142 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



reduced to inaction without resignation. Our last 

 resource was one on which I had been sanguine 

 enough to build up some hope. It occurred to me 

 that if we were to let go her anchor, the weight of 

 that, together with her eighteen fathoms of chain, 

 might bring her bodily up. I only regretted that 

 we had no spare spars wherewith to form a sort 

 of breakwater, for I have great faith in the powers of 

 a boat to ride out a gale and heavy sea under the 

 lee of such a defence. Still I thought that we might 

 manage to check her way effectually before we had 

 driven too far out to sea ; and then in the morning 

 we might still find ourselves in sight of the island. 

 There are circumstances under which one learns to 

 make much of a very little hope, and I had made the 

 most I could of this. We watched till we got into a 

 smooth place, and then "let go." The extremity of 

 peril had been reserved for this moment. The sudden 

 check certainly brought her up as we expected, but 

 other effects of our manosuvre followed which were 

 beyond our calculation. She rounded too abruptly, 

 and swung head to wind, But the weight of her 

 anchor and chain hanging at her bows seemed as if 

 they would pull her under water. The depression 

 was so great that we saw that not a minute was to be 

 lost, and that our only chance lay in heaving up again 

 as quickly as possible. In our haste we both ran 

 forward to the windlass, and by so doing nearly com- 

 pleted our destruction, for the additional weight had 



