I Then Went On Board To Breakfast, Leaving My Two
Men To Make A Bamboo Raft To Carry Us On Shore And Back Without
Wading.
I had scarcely finished when our cable broke, and we
bumped against the rocks.
Luckily it was smooth and calm, and no
damage was done. We searched for and got up our anchor, and found
teat the cable had been cut by grating all night upon the coral.
Had it given way in the night, we might have drifted out to sea
without our anchor, or been seriously damaged. In the evening we
went to fetch water from the well, when, greatly to our dismay,
we found nothing but a little liquid mud at the bottom, and it
then became evident that the hole was one which had been made to
collect rain water, and would never fill again as long as the
present drought continued. As we did not know what we might
suffer for want of water, we filled our jar with this muddy stuff
so that it might settle. In the afternoon I crossed over to the
other side of the island, and made a large fire, in order that
our men might see we were still there.
The next day (24th) I determined to have another search for
water; and when the tide was out rounded a rocky point and went
to the extremity of the island without finding any sign of the
smallest stream. On our way back, noticing a very small dry bed
of a watercourse, I went up it to explore, although everything
was so dry that my men loudly declared it was useless to expect
water there; but a little way up I was rewarded by finding a few
pints in a small pool.
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