208 
FAREWELL TO TENIMBER. 
was true. Far, far off, right in the light which 
was just rising over the horizon, was a tiny 
speck. Nearer and nearer it came, while we 
looked on with beating hearts and straining eyes 
till the long streak from the funnel assured us 
that it was really a steamer. Then the half-hour 
of high-strung expectancy till we felt sure that 
it was our steamer ! Would she go east or west, 
or come into Wallace Channel? We tasted the 
a^ony of castaways in sight of passing aid. Yes 1 
she was coming straight into our harbour ; and, 
half- stupid from joy, we hurried hither and 
thither making final preparations, staying now 
and again to look out on the welcome Ajnboina 
till she dropped anchor a few yards from our door. 
By 10 o’clock we had already sailed, stand- 
ing where we had stood three months before, 
only passing from, not coming to, an experience 
which neither of us would willingly repeat, but 
which, nevertheless, neither would have fore- 
gone. Our sickness, privations, anxieties, and 
labours we felt not worthy of name beside the 
beautiful pictures both on the face of nature and 
in her creatures, the recollection of our pleasant 
relations with our savage friends, and the in- 
terest of our pursuits, which would henceforth 
furnish food for many a reverie. 
