Lives of Alcyone

distance, but also because at this season of the year the prevailing
wind and current were unfavourable. He could go only eastward,
and he remembered vaguely that he had heard from sailor friends
about these cannibal islands, and that they were much nearer to the
east side of the bay than to the Indian coast. He did not in the least
know how long it would take him to reach the mainland of the
continent, so he felt that he must start as soon as he could, so that
his provisions might, if possible, last through the voyage.
He determined to gather all the fruit, store it in his boat, and
try to get off the following morning, thus making sure of one more
good night’ s rest. He had the good fortune to find some yams,
which added largely to his scanty store, so he finally decided to stay
one more day in order to make a rough sail for his canoe by plaiting
some palm-leaves. Being entirely naked he had of course no knife
with him, but with great trouble he contrived to drag off a stick which
would make an apology for a mast, and to tie it in its place in the
canoe by knotted coconut fibres. His primitive sail had to be
attached to the stick in the same manner, and the whole
arrangement was absolutely insecure and unsatisfactory. But still he
discovered by experiments that it would pull his canoe along as fast
as he could paddle it, and that therefore as long as the wind
remained light, it would at least save his arms, or slightly increase
this speed. His most serious difficulty was that he had no vessel to
carry water. The best that he could do seemed to be to take with him
as large a number of cocoanuts as possible, but that number after
all was only small, as the canoe was not built to carry much in the
way of freight. He took with him then all the fruits and yams that he
could find in his tiny territory, and added to this as large a heap of