The Pitching
And Jerking Of Our Little Boat, Soon Reduced Me To A State Of
Miserable Helplessness, And I Lay Down, Resigned To Whatever
Might Happen.
After three or four hours, I was told we were
nearly over; but when I got up, two hours later, just as the sun
was setting, I found we were still a good distance from the
point, owing to a strong current which had been for some time
against us.
Night closed in, and the wind drew more ahead, so we
had to take in sail. Then came a calm, and we rowed and sailed as
occasion offered; and it was four in the morning when we reached
the village of Kisslwoi, not having made more than three miles in
the last twelve hours.
MATABELLO ISLANDS.
At daylight I found we were; in a beautiful little harbour,
formed by a coral reef about two hundred yards from shore, and
perfectly secure in every wind. Having eaten nothing since the
previous morning, we cooked our breakfast comfortably on shore,
and left about noon, coasting along the two islands of this
group, which lie in the same line, and are separated by a narrow
channel. Both seem entirely formed of raised coral rock; but them
has been a subsequent subsidence, as shaven by the barrier reef
which extends all along them at varying distances from the shore,
This reef is sometimes only marked by a. line of breakers when
there is a little swell on the sea; in other places there is a
ridge of dead coral above the water, which is here and there high
enough to support a few low bushes. This was the first example I
had met with of a true barrier reef due to subsidence, as has
been so clearly shown by Mr. Darwin. In a sheltered archipelago
they will seldom be distinguishable, from the absence of those
huge rolling waves and breakers which in the wide ocean throw up
a barrier of broken coral far above the usual high-water mark,
while here they rarely rise to the surface.
On reaching the end of the southern island, called Uta, we were
kept waiting two days for a wind that would enable us to pass
over to the next island, Teor, and I began to despair of ever
reaching Ke, and determined on returning. We left with a south
wind, which suddenly changed to north-east, and induced me to
turn again southward in the hopes that this was the commencement
of a few days' favourable weather. We sailed on very well in the
direction of Teor for about an hour, after which the wind shifted
to WSW., and we were driven much out of our course, and at
nightfall found ourselves in the open sea, and full ten miles to
leeward of our destination. My men were now all very much
frightened, for if we went on we might be a. week at sea in our
little open boat, laden almost to the water's edge; or we might
drift on to the coast of New Guinea, in which case we should most
likely all be murdered.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 46 of 213
Words from 23461 to 23986
of 111511
