of the boat.
There was a dull heavy crash, and I felt the
boat borne swiftly along, rolling over and over
until it settled with a bump on a low rock at
one side of the bay, and I found myself flung
out a little higher up, bruised, sore, half-choked,
and half-blinded with the salt water. I dragged
myself a little higher up the rock, and there sat
and looked in dismay at my poor boat, with her
side stove in, and a sharp pointed rock sticking
through her bottom. My boat was irretrievably
broken and ruined, and I had foolishly left in
it, my fishing lines, the fish, and the remainder
of my potatoes, as well as the two empty
bottles. Mechanically I put my hands into my
pocket for my pipe; it was gone too; I had
left it on one of the thwarts of the boat, and
thus I was deprived of even this poor comfort