ADVENTURES IN THE “ SNOWDROP 55 83 
west, with no sign yet of “ letting up.” About 
3 a.m. we could hear the roar of the breakers under 
our lee, and could just make out the loom of high 
land. I called the men aft, told them we should in 
all probability be driven ashore, and they must 
look out for themselves; but before that happened 
we should try and stand off by hoisting the close- 
reefed mainsail and fore-stay sail, and they were to 
11 c stand by ” ready to run it up as soon as the word 
was given ; further, it had to go up with a run, with¬ 
out being allowed to slat, or it would be blown to 
pieces. 
We waited as long as we dared before doing 
this, in order to give the wind a chance to lull, as 
we thought it would when we got fairly close in, 
and not blow “ home ” to the high land. The 
looked-for lull came when we were within about a 
quarter of a mile of the beach, as near as we could 
guess ; then the word was given, and the sails went 
up like a flash, all hands being at the halliards. The 
little vessel behaved splendidly, heading up and 
hanging for a few moments, and then she began to 
move through the water. On easing the sheets she 
gradually forged ahead, and, knowing the coast 
trended away from us farther down, we kept her 
going easy. With the first signs of dawn the wind 
moderated, and soon afterwards we were able to 
shake out a reef. Daylight revealed the strait full 
of floating timber, with half a dozen large dismasted 
and capsized junks in sight. We passed close by 
two, but there appeared to be no one left on board ; 
they had probably been laden with the timber which 
was all around us. Away to the south was a topsail 
schooner with fore-topmast, jib-boom, and bowsprit 
