That is the island of Barbados well astern.

All day we have been sailing east before the wind with but one intent--to set as great a distance between Barbados and ourselves as possible.

But now, almost out of sight of land, we are in a difficulty.

The only man among us schooled in the art of navigation is fevered, delirious, in fact, as a result of certain ill-treatment he received ashore before we carried him away with us.

I can handle a ship in action, and there are one or two men aboard who can assist me; but of the higher mysteries of seamanship and of the art of finding a way over the trackless wastes of ocean, we know nothing.