breakfast.
Miles Soper and Sam Coal again climbed the trees to get some cocoanuts.
Some of the men went down to the shore to collect shell-fish. Others
made up the fire, while the mate and the doctor examined the boat to
ascertain the damage she had received, and to see how she could best be
repaired.

"We have a few nails, and we must try to find some substance which will
answer the purpose of pitch," observed the mate. "Doctor, I dare say
you'll help us. We will strengthen her with additional planks, and get
a strake put on above her gunwale. It will be a work of toil to cut the
planks, but it must be done, and she will then be fit to go anywhere."

At breakfast the mate told the men of his intentions. They all agreed
to do their best to carry them out.

We had first, however, to search for provisions. Not knowing whether
there might be savages on the island, even supposing that the man we had
seen was not one, the mate did not like to leave the boat unprotected.
He therefore ordered Brown and one of the men to remain by her while the
rest of us proceeded together to explore the island.

The mate would not allow us to separate until we had ascertained whether
or not there were inhabitants besides the man we had seen on the island.

One musket was left with Brown, the mate carried the other, and we set
off, keeping up the stream I have before described towards the end of
the valley. We looked out on either side for the stranger, but he
didn't appear. Some of the men declared that we had not really seen any
one, and that we had mistaken a small tree or shrub for a man; but Jim
and I were positive, and the doctor, at all events, believed us.

On reaching the top of the hill, we looked down into a large hollow,
with water at the bottom, dark rocks forming its sides, grown over with
creepers, huge ferns, and various other plants. The doctor said that it
was the crater of a long extinct volcano, and that the whole island was
volcanic. There were many other hills out of which smoke was rising.
The doctor said that this was an active volcano; indeed, the country in
that direction presented a very different aspect from the part where we
had landed. It was black and barren, with only here and there a few
green spots. We therefore turned to the east, the direction which
promised us a better chance of finding roots or fruits, or vegetable
productions of some sort.

The strange thing was, that though the island