"We hastened on without uttering a word, or daring to communicate our
apprehensions. At midnight we arrived on the sea shore at that part of the
island. The billows broke against the beach with a horrible noise, covering
the rocks and the strand with their foam of a dazzling whiteness, and
blended with sparks of fire. By their phosphoric gleams we distinguished,
notwithstanding the darkness, the canoes of the fishermen, which they had
drawn far upon the sand.
"Near the shore, at the entrance of a wood, we saw a fire, round which
several of the inhabitants were assembled. Thither we repaired, in order to
repose ourselves till morning. One of the circle related, that in the
afternoon he had seen a vessel driven towards the island by the currents;
that the night had hid it from his view; and that two hours after sun-set
he had heard the firing of guns in distress; but that the sea was so
tempestuous, no boat could venture out; that a short time after, he thought
he perceived the glimmering of the watch-lights on board the vessel, which
he feared, by its having approached so near the coast, had steered between
the main land and the little island of Amber, mistaking it for the point of
Endeavour, near which the vessels pass in order to gain Port Louis. If this
was the case, which, however, he could not affirm, the ship he apprehended
was in great danger. Another islander then informed us, that he had
frequently crossed the channel which separates the isle of Amber from the
coast, and which he had sounded; that the anchorage was good, and that the
ship would there be in as great security as if it were in harbour.
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