Oh, yes, I remember Pat's fire going out very well!" A day or two after this conversation I had the chance of corroborating the skipper's statement about the natives.
We had now been on the island nearly a fortnight, and our stores were becoming rapidly diminished; for we were now only twenty-five in all, since Mr Ohlsen and the seaman Harmer had died, but still this was a large number to provide for out of the scanty stock we had left us through the loss of nearly two-thirds of our provisions by the upsetting of the long-boat--the few perishable articles saved when we righted her again being uneatable from the effects of the salt water, which turned the meat putrid and converted our flour and biscuit into the most unpalatable paste.
Captain Billings had hoped that some of the sealing schooners that rendezvous about the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, in search of the blubber and skins of the marine animals frequenting the shoals there, would have put in ere this and taken us off the inhospitable shore on which we had been forced to take refuge, or else that some passing ship homeward bound or sailing west into the Pacific would have picked us up; but, never a sail hove in sight, and, as our provisions daily grew less, although the men had been rationed down to a couple of biscuits and an ounce of salt pork per day, something had to be done, or else starvation would quickly stare us in the face! The skipper therefore summoned Mr Macdougall to a consultation, at which I also was allowed to be present, for our sad plight had united us all together on the most brotherly terms, if I may so speak of the relations both the mate and Captain Billings bore towards me--although the skipper had always remembered Sam Pengelly's exhortation on parting with me when he left me in his charge, to "remember the b'y!" I think, too, I have already mentioned that since I had helped to save his life, Mr Macdougall had not only completely changed in his treatment towards me, but was an altogether different man in every respect.

The men used to say, "That bath of salt water washed all the confounded bumptiousness out of him!" "I have determined--that is, if you agree with me, Macdougall," said the skipper, when we had assembled in the tent, pointing with his ringer to a spot on a chart of the coast that he had brought with him from the _Esmeralda_, and which the wetting it had received in our spill among the breakers had not damaged very materially, for it looked right enough now, spread out on top of Mr Macdougall's chest, he being lucky enough to get his safe on shore--"I have determined," repeated Captain Billings--"that is, if you agree with me--to make a tour of inspection of the neighbouring islands, to see if we can get any help or some provisions to keep us going until a ship passes." "That's weel, vara weel," said Mr Macdougall, with an approving cough.
"And if our quest should be unsuccessful, why, we must proceed to Good Success Bay--that point to the south-east of the mainland, opposite Staten Island--where there'll be more chance of our intercepting a vessel." "Hech, mon, but it's a gude long deestance, I reecken ?" replied the mate, in a questioning way.
"About a hundred miles I make it," said the skipper, measuring the space on his chart with his fingers, for lack of a pair of callipers.

"But, with the southerly and westerly wind that we nearly always have here, the boats ought to fetch the place in a couple of days at most." "Vara weel, Cap'en, I'm ae weelin' to agree to eenything; but I misdoubt tak'ing to the sea since more in yon open boat.

'Twas only the grace o' Proveedence that saved us in landin' here, and we didna get clear off then!" "No, we didn't," said the skipper, with a chuckle.

"But we won't essay that long trip yet awhile--at all events, not until we are forced to.
We will try the islands near us first; and then, if we meet with no luck there, why, we'll shape a course for Good Success Bay." "All richt, I'm agree'ble," answered Mr Macdougall, quite satisfied that we were not going to put to sea again in a hurry in our frail craft, which were indeed not very staunch to brave the perils of the open sea; so it was decided, accordingly, that the jolly-boat, with a picked party, should proceed the next day on a surveying tour amongst the neighbouring islands.
The following morning, therefore, Captain Billings, Jorrocks, and I, with three of the sailors--Mr Macdougall being left behind at his own request in charge of the remainder of the crew--started on the investigating expedition, directing the boat first towards a small island lying-to the westwards, and the closest to us of all that we could distinguish from the beach where our camp was.
This island, however, we found to be uninhabited, and even more bare and sterile than the one we had landed on; so, hoisting the small lugsail which the jolly-boat carried, we made over more to the north-west, towards Wollaston Island, the largest in the archipelago, and about the same distance away from us that the Isle of Wight is from Selsea Bill.
On reaching this we found a couple of native families living on the shore in rude huts, composed of the branches of trees, and with mud and stones heaped over them.