the place, and we were not a little solicitous for her return, as we conceived our fate to depend upon the report we should receive; for the other two islands were obviously enough incapable of furnishing us with any assistance, and we knew not that there were any besides which we could reach. In the evening the boat came back, and the crew informed us that there was no road for a ship to anchor in, the bottom being everywhere foul ground, and all except one small spot not less than fifty fathom in depth; that on that spot there was thirty fathom, though not above half a mile from the shore; and that the bank was steep too, and could not be depended on. They farther told us that they had landed on the island, not without some difficulty on account of the greatness of the swell; that they found the ground was everywhere covered with a kind of wild cane or rush; but that they met with no water, and did not believe the place to be inhabited, though the soil was good and abounded with groves of coconut trees. The account of the impossibility of anchoring at this island occasioned a general melancholy on board, for we considered it as little less than the prelude to our destruction; and our despondency was increased by a disappointment we met with the succeeding night, when, as we were plying under top-sails, with an intention of getting nearer to the island, and of sending our boat on shore to load with coconuts for the refreshment of our sick, the wind proved squally, and blew so strong off shore, that we were driven too far to the southward to venture to send off our boat. And now the only possible circumstance that could secure the few which remained alive from perishing, was the accidental falling in with some other of the Ladrone Islands better prepared for our accommodation; but as our knowledge of these islands was extremely imperfect, we were to trust entirely to chance {278} for our guidance; only as they are all of them usually laid down near the same meridian, and we conceived those we had already seen to be part of them, we concluded to stand to the southward, as the most probable means of discovering the rest. Thus, with the most gloomy persuasion of our approaching destruction, we stood from the island of Anatacan, having all of us the strongest apprehensions (and those not ill grounded) either of dying by the scurvy, or of being destroyed with the ship, which, for want of hands to work her pumps, might in a short time be expected to founder. {279} CHAPTER II OUR ARRIVAL AT TINIAN, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND AND OF OUR PROCEEDINGS THERE TILL THE "CENTURION" DROVE OUT TO SEA