Immediately On Our Arrival At Muka, I Engaged A Small Boat And
Three Natives To Go In Search Of My Lost Men, And Sent One Of My
Own Men With Them To Make Sure Of Their Going To The Right
Island.
In ten days they returned, but to my great regret and
disappointment, without the men.
The weather had been very bad,
and though they had reached an island within sight of that in
which the men were, they could get no further. They had waited
there six days for better weather, and then, having no more
provisions, and the man I had sent with them being very ill and
not expected to live, they returned. As they now knew the island,
I was determined they should make another trial, and (by a
liberal payment of knives, handkerchiefs, and tobacco, with
plenty of provisions) persuaded them to start back immediately,
and make another attempt. They did not return again till the 29th
of July, having stayed a few days at their own village of Bessir
on the way; but this time they had succeeded and brought with
them my two lost men, in tolerable health, though thin and weak.
They had lived exactly a month on the island had found water, and
had subsisted on the roots and tender flower-stalks of a species
of Bromelia, on shell-fish. and on a few turtles' eggs. Having
swum to the island, they had only a pair of trousers and a shirt
between them, but had made a hut of palm-leaves, and had
altogether got on very well.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 313 of 412
Words from 84268 to 84534
of 111511
