The boat approached me. I leaped into her just as a shower of arrows was sent flying after me. Most of them fell short, but some struck the boat. Those on board the schooner seeing this, instantly let fly a volley of musketry at my pursuers, and made them pull back with no little rapidity towards the shore. The moment my eye had time to look about the vessel, I thought that I recognised her. I was not mistaken; she was Newman's schooner, and Newman himself was standing on the quarter-deck, not as I had for so long known him, but in dress and appearance like an officer. He, of course, did not know me. How should he? I was thin and haggard with care and anxiety. Of my seaman's clothes but a small portion now remained, and the few garments I had were made of the native cloth, but had been torn in my run among the trees, and afterwards almost destroyed in the water. Altogether, I was a miserable figure. I resolved not to make myself known to my old friend, but still I was anxious to guard him against the treachery of the natives. Seeing that I appeared to wish to speak to him, he sent for me aft to give an account of myself. I had not talked five minutes when he exclaimed, "I am quite certain I know that voice and mode of expression. Who are you, my man?" I at once told him. He grasped my hand cordially, and greeted me as he would have done in the forecastle of the _Drake_. Directly he made me at home, and told me that I must mess in his cabin. "You must be clothed, so I will dress you as an officer. As we have no boatswain on board, I will at once appoint you to fill the berth. That's all settled; and after you have had some food, I must hear all that has happened to you since we parted." He told me that he was well aware of the treacherous disposition of the natives, and that he was always on his guard. How delightful it was to feel myself out of the power of those bloodthirsty savages, and to be sitting at dinner with an intelligent companion! He had been in the schooner ever since we parted; and so much satisfaction had he given the Dutch authorities, that he had been promised shortly the command of the largest vessel on the station. He was in high spirits, and told me that he expected, on his return to Batavia, to marry a lady of considerable fortune, and that he looked upon his prosperity as certain. "Pretty well, is it not, I have done, remembering the point from which I started only a few years ago?" I very soon recovered my health and strength on board the schooner. Newman had been sent to examine these and other neighbouring groups of islands. We cruised about among them for some months, and then once more shaped our course for Batavia.