Hardly had I completed these arrangements when my name
was sung out by a dozen voices, and I sprung upon the deck,
where I found all the party in the boat, and impatient to shove
off. I dropped over the side and seated myself with the rest of
the watch in the stem sheets, while the poor larborders shipped
their oars, and commenced pulling us ashore.
This happened to be the rainy season at the islands, and the
heavens had nearly the whole morning betokened one of those
heavy showers which during this period so frequently occur.
The large drops fell bubbling into the water shortly afler our
leaving the ship, and by the time we had effected a landing it
poured down in torrents. We fled for shelter under cover of an
immense canoe-house which stood hard by the beach, and waited
for the first fury of the storm to pass.
It continued, however, without cessation ; and the monotonous



CHAP. VI.] THEIR ESCAPE. 89

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beating of the rain over head began to exert a drowsy influence
upon the men, who, throwing themselves here and there upon
the large war-canoes, after chatting awhile, all fell asleep.
This was the opportunity we desired, and Toby and I availed
ourselves of it at once by stealing out of the canoe-house and
plunging into the depths of an extensive grove that was in its
rear. After ten minutes' rapid progress we gained an open space
from which we could just descry the ridge we intended to mount
looming dimly through the mists of the tropical shower, and
distant from us, as we estimated, something more than a mile.
