Whilst we continued to talk and to admire the beauty of the stars, they at length began to fade away before the first light of morning.

Ernest returned to us, and we awoke Jack, who had slept uninterruptedly, and was quite unconscious where he was.

We returned to the pass, which now, by the light of day, seemed to us in a more hopeless state than in the dusk of evening.

I was struck with consternation: it appeared to me that we were entirely enclosed at this side; and I shuddered to think of crossing the island again, to pass round at the other end, of the risk we should run of meeting wild beasts, and of the painful and perilous passage along the coral reefs.

At that moment I would gladly have consented to open a passage through the grotto, at the hazard of any visitors, in order to get through myself, that I might relieve the anxious feelings of my dear wife and boy.