We Were Not More Than Two Hundred Yards From The Shore, When
I Noticed That We Seemed To Get No
Nearer although the men were
rowing hard, but drifted to the westward, and the prau would not
obey the helm,
But continually fell off, and gave us much trouble
to bring her up again. Soon a laud ripple of water told us we
were seized by one of those treacherous currents which so
frequently frustrate all the efforts of the voyager in these
seas; the men threw down the oars in despair, and in a few
minutes we drifted to leeward of the island fairly out to sea
again, and lost our last chance of ever reaching Mysol! Hoisting
our jib, we lay to, and in the morning found ourselves only a few
miles from the island, but wit, such a steady wind blowing from
its direction as to render it impossible for us to get back to
it.
We now made sail to the northward, hoping soon to get a more
southerly wind. Towards noon the sea was much smoother, and with
a S.S.E. wind we were laying in the direction of Salwatty, which
I hoped to reach, as I could there easily get a boat to take
provisions and stores to my companion in Mysol. This wind did
not, however, last long, but died away into a calm; and a light
west wind springing up, with a dark bank of clouds, again gave us
hopes of reaching Mysol. We were soon, however, again
disappointed. The E.S.E. wind began to blow again with violence,
and continued all night in irregular gusts, and with a short
cross sea tossed us about unmercifully, and so continually took
our sails aback, that we were at length forced to run before it
with our jib only, to escape being swamped by our heavy mainsail.
After another miserable and anxious night, we found that we had
drifted westward of the island of Poppa, and the wind being again
a little southerly, we made all sail in order to reach it. This
we did not succeed in doing, passing to the north-west, when the
wind again blew hard from the E.S.E., and our last hope of
finding a refuge till better weather was frustrated. This was a
very serious matter to me, as I could not tell how Charles Allen
might act, if, after waiting in vain for me, he should return to
Wahai, and find that I had left there long before, and had not
since been heard of. Such an event as our missing an island forty
miles long would hardly occur to him, and he would conclude
either that our boat had foundered, or that my crew had murdered
me and run away with her. However, as it was physically
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.
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