CHAPTER XXXI.
NORTH BY WEST.
Besides Yawl and his helpers, we found on the beach about thirty men and women, the saved of two thousand.

Among them was one of the priests ordained by the abbe.

All had lived in the lower part of the oasis, and when the volcano began spouting water, after the third earthquake, they fled to the coast and so escaped.

Though naturally much distressed (being bereft of home, kindred, and all they possessed), they bore their misfortunes with the uncomplaining stoicism so characteristic of their race.
The immediate question was how to dispose of these unfortunates.

I could not take them away in the sloop, and I knew that they would prefer to remain in the neighborhood where they were born.