made it very improbable that sustenance in any proportion to our wants could be found upon it; yet unpromising as this prospect was, and though little succour could be expected from this quarter, I could not help, as I strolled along shore from the rest, casting my eyes towards the sea.  Continuing thus to look out, I thought I saw something now and then upon the top of a sea that looked black, which, upon observing still more intently, I imagined at last to be a canoe; but reflecting afterwards how unusual it was for Indians to venture out in so mountainous a sea, and at such a distance from the land, I concluded myself to be deceived.  However, its nearer approach convinced me, beyond all doubt, of its being a canoe; but that it could not put in any where hereabouts, but intended for some other part of the coast.  I ran back as fast as I could to my companions, and acquainted them with what I had seen.

The despondency they were in would not allow them to give credit to it at first; but afterwards, being convinced that it was as I reported it, we were all in the greatest hurry to strip off some of our rags to make a signal withal, which we fixed upon a long pole.  This had the desired effect:  The people in the canoe seeing the signal, made towards the land at about two miles distance from us, for no boat could approach the land where we were.  There they put into a small cove, sheltered by a large ledge of rocks without, which broke the violence of the sea.  Captain Cheap and I walked along shore, and got to the cove about the time they landed.  Here we found the persons arrived in this canoe to be our Indian guide and his wife, who had left us some days before.  He would have asked us many questions, but neither Captain Cheap nor I understanding Spanish at that time, we took him along with us to the surgeon, whom we had left so ill that he could hardly raise himself from the ground.

When the Indian began to confer with the surgeon, the first question was, What was become of the barge and his companions? and as he could give him no satisfactory answer to this question, the Indian took it for granted that Emanuel was murdered by us, and that he and his family ran the same risk; upon which he was preparing to provide for his security, by leaving us directly.  The surgeon seeing this, did all in his power to pacify him, and convince him of the unreasonableness of his apprehensions, which he at length found means to do, by assuring him that the Indian would come to no harm, but that he would soon see him return safe:  which providentially, and beyond our expectation, happened accordingly, for in a few days after, Emanuel, having contrived to make his escape from the people in the barge, returned by ways that were impassable to any creature but an Indian.  All that we could learn from Emanuel relative to his escape was, that he took the first opportunity of leaving them, which was upon their putting into a bay somewhere to the westward.