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Updated: May 16, 2025
At night we retired to some distance from the island and lay-to, that we might not, in the darkness, strike on any unknown land. At eight o'clock in the morning we could see the north point of the group of Wolchonsky Islands, recently discovered by Captain Bellingshausen.
During the first two days we made sail for these puffs, shaking the reefs out of the topsails and boarding the tacks of the courses; but finding that it only made work for us when the gale set in again, it was soon given up, and we lay-to under our close-reefs.
Towards evening, when the sea appeared to be without a sail in sight, we lay-to; platforms were got over the side, and men hung over with their paint-pots and brushes, working with all their might to paint out the streak, while others smeared over the gilding and name at the stern, but with a thin water-colour which would easily wash off.
During the centuries that it has been in possession of the Spaniards, it has advanced as little as their other colonies in cultivation or civilization. The calm made it impossible on that day to reach the village of Talcaguana, where ships usually lie at anchor, and we were consequently obliged in the evening to lay-to at some miles distance.
In this dilemma they lay-to for a short time, after getting away to a sufficient distance from the dangerous rock, and consulted what was to be done. Some advised one course, and some another, but it was finally suggested that one of the English prisoners should be brought up and commanded to steer out to sea.
"We don't mind touching up such a chap as this here tripeman; but not the scratch of a pin does Thompson get in this vessel. He is one of us; he is a seaman every inch of him, and you must flog us, and some fifty more, if once you begin; for damn my eyes if we don't heave the log with the second mate, and then lay-to till the frigate comes alongside."
But I'll look to her no more I'll think of her no more!" He again applied himself to the oar, and was pulling steadily towards the ship, when his eye rested upon something black and round in the water. Again he paused in his exertions, and lay-to: the substance floated towards him.
Now that Madden's attention was called to this unusual disposition of the sails, he could make out their position for himself. This started another tide of speculation buzzing among the castaways. Was the Vulcan crippled? Had she run short of coal? But why should she voluntarily lay-to in the very sight of her quarry?
He sailed along the coast until evening, when he saw yet another island in the distance to the south-west; and he therefore lay-to for the night. At dawn the next morning he landed on the island and took formal possession of it, naming it Santa Maria de la Concepcion, which is the Rum Cay of the modern charts.
So he was well content. There was much commotion in the village when the trading barque arrived and lay-to off Fana 'alu. Melanie, in a dress of spotless white muslin, flitted to and fro within the house, smoking cigarettes and cursing her women assistants' laziness and stupidity.
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