Any one could get things that the divers had brought up.

To be sure, the sea wasn't very deep here, but it had a bottom, all the same.

I was not so good a swimmer as these darkeys, who ducked and dived as if they had been born in the water, but I could swim better than most fellows, and was particularly good at diving.

So I determined, if I could get a chance, to go down after some of those things on the coral-reef.
I couldn't try this, before, because there were too many people along, but Rectus, who thought the idea was splendid, although he didn't intend to dive himself, agreed to hire a sail-boat with me, and go off to the reef, with only the darkey captain.
We started as early as we could get off, on the morning after we had been at Fort Charlotte.

The captain of the yacht--they give themselves and their sail-boats big titles here--was a tall colored man, named Chris, and he took two big darkey boys with him, although we told him we didn't want any divers.