By The Time The Squall
Had Passed, The Current Had Turned Against Us, And We Expected To
Have To Wait Till Four In The Afternoon, When We Intended To
Enter The Harbour.
Now, however, came the climax of our troubles.
The swell produced
by the squall made us jerk our cable a good deal, and it suddenly
snapped low down in the water. We drifted out to sea, and
immediately set our mainsail, but we were now without any anchor,
and in a vessel so poorly manned that it could not be rowed
against the most feeble current or the slightest wind, it word be
madness to approach these dangerous shores except in the most
perfect calm. We had also only three days' food left. It was
therefore out of the question making any further attempts to get
round the point without assistance, and I at once determined to
run to the village of Gani-diluar, about ten miles further north,
where we understood there was a good harbour, and where we might
get provisions and a few more rowers. Hitherto winds and currents
load invariably opposed our passage southward, and we might have
expected them to be favourable to us now we had turned our
bowsprit in an opposite direction. But it immediately fell calm,
and then after a time a westerly land breeze set in, which would
not serve us, and we had to row again for hours, and when night
came had not reached the village. We were so fortunate, however,
as to find a deep sheltered cove where the water was quite
smooth, and we constructed a temporary anchor by filling a sack
with stones from our ballast, which being well secured by a
network of rattans held us safely during the night.
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