196 WRECK OF THE ALMA. 



conformity with traditional English sea-faring practice 

 the women and children were first put on shore. That 

 was in truth extremely unpractical, as on the land the 

 poor creatures were in a desperately helpless condition, 

 but the principle had to be rigorously observed. 



When at day -break the turn of William Meyer 

 and myself came, we found the ladies almost without 

 exception in an extremely lamentable plight, as they 

 were very sparingly clad, and for the most part 

 shoeless. The rock, perhaps never before trodden by 

 human foot, was everywhere covered by jagged coral, 

 which drew blood from the unprotected feet. Here 

 help was most needed. I belonged to the lucky ones 

 who possessed boots, and had also saved my pocket 

 knife. I accordingly returned with the next boat to 

 the wreck, and fished out a thick mat of linoleum and 

 another of finer material, with which I then opened a 

 sandal workshop on shore. My friend, who had not 

 been so fortunate as to have saved his boots, was the 

 first to receive a pair of sandals, and then in gratitude 

 undertook to fit the ladies crouching motionless on the 

 ground with similar articles. He still remembered years 

 after with delight the grateful glances from beautiful 

 eyes, which this Samaritan service procured him. 



But what next? On Whitsunday morning about 

 five hundred persons were sitting on a bare coral rock 

 a couple of acres or so in extent, and about eight 

 leagues out of the usual ships' course. We had in 

 the fine calm night, in which probably helmsman and 

 look-out had fallen quietly to sleep, run on the notorious 



