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At last the wreck was cleared, but the seas were now bursting over the decks and sweeping away everything not made fast. Among other things the long-boat was carried away, and ere long all the other boats were torn from their fastenings or destroyed. It was a fearful night. Even the most reckless among the sailors were overawed by such a display of the terrors of God.
Of course this agreement was made by a kind of rambling general consent for there was no deliberation about anything, the whole crew being now half-mad with haste and excitement. A large number of the men had rushed at once towards the long-boat, and there I followed them.
When the ship was wrecked there remained alive on board the Wager near a hundred and thirty persons; of these, above thirty died during their stay upon the place, and near eighty went off in the long-boat and the cutter to the southward; so that there remained with the captain, after their departure, no more than nineteen persons, which, however, was as many as the barge and the yawl the only embarkations left them could well carry off.
Part of her weather-bulwarks forward had been stove in, the long-boat on the booms had been almost knocked to pieces, and a considerable portion of the after-part of the lee-bulwarks had been washed away, showing the course the sea had taken over us. "We must not allow that trick to be played us again," said the captain to the mates.
They slept thrown across the thwarts, curled on bottom-boards, in the careless attitudes of death. The head of the old skipper, leaning back in the stern of the long-boat, had fallen on his breast, and he looked as though he would never wake.
A terrific shriek followed. The next instant the Malay boat, filled with writhing dusky figures, went down beneath the waters. The long-boat immediately after touched the side of the ship. Brandon grasped a rope with his left hand, and, holding his revolver in his right, leaped upward. A Malay with uplifted knife struck at him. Bang! went the revolver and the Malay fell dead.
At these simple words Wylie lost color, and walked aft without a word. Next day there were seven feet water in the hold, and quantities of bread coming up through the pumps. Wylie ordered the men from the pumps to the boats. The long-boat was provisioned and lowered. While she was towing astern, the cutter was prepared, and the ship left to fill.
This kind of service, it will be noted, was in direct sequence, as to training, to his handling of the "Triumph's" long-boat in the lower waters of the Thames, and would naturally contribute to increase that "confidence in himself among rocks and sands," which was afterwards to be so "great a comfort" to him.
There was dead silence for a few moments, and then Uncle Paul said sharply, as if making an effort "Yes; I shall start as soon as the tide turns to-morrow morning." "Very well," said the man carelessly. "I will come across with my long-boat and eight of my men. They want a job to keep them awake."
"If no vessel appears in that time, I think we may conclude, either that the long-boat has unfortunately been lost, or that Mr Brown has been unable to succeed in obtaining a vessel to come to our relief," observed Mudge.
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