By the end of the third month we had stored, say 50l. worth of barilla, and our provisions were getting alarmingly low. There was a little cutter which traded to the bay, making about four trips in the year. These, however, sufficed to supply the wants of the settlers who depended upon her agency. The period of her arrival was overdue, and we looked out for her anxiously. But she did not put in an appearance. When reduced to a pound or two of flour, with our other stores in like ratio, we thought it high time to see about procuring fresh supplies somehow. We arranged for one to run across in the Coffin to J's Station, and see if he could not spare us some provisions, to be repaid on the arrival of the cutter. We had several fires going, and as they required constant attention, we drew lots who should remain, and it fell to me.
Our wardrobes were in a most dilapidated state. Out of an old green wrapper S had made for himself a sort of blouse, his original flannel jacket having long since been reduced to tatters. His trousers—well, we won't say much about them, excepting that there was more of them left than of mine, which were, moreover, made of pieces of blanketing. But my jacket was unexceptionable. The pockets, it is true, had long since been converted into tinder, but with this exception it was a garment a gentleman might have worn on a dark night without attracting much attention. Our weak point-and it was a weak one—was boots. One of mine was nearly in two pieces, whilst S was fain to keep his together with strips of raw hide. Between us, however, we managed to muster two which appeared moderately sound. Unfortunately, they were both for the left foot. The end of the matter was, that I rigged S out in my swell jacket and seemingly sound boot, receiving in exchange his green-baize blouse and soleless boot. I thought that three days, at all events, would see him back again, and knew that with ordinary economy the flour remaining would save me from starvation for a longer period. I experienced a queer sensation as I saw my sole companion piloting the boat out of the mangroves, and thought of what it was to be utterly separated from my fellows even for a day or two. How few have ever really experienced the thing! Solitary confinement in a prison cell is not the same. The captive knows that he is visited at stated times, and hears the sounds of human industry about him, and perhaps the cries of children at play. The clocks strike, and the bells toll. These tell him that he is not actually alone. But to be literally cut off from human kind! A terrible thought to most of us, I fancy-perhaps, like many other things, when viewed from a distance, worse in imagination than in fact. I distinctly recollect a feeling of romantic curiosity overcoming my apprehensions as soon as I realised the fact that I was indeed the sole "poor forked animal" on an island some scores of miles in circumference. My readers will recollect Sterne's story of his giving a jackass some macaroons in order to see how he would dispose of them. So I was not altogether sorry to be left alone, that I might ascertain from actual experience what it was like. The divine's curiosity was doomed to disappointment, for the donkey's master "let fall a tremendous blow upon his crupper" just as he had taken the delicacy to his lips; and Fate, my master, let fall a tremendous blow upon mine, and kept me in such a fever that I almost forgot I was alone.
The weather was hot and sultry, a leaden hue pervaded the horizon, and what little wind there was, was favourable. S had cleared the mangroves, and made an offing of about two miles, when it fell dead calm. The tide was at the full, and the boat scarcely moved; presently gusts of wind ruffled the smooth water, and the growling of distant thunder was heard, mingled with the sighing sound produced by the tremor of the forest leaves. I knew a storm was coming, and I looked to have seen S pull for the island. But he appeared unconscious of danger, and when a breeze caught her, the old Coffin bowled merrily away, leaving a streak of foam behind her. She could go if she had canvas, and the adventurous navigator did not mind risking a swim for his life. A vivid flash of forked lightning afforded S a warning he could not mistake, and for a moment deprived me of sight. The storm gathered, and the wind veered to all points of the compass. Then it was I saw—I may almost say I felt—a furious blast strike the boat and lay her down, until it appeared as if she could not recover her self. But she righted, and I remember shouting—though, for that matter, I might as well have expected to make myself heard a thousand miles off—"Lower your sail!" The time even for that had past, and there was nothing for it now but to run before the wind or swamp.
Another flash-another-and peals of thunder which crackled like the reports of small-arms mingled with heavy guns, a falling sheet of water, a piercing glance into the murky atmosphere, through which-Heaven be praised!—I could just distinguish the boat fast approaching our clearing. If the wind only held as it then was, S would soon be in safety. I clapped my hands with delight, but my joy was of short duration. The roaring of the storm became in a moment terrific; some unseen force was fiercely urging me I knew not whither. I had an impression that I was lifted off the ground. I was in the vortex of a whirl wind. I heard the crashing of great trees about me, and saw their branches and stems twisted into splinters, and a mass of boughs and leaves whirled away over my head far out to sea. All this must have been the work of a minute or two. And the boat? For a second my eye rested on her, and I saw S standing as if about to make a plunge. A wave hid him from my sight, and all I could distinguish after was the white sail floating upon its crest, near which was the boat, as I thought, bottom upwards. I remember rushing frantically into the water, as if I could have stretched out a helping hand; but I scarcely knew what I was doing. The effect upon me must have been very like that which travellers have told me they had experienced during an earthquake-a sense of the most complete helplessness, evinced by an inability to do more than rush headlong any where. Recovering my self-control as soon as the elemental war subsided, I left the water, and not the less rapidly from noticing the back-fin of a