The captain did not stop, as he thought there was room to pass, but turned the steamer's head so far in shore, that he ran into the bushes, and left some of the blinds of the cabin-windows suspended as trophies behind him, whereat he was so enraged, that he immediately dispatched two boats to cut the poor creatures' hawsers, thereby causing them to lose their anchors.

" In that moment, Ken knew that he could never have sailed with the Celestine, that he would have slipped back to the wharf before she cast loose her hawsers.

The Aid took hold of us, broke a large new hawser after a brief struggle, and then went up to the city to report our condition.

In these vessels they use no cordage of hemp; even their hawsers or towing ropes being made of canes, about fifteen paces long, which they split into thin pieces from end to end, and bind or wreath together into ropes, some of which are three hundred fathoms long, and serve for dragging their vessels up or down the river; each vessel having ten or twelve horses for that purpose.

They erected a trophy for this victory, hanging one of the conquered islands on the head of the whale, which they fastened their hawsers to, and casting anchor close to him, for they had anchors immensely large and strong, spent the night there: in the morning, after they had returned thanks, and sacrificed on the back of the whale, they buried their dead, sung their Io Paeans, and sailed off.

The governor arrived on the spot, just as Bob had got a hawser to the whale and was ready to fill away for the South Cape channel again.

After saluting us the bo'sun called out to the second mate that he would tow us round to the far side of the island, and to this the officer agreed, being, I surmised, by no means sorry to put some solid matter between himself and the desolation of the great weed-continent; and so, having loosed the hawser, which fell from the hill-top with a prodigious splash, we had the boat head, towing.

The work was finished at midnight; a tug slipped up and attached a hawser to the lighter; and the cargo was on its way to Cuba.

But Neb seized the hawser by which we were riding, and hauled the launch ahead her length, or more, before the frigate's larboard bower-anchor settled down in a way that menaced crushing us.

These facts induced the hope that he might separate the hawser that alone held the brigantine, which, in the event of his succeeding, he had every reason to believe would drift ashore, before the alarm could be given to her crew, sail set, or an anchor let go.

It was evident, however, that the Bremer did not intend to do this, for she slacked the tow-line, and then steamed ahead full speed and snapped the hawser, and went off without any explanation.

We need it to splice this hawser with.

[Illustration: LIFE-SAVERS AT WORK The two men in the center are burying the sand-anchor; of the two at the right, one is ready with the crotch support the hawser and the other carries the breeches-buoy; the other three men are hauling the line which has already been shot over the wrecked vessel.

Thus we had her sparred, all but a bowsprit and jibboom; yet this we managed by making a stumpy, spike bowsprit from one of the smaller spars which they had used to shore up the superstructure, and because we feared that it lacked strength to bear the strain of our fore and aft stays, we took down two hawsers from the fore, passing them in through the hawse-holes and setting them up there.

Between them towed a thin steel hawser set to a depth just sufficient to catch the mooring cables of the mines which were plentifully strewn in the channel.

Scarcely had all embarked, when some, unfastening the hawsers, are carried out against the anchors; others cut their cables, that nothing might impede them; and by doing every thing with hurry and precipitation, the duties of mariners were impeded by the preparations of the soldiers, and the soldiers were prevented from taking and preparing for action their arms, by the bustle of the mariners.

He meant to pass the fresh hawser, but could not launch a boat, and Lister doubted if the men on the hulk could heave the heavy wire rope on board.

"Antoine!Francois!Grégoire!"he called out, in a voice of thunder"follow me!the rest clear away the cable and bend a hawser to the better end!" The people of le Feu-Follet were trained to order and implicit obedience.

On one occasion it was necessary to lay a kedge anchor out in the direction of their dwelling-place, and upon the boat's crew landing and carrying it along the beach, the natives followed and intimated by signs that we should not go that way; as soon however as the anchor was fixed and they understood our intention, they assisted the people in carrying the hawser to make fast to it.

A little later, as Bob was watching the men coil up the big hawser which the tug had cast off, the Eagle now proceeding along under her own sails, one of the sailors stepped up to him.