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