CHAPTER TWELVE.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
At daybreak next morning we were awakened by a terrific hubbub overhead,and going on deck to ascertain what was the matter we found that thefelucca, having been allowed to draw in too close with the land duringthe night, was becalmed off Guajaba Island, whilst a sail, some ninemiles distant in the offing--evidently a British man-of-war from the cutof her canvas, and apparently a frigate from her size--was headingstraight for us, close-hauled on the larboard tack, with a rattlingbreeze, as we could see by the way she was laying over to it and therapidity with which her sails rose above the horizon. There could be nodoubt that they had seen us with the first approach of daylight and weredetermined to give us an overhaul, hence the confusion which had arousedus from our peaceful slumbers. It was laughable to witness the agoniseddismay with which the Spaniards viewed the approach of this craft, andto listen to the prayers, vows, and maledictions which issuedindiscriminately from their lips as she swept relentlessly down towardus. They anticipated nothing less than the capture and destruction ofthe felucca, and the detention of themselves as prisoners, whichcatastrophe, bad enough in itself as it must have appeared to them, wasdoubtless rendered infinitely more disagreeable by the reflection thatto this mishap must be added the total collapse of their pretty littleplan for the betrayal of their friends the pirates, and the subsequentdivision of the spoil. And even to us the prospect was by no meansinviting. It was true that here was a chance for us to rejoin our owncountrymen, and so escape from the dilemma in which we foresaw that weshould be placed after leaving the Conconil lagoons; but we were notaltogether without hopes that we might in any case be able to escapefrom that dilemma; and having resolved to go through with the adventurewe were now by no means disposed to have it nipped in the bud. We wereconsequently quite as averse to a visit from the frigate as was Carerahimself, and we at once set our wits to work to see if it might not bepossible to devise some means of escape. The breeze was blowing freshto within a mile of where we lay, and I felt convinced that the frigate,with the way she had on her, would shoot far enough ahead, even aftershe had entered the calm belt, to reach us with her guns; it wastherefore evident that whatever was to be done would have to be donequickly, if it was to be of any use at all. I looked around and saw, bythe colour of the water, that there was a shoal at no great distanceinshore of us. I called Carera aft and said to him:
"Look here, Carera, do you happen to know this coast pretty well?"
"Every inch of it, senor," was the reply.
"I see there is shoal water over there," said I, indicating thedirection with a nod of the head. "Now, what is to hinder you fromrigging out your sweeps and sweeping the felucca into such shallow wateras will prevent the frigate yonder from approaching you near enough toreach you with her guns? The _Pinta_ is in light trim, and with allhands at the sweeps you ought to be able to move her pretty smartlythrough the water. And even should the frigate send her boats after us,we might be able to keep out of their way until the breeze comes."
"Excellent, senor!" he exclaimed rapturously. "I had never thought ofthat. Ah, it is you gentlemen of the navy who, after all, have theideas! Out sweeps, forward there!" he continued; "we will escape thataccursed Englishman yet."
The crew, aroused by the hopeful tone in which Carera spoke, scrambledup off their knees, and rigging out the sweeps soon had the little craftheading direct for the shore and moving through the water at the rate ofsome four knots. The frigate seeing this hoisted her ensign and fired agun as a signal for us to heave to, of which we took not the slightestnotice. I placed myself at the tiller, Carera took up a position on thestem-head, conning the felucca, and Courtenay devoted all his energiesto the encouragement of the men as they laboured at the sweeps.Meanwhile, the breeze was gradually creeping nearer to us every minute,which, whilst an advantage in so far as it lessened the time duringwhich the men would have to toil at the sweeps, was more thancounterbalanced by the disagreeable fact that it would enable thefrigate to approach so much the nearer to us before she in her turnbecame becalmed.
At length the noble craft shot across the outer boundary of the calmbelt, and the instant that her canvas flapped to the masts her helm wasgently ported until she headed straight for us, when another gun wasfired; and before the smoke had cleared away she had swept round untilher whole broadside--numbering eighteen guns--was bearing upon us.
"Now," shouted Courtenay, "look out for squalls!"
The words had scarcely left his lips when _bang_! went another gun, andwe saw the shot come skipping and ricochetting across the glassy surfaceof the water straight toward us, ploughing up long steamy jets of sprayat every bound, and finally, with a skurrying splash, disappearing abouta dozen yards astern of us. After this there was a pause of about halfa minute, apparently to see whether we were really foolhardy enough topersist in attempting our escape--and also, probably, to give themuzzles of their guns a little more elevation--when, seeing that thesweeps were still kept steadily going, she let fly her whole broadsideat us with a rattling crash, which caused the Spaniards with one accordto let go their hold upon the sweeps and drop flat on their faces on thedeck. Another moment and the shot came hurtling about us, some overheadand a very fair dose on each side of the little craft, so close too thatthe spray flashed in over the deck in a regular shower, whilst one shotcame crashing in through the taffrail, flying close past me where I wasstanding at the tiller, smashing through the head of the companion andthen flying out over the bows, passing through the sail on its way andmissing Carera's head by a hair's-breadth.
"Eighteen-pounders, by the powers!" ejaculated Courtenay, turning to me."A narrow squeak that for you, old boy? Now, then, my hearties," tothe Spaniards, "tail on to those sweeps again, and look sharp about it.Remember, if we are caught away goes your chance of making a fortune outof friend Giuseppe yonder."
This suggestion aroused anew their courage, or their cupidity, and witha shout they sprang once more to their feet and to the sweeps.
Meanwhile, the breeze had crept in until it had overtaken the frigate,which at once filled on the starboard tack, keeping her luff until shehad gathered good way, when she squared away and once more came boominginto the calm belt, nearing us almost half a mile by this manoeuvre.
"It is no good, excellencies; we shall have to give up!" exclaimedCarera, coming aft. "We are now as close in as we dare go; and if thatdiabolical frigate fires another broadside at us she will blow us out ofthe water. Port your helm, senor--hard a-port! the coral is close underour keel."
"Hard a-port!" I responded. "But why give up, my good fellow? Thefrigate is as close now as she dare come to us. You may take my wordfor it that her captain will not run the risk of plumping his shipashore for the sake of such an insignificant craft as the _Pinta_. Ha,look out! here comes another broadside."
How we escaped that second storm of shot I am sure I cannot tell, for wewere now almost within point-blank range; but escape we did, althoughfor a single instant the whole air around us seemed filled with iron, sothick and close did the shot fly about us. The sail was pierced inthree places, but beyond that no harm was done.
"He is after us with the boats! He will waste no more powder and shotupon us," exclaimed Courtenay; and sure enough on looking astern I sawtwo boats just dropping into the water.
"We must give up--we must give up," cried our crew as they saw this; andleaving their sweeps they came aft in a body with the request thatCarera would hoist the Spanish ensign and haul it down again in token ofour surrender.
"No, no," I exclaimed; "see how the breeze is creeping down to us; itwill be here as soon as the boats--or sooner, if you stick to thesweeps--and then I will engage that we scrape clear somehow. Is thereno place, Carera, that we can run into, and so dodge the frigate! Wecan laugh at the boats if we once get the breeze."
"Place! of course there is!" exclaimed the skipper, his courage againreviving; "there is the Boca de Guajaba, not half a mile fro
m us on ourlarboard bow. Once in there we can run up at the back of Romano--I knowthe channel--and so effectually give the frigate the slip. Back to yoursweeps, children! we will never yield until we are obliged."
Again the crew manned the sweeps, and again--animated by anotherjudicious reminder from Courtenay of the treasure awaiting them in theConconil lagoons--they bent their backs and lashed the water into foamas they gathered way upon the felucca; and once more Carera went forwardto con the craft through the dangerous channel we were now fastapproaching. Meanwhile the two boats--a gig and a cutter--were tearingafter us, going two feet to our one, and evidently quite alive to thefact that, unless they kept ahead of the breeze and reached us beforeit, we still stood a fair chance of escape.
Presently a narrow opening revealed itself in the shore about a quarterof a mile away, among the trees which clustered close to the water'sedge; and Carera, directing my attention to it, informed me that was thechannel. The surf was breaking heavily all along the shore, and toattempt a passage through it seemed, from the point of observation wethen occupied, to be simply courting destruction. I said nothing,however, trusting in Carera's assertion that he knew the place, andpresently a narrow band of unbroken water appeared in the midst of thefoam, toward which a minute later the felucca was headed.
The boats were now closing with us fast, the gig, which was leading,being within about three cables' length of us, whilst the cutter was notmore than fifty feet astern of her. Three or four minutes at most wouldsuffice to bring them alongside of us, fast as we were moving throughthe water, unless the breeze came to our aid. The sea was ruffled allastern of them, and a cat's-paw now and then would come stealing alongthe glassy surface between us and them, but so far they had managed tokeep ahead of the breeze. The measured roll of the oars in theirrowlocks could now be distinctly heard and the sound reaching the earsof the Spaniards made them strain and tug at the sweeps more desperatelythan ever, Courtenay not only cheering them on but now actually tailingon to a sweep which the lad Francisco was manfully tugging away at withthe best of them. The perspiration was pouring off the poor fellows'faces and bare arms in streams, but they still worked away, lookingeagerly at me every time I shot a hasty glance astern, as if anxious togather from my expressive countenance what hopes of escape stillremained.
At length we reached the mouth of the channel, and I dared no longerwithdraw my eyes for a single instant from Carera. The passage wasexceedingly narrow, so confined, indeed, that a man might have leapedfrom either rail into the seething breakers on each side of us. Thelittle craft bobbed and pitched as she glided into the troubled water,the huge sail rattled and flapped, and we seemed to visibly lose way.At this juncture a voice hailed us in execrably bad Spanish from the gigastern, peremptorily exclaiming:
"Heave to, you rascally pack of piratical cut-throats, or I will fireinto you!"
"Pull, men, _pull_!" I urged. "Here is the breeze close aboard of us."
At the same instant our great lateen sail swelled heavily out, wavered,jerked the sheet taut, and collapsed again. The Spaniards greeted thesight with a joyous shout, and, whereas they had hitherto been toilingin grimmest silence, they now burst out with mutual cries ofencouragement and a jabber of congratulatory remarks which were almostinstantly cut short by the crack of a musket, the ball of which clippedvery neatly through the brim of my straw hat. Again the sail flapped,collapsed, flapped again, and then filled steadily out.
"Hurrah, lads!" I exclaimed. "Half a dozen more strokes with thesweeps and the breeze will fairly have got hold of us. See how thesheet tautens out!"
"In bow-oar, and stand by to heave your grapnel!" I heard a voice sayin English close underneath our counter; and the next instant came therattle of the oar as it was laid in upon the thwart. Courtenay tooheard the words, and knowing well what they meant left his sweep andsprang aft.
"Give way, men, give way!" now came up from the boat. "Spring her, yousodjers, _spring her_, and take us within heaving distance, or they willget away from us yet. See how the witch is gathering way! Bend yourbacks, now; lift her! _well_ pulled! another stroke--and another--that'syour sort; _now_ we travel--hang it, men, _pull_, can't ye! heave there,for'ard, and see if you can reach her."
Courtenay was crouching low behind the bulwarks on the watch for thegrapnel, and in another second it came plump in over the taffrail.Before it had time to catch anywhere, however, my chum had pounced uponit, and, tossing it into the air just as the bowman in the boat wasbringing a strain upon the chain, the instrument dropped overboardagain.
"You lubberly rascal!" exclaimed the officer in charge of the gig,addressing the unfortunate bowman, "you shall get a couple of dozen atthe gangway as soon as we get back to the ship for that. And if youmiss next time I'll make it five dozen. We've lost a good fathom ofdistance through your confounded stupidity. _Pull_, men! D'ye mean tolet the hooker slip through your fingers after all?"
Then a thought seemed suddenly to strike this exasperated individual;his boat was too close under our counter to enable him to use his ownmuskets, so he hailed the cutter and inquired if there was "no one inher clever enough to pick off that rascally Spaniard at the felucca'stiller?"
"Come," thought I, "this is pleasant! A pretty pass the service iscoming to when a man is coolly fired upon by his own countrymen.However, let us hope the `cutters' are as bad shots with the musket asthe average of our blue-jackets!"
Just then _crack_! went a musket from the cutter, and I heard the thudof the bullet in the planking somewhere behind me.
"A miss is as good as a mile," thought I; whilst the lieutenant in thegig astern relieved his feelings by alternately anathematising the poormarksmanship of the `cutters,' and urging his own crew to increasedexertions. By this time, however, the breeze had fairly caught us; wewere in smooth water, and slipping so rapidly through it that it wasevident the sweeps were no longer rendering us the slightest effectiveservice; whilst, from the more subdued sounds issuing from the pursuinggig, I could tell that we were distinctly drawing away from her; Itherefore took it upon me to order the sweeps to be laid in, an orderwhich was obeyed with the utmost alacrity. This action of ours seemedto inspire the gigs with renewed hope and they put on such a determinedspurt that for the next ten minutes it was an even chance whether afterall they would no catch us. They _did_ gain upon us decidedly for thefirst five minutes of the spurt; but their desperate and long-continuedexertions were now beginning to tell pretty severely upon the oarsmen,and by the end of that time it became evident that they were completelypumped out, for we rapidly ran away from them. The cutter, meanwhile,had been manfully following her lighter consort all this while, themidshipman in charge of her amusing himself by blazing away at me asfast as he could load and fire even after we had run out of range.Fortunately he was an outrageously poor shot, his first attempt beinghis best, so I escaped unhurt; but I inwardly vowed that if ever Ihappened to meet him in the future I would have my revenge by tellinghim pretty plainly what I thought of him as a marksman. At length, thefelucca having distanced the gig about a mile, we saw both boats give upthe chase and lay upon their oars; and a few minutes later they turnedtail, and made their way slowly back toward the channel. We hadescapee--so far.
Meanwhile, having passed safely through the narrow channel we foundourselves in an extensive lagoon, some ten miles wide, and so long thatwe had a clear horizon to the southward and eastward, whilst on ourstarboard hand was a cluster of perhaps a dozen islands, large andsmall, some almost awash, whilst others rose to a height of from fiftyto sixty feet above the water's edge at their highest points, all ofthem being wooded right down to the water. To the northward andwestward of us the lagoon narrowed down to about a mile in width,forming a sort of strait between the largest of the islands above-mentioned and a bold projecting promontory; and beyond this strait thehorizon was again clear save for certain faint grey blots which ourexperienced eyes told us were the foliage crowning another group ofislands. It was an en
chanting prospect for a man to gaze upon; thebroad sheet of water upon which we were sailing was perfectly smoothsave for the slight ruffle of the breeze upon it; every spot of dryland, large or small, within sight of us, was completely hidden by theluxuriant tropical vegetation which flourished upon it, the foliagebeing of every conceivable shade of green, from the lightest to thedarkest, and thickly besprinkled with flowers and blossoms of all thehues of the rainbow. Nor was animate life wanting to add its charm tothe scene; for aquatic birds of various kinds were to be seen stalkingsolemnly about the shallows busily fishing, or skimming with slowly-flapping pinions close along the surface of the water; whilst, as weshot between two of the contiguous islands, butterflies of immense sizeand gorgeous colouring were distinctly visible flitting to and fro amongthe blossoms of the plants and trees; a flock of gaily paintedparroquets, startled by our sudden appearance, took to flight withdiscordant screams; humming-birds hovered and darted here and there,their brilliant metallic-like plumage flashing in the sun so that theyresembled animated gems; and lizards of various kinds, including animmense iguana, could be seen lying stretched out at full length on somefar-reaching branch, basking in the broiling sun. It was all verybeautiful; and I should have liked nothing better than to spend a weekwith my gun and sketch-book in so charming a spot, but this was ofcourse impossible; and it was also impossible for me, posted as I stillwas at the tiller, to take more than a hasty glance now and then, forthe water was extremely shallow everywhere but in the channel, which wasso intricate that, with the fresh breeze then blowing, it taxed me tothe full extent of my ability to follow Carera's quick motions and keepthe little hooker from running bodily ashore with us.
This novel species of inland navigation lasted until four bells in theforenoon watch, by which time we had cleared the second group ofislands. The channel then became wider, deeper, and less difficult tofollow; the land receding on either hand so far that all details werelost; the trip consequently began to grow somewhat monotonous; so Iresigned the tiller to Manuel, the mate, and joined Courtenay below fora quiet chat. At one o'clock Carera called down through the sky-lightthat we were about to make for the open sea again, whereupon weproceeded on deck to watch the passage of the felucca out through thenorthern channel. This was simply a pleasant repetition of ourmorning's experience for a run of about three miles; after which wefound ourselves at sea again, indeed, but with still a very awkwardpassage of some nine miles to make over an extensive shoal before wecould reach deep water. We had a most disagreeable time of it for thefirst half-hour, for, though we were under the lee of a couple ofislands, a heavy swell was setting in from seaward, the white water wasall round us in every direction, and a very sharp eye was needed at thecon, and an equally quick hand at the tiller, to prevent the littlecraft from beating her bottom in on the coral. After that, however, thewater gradually deepened; and about two o'clock, to everybody's intenserelief, we found ourselves once more in open water, with no sign of thefrigate, or indeed of a sail of any kind, anywhere within sight.
For the remainder of that day and during the ensuing night our courseled us to the northward and westward close along the northern edge ofthe great shoal, dotted with its multitudinous _cayos_ and _cays_, whichcommences some thirty miles to the eastward of the Boca de Guajaba,through which we had run to escape the frigate's boats, and extendsright along the north-eastern coast of Cuba to its most northerly point,terminating at Maya Point at the entrance to Matanzas Bay. These cayslie so thickly scattered along the coast, and are so close to eachother, that they afford innumerable places of shelter with snuganchorage for small craft; whilst, from the fact that they are allsituated well within the outer limit of the shoal, they areunapproachable except by vessels of exceedingly light draught; I wastherefore not at all surprised to learn from Carera that they wereinfested by a perfect nest of pirates, who, in feluccas and schooners ofgreat speed and shallow draught of water, were wont to sally forth for afew days' cruise in the Gulf of Florida, or among the Bahamas, to preyupon the shipping bound into and out of the Gulf of Mexico; returning totheir depots after every successful raid, and landing their booty there,so that, in the event of their encountering a man-of-war, nothing of anincriminating character might be found on board them. I asked Carerawhether he was never afraid that some of these free-and-easy gentlemenmight some time or another take it into their heads to overhaul the_Pinta_, on the chance of her happening to have on board something worthtaking; to which he replied, with a laugh, that he had no fear whateverof any such thing; the pirates always respected such traders as happenedto be engaged in dealing with any of the fraternity, these tradershaving a means of making their characters known to any suspicious-looking craft which might happen to manifest a too curious interest intheir movements. And, indeed, we had a verification of this statementthat same evening, whilst we were lying becalmed off the Cristo cays;for a noble felucca, which we had sighted an hour or so before, camefoaming down toward us, with sails furled and ten sweeps of a sidelashing the glassy surface of the water into foam, evidently determinedto know the why and the wherefore of our being there. Carera, seeingthere was a chance of his being boarded, dived below and routed out asmall square red flag, with a black diamond in the centre, which hehoisted at the end of the yard; whereupon the felucca swerved slightlyfrom her course, and, passing close under our stern, inquired whither wewere bound; to which Carera replied: "The Conconil lagoons," an answerwhich appeared to be perfectly satisfactory. This felucca was quite aformidable craft of her class, measuring, I should say, close upon twohundred tons. She was very low and very broad on the water--due, as Icould distinctly see when she swept so closely past us, to the extremeshallowness of her hull; there was no scale on her stern-post to showher draught of water; but it could not have been more than eight feet,if as much; her water-lines were the finest I had ever seen, and shemust have been a wonderfully smart vessel under canvas, judging from theease and the speed with which her crew swept her through the water.There were fully sixty men on her roomy decks as she passed us--andpossibly others below--as ruffianly-looking a set of wretches as I everwish to see; and her armament consisted of eight long brass nines--fourin each battery--with a long eighteen between her fore and main mast.She was rigged with three masts; and, from the great length of hergraceful tapering yards, she must have been capable of showing anenormous spread of canvas to the breeze. With an eye to futurebusiness, I not only noted the direction in which she was steering, butalso questioned Carera about her; but that individual was--or professedto be--totally unacquainted with her.
Next morning at daybreak we were aroused by Carera, who requested us toput in an appearance on deck as soon as possible, as we were off themouth of the Barcos Channel and he wished to run in with the first ofthe sea-breeze. We accordingly dressed with all expedition and hurriedon deck, to find ourselves becalmed off a cluster of low mangrove-covered islets, so numerous that the whole sea inshore of us seemed tobe completely covered with them. A single glance sufficed to convinceus that no more suitable spot than this for a pirate's head-quarterscould well be found, for any attempt on the part of the uninitiated topenetrate the intricacies of these multitudinous cays must inevitablyhave resulted in failure. Channel there was none--so far as we couldsee--or rather, there were hundreds of them, each more hopelesslyimpracticable than the other, for there appeared to be only a very fewfeet of water in any of them. Had we been able to ascend to any suchelevation as, say, a frigate's mast-head, it might indeed have beenpossible to pick out the true channel; but, viewed from the low deck ofthe felucca, they all appeared pretty much alike. That there _was_ achannel, however, and that a fairly good one, Carera assured us,pointing out at the same time an island fully a mile in length, andlying about due east and west, which he informed us marked the westernboundary of the entrance.
Soon afterwards the sea-breeze set in, and, squaring away before it, weran straight for a tiny islet with a single tree upon it, which lay somedistance within the mouth of th
e channel, and which had been broughtexactly midway between the long island above-mentioned and a muchsmaller one about a quarter of a mile to the eastward of it. Courtenaynow set to work to take soundings throughout the whole length of thechannel, whilst I noted down upon a piece of paper the particulars andbearings of the numerous marks. The Barcos Channel itself was some twomiles in length, as nearly as I could guess at it, curving slightly tothe eastward from its entrance, and by no means difficult to navigatewhen once one had fairly hit off its mouth, but so narrow that a passagethrough it in either direction could only be accomplished with a leadingwind. Once through this passage we found ourselves in an extensivesheet of water--an immense lagoon, in fact--which Carera informed me wasknown as Santa Clara Bay; and it is at the bottom of this bay that theConconil lagoons, to which we were bound, is situated.
And here our difficulties may be said to have fairly commenced. Thewide expanse of water upon which we were now sailing is exceedinglyshallow, a fathom and a quarter of water being its average deptheverywhere, except at its south-eastern extremity, where it dwindlesdown to one fathom only. The _Pinta_, from her exceedingly lightdraught, might, with careful management, have made a tolerably straightrun of it from the inner extremity of the Barcos Channel to the entranceto the lagoons; but this of course would not do for us; a deeper, thoughvery intricate passage to the last-named point existed, and it was ofthe utmost importance to us to have it pointed out to us; it was, infact, supposed to be the chief object of our journey with Carera.Accordingly, away we went for it, stretching across the lagoon, now toone side, now to another; bearing away for a few yards, then haulingclose to the wind; twisting and doubling like a hunted hare, andchanging our course so rapidly that it was all I could do to jot downthe various marks as they were pointed out to me. The distance to betraversed was, in a straight line, about ten miles, so Carera told me;but we must have passed over fully forty miles of ground in followingthe windings of this exasperating channel, for it was two o'clock in theafternoon when we reached the entrance to the Conconil lagoons. Theselagoons extend about six miles in length, and vary in breadth fromperhaps half a mile in their widest part, to less than a hundred feet attheir narrowest. They run pretty nearly east and west and are formed bya remarkable spit, shaped like an inverted L, jutting out from themainland, and some eight or nine islands of various sizes. Some ofthese islands stand fair in the middle of the lagoon, as regards itswidth, and where these occur the channel is exceedingly narrow, andconsequently can be very easily defended. The lagoons, in fact,constitute a stronghold within a stronghold; and as we wound our wayslowly along, the breeze coming to us only light and fitfully throughthe dense and lofty vegetation crowning the islands outside of us, myadmiration for Signor Giuseppe's sagacity in selecting such a place ofrefuge grew momentarily more profound. At the same time I could not butthink, as my gaze rested for a moment upon the black turbid water uponwhich we floated, whilst my offended nostrils sniffed the veryunfragrant odours which it exhaled, that the possible unhealthiness ofthe place more than compensated for its exceeding safety in otherrespects. However, when we reached the head of the lagoon, I found,contrary to my expectations, that a very capital and apparently healthysite had been pitched upon for the depot at the higher extremity of thelast lagoon--an irregular triangular-shaped piece of water about a milelong by half a mile wide, with four small islands pretty evenlydistributed over its surface. The largest of these rose somewhatprecipitously from the water's edge to a height of about fifty or sixtyfeet--quite high enough, at all events, to be above the level of themiasmatic fogs which gather on the surface of the water toward evening--and on the very summit of this island, deliciously embowered with nobletrees, were placed the various buildings appertaining to the piraticalcommunity. A narrow strip of firm sandy beach fringed the island on itseastern side; and as we opened it out from behind a projecting point ofland, we saw a fine smart-looking schooner hauled close in to it andhove down for repairs. We anchored about a quarter of a mile distantfrom her, in four fathoms of water; and as Courtenay joined me he madethe gratifying announcement that he had never met with less than two anda half fathoms of water in all the soundings he had taken.