the fo'c'sle, and after a good deal of work managed to "bend" a
mainsail and staysail. Being without compass or chart, however, I
knew not where I was, nor could I decide what course to take in
order to reach land. I had a vague idea that the seas in those
regions were studded with innumerable little islands and sandbanks
known only to the pearl-fishers, and it seemed inevitable that I
must run aground somewhere or get stranded upon a coral reef after
I had slipped the cable.

However, I did not see what advantage was to be gained by remaining
where I was, so I fixed from the stern a couple of long sweeps, or
steering oars, twenty-six feet long, and made them answer the
purpose of a rudder. These arrangements occupied me two or three
days, and then, when everything was completed to my satisfaction,
and the ship was in sailing trim, I gave the Veielland her freedom.
This I managed as follows: The moment the chain was at its
tautest--at its greatest tension--I gave it a violent blow with a
big axe, and it parted. I steered due west, taking my observations
by the sun and my own shadow at morning, noon, and evening. For I
had been taught to reckon the degree of latitude from the number of
inches of my shadow. After a time I altered my course to west by
south, hoping that I might come upon one of the islands of the
Dutch Indies,--Timorland, for instance, but day after day passed
without land coming in sight.

Imagine the situation, if you can: alone on a disabled ship in the
limitless ocean,--tortured with doubts and fears about the fate of
my comrades, and filled with horror and despair at my own miserable
prospects for the future.