After the storm all hands were busy sewing new sails. The old
sails were distributed as trousers for the ragamuffin crew. For ten
days no food was tasted but soup made from sea-otter skins. Then birds
were seen, and seaweed drifted past the vessel; and a wild hope mounted
every heart of reaching some part of Japan.
On sunset of July 15, the Pole's watch-dog was noticed standing at the
bow, sniffing and barking. Two or three of the ship's hands dashed up
to the masthead, vowing they would not come down till they saw land.
Suddenly the lookout shouted, Land! The exiles forgot their woes.
Even the mutineers tied to the masts cheered. Darker and darker grew
the cloud on the horizon. By daybreak the cloud had resolved itself to
a shore before the eager eyes of the watching crew. The ship had
scarcely anchored before every man was overboard in a wild rush for the
fresh water to be found on land. Tents were pitched on the island; and
the wanderers of the sea rested.
It is no part of this narrative to tell of Benyowsky's adventures on
Luzon of the Philippines, or the Ladrones,--whichever it was,--how he
scuttled {127} Japanese sampans of gold and pearls, fought a campaign
in Formosa, and wound up at Macao, China, where all the rich cargo of
sea-otter brought from America was found to be water rotted; and
Stephanow, the criminal convict, left the Pole destitute by stealing
and selling all the Japanese loot.
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