impossible now for me to reach him, the only thing to be
done was to make the best of my way to Waigiou, and
trust to our meeting some traders, who might convey to
him the news of my safety,
Finding on my map a group of three small islands,
twenty-five miles north of Poppa, I resolved, if possible, to
rest there a day or two. We could lay our boat’s head
N.E. by 1ST.; but a heavy sea from the eastward so continually
beat us off our course, and we made so much
leeway, that I found it would be as much as we could do
to reach them. It was a delicate point to keep our head
in the best direction, neither so close to the wind as to
stop our way, or so free as to carry us too far to leeward.
I continually directed the steersman myself, and by incessant
vigilance succeeded, just at sunset, in bringing our
boat to an anchor under the lee of the southern point of
one of the islands. The anchorage was, however, by no
means good, there being a fringing coral reef, dry at low
water, beyond which, on a bottom strewn with masses of
coral, we were obliged to anchor. We had now been incessantly
tossing about for four days in- our small undecked
boat, with constant disappointments and anxiety, and it
was a great comfort to have a night of quiet and comparative
safety. My old pilot had never left the helm for
more than an hour at a time, when one of the others would
relieve him for a little sleep; so I determined the next
morning to look out for a secure and convenient harbour,
and rest on shore for a day.
In the morning, finding it would be necessary for us to
get round a rocky point, I wanted my men to go on shore
and cut jungle-rope, by which to secure us from being
again drifted away, as the wind was directly off shore. I
unfortunately, however, allowed myself to be overruled by
the pilot and crew, who all declared that it was the easiest
thing possible, and that they would row the boat round the
point in a few minutes. They accordingly got up the
anchor, set the jib, and began rowing; but, just as I had
feared, we drifted rapidly off shore, and had to drop anchor
again in deeper water, and much farther off. The two best
men, a Papuan and a Malay, now swam on shore, each
carrying a hatchet, and went into the jungle to seek
creepers for rope. After about an hour our anchor loosed
hold, and began to drag. This alarmed me greatly, and we
let go our spare anchor, and, by running out all our cable,
appeared tolerably secure again. We were now most
anxious for the return of the men, and were going to fire
our muskets to recall them, when we observed them on
the beach, some way off, and almost immediately our
anchors again slipped, and we drifted slowly away into
deep water. We instantly seized the oars, but found we
could not counteract the wind and current, and our frantic
cries to the men were not heard till we had got a
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