ed for a time to do away with
the happiness he and I felt at meeting; for he was happy, though he
looked so strange and talked so curiously. He couldn't get out his
words at first, but we sat down, he on the bed, I on the stool, and
Miles Soper on the table, Miles drawing him out better than I could, and
he telling us how he had come upon the island.

He had been on board the _Harriet_, as I had believed, from what King
George had told me, and had escaped from her with Captain Barber in the
boat. They had had a long voyage, and suffered dreadfully, missing
Guam, for which they had steered, just as we had done, and been driven
south. The other men died, one and then another, till at last only
Captain Barber and he had been left.

The captain was in a dying state when the boat was driven on the reef,
and Jack could not tell how he had managed to reach the shore. He found
himself at last in the very bay where we had landed. He had just
strength enough to crawl up to the palm-grove, where he found some
cocoanuts on the ground, and managing to eat one of them he regained his
strength.

He looked about for the old captain, but could nowhere find him, and
supposed that he was drowned when the boat went to pieces. He didn't
want to die, he said, so he got some shell-fish and cocoanuts, and now
and then caught some birds, which were very tame. He had learnt how to
get a light from King George's people on "Strong's" Island, and after a
few days he managed to make a fire and cooked the shell-fish. He found
some roots, but was afraid to eat them for fear they might be poisonous.

It was very melancholy work living thus alone, and some times for days
together he scarcely knew what he was about. At last, however, came a
furious storm, and as he went down to the beach he saw a ship driving
towards the island. He knew that there were reefs all around it, so he
feared that she would be knocked to pieces and bring no help to him.

His fears proved true; the ship struck at a distance from where he was.
He made his way down to the nearest point to where she was, hoping that
some of the crew might reach the shore alive, but the only thing of any
size which had come ashore was a hen-coop and some fowls lashed to some
gratings and some spars. His idea was that the people had been trying
to make a raft, but that the ship had gone to pieces before they could
finish it, and the raft had been driven on shore by itself. He secured