The Sea Was Now Very
Boisterous, And Our Prau Was Continually Beaten To Leeward By The
Waves, And After Another Weary Day We Found W E Could Not Get To
Mysol At All, But Might Perhaps Reach The Island Called Pulo
Kanary, About Ten Miles To The North-West.
Thence we might await
a favourable wind to reach Waigamma, on the north side of the
island, and visit Allen by means of a small boat.
About nine o'clock at night, greatly to my satisfaction, we got
under the lea of this island, into quite smooth water - for I had
been very sick and uncomfortable, and had eaten scarcely anything
since the preceding morning. We were slowly nearing the shore,
which the smooth dark water told us we could safely approach; and
were congratulating ourselves on soon being at anchor, with the
prospect of hot coffee, a good supper, and a sound sleep, when
the wind completely dropped, and we had to get out the oars to
row. 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!
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 299 of 412
Words from 80466 to 80750
of 111511
