CHAPTER XVI. 



THREE YEAES WITH MURDERERS ON A SOLITARY ISLAND. 



I WAS directed to undertake the construction of a 

 lighthouse in the Bay of Bengal. The site chosen 

 was Table Island, north of the great Coco. When I 

 reached Haingyie, a large island at the entrance of 

 the Bassem River, I found that the schooner which 

 should have been there to take me on had gone on 

 two days before, with a load of bricks and twenty- 

 four convicts. 



Colonel A. F., the superintendent of lighthouses, 

 had asked me to meet him on Table Island by a 

 certain day, of which only two days remained. I did 

 not know what to do. These seas in the fine weather 

 are smooth enough, but the currents are very strong. 

 A lighter attached to the Alguada Reef Lighthouse, 

 was available. I asked the commander if he would 

 take me. He demurred at first, as he said he had no 

 instruments to take the latitude and longitude (and 

 I found afterwards that if he had had them, he did 

 not know how to use them). I showed him a chart, 

 and said the wind was fair. We had first the Preparis 

 shoal to guide us, and on losing sight of that the 

 Cocos would be visible, and I would take all 



