A minute later the boat went to pieces.
Side by side Sparrow and I buffeted the sea.

He held the King's ward in one arm, and he bore her safely over the huge swells and through the onslaught of the breaking waves.

I could thank God for his strength, and trust her to it.

For the other three of us, we were all strong swimmers, and though bruised and beat about, we held our own.

Each wave, overcome, left us nearer the islet,--a little while and our feet touched bottom.
A short struggle with the tremendous surf and we were out of the maw of the sea, but out upon a desolate islet, a mere hand's-breadth of sand and shell in a lonely ocean, some three leagues from the mainland of Accomac, and upon it neither food nor water.