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Travelling from one end of the world to the other, though seated together under the gig's keel, and wrapped in tarpaulin, we contrived to meet in the West Indies; and the old sailor's heart opened towards me as I spoke of scenes and things familiar to him in his youth.
Hoard was the first to see her probably because he knew best of us all where to look for her, and, the moment that she was sighted, the gig's sails were lowered, as a signal for the other boats to close round us.
When within shot-range, I hailed, to make certain, and receiving no answer, after a second time, I fired, keeping the muskets of the gig's crew ready to repel the first attack in case the enemy did not decamp. My fire was answered by Lieutenant Horton, "We are here, sir." At first I was much distressed from the fear that I might have hurt any one.
They had gone quite half-way before the regular rhythmical beat of oars, and the splash and rattle of water beneath the gig's bows were heard. Soon after the boat was abreast of them, the waves showing up luminously as the oars dipped. "Now, Mark, go aboard," said the captain. "You can halt when you think we are abreast of the place, and give me a hail." "No; you want me here," replied Mark.
"He has taken off his shirt and is waving it. Heave the ship to, Mr Tarwig. Call the gig's crew away, Mr Foley, and pull in to ascertain what he wants. There can be little doubt that it is a matter of importance. Come off again as soon as possible, for we shall probably find places further along the coast, where the white people are hard-pressed by the blacks."
They will soon be at nearer range, and the gig's people, absolutely without means of protection, sit in fear and trembling. Still the rowers, bracing hearts and arms, pull manfully on. But Captain Gancy is appalled as another stone plashes in the water close to the boat's side, while a third, striking the mast, drops down among them.
But land to a castaway! His first thought and most anxious desire is to set foot on it. So in the case of our shipwrecked party: risking all reefs and surfs, they at once set the gig's head shoreward.
This plan exactly suited me, and I consented, only begging to have a boatswain's mate, named Thompson, to go along with me; he was an old shipmate, and had been one of my gig's crew when we had the affair in Basque Roads; he was a steady, resolute, quiet, sober, raw-boned Caledonian, from Aberdeen, and a man that I knew would stand by me in the hour of need.
Giving the gig's crew strict injunctions not to leave their boat for a moment upon any consideration, but to hold themselves in readiness to shove off on the instant of our rejoining them should a precipitate retreat prove necessary Captain Vernon and Mr Smellie stepped ashore with a request that I would accompany them.
This done, I caused Simpson to unstep the gig's single mast and lay it fore and aft in the boat, with the heel resting upon and firmly lashed to the small grating which covered the after end of the boat between the backboard of the stern-sheets and the stern-post, while the head was supported by a crutch formed of two stretchers lashed together and placed upright upon the bow thwart, the whole being firmly secured in place by the two shrouds attached to the mast-head.
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