I had no skill of swimming, Essen Water being small in our neighbourhood;
but when I laid hold upon the yard with both arms, and kicked out with both feet,
I soon begun to find that I was moving. Hard work it was, and mortally slow; but
in about an hour of kicking and splashing, I had got well in between the points of
a sandy bay surrounded by low hills.
The sea was here quite quiet; there was no sound of any surf; the moon shone
clear; and I thought in my heart I had never seen a place so desert and desolate.