We had been some weeks at sea. Captain Slack showed his evil
disposition by throwing every impediment in the way of Mr Newton when
he attempted to hold a service on board. He could not, however, prevent
him from having prayers in his own cabin, to which I and Dick, and those
who were willing to come, were invited. Among them was a half-caste
lad, called Bill Gennill, of a not over-prepossessing countenance, to
whom I had spoken. While others scoffed, he listened, and had before we
reached Sydney gladly accepted the truth. This exposed him to the
sneers, and often to the ill-treatment, of his messmates, though Dick
and I did our best to protect him. He expressed his gratitude, and,
opposing gentleness to brutality, showed every day more and more
earnestness. Mr Newton encouraged him to persevere. Miss Kitty often
spoke kindly to him, and frequently brought up her Bible, and read such
portions as he could best understand.
"I think that Bill understands the fundamental truths of the gospel,"
she said to me: "that being all sinners by nature, and outcasts from
God, and become again His dear children by simple faith in the glorious
fact that Christ died, and was punished instead of us, and that our debt
to God being thus paid, our sins are blotted out of His remembrance, and
that we being clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we can approach
boldly the throne of grace, and are made heirs with Him of that kingdom
which He has gone before to prepare for us. He knows, too, that, being
possessed of these privileges, we are called on by the aid of the Holy
Spirit to try and imitate Christ, to live pure and blameless lives, to
make His name known to others, and do all the good we can to our
fellow-creatures, especially to those of the household of faith. I am
thankful to find, Charley, that you, too, know these truths, and are not
ashamed of Christ."
"I have not understood them many months, though I ought to have known
them long ago," I answered. "Now that I do know them, I feel that
nothing is so disgraceful to a Christian as to be ashamed of confessing
the Master he serves, and therefore it is that Satan is always
endeavouring to make us conceal our belief in the presence of our
fellow-men. I feel how necessary it is to pray for grace for those who
do not really acknowledge Christ, although they would be very angry if
told that they were not Christians."
"I found that to be the case in Sydney," said Miss Kitty, "although
during the time I spent with Mr and Mrs Newton it was a difficulty I
did not experience. The poor heathens among whom I lived were sincere;
they had discovered the worthlessness of their own idols, and felt their
sinfulness, and, consequently, heard with joy the simple plan of
salvation which God in His mercy has prepared for man. In Sydney, I
found people so well satisfied with their forms and ceremonies, their
attendance at their churches and chapels, and their almsgiving and moral
conduct, that they stared when I spoke of the love of Jesus, which
brought Him down from heaven to suffer for man, and of the utter
inability of man to save himself; they apparently believing that they
themselves were doing the work which was to merit salvation, making the
sacrifice of Christ of no effect. This, it appears to me, is the belief
of a large number of nominal Christians, while a still larger number
live on from day to day without giving a thought to the future, or
caring whether they are to pass it in glory, or to be cast out for ever
from the presence of God. I cannot bear to think that those I know
should be existing in so dangerous a state without trying to make the
truth known to them, and urging them to accept salvation while the day
of grace lasts."
I mention this conversation, because it so exactly describes my own
feelings, and the state of the greater number of people I have since
met.
"How earnestly I pray that my dear father may have accepted the truth,"
continued Miss Kitty. "I had almost despaired of again seeing him, when
a sailor, who had been wrecked in the Pacific, made his way to our
island. While conversing with the poor man, who was dying, he told me
that he had been on board an outward-bound ship which had picked up an
English officer, who had made his escape from a French prison; and I was
certain, from the name and from the description he gave me, that the
officer must have been my father. The ship touched nowhere till she was
wrecked on some rocks in the Southern Ocean, between the Mauritius and
Australia. My father was among those who escaped. They were rescued by
a South Sea whaler, which my informant quitted to join another ship,
leaving him on board. Where my father was going to he could not tell,
but concluded that he intended returning home. Even should he have done
so, he would have been unable to hear of me, and this makes me anxious
in the extreme to return home, to try and find him out."
I sympathised with Miss Kitty when she gave me this account, and told
her how glad I should be to assist her in the search.
Some days after this, one of those furious gales which occasionally blow
over the usually calm waters of the Pacific came on, and we unexpectedly
made an island not marked in the charts, to avoid which our course was
being altered, when a squall laid the ship almost on her beam-ends.
Throwing off my jacket, that my arms might be perfectly unfettered, I
sprang aloft with others yet further to shorten sail, when the
main-topmast and the yard on which I hung were carried away. The next
moment I found myself struggling amid the foaming waters. The ship flew
on. To heave-to or lower a boat I knew was impossible. I gave myself
up for lost: still I struck out with the instinct of self-preservation.
The seas dancing wildly around circumscribed my view, and I could only
just see the masts of the ship as she receded from me. Several other
poor fellows I knew had been hove into the sea off the yard with me.
Though dressed only in a light shirt and trousers, I was nearly
exhausted. Had I retained my jacket, I believe that I should have been
unable to keep myself afloat. Just then a shout reached my ears, and I
saw Bill seated astride a piece of timber, not far from me. With my
remaining strength I made towards it, and he, seizing me by the shirt,
hauled me up, and made me fast with some rope attached to the spar.
"Glad to find you, Charley," he said. "I saw the timber, when I thought
there was no hope, and got on to it. Now we must trust that the ship
will come back to pick us up, or that the wind will drive us to the
shore, otherwise we shall be badly off."
I thought so too; but having escaped immediate death so wonderfully, I
could not help hoping that further means would be sent us for preserving
our lives.
"We must trust in God," I answered. "It is a happy thing for you and
me, Bill, that we are ready to go into His presence, knowing that He
will receive us as loved children."
"Ah, yes, Master Charley, that's what I have been thinking," said Bill.
"I knew you were on the yard, and the moment I was in the water I prayed
that He would save you as well as me, and you see He has done so."
We, however, could talk but little; indeed, what we said was uttered in
disjointed sentences; for the foaming sea kept tossing the log on which
we sat up and down, so that we could with difficulty hold on to it. The
sea-birds kept wildly screaming over our heads, while nothing could be
seen around us but the foaming, troubled waters. In vain we looked out
for the ship. Evening was coming on, and the gloom increased. Had it
not been for the rope, we could not have maintained our hold of the log.
Each time after a sea had swept over us I looked up, hoping to discover
the ship, but she was nowhere visible, and even had she been near, the
increased darkness would have shut her out from our sight.
Hour after hour passed by, and, faint and exhausted, I felt that I could
not hold on much longer. Poor Bill seemed in even a worse condition. I
could hear his voice every now and then, amid the roaring of the waters,
uttering a prayer, and I joined him in my heart. At last I fell into a
state of almost insensibility, and I knew not how the hours went by.
Again I aroused myself, and it seemed to me that the night must have
well-nigh passed by. At length the roaring sound of the waters
increased: it was that of a heavy surf breaking on the shore. Daylight
appeared. As the log rose to the summit of the sea, I caught sight of a
rocky coast close at hand. In a few minutes more the log might be cast
on it, but the danger we ran was greater than ever, for if turned over
and over by the surf, we might be crushed beneath it. I cast off the
lashings which bound me, holding on instead tightly to the ropes, and
urging Bill to do the same. He did not appear to comprehend me. I
stretched out my hand to assist him, and had just succeeded in casting
loose the rope which held him, when a foaming sea took me, and I was
carried forward in its embrace towards the shore. What happened to my
companion I could not see, for I lost all consciousness. Confused by
the roaring and hissing of the waters in my ears, it appeared to me that
I was lifted up and down, and swept backwards and forwards; then I felt
my hands and feet touching the shore. I struggled on. Another sea came
hissing up; I dug my hands into the sand ere it passed away. Exhausted,
I could exert myself no further. Had another sea overtaken me, it would
have carried me helplessly off.
How long I thus remained I know not, when I felt my head lifted from the
ground, and opening my eyes, I saw an old man with long hair and beard,
and a benignant expression of countenance, bending over me. Taking me
in his arms, he carried me some way from the water, and then again
placed me on the ground, unable to proceed farther.
"How came you here, lad?" he asked, when he saw that I had sufficiently
recovered to speak. "Has your ship been cast away?"
I told him how I had been carried overboard, and inquired whether my
companion had been saved.
"I have seen no one," he said. "Indeed, I only just now came down to
the spot to bathe, as it is one of the few places on the shore free from
rocks; but I will search for him as soon as you are more recovered."