During the succeeding watch, I had leisure to take a careful mental
review of Joe's story, and the conclusion at which I arrived was that
the man Moore, having failed in his endeavour to seduce the original
crew of the _Esmeralda_ from their duty, had, on his arrival at Sydney,
no sooner recognised the probability of their desertion--which, for
aught I knew to the contrary, he might very possibly have contributed to
bring about--than he must have devoted himself to the task of collecting
the party of men whose wiles I had now to circumvent. What a patient,
crafty fellow the man had proved himself to be! It really appeared as
though he must have had, almost from the outset of the voyage, some
suspicion as to the character of the cryptogram over which he had seen
me puzzling so often--or might he not have gathered its nature from a
chance word or two overheard while I had been discussing the subject
with Sir Edgar?--for he no sooner became aware in a general way of its
contents than he was ready with a plan by which to turn the adventure to
his own advantage. He was persevering, too; for that plan had no sooner
failed than he must have gone to work to formulate another, so skilfully
devised, and so carefully carried through that, but for Joe's devoted
fidelity, it must have infallibly succeeded. Indeed, I felt by no means
satisfied that they would not succeed, even now. True, their designs,
as revealed to Joe, might be very easily frustrated; but there was an
unpleasant doubt in my mind as to the _bona fides_ of that revelation.
I could scarcely believe that men who had already exhibited such
indisputable proof of extreme caution and steadfast self-control could
be so easily imposed upon as they appeared to have been by Joe! What if
they had seen through his devices, and had suspected his intentions?
Would they not, in that case, have realised that our suspicions were
aroused? and might they not have merely _feigned_ to have fallen into
Joe's trap, and have confided to him a purely fictitious statement of
their plans, concocted for the express purpose of throwing us off our
guard and leading us astray? Taking into account the deep guile that
had prompted them to adopt and consistently maintain a course of the
most orderly and irreproachable behaviour as the most likely means of
blinding me to and averting the faintest suspicion of their nefarious
designs, I could not help feeling that such a line of action on their
part was only too probable; and, in casting about in my mind for some
effectual method of subverting their plans, I fully realised that I
should have to take this contingency into consideration, while preparing
also a counterplot to that revealed by the man Rogers to Joe. Of one
thing, and one thing only, could I be certain, which was that _nobody_--
not even myself--knew the amount of the treasure; and it appeared to me
that upon this fact must I base my plans. These reflections, given
above in a very condensed form, fully occupied my mind during the first
hour and a half of my watch, and were only interrupted by the appearance
in the eastern quarter of that first faint paling of the darkness which
heralded the dawn of a new day. This temporarily diverted my thoughts
into a new channel; for, upon solving the enigma of the cryptogram, my
first act had been to consult a chart of the Pacific, with the resulting
discovery that no such island as that referred to in the Saint Leger
document was to be found upon it. Now, the ship's position on the
previous noon, and her run since then, were such that if the morning
happened to break clear, the island ought to be just visible, right
ahead, at daybreak, provided, of course, that the man who secreted the
treasure had made no mistake in his calculations. On the one hand, I
thought it probable that, considering the important issues at stake, the
utmost care would be taken to verify the position of the island beyond
all possibility of error; while, on the other, was the curious fact that
no such island--not even a rock, or indeed shoal water--appeared on the
chart in the position indicated. This circumstance, coupled with my
knowledge of the imperfect character of the instruments in use by
navigators of the period at which the cryptogram had been written,
caused me now to experience no little curiosity and anxiety as to what
the approaching daylight might reveal.
I was not to be left long in suspense. We were in the tropics, where
the light comes and goes with a rush, a few minutes only intervening
between broad day and deepest night. The first faint streak of scarcely
perceptible pallor along the verge of the eastern horizon on our
starboard bow lengthened and widened, and grew more pronounced, even as
I gazed upon it, until it became a broad segment of cold, colourless
light, insensibly melting out of the circumscribing darkness. Then a
faint, delicate tone of softest primrose began to steal through it,
quickly strengthening and brightening as the light spread upward and
right and left, paling the stars one by one, until they dwindled away
and vanished in the soft, rich blue that was swiftly chasing the
darkness across the sky. Anon, a warm, rich, rosy flush began to
pervade the primrose tones of the eastern horizon, against which the
level line of the ocean's marge cut sharply in tones of deepest indigo;
while, overhead, the brightening blue was delicately mottled with a
whole archipelago of thin, fleecy cloudlets, pink tinged, and bordered
along their lower edges with purest gold, that were mysteriously
floating into view, apparently from illimitable space. Then from that
point on the horizon where the deepening rose colour glowed most
brilliantly, up shot a single white ray perpendicularly toward the
zenith, narrow and well defined where it sprang from the horizon, and
broadening as it soared aloft until it became lost among the lowest tier
of clouds, now deeply tinged with dyes of richest crimson. This single
ray had scarcely made itself apparent ere it was followed by others
radiating fan-wise from the same spot; and in another instant a spark of
golden flame flashed across the sea from the horizon, at the point of
junction of the rays, tingeing the small wave-crests in its wake with
ruddy gold that deepened first into a line and then into a broad path of
shimmering golden radiance, as the burning rim of the sun soared slowly
out of the purple sea.
At the same instant, the man who had the lookout, and who had stationed
himself on the topgallant forecastle, right in the eyes of the ship,
turned sharply round, facing the poop, and reported--
"Land ho! right ahead."
I had been so completely absorbed in contemplation of the magnificent
spectacle of the sunrise that, for the moment, I had entirely forgotten
the island, and everything connected with it; but the cry of the lookout
brought it back to my mind with a flash, and, moving to the
mizzen-rigging, and springing upon a hen-coop, I directed my gaze
straight ahead, with my hand over my eyes to shield them from the dazzle
of the sun.
Yes, there it was, undoubtedly; a faint, pinkish-grey shape, right over
the starboard cat-head, as I then stood; a low hummock on the left, with
a hill next it, the outline of which, even at that distance, bore a
striking resemblance to a man's nose, the upper lip on the right of it
showing just clear of the horizon. Yes; there was the treasure island,
beyond all question! The next point to be determined was, whether the
treasure still lay buried there; and if so, how was I to obtain and
retain possession of it?
Of one thing I felt morally certain, which was that, as soon as the men
felt assured that the whole of the treasure was on board, they would
take the ship from me, either by force or guile, if they could. It was
of course open to me to make a fight for it, if I chose; but, even
assuming that I could reckon upon Sir Edgar's assistance--as I felt sure
I could--that would make only four of us to oppose eleven men, who, I
had no manner of doubt, would prove as resolute and determined in a
stand-up fight as they had already shown themselves to be in the pursuit
of their organised plans. The odds were nearly three to one against us.
Opposed to these, with, for our antagonists, resolute men, whose
knowledge of the consequences that must inevitably follow upon an
unsuccessful attempt at piracy would nerve them to desperation--men who
were unquestionably full of brute courage, and who, moreover, were
doubtless as well armed as ourselves--was I justified in entertaining
the slightest hope of success in the event of my submitting the matter
to the arbitrament of battle? The answer to this question was an
unqualified "No!"
If, then, it was hopeless to expect that a resort to force would enable
me to retain my property, my freedom, and the freedom and property, ay,
perhaps even the lives of those who, in such a crisis as this, would
naturally look to me for the preservation of both, I must resort to
guile. I mortally hate anything that in the slightest degree savours of
deception, either in words or conduct, and have made it an invariable
rule never to engage in any transaction needing the one or the other for
its successful accomplishment; but here was a case in which I had no
choice but to meet guile with guile. How was it to be done? Possibly,
if the treasure happened to be in a compact form, and easily accessible,
Forbes, Joe, and myself might be able to secure it and convey it on
board the ship, unknown to the men, while they were busily engaged in
digging for it elsewhere--for, now that they were aware of its
existence, it seemed to me that my best chance of success lay in
employing them in the search, while taking care that none of them should
find it. This would naturally lead them to the conclusion that, if my
document were not an ingenious hoax, the treasure had already been
discovered and secured by somebody else.
This plan rather took my fancy. It was simple, feasible, and demanded
no elaborate system of deception; the men would simply be set to dig
upon a certain spot, and, failing, after a sufficiently exhaustive
search, to find anything, the digging would be abandoned, and they would
be sent to various more or less distant parts of the island to cut
sandal-wood. The more I thought of it, the better I liked it; and when,
later on, during the forenoon, I found an opportunity to talk it over
with Sir Edgar and Forbes--having previously related to them the
substance of Joe's communication made to me during the middle watch--
they agreed with me that, failing a better scheme, they saw no reason
why it should not be successful. Sir Edgar, as I had anticipated,
declared himself ready to act in any way that I might suggest, at a
moment's notice; and, now that he had had time to think over my former
communication to him, and to grow accustomed to the idea of a coming
contest, either of strength or wits, with the men, was as eager for the
fray as a schoolboy is for the great cricket-match of the year.
Meanwhile, the wind had slightly freshened with the rising of the sun,
and the ship was gliding along upon a taut bowline, under all plain
sail, at a speed of about six knots, heading up about a point and a half
to windward of the northern extremity of the island. We were
approaching it from the south-west--the direction mentioned in my
ancestor's cryptogram--and as we gradually rose it above the horizon it
was curious to note how exact a resemblance its outline bore to the
profile of an upturned human face lying prone along the water. It was
so striking that even the children remarked upon it; while, as for the
men, they could scarcely remove their eyes from it, though _their_
interest in the place was doubtless founded more upon the wealth they
hoped to find upon it than upon its very singular appearance. I noted
this morning, without appearing to do so, that there was a great deal of
animated conversation going on upon the forecastle, accompanied by many
stealthy glances toward the poop; while the late steward--now sweltering
in the heat of the galley, and of his hirsute disguise--was being
continually appealed to. Now that I knew this man's secret I was filled
with astonishment that I had not immediately penetrated it; for,
disguise his features as he might, he could not divest himself of the
sly, stealthy way in which he used his eyes, nor of the noiseless,
treacherous way in which he moved. I had noted these characteristics in
him as far back as the day on which he had signed articles at Sydney;
yet, strange to say, familiar as they were to me, I had never for a
moment suspected his identity, probably because, when I happened to
think of him at all, I assumed as a matter of course that he would
naturally make the best of his way to the gold-fields. Of course, since
we had been at sea, his avocation as cook had confined him so closely to
the galley that I had rarely seen him; and upon the rare occasions when
he had been obliged to present himself in full view my thoughts had
usually been so busy upon other matters that I had taken little or no
notice of him. Indeed, I shrewdly suspected that it was the comparative
privacy of the galley that had led him to choose the disagreeable
functions of ship's cook.
All that day, until three o'clock in the afternoon, we glided gently
along over a smooth, sparkling sea, toward the island, noting with keen
interest its various features as they imperceptibly resolved themselves
out of the hazy blue tint that it had worn in the distance. The first
marked change that occurred in its appearance was the breaking-up of the
flat silhouette into a series of softly shadowed markings which
indicated the shapes of the hills and valleys, the slopes and ravines
into which its surface was broken. Then, as the sun swept over it and
round toward its western side, the light fell more strongly upon its
hillsides; its shadows grew deeper, and an all-pervading tone of green
gave evidence of its exceeding fertility. Later still, the green became
broken up into an infinite variety of shades; while the swelling rounded
outlines that stood out from and yet indicated these multitudinous
tints, revealed the fact that the island was densely wooded to its very
summit. By six bells in the afternoon we had neared it to within three
miles, and were enabled to see that its northern extremity was bold and
precipitous, with naked, rocky cliffs, against the base of which the
white surf chafed and roared with a ceaseless thunder that reached our
ears even at that distance. The south-western extremity, while as bold
as the northern, and almost as precipitous, was wooded right down to the
water's edge; while from the lofty hill, that in the distance had borne
the appearance of a gigantic human nose, there was an irregular but
general slope toward the south-western shore; the entrance to the river
mentioned in the cryptogram being clearly indicated by a low projecting
point stretching southward from the bold cliffs marking the northern
boundary of the island.
Having satisfactorily made out the mouth of the river, I caused the helm
to be shifted, and we bore away for our anchorage, which was reached
about an hour later, in a small estuary situate at the southern
extremity of the island, affording perfect shelter from all winds from
south-west round by north and east to south-east.
By the time that the hands had got the canvas stowed, yards squared,
running gear hauled taut and coiled down, and decks cleared up
generally, it was five o'clock in the evening; and the shadows were
already beginning to deepen on the western side of the ravine along
which the river flowed, while its eastern slopes were glowing
brilliantly in the warm orange tones of the evening sunlight. It
chanced that we had dropped our anchor at the precise spot which
afforded us a clear view up the gently winding river for a distance of
something like a quarter of a mile, and never in all my life had I
looked upon a more lovely scene than the one that then delighted our
eyes. The so-called "river" was really a small arm of the sea formed by
a beautiful ravine--the bottom of which lay below the sea level--
dividing the southern portion of the island into two unequal parts; and
as the western side of this ravine was high and steep, while the eastern
side sloped gently but unevenly up from the water until it merged in the
high ground beyond, the whole surface of the island being finely broken
and densely wooded, the contrasting effects of brilliant sunshine and
soft purple shadow, with the multitudinous tints and endless varieties
of foliage, vividly marked in the foreground and insensibly merging into
a delicious, soft, misty grey over the distant heights, combined to form
a picture the charming, fairy-like beauty of which it is as impossible
to describe as it was entrancing to look upon.
So lovely indeed was it that I found it hard to resist the entreaties of
Lady Emily and her sister that I would lower a boat and take them for a
short pull up the river before sunset. It was necessary, however, that
our first visit to this lovely island paradise should be made with all
due circumspection; for although no sign or trace of inhabitants had as
yet been discovered, the place might for all that be peopled, and
peopled, too, with cruel, bloodthirsty savages, for aught we could tell
to the contrary. While, therefore, I was exceedingly anxious, for
reasons of my own, to get a nearer peep at the place without a moment's
unnecessary delay, I felt bound to point out to the ladies the absolute
necessity for determining the question whether or not there were any
inhabitants on the island before exposing them to the possible risk of a
landing.
The objections to an immediate landing on the part of the ladies did
not, however, apply with equal force in the case of us of the sterner
sex; I therefore ordered the gig to be lowered, and, arming myself and
each of the crew with a brace of loaded revolvers, prepared to make a
preliminary trip as far as the creek referred to in the cryptogram.
Upon hearing me give the order to get the boat ready, Sir Edgar asked
permission to accompany me; and a few minutes later we shoved off, and
headed up the river.
The waterway, as far up as we could see, maintained a tolerably even
width of some two hundred yards, the deepest water being close alongside
the western shore, which was very steep, and wooded clear down to the
water's _edge_. Here, with the assistance of the hand-lead, I found a
minimum depth of two fathoms; but the bottom was very uneven, and in a
few places I found as much as five fathoms of water. From these depths
the bottom seemed to slope pretty uniformly upward towards the opposite
or eastern bank, the slope of which was much more gentle, a narrow
margin of very fine white sand intervening between the water and the
deep, rich, chocolate-coloured soil. The varieties of trees and shrubs
were countless, ranging all the way from the smallest and most delicate
flowering plants to magnificent forest giants, some of which must have
towered at least a hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the
ground. Cocoa-nut palms formed a continuous fringe along the inner
margin of the sandy beach; and beyond them were to be seen every
imaginable species of tropical plant and tree, with foliage ranging in
tint from the palest, most delicate green to deepest olive or purple
black. The waving fronds of the delicate feathery bamboo were
everywhere visible, while creepers in endless variety trailed their long
cordlike stems and gaudy blossoms in all directions. The still, evening
air vibrated with the continuous hissing buzz of countless millions of
insects, and a few birds flitted noiselessly hither and thither among
the gathering shadows; but no sign of a human form, not even the imprint
of a footstep on the soft white sand, anywhere met my searching gaze.
At a distance of about half a mile, or perhaps a little less, from the
mouth of the river, the shore on our starboard hand merged into a low
wooded point, round which we swept, out of the main channel, into a
charming basin, some two miles wide, surrounded on every side by high
land, sloping gently backward from the water's edge, and magnificently
broken by deep, precipitous ravines, some of which could be traced from
the heart of the surrounding hills clear down to the water's edge. The
centre of the basin was occupied by an islet, roughly circular in shape,
and about half a mile in diameter, as we discovered by pulling round it.
This islet was the hiding-place of the treasure, if the cryptogram was
to be believed; and I accordingly inspected it as narrowly as the
swiftly gathering darkness would permit, so that I might carry a
tolerably distinct impression of it in my mind's eye, as an aid to the
plan that I must now definitely form and arrange before the next
sunrise. As may be supposed, I had by this time got the words of the
cryptogram off by heart--and, indeed, had destroyed the translation,
lest it should fall into other hands--I therefore knew exactly what I
had to look for as a mark to guide me to the hiding-place of the
treasure, and accordingly kept a very sharp lookout for "the obelisk
rock." There was only one rock to be seen on the islet that at all
answered to this description, and that, so far as I could distinguish in
the gloom, was a pointed, needle-like mass, forming the summit of a
steep cliff that rose precipitously from the water's edge and
constituted the northern extremity of the islet. But on getting round
to the other side I was vexed and chagrined to find that the whole
surface of the islet on the southern side of this curious cliff was
densely overgrown with trees and scrub, which would certainly have to be
cut deeply into in order to arrive at the spot where the treasure was
said to be buried. This condition of affairs, natural enough though it
was, had somehow never occurred to me; I had fully expected to find the
hiding-place located in an open space that might be conveniently
traversed in any and every direction, enabling the situation of the
treasure to be determined by the simple process of measuring off a
thousand feet in a direction due south from the base of the obelisk
rock. Possibly that might have been the condition of the islet at the
period when the treasure was buried--indeed, it very probably was--but
there had been ample time for the ground to have become overgrown since
then; and now it was so densely covered with vegetation that it would be
hopeless to think of getting at the hiding-place without the assistance
of the men. And that meant the absolute overthrow of my plan to keep
the recovery of the treasure a secret from them!
What was to be done? I racked my brains during the whole of the long,
hot, breathless night in a fruitless endeavour to devise some
satisfactory way out of the difficulty, and arose from my sleepless bunk
next morning with a splitting headache, and nothing in the shape of a
settled plan beyond the determination to find a good long job for the
men, the execution of which should afford me further time for
reflection, and perhaps allow events to develop themselves.
Acting, then, upon this resolution, I caused the gig to be brought
alongside immediately after breakfast; and ordered the axes and shovels
to be passed into her, at the same time issuing instructions for all
hands except the cook and steward to get into her and go on shore with
me. The men bustled about, nothing loth--for were they not going to get
a change from the monotony of sea life, and, at the same time, provide
themselves with the means of unlimited indulgence in more or less
vicious enjoyment for the remainder of their lives?--and I noticed, with
impotent anger, that, having at length arrived, as they supposed, at the
goal of their villainous schemes, with the wealth which was to be the
reward of their treachery all but within their grasp, as they believed,
the restraint which they had hitherto _so_ rigorously imposed upon
themselves was in a measure laid aside, and they began to reveal
themselves, both in speech and in action, as the unscrupulous scoundrels
that they were.
I paid no attention, however, to anything I saw or heard, leaving them
to believe, if they pleased, that I regarded their behaviour as a simple
ebullition of high spirits at the prospect of a little recreation
ashore; and passing my sextant and other paraphernalia carefully down
into the boat, quickly followed them and gave the order to shove off.
There were twelve of us, all told, in the boat; she was therefore pretty
deep in the water. Notwithstanding which, so eager were the men to get
at the treasure, that in less than ten minutes from the time of leaving
the ship we were once more in the creek, and pulling toward its head or
north-eastern corner, at which point I had noticed on the preceding
evening that the timber appeared to be growing more thickly and heavily
than elsewhere, and where, consequently, the task of penetrating it for
any distance would involve the greatest labour and consume the most
time.
As we drew near the shore at this point I observed--what had escaped my
notice on the preceding evening--that a small stream of beautifully
clear, crystal water came brawling down through a steep, narrow ravine,
and discharged itself into the creek exactly at the spot for which we
were heading, and I at once resolved to avail myself of its presence as
a means of deluding the men into the belief that they were working at
the right spot.
Accordingly, when the boat grounded upon the beach, I ordered everybody
out of her, with the picks and shovels, and set all hands to work
cutting pegs and long slender rods, under the direction of the
boatswain, retaining Forbes and San Domingo, the negro, as assistants in
my own especial part of the work. Within ten minutes, the fellows had
cut all the pegs and rods I could possibly require; and then, looking
carefully and anxiously about me, I at length fixed a stout peg, with
the nicest accuracy, in the sand at its junction with the grass, and
exactly at the edge of the stream. Then I sent men here and there with
long wands, which I made them hold exactly perpendicular on the ground,
adjusting their positions with the most finicking precision, until I had
wrought them all firmly into the belief that the whole of this labour
was gone through for the purpose of finding the exact spot where the
treasure lay buried. Finally, I set out by compass, and indicated, by
means of two long slender rods stuck upright into the sand, a line that
would take them straight into the bush where it was thickest and most
impenetrable, and told them to cut a straight line in that direction,
exactly two thousand yards in length from a peg which I had driven at
the margin of the bush.
This task I entrusted to Rogers and the six other men, who struck me as
being the blackest sheep of the flock; while, with Forbes, Joe Martin,
Barr, Mckinley, Christianssen, and San Domingo, I took the boat, with a
sufficient supply of axes and shovels, and made the best of my way to
the southern side of the small islet upon which the treasure was said to
be hidden.
Upon our arrival at the desired spot, my impression of the preceding
evening that it was entirely overgrown was fully confirmed, it proving
to be literally impossible to find a place where a landing could be
effected without first clearing away the scrub. There was this
difference, however, between the growth on the islet and that at the
spot where I had left the boatswain and his party at work, that whereas
the latter consisted almost exclusively of huge trees, the former was
composed largely of scrub, with only a few trees here and there, so that
it would not be nearly so difficult to penetrate as the other. It was
evident indeed to me at a glance, now that I had the full light of day
to aid me in my inspection, that the growth upon the islet was of much
more recent date than that upon any part of the main island in sight
from that spot; a fact which tended to confirm my previous suspicion
that at the time of the burial of the treasure the soil of the islet had
been bare, or nearly so, of arboreal growth.
The growth, however, was there now, and it constituted a very formidable
difficulty, for how was I to identify a point exactly one thousand feet
south of the obelisk rock, unless I could move freely over the ground
for the purpose of obtaining my precise bearing and distance?
Suddenly a brilliant idea struck me. Immediately opposite the point on
the islet at which I wished to land, there was a broad strip of sandy
beach, constituting indeed part of the margin of the basin, of which the
islet formed the centre. Would it be possible to make my measurements
from that point? There could be no harm in trying, at all events, and
we accordingly pulled across the water, landing at a part of the beach
that looked eminently promising. The first thing was to determine the
direction of a line running due south from the topmost pinnacle of the
obelisk rock, and after a few trials with the compass, I got this. My
next act was to erect a line perpendicular to this along the sandy
margin of the basin, which I accomplished with the aid of my sextant,
taking care to make this second line as long as the nature of the ground
would allow. Then, driving a peg into the sand at the intersection of
these two lines, and another at the farther extremity of my second line,
I had a right-angled triangle, whereof the two pegs and the obelisk rock
marked the angles. I had now only to measure very carefully my second
line, which I did by means of a surveyor's tape measure, bought at
Sydney for the purpose, and to take the angle between the perpendicular
and the hypothenuse of my triangle, when I had the means of calculating
all or any of the elements of the triangle that I desired. In this way,
then, I ascertained that the pinnacle of the obelisk rock was exactly
six thousand four hundred and seventy-seven feet due north of the peg I
had driven into the sand to mark the intersection of my two lines.
Then, returning to this same peg, I sent Forbes away to the islet in the
boat, with instructions to set up one of the oars, with a white
pocket-handkerchief attached to it, on the shore of the islet at the
precise spot I should indicate to him by signal. This spot I arranged
to be exactly in line with the peg and the obelisk rock; all three
points, therefore, were in one straight line, the bearing of which was
due north and south, while its northern extremity was the obelisk rock.
My next task was to take an angle to the oar from the peg at which I had
taken the angle to the obelisk rock, which enabled me to determine that
the oar was three thousand eight hundred and two feet from the
intersecting peg, and consequently two thousand six hundred and
seventy-five feet from the obelisk rock. This completed all the data I
required; for I had now only to drive a bold, conspicuous staff into the
sand in place of my intersecting peg, and another into the ground on the
islet where the oar now stood, and by cutting back into the scrub for a
distance of one thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet toward the
obelisk rock, using these two staves as guides to keep their line
straight, the workers would reach a spot exactly a thousand feet south
from the obelisk rock; or, in other words, the hiding-place of the
treasure. The two guiding-staves were soon fixed, and then, leaving
Forbes to superintend the operations of Joe, Barr, and Mckinley, I
replaced my instruments in the boat and, with Christianssen and San
Domingo at the oars, paddled on board the barque for the purpose of
bringing Sir Edgar and the whole of his party on shore, in order that
they might indulge in a run on the beautiful sandy strand of the basin,
and enjoy a nearer view of the entrancing loveliness of this exquisite
gem of the Pacific.