This pious attention to two dead men nearly proved fatal to a greater number of the living; for all the casks having been filled and sent on board, the captain gave orders to re-embark, and without troubling himself to inquire if this order had been executed or not, caused the anchor to be weighed on the morning of the 11th, while I and some of my companions were engaged in erecting the inscriptions of which I have spoken, others were cutting grass for the hogs, and Messrs M'Dougall and D.Stuart had gone to the south side of the isle to look for game.

The roaring of the sea against the rock-bound shore prevented them from hearing the gun, and they did not rejoin us till the vessel was already at sea.

We then lost no time, but pushed off, being eight in number, with our little boat, only twenty feet keel.

We rowed with all our might, but gained nothing upon the vessel.

We were losing sight of the islands at last, and our case seemed desperate.