When we lost sight of her, she was
cutting in the fish, as coolly as if nothing had happened. As for
ourselves, we made the best of our way for the island.
Nothing worth relating occurred during the remainder of the
passage. We reached our place of destination ten days after we found
Marble; and carried both the ship and schooner into the lagoon,
without any hesitation or difficulty. Everything was found precisely
as we had left it; two months having passed as quietly as an hour. The
tents were standing, the different objects lay where they had been
hastily dropped at our hurried departure, and everything denoted the
unchangeable character of an unbroken solitude. Time and the seasons
could alone have produced any sensible alteration. Even the wreck had
neither shifted her bed, nor suffered injury. There she lay, seemingly
an immovable fixture on the rocks, and as likely to last, as any other
of the durable things around her.
It is always a relief to escape from the confinement of a ship, even
if it be only to stroll along the vacant sands of some naked beach. As
soon as the vessels were secured, we poured ashore in a body, and the
people were given a holiday. There was no longer an enemy to
apprehend; and we all enjoyed the liberty of movement, and the freedom
from care that accompanied our peculiar situation.
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