HISTORICAL SKETCH 139 



contented with their surroundings as long as the 

 vessel anchored close at hand suggested a possible 

 retreat and return to the outer world, disaster 

 befell them, for one night a storm arose and their 

 ship was driven out to sea. This calamity so 

 greatly distressed the fair lady that she became 

 completely prostrated by the shock, and in a few 

 days she died in her lover's arms. Machim, in his 

 turn, died of grief a few days after, having spent 

 the intervening time in erecting a memorial to his 

 much-loved Anna. The dying man dictated an 

 inscription recording their sad story, concluding 

 with a request that if any Christians should at any 

 future time form a settlement in that island, they 

 would erect a church over their graves and dedicate 

 it to the Redeemer of Mankind, a request which, 

 it will be seen, was afterwards carried out, when 

 " Machim's tree " was supposed to have furnished 

 sufficient material for the building of the whole 

 chapel. 



Their survivors not unnaturally set about build- 

 ing a boat in which to escape from the land which 

 by now was filled with sad associations for them, 

 and eventually they succeeded in reaching the coast 

 of Morocco. Here a worse fate awaited them, as 

 they fell into the hands of the Moors and became 



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