will recognize many
sentences, for expedition's sake derived verbatim from thence, and
incorporated here; the main difference--save a few passing
reflections--between the two accounts being, that the present
writer has added to Porter's facts accessory ones picked up in the
Pacific from reliable sources; and where facts conflict, has
naturally preferred his own authorities to Porter's. As, for
instance, _his_ authorities place Oberlus on Hood's Isle:
Porter's, on Charles's Isle. The letter found in the hut is also
somewhat different; for while at the Encantadas he was informed
that, not only did it evince a certain clerkliness, but was full
of the strangest satiric effrontery which does not adequately
appear in Porter's version. I accordingly altered it to suit the
general character of its author.

* * * * *

SKETCH TENTH.

RUNAWAYS, CASTAWAYS, SOLITARIES, GRAVE-STONES, ETC.

"And all about old stocks and stubs of trees,
Whereon nor fruit nor leaf was ever seen,
Did hang upon ragged knotty knees,
On which had many wretches hanged been."

Some relics of the hut of Oberlus partially remain to this day at the
head of the clinkered valley. Nor does the stranger, wandering among
other of the Enchanted Isles, fail to stumble upon still other solitary
abodes, long abandoned to the tortoise and the lizard. Probably few
parts of earth have, in modern times, sheltered so many solitaries. The
reason is, that these isles are situated in a distant sea, and the
vessels which occasionally visit them are mostly all whalers, or ships
bound on dreary and protracted voyages, exempting them in a good degree
from both the oversight and the memory of human law. Such is the
character of some commanders and some seamen, that under these untoward
circumstances, it is quite impossible but that scenes of unpleasantness
and discord should occur between them. A sullen hatred of the tyrannic
ship will seize the sailor, and he gladly exchanges it for isles, which,
though blighted as by a continual sirocco and burning breeze, still
offer him, in their labyrinthine interior, a retreat beyond the
possibility of capture. To flee the ship in any Peruvian or Chilian
port, even the smallest and most rustical, is not unattended with great
risk of apprehension, not to speak of jaguars. A reward of five pesos
sends fifty dastardly Spaniards into the wood, wh