We struck the equator between the longitudes of Ocean and Pleasant Islands, where we got a "cut" of a hundred and fifty barrels, and stood in under the lee of Ocean Island to get a few casks of water. We bargained with one of the white "beach-combers" to fill them by contract at so many heads of tobacco for each cask. I went ashore in the boat, with the second mate, having the casks in tow. We rolled them up on the reef and then high and dry on the beach. I was conscious all the time of a strange, giddy feeling, which seemed to be occasioned by the odors from the land, and as I went up from the reef to the soil and drew near to the cocoanut grove near the landing, this feeling overpowered me, my strength seemed to have left me all at once, I felt a tingling pain in my legs, and fell helpless to the ground. I was surprised, and rather indignant withal, to perceive that Mr. Dunham was laughing at me.
"Ah!" said he, "it's well for you that you came ashore. It's time we all had a land cruise and a good run among the fruit trees. We shall all be better for this day's work."
"Why," I asked, "what do you suppose ails me?"
"It's the scurvy working out of you, I suppose," said he. "That's what we call it. I have seen the same phenomenon once or twice before in men who had shown no symptoms of the disease while at sea, but the first contact with the land affected them as it does you now. That will soon pass off and you will feel better than ever."
His prediction proved true. In a few minutes a slight attack of vomiting relieved me, and I rose to my feet. The dizziness gradually passed away, and I felt stronger and fresher than when I landed.
The casks, in the mean time, had been rolled in a tier with the bungs out, I saw no watering-place from which they were to be filled. I naturally asked, "where is the water?"
"O," said Dan, the white man, "the water here is away up inland, in a sort of cave under ground."
"Is that the only fresh water here?" I inquired.
"That's all," said he. "I shall put on my gang to bring it down. Here's some of 'em; they're beginning to muster now."
To my further astonishment, his "gang," as he termed them, were all of the female "persuasion."
"You don't mean to say that these woman are going to lug all this water two or three miles?"
