to an impetuous westward current. We had no choice but to conclude

we were again set down to leeward; and the best we could do was to

bring the Casco to the wind, keep a good watch, and expect morning.

I slept that night, as was then my somewhat dangerous practice, on

deck upon the cockpit bench. A stir at last awoke me, to see all

the eastern heaven dyed with faint orange, the binnacle lamp

already dulled against the brightness of the day, and the steersman

leaning eagerly across the wheel. 'There it is, sir!' he cried,

and pointed in the very eyeball of the dawn. For awhile I could

see nothing but the bluish ruins of the morning bank, which lay far

along the horizon, like melting icebergs. Then the sun rose,

pierced a gap in these debris of vapours, and displayed an

inconsiderable islet, flat as a plate upon the sea, and spiked with

palms of disproportioned altitude.

So far, so good. Here was certainly an atoll; and we were

certainly got among the archipelago. But which? And where? The

isle was too small for either Takaroa: in all our neighbourhood,

indeed, there was none so inconsiderable, save only Tikei; and

Tikei, one of Roggewein's so-called Pernicious Islands, seemed

beside the question. At that rate, instead of drifting to the

west, we must have fetched up thirty miles to windward. And how

about the current? It had been setting us down, by observation,

all these days: by the deflection of our wake, it should be

setting us down that moment. When had it stopped? When had it

begun again? and what kind of torrent was that which had swept us

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