Part 16 (2/2)

CHAPTER XLIII

WE AGAIN LEAVE NEW HOLLAND

”Courage, co, who held a flask of spirits to my lips, and at the sound of his familiar voice life returned to me I was so weak, however, and the shock to reat, that I could not speak I pressed his hand to let him kno thankful I was that he had come hi could have saved me at that reat heart, which could be gentle as a woman's upon occasions, he lifted me in his arms, and bore me to the cradle at the end of the rope by which he had descended I was soon drawn to the top of the cliff, wherehiht-time, for the dread of evil spirits in the dark is universal a it unlikely they would attack us, but it was a h the woods to the beach where our boats lay, withhands, since I was incapable of ht of deliriules and serpents, I awoke refreshed, though still very weak I could not bear to be left alone, not even for anursed iven h, and was able to come on deck; but it was a shadow of my former self who crept up the companion ladder to where a couch had been prepared for th in the sun, I was able to give Hartog some account of my adventure At first, when I spoke of rubies, he evidently regarded what I said as a flight of fancy inseparable froh which I had passed But when I insisted that I had told hiht me the clothes I had worn on my descent into the valley, the pockets of which we found to be full of the rubies I had collected But, after consultation, we deter about these rubies to any member of the crew The wealth of the Indies would not have te considered the risk too great for him to run, upon whom the safety of us all depended To have asked others to undertake a danger from which we shrank would have been to undermine our authority and sow the seeds of mutiny Thus we kept our secret, and after a further week's rest, during which I fully regained th, we made sail for the open sea

The land which we had up to now skirted and touched at was not only barren and inhabited by savages, but also the sea in these parts see but sharks, swordfish, and the like unnatural monsters, while the birds also were as wild and shy as the men What pleasure the wretched inhabitants of this country can find in their lives it is hard to understand

We were now once hted an island, we et near the land, owing to the heavy surf We found the coast very precipitous, without any foreland or inlets In short, it seerass The coast here was steep, consisting of red rocks of the sa to the breakers

During the whole of the next day the current carried us northward against our will, since ere running with small sail, and had but little control over the rudder In the afternoonse of a boat's crew, in order to effect a landing, with our spirits somewhat revived, for I concluded if there werenear to the shore, we found it to be a steeply-rising coast, full of rocks and stones, with a violent surf running Nevertheless, two of ourthe pinnace close to the reef, upon which we landed

We now began our search for water, without, however, finding any, e observed co toward us, from the direction in which we had seen the s on all fours Their appearance was so wretched that we began to doubt if they were hu incapable of speech, but they signed to us with beckoning fingers to approach them Then they raised themselves upon their knees, and stretched out their hands to us in mute appeal They hite men--some of the Spaniardsstolen our vessel And, with a shock, I recognized a them Pedro de Castro, the traitor to ed the piracy of our shi+p

When we came close to the unfortunate Spaniards whom Montbar had left to shi+ft for themselves on this desolate shore I bent over to exaht theely dilated, and there were black circles under their eyes Their hollow cheeks were deeply wrinkled

Their lips glued to their yellow teeth They exhaled an infectious odour, and ht well have been taken for dead men come forth from the tombs

We had some salt junk and biscuits on the boat, kept in one of the lockers against, as so unable to return to the shi+p in time for meals, and I sent one of the crew to fetch a portion, which he set before the famished men

When the Spaniards saw the food their li, and tears came into their eyes Then they fell upon it, and devoured it with sobs of joy In astonishment and pity atched them at their wolfish meal When they had finished I asked de Castro for some account of what had befallen them

The devil Montbar, he said, had abandoned the them to make shi+ft for themselves, and to learn from the hardshi+p of their lot repentance for the act of piracy they had co the island they found it to contain no water except a brackish liquid, to be had by digging, The only food obtainable was shell-fish, and occasionally the rank flesh of sea birds They had neither the tools nor materials to build habitations, and were forced to shelter the sun in summer and from the bitter cold in winter with a few bushes

When de Castro spoke of Montbar he becaht shone in his eyes For two years they had endured upon this island untold suffering All the wo since dead, except Donna Isabel Barreto, who clung to life with the tenacity born of a desire for revenge Of the two hundred and forty Spaniards marooned by Captain Montbar but thirty now survived, the rest having perished miserably from starvation and exposure, when their bodies had been cast from the cliffs into the sea

When Pedro and his companions had somewhat recovered they led us to where their wretched settleaunt, wind-swept trees, and, in pity for their forlorn condition, I ordered all the provisions we had in the boat to be brought for their refreshmy hands with kisses She had lost all trace of the proud beauty she had formerly possessed Her skin had been burnt alled white hair surrounded what had once been a noble countenance Only her eyes retained their brightness, and at thought of rescue, and possible revenge upon her eneloith unnatural fire

I knew that Hartog would not have wished me to leave these wretched outcasts to their fate, however little deserving they may have been of our sympathy, so I invited the they would henceforth be our slaves, ready, in all things, to obey our slightest behest But I had little faith in their pro, as ined, was considerably surprised e returned on board with the reht, but he approved of what I had done in bringing them off the island They were sent forward, where they received every attention Donna Isabel was the only one allowed to berth in the cabin

We had no wo, in which she appeared as a ood looks, and we found her coreeable

A week later we came to an island which promised more favourable conditions than the one we had just left, and where we obtained a supply of good water for our tanks

CHAPTER XLIV