When the work of saving the provisions really commenced, it was found that there was but little to be saved. All the bread, and most of the other stores, had got soaked in the sea-water, and consequently spoilt. A barrel of beef, and another of pork, were all the stores that could be procured in a fit condition for food. Before we had been ashore over an hour, we became acquainted with the unpleasant circumstance that no fresh water was to be found upon the island. This intelligence produced great consternation; and the wreck was revisited--for the purpose of ascertaining if any could be procured there. But very little water fit for drinking could be had on board the brig--most of her supply being down in the hold, and of course submerged entirely out of reach. Some mining tools and American axes had constituted a portion of the cargo. Some of these were now brought ashore, and put into requisition in the search for water. With the picks and shovels we scooped out a deep hole in the centre of the island, which, to the delight of all, soon became filled with the wished-for fluid. Our joy was of short continuance. We tasted the water. It was briny as the billows of the ocean. It was the sea-water itself--that went and came with the tides. Next morning, the captain and six men were despatched in the pinnace--in the hope of then finding some ship to take us off, or reaching some inhabited island--where they might obtain the means of assisting us. They took with them nearly all the water that remained--leaving over seventy people to depend on the milk of cocoa-nuts as a substitute. To go out to sea in an open boat, with but a short allowance of water, and some salt beef, was not a very pleasant undertaking; but the captain and his crew seemed highly elated at even this opportunity of getting away from the island. They preferred their chances to ours. Although the island was small, there was a sufficient quantity of fruit growing upon it to have supported us for many weeks. The chief trouble to be apprehended, was from the lawless wretches who comprised a large minority of the passengers. After the shipwreck, these men became possessed with the idea: that they were no longer to be under any restraint. The only law they appeared disposed to regard was, that of might; and there was a sufficient number of them to give trouble should they combine in any evil design. The old convicts, of course, felt sympathy for, and aided one another, while those of the passengers that were honestly inclined, gave themselves too little concern, on the score of combination. The consequences were, that matters soon proceeded to a state of dangerous insubordination; and each hour it was becoming more evident, that those who wished to live without molesting others, or being molested themselves, must enter into a league against the scoundrels, who would otherwise devote the whole community to destruction. Volume Two, Chapter XII.