226 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
such moss as we could find, and then we launched the 
boat again, with four men at the oars and two men 
bailing, and started. 
We had not gone a gun-shot from shore before the 
water was up to the thwarts, and the boat fast sink- 
ing. The seas met and howled, running up to the 
rocks in-huge, white-crested breakers, and it became 
evident that we could not possibly survive the passage 
across. Reluctantly, our captain gave the order to 
go back; we reached the little beach just as the water 
touched the rail, jumped out and waded ashore. Some 
sharks, whose triangular fins we could see cutting the 
water outside the rocks, were evidently disappointed, 
and manifested their disapprobation by darting in close 
to the boat, much alarming the negroes. : 
All hope of escape by means of the boat was 
abandoned, and we turned our attention to the pros- 
pect of obtaining help from our friends on the other 
island. A portion of a sail was attached to an oar 
and held aloft on a high point, as a signal of distress. 
It was nearly dark by this time and the hour for dinner, 
for the preparation of which Mr. C.’s cook had been 
all day busy. We turned to our stores and discovered 
nothing but the chicken-bones and a tin of sardines. 
There was not a drink of water apiece, and we re- 
verted regretfully to those bottles we had emptied so 
lavishly a few hours before. 
Darkness inclosed us, and we sought a couch on 
the bank; my game-basket served me for a pillow, as 
it had often done before, and a heap ‘of grass for a 
bed. Fortunately the night was warm and dewless, 
and had it not been for the groans of Frazer, whose 
ankle was badly crushed, we should have slept 
