The feeble and exhausted condition of the survivors, Nute and Holden.--The natives consent to release them from labor, but refuse them food; and they obtain permission to leave the island in the first vessel, for a compensation to be made to the natives.--They crawl about from place to place, subsisting upon leaves, and occasionally begging a little food of the natives, for two months.--Their sudden joy at hearing of a vessel coming towards the island.--It proves to be the British barque Britannia, captain Short, bound to Canton.--They are taken on board the Britannia, November 27, 1834, and treated with the kindest attention.--Their joy and gratitude at this happy termination of their sufferings.--They gradually recover their health so far as to take passage for America, in the ship Morrison, bound for New York, where they arrive May 5, 1835.--Acknowledgments for their kind reception at New York and Boston. Having thus briefly related the story of our captivity and sufferings, it only remains to give an account of our escape from this barbarous people. We continued to survive the horrible sufferings to which we were constantly subjected, and to serve our tyrannical masters, in despite of our agonies of body and mind, till the beginning of the autumn of 1834; at which time we had become so emaciated, feeble, and sickly, that we found it impossible any longer even to attempt to labor. By this time we had acquired a sufficient knowledge of their tongue to converse fluently with the natives, and we informed our masters, that our feeble condition rendered it impossible for us to attempt to do any thing more. We also reasoned the matter with them, telling them that death was our inevitable doom, unless we were allowed to relax our labor; that if we died we could be of no service to them, but if allowed a respite, and we lived, and could be put on board a vessel, they should be liberally rewarded. With much difficulty we at length persuaded our masters to allow us to quit labor, and obtained from them a promise to be put on board the first vessel that should come to the island. But, at the same time, they informed us, that if we ceased to work, they should cease to furnish the miserable allowance of cocoa-nut on which we had before subsisted, and that we must either labor or starve. We deemed death as welcome in one shape as in another, and relinquished our labors and our pittance of food together. We were thus literally turned out to die! We crawled from place to place, subsisting upon leaves, and now and then begging of the natives a morsel of cocoa-nut. In this way we contrived to live for about two months, when the joyful intelligence was brought to us that a vessel was in sight, and was coming near the island! Hope once more revisited our despairing hearts, and seemed to inspire us with renewed strength and animation. [Illustration: ESCAPE TO THE BRITANNIA.]