Following one of
these channels a quarter of a mile, he found a basin of four fathoms of
water, large enough to take a ship in, and, fortunately, it was in close
proximity to a portion of the reef that was always bare, when a heavy sea
was not beating over it. Here he dropped a buoy, for he had come provided
with several fragments of spars for this purpose; and, on his return, the
channel was similarly marked off, at all the critical points. On the flat
rock, in the inlet, one of the men was left, standing up to his waist
in-the water, it being certain that the tide was failing.
The boat now returned to the ship, which it met at the distance of half a
mile from the inlet. The current setting southwardly, her progress had
been more rapid than when heading north, and her drift had been less
towards the land. Still there was so little wind, so steady a
ground-swell, and it was possible to carry so little after-sail, that
great doubts were entertained of being able to weather the rocks
sufficiently to turn into the inlet. Twenty times in the next half hour
was the order to let go the anchor, on the point of being given, as the
wind baffled, and as often was it countermanded, to take advantage of its
reviving. These were feverish moments, for the ship was now so near the
reef as to render her situation very insecure in the event of the wind's
rising, or of a sea's getting up, the sand of the bottom being too hard to
make good holding-ground.
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