The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 — page 122: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oa ae THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. To break up a ship is, under ordinary circumstances, no very difficult matter, but as they expected that they would be dependent almost entirely upon the wreck for the timber necessary to the construction of their little ship, they had to go carefully to work ; and as it was all manual labor, and as they were very short handed, they found the task one of no ordinary difficulty. 3 At length, however, after nearly another month’s arduous toil, they had cut her down to the water’s edge, and there they were obliged to leave her. Hitherto they had not allowed themselves time to investigate very closely the nature of the cargo which they had so laboriously conveyed to the shore, their chief anxiety being to secure from the wreck every scrap likely to be of the slightest use to them, before the change of the season and the break up of the weather should render this impossible. Now, however, they had leisure to give their booty a thorough overhaul; and this was the next task t6 which they devoted themselves. As, however, they were now no longer pressed for time, and one man could easily do most of what was required to be done in that way, it was arranged that Dr. Henderson, should examine the cargo as far as he could, and prepare a detailed list of the various goods and articles of which it was composed ; ‘whilst Grant and Nicholls should proceed in the raft on a trip of exploration round the bay, for the purpose of discovering an outlet in the reef which the former believed to exist, and if such an outlet could be found, to proceed through it and make a short trial trip to sea for the purpose of testing the sailing qualities of the raft. Ou the morning following the completion of their work of dismete beeeone therefore, these two tasks were taken in hand. Such cases and packages as it was thought the doctor would have a difficulty in breaking open unaided were attacked by the three men, and their contents laid bare ; and then Grant and Nicholls got on board the raft—which was berthed at a short distance from the beach and made thoroughly secure by being moored with the ship’s smallest anchor—and, hoisting her huge lateen sail, cast off from the mooring buoy, and proceeded to execute a few trial evolutions preparatory to the ex- ploration of the reef. The mode of working the raft under sail was, as has already been inti- mated, the same in principle with that in vogue among the Ladrone Islanders —that is to say, the vessel was sailed indifferently with either end foremost, the sail being.always kept on the same side of the mast. This is probably the most simple form of craft known to navigating mankind. This was the first occasion upon which it had had a fair trial, and it was found to.answer admirably, the raft proving to be not only so stiff as to be absolutely uncapsizable, but also remarkably fast considering her shape, a speed of six knots being got out of her unloaded and with a good fresh breeze blowing. As soon as the somewhat novel mode of working her had been satisfac- torily tested, the exploration of the reef was begun inearnest. They cruised along its inner edge to the southward in the first instance, and discovered several places where it would probably have been possible for them to pass, out + oO (G(0) AA) Eboo S) a Pere Se nee ee DT tin | Ue ae eee meee Pea Peete bbs lies > owe Pa ye ee ee