north-west. Thence we might await a favourable wind to reach Waigamma, on
the north side of the island, and visit Allen by means of a small boat.
About nine o'clock at night, greatly to my satisfaction, we got under the lea of
this island, into quite smooth water—for I had been very sick and
uncomfortable, and had eaten scarcely anything since the preceding morning.
We were slowly nearing the shore, which the smooth dark water told us we
could safely approach; and were congratulating ourselves on soon being at
anchor, with the prospect of hot coffee, a good supper, and a sound sleep, when
the wind completely dropped, and we had to get out the oars to row. We were
not more than two hundred yards from the shore, when I noticed that we seemed
to get no nearer although the men were rowing hard, but drifted to the westward,
and the prau would not obey the helm, but continually fell off, and gave us much
trouble to bring her up again. Soon a laud ripple of water told us we were seized
by one of those treacherous currents which so frequently frustrate all the efforts
of the voyager in these seas; the men threw down the oars in despair, and in a
few minutes we drifted to leeward of the island fairly out to sea again, and lost
our last chance of ever reaching Mysol! Hoisting our jib, we lay to, and in the
morning found ourselves only a few miles from the island, but wit, such a steady
wind blowing from its direction as to render it impossible for us to get back to it.
We now made sail to the northward, hoping soon to get a more southerly
wind. Towards noon the sea was much smoother, and with a S.S.E. wind we
were laying in the direction of Salwatty, which I hoped to reach, as I could there
easily get a boat to take provisions and stores to my companion in Mysol. This
wind did not, however, last long, but died away into a calm; and a light west
wind springing up, with a dark bank of clouds, again gave us hopes of reaching
Mysol. We were soon, however, again disappointed. The E.S.E. wind began to
blow again with violence, and continued all night in irregular gusts, and with a
short cross sea tossed us about unmercifully, and so continually took our sails
aback, that we were at length forced to run before it with our jib only, to escape
being swamped by our heavy mainsail. After another miserable and anxious
night, we found that we had drifted westward of the island of Poppa, and the
wind being again a little southerly, we made all sail in order to reach it. This we
did not succeed in doing, passing to the north-west, when the wind again blew
hard from the E.S.E., and our last hope of finding a refuge till better weather was
frustrated. This was a very serious matter to me, as I could not tell how Charles
Allen might act, if, after waiting in vain for me, he should return to Wahai, and
find that I had left there long before, and had not since been heard of. Such an
event as our missing an island forty miles long would hardly occur to him, and