Page:Adrift in the Pacific, Sampson Low, 1889.djvu/179

Rh of tinamous. Needless to say that after that he was quite well.

It was very late when the boat reached the river mouth; and as the darkness made the steering difficult through the reefs, Evans, cautious seaman as he was, thought he had better wait till daybreak.

The night was quiet enough. The wind dropped, and when the sea-birds had got back to their holes in the rocks, absolute silence reigned on Schooner Bay. In the morning the land-breeze blew, and the sea was calm to the very extreme point of South Moors. At day-break Evans made sail, and the sloop headed out of Zealand River. Every look was turned on Auckland Hill and the rocks of Schooner Bay, which disappeared as American Cape was rounded ; and a cannon-shot was fired as the red ensign was run up to the mizen.

Eight hours later the sloop entered the channel bordered by the shore of Cambridge Island, doubled South Cape, and followed the coast of Queen Adelaide Island, as the last point of Charman Island disappeared on the horizon.