the dead: The quadrant was eagerly seized, but
it unluckily wanted vanes, and therefore, in its present
state, was altogether useless; however, fortune still
continuing in a favourable mood, it was not long before
a person, out of curiosity, pulling out the drawer
of an old table, which had been driven on shore, found
some vanes, which fitted the quadrant very well; and
it being thus completed, it was examined by the known
latitude of the place, and found to answer to a sufficient
degree of exactness.
All these obstacles being in some degree removed (which
were always as much as possible concealed from the
vulgar, that they might not grow remiss with the apprehension
of labouring to no purpose,) the work proceeded very
successfully and vigorously: The necessary iron-work
was in great forwardness; and the timbers and planks
(which, though not the most exquisite performances
of the sawyer’s art, were yet sufficient for
the purpose,) were all prepared; so that on the 6th
of October, being the 14th day from the departure
of the ship, they haled the bark on shore, and, on
the two succeeding days, she was sawn asunder (though
with great care not to cut her planks,) and her two
parts were separated the proper distance from each
other, and, the materials being all ready before-hand,
they, the next day, being the 9th of October, went
on with great dispatch in their proposed enlargement
of her; and by this time they had all their future
operations so fairly in view, and were so much masters
of them, that they were able to determine when the
whole would be finished, and had accordingly fixed
the 5th of November for the day of their putting to
sea. But their projects and labours were drawing
to a speedier and happier conclusion; for on the 11th
of October, in the afternoon, one of the Gloucester’s
men, being upon a hill in the middle of the island,
perceived the Centurion at a distance, and running
down with his utmost speed towards the landing-place,
he, in the way, saw some of his comrades, to whom
he hallooed out with extacy, The ship, the ship!
This being heard by Mr Gordon, a lieutenant of marines,
who was convinced by the fellow’s transport
that his report was true, Mr Gordon ran towards the
place where the commodore and his people were at work,
and being fresh and in breath, easily outstripped the
Gloucester’s man, and got before him to the commodore,
who, on hearing this happy and unexpected news, threw
down his axe with which he was then at work, and by
his joy broke through, for the first time, the equable
and unvaried character which he had hitherto preserved;
the others, who were with him, instantly ran down
to the sea-side in a kind of frenzy, eager to feast
themselves with a sight they had so ardently wished
for, and of which they had now for a considerable time
despaired. By five in the evening the Centurion
was visible in the offing to them all; and, a boat
being sent off with eighteen men to reinforce her,
and with fresh meat and fruits for the refreshment
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