Page:Dickens - A Child s History of England, 1900.djvu/695

Rh harbor, to carry us off. We looked a wretched few, I thought, when I got down there; still it was another sign that we had fought well and made the enemy suffer. The Portuguese captain had all the women already embarked in the boat he himself commanded, which was just putting off when I got down. Miss Mraryou sat on one side of him, and gave me a moment's look, as full of quiet courage, and pity, and confidence, as if it had been an hour long. On the other side of him was poor little Mrs. Fisher, weeping for her child and her mother. I was shoved into the same boat with Drooce and Packer, and the remainder of our party of marines: of whom we had lost two privates, besides Charker, my poor, brave comrade. We all made a melancholy passage, under the hot sun, over to the mainland. There we landed in a solitary place, and were mustered on the sea sand. Mr. and Mrs. Macey and their children were among us, Mr. and Mrs. Pordage, Mr. Kitten, Mr. Fisher, and Mrs. Helltott. We mustered only fourteen men, fifteen women, and seven children. Those were all that remained of the English who had laid down to sleep that night, unsuspecting and happy, on the Island of Silver-Store. [The second chapter, which was not written by Mr. Dickens, describes the prisoners (twenty-two women and children) taken into the interior by the pirate captain, who makes them the material guarantee for the precious metal and jewels left on the island; declaring that, if the latter be wrested by English ships from the pirates in charge, he will murder the captives. From their "Prison in the Woods," however (this being the title of the second chapter), they escape by means of rafts down the river; and the sequel is told in a third and concluding chapter by Mr. Dickens.]

contrived to keep afloat all that night, and, the stream running strong with us, to glide a long way down the river. But we found the night to be a dangerous time for such navigation, on account of the eddies and rapids,