The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
Children's literature
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this,
believing they would go on board the ship again and set sail,
giving their comrades over for lost, and so he should still lose
the ship, which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he
was quickly as much frightened the other way.
They had not been long put off the boat, when we perceived them
all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their
conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon, viz., to
leave three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go
up into the country to look for their fellows. This was a great
disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to do, as our
seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us if we
let the boat escape; because they would row away to the ship, and
then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so
our recovering the ship would be lost. However, we had no remedy
but to wait and see what the issue of things might present. The
seven men came on shore, and the three who remained in the boat
put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came to an
anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come
at them in the boat. Those that came on shore kept close together,
marching towards the top of the little hill under which my
habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could
not perceive us.
We should have been very glad if they would have come nearer us,
so that we might have fired at them, or that they would have gone
farther off, that we might come abroad. But when they were come to
the brow of the hill where they could see a great way into the
valleys and woods, which lay towards the northeast part, and where
the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were
weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore,
nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree to
consider it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as
the other part of them had done, they had done the job for us; but
they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go to
sleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had to
fear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account