them as gently as possible: we then got out the long-boat, put the kedge anchor into her, and were proceeding to carry it with only a three inch hawser: it immediately struck me that so small a rope would not be strong enough to heave us off, and I prevailed upon the captain to make use of one double the size: it was most fortunate that he followed my advice, as we were obliged to heave so hard that we were in momentary expectation of the one we did use breaking: at length the hawser dropped all of a sudden, and we concluded it had snapped and all was over with us, but the men in the boat observed that we were afloat, and called to us to heave round, which we did right merrily: we then weighed the anchor, made sail, and stood off.
At two o'clock, p. m., the next day we saw a raking vessel coming up to us, full sail, but when within two miles of us she tacked about and veered off. The 25th and 26th we were becalmed off the island
