176 CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER 



He told me that he felt cowed — he could never face the 

 sea again. Once before he had given up " sailorising," not 

 then on account of his nerves, but because ambition to 

 possess a sweet-potato patch, pumpkins and a few bananas, 

 melons, mangoes, had got hold of him. He had taken up 

 a piece of land, but having no money his flimsy fencing 

 was no barrier to the wallabies, and he abandoned the 

 enterprise to them. Now he had abandoned his beche-de- 

 mer project, had bought wire netting to keep out the walla- 

 bies, and would make a second effort to settle down. A 

 little net fishing would help to keep him going. " As for 

 the sea,'' said he, " I have had enough — too much. It is all 

 right while your pluck lasts, but once get a shake, and you 

 had better give it up. And the little boat — I broke that rail 

 as I was getting poor Andrew's body on board. She is all 

 right, but for that — and she's for sale." 



In an hour, having concocted some stew and baked his 

 damper, the single-handed nerve-shaken, old sailor set sail, 

 and I knew him no more. 



Another of poor old "Yorky's" adventures is worth 

 telling. While out on the Barrier Reef, the black crew of 

 his b6che-de-mer boat mutinied, and knocking him and his 

 mate on the head, threw them overboard. The sudden 

 souse into the water restored " Yorky " to consciousness, and 

 he swam back to the cutter whence the blacks had hastily 

 fled in the dingy. It was a desperate struggle for a one- 

 armed man to cling to and clamber up the side of the boat, 

 but "Yorky" has never yet failed when his life was at 

 stake. He won the deck at last, but at the expense of a 

 broken rib and the flesh on the best part of his side torn 

 bare to the bones. Still dazed, he chanced to look over the 

 side, where he saw his mate's head bobbing up and down 

 in the water. Hard as it had been for him to save himself, 

 it was more difficult still to rescue the body from the sharks. 

 Frantically using rough-and-ready methods, he hauled it 

 on board, and disposed it as decently as circumstances 

 permitted. "Yorky," great of heart, is quite unused to 

 the melting mood. He admits that he felt pretty bad 



