Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/184

174 would suffice. The captain tried first steering directly into the wind; and this for a little while put the savages to a disadvantage; but their sail was able to bring them in two points of the wind's eye, and it was clear to the writer that in no great time they would be overhauled. Then some strategy must be resorted to; and the bundle of shirts was opened. One by one the articles were taken out and thrown upon the water; and the device had the desired effect. The canoe stopped to pick up the articles, one after another, and was thus constantly thrown out of her course. When in time the contents of the bundle were exhausted, and still the canoe pursued, the shirts were stripped from the backs of the sailors, and the sops still thrown to Cerberus; and so long was the pursuit, that the island was all but lost sight of.

At length the day was almost spent, the sun only about an hour high, and as it would soon be dark, the pursuit was given over, and our sailors, well nigh exhausted, and in much worse condition than ever, with their old boat and brittle oars, were left to meet the night This seemed hardly a human part of the world, where man and nature were both unfriendly.

The twilight was very short, as always in the tropics "at one stride comes the dark;" and all night they kept watch, looking for any sign of land that might appear. For unfriendly as had been their reception on the reef, the sea, to men in their situation, meant only death by starvation or famishing of thirst. At about 3 o'clock in the morning they were roused by one of the men crying "land ahead," and the response of the officer "where away?" A dark object just appeared on the horizon, under the stars, and the distance could not be easily