[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

268 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

night in the village, in a heavy atmosphere, amid
vermin and filth, on an uneven stone floor. The
rain rattled on the roof, the storm roared in the forest
like a passing express train, the sea thundered from
afar, and a river echoed in a gorge near by ; tocom-
plete the gloomy scene, a violent earthquake shook
the hills.

In the morning the launch was still afloat on the
same spot; the wind had abated, and the sky no
longer looked quite so stormy. During the night
things improved still more, and we ventured to camp
on the shore. The boys went for the dinghey, and
although they had hard work, half dragging, half
carrying it along the shore over the cliffs, they
succeeded in bringing it to our beach, and then made
an attempt to row to the launch, but were almost
carried out beyond the reef. Encouraged by a
faintly rosy sunset and a few stars, we waited another
day; then the current along the coast had nearly
ceased, only outside the reef huge mountains of water
rolled silently and incessantly past, and broke
thundering against the cliffs. The second attempt
to reach the launch was successful, and, wonderful to
relate, she had suffered no damage, only she had
shipped so much water that everything was soaked
and rusty. The engineer began to repair her engines,
and by evening she steamed back to her anchorage,
where we welcomed her as if she had been a human
‘being.

The wind had quite fallen when we steamed out
next day. It was dull weather, and we were rocked