During the first few weeks we were on the island, Bill and I built
ourselves a comfortable hut, and planted a plot of ground with roots and
seeds given to us by our host, several boxes of which, he said, had
fortunately been washed on shore from the wreck. Great had been my
astonishment to find who he was. I had been narrating my previous
adventures. When I came to give him an account of Miss Kitty, I saw
that he was deeply interested. He asked me question upon question. I
told him of her belief that her father was still alive, and of her
resolution not to marry till his return home.
"Then, dear boy, I pray more than ever that we may make our escape ere
long, for I am her long missing father, Lieutenant Raglan. Misfortune
has pursued me for many years, but I shall be recompensed by finding my
child all you describe her."
I had not expected to find her father so old a man, but I discovered
that care and anxiety had whitened his hair and furrowed his cheeks, and
that he was not nearly so advanced in years as he had at first appeared.
But I must be brief in my account of our stay on the island. I have
not, indeed, many incidents to describe. We employed our time in
fishing, searching for birds' egg and turtle eggs, and trapping birds.
We also found a raft, on which we hoped to be able to push off to any
vessel which might at length approach the coast.
I did not forget Miss Kitty's earnest wish that her father should be
brought to a knowledge of the Truth. This encouraged me to speak to
him. I then expressed my regret that we had no Bible, observing what
comfort it would have afforded us, how impossible it is without it for
man to know God's laws, and, consequently, to obey them.
"But surely, my young friend, men lead very moral and good lives without
reading the Bible."
"They owe their knowledge of what is good and moral to the Bible alone,
sir," I answered. "They get it secondhand, it is true, just as they get
their knowledge of God from the Bible, although they may never look into
it. Without the Bible we should still be worshipping blocks of stone,
or creeping things, or the sun and stars. Without it man would never
have discovered what God is, or how He desires to be worshipped."
And I then went on, as well as I was able, to speak of God's love to
man, which induced Him to form His plan of salvation so exactly suited
to man's wants.
"I am sure, sir," I continued, "God, who formed this beautiful world and
filled it with wonders, cannot have left us without a revelation of
Himself, and nowhere else but in the Bible can we find that revelation."
I happily recollected many important passages from the Scriptures, which
I quoted.
The old officer said he would think over the subject, and I left him in
his hut, evidently meditating seriously on it. Day after day he
introduced it, and now seemed only to take pleasure in talking of it.
He was surprised to find how much Bill knew, and how clearly he could
explain himself.
When people have absorbing subjects of conversation the time passes
rapidly by.
I was one day seated with my new friend in the hut, when Bill rushed in,
exclaiming:
"A sail in sight! a sail in sight! She is standing this way!"
We hurried to the top of the hill above the hut. A large ship was
approaching the island. The wind was off shore, the sea calm. We
hoisted the flag, and then hastily collecting some provisions, put them
on our raft, and shoved off, determined to run every risk rather than
allow her to pass us. It might have been a hard matter to get back if
we failed to intercept her. We had brought a long pole with a flag at
the end, to attract her attention. We exerted all our strength to
paddle off. The wind was light, but in our favour. On she stood, as if
intending to give the island a wide berth. We had got a considerable
distance from the land. Mr Raglan moved the flag to and fro.
"We are seen, we are seen!" he exclaimed, as the ship altered her course
directly for us. In a short time she hove-to; a boat was lowered and
pulled up to us. We sprang into her. Questions were eagerly asked as
to who we were.
"And what ship is yours?" inquired Mr Raglan.
"The _Harmony_, Captain Falconer," was the answer.