With labour past reckoning we dragged her
to shore, and got her on the stocks, and then set about to find
materials to mend her. Tools were all too few--a hammer, a saw, and
an adze were all we had. A piece of board or a nail were treasures
then, and when the timbers of the craft were covered, for oakum we
had resort to tree-gum. For caulking, one spared a handkerchief,
another a stocking, and another a piece of shirt, till she was
stuffed in all her fissures. In this labour we passed eight days,
and then were ready for the launch again.
On the very afternoon fixed for starting, we saw two sails
standing down the river, and edging towards our shore. One of them
let anchor go right off the place where our patched boat lay. We
had prudently carried on our work behind rocks and trees, so that
we could not be seen, unless our foes came ashore. Our case seemed
desperate enough, but all at once I determined on a daring
enterprise.
The two vessels--convoys, I felt sure--had anchored some distance
from each other, and from their mean appearance I did not think that
they would have a large freight of men and arms; for they seemed not
ships from France, but vessels of the country.
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