morrow the wise-ones undertook to ascertain the direction
in which the ship lay and to send me aboard her.

That evening a feast was held in my honour; some of the men from the
Male Island came over, by special permission of the wise-ones, in order
to be present, and to see the man who had slain the monster against
which they had been unable to prevail.

The men from the Male Island I found to be as free from ill-will toward
one another as were the women on the Female Island. Since they had
neither wife nor child, they associated in pairs, and mutually rendered
each other all the services a master could reasonably expect from a
servant, being together in so perfect a community that the survivor
always succeeded his dead partner to any property he may have had.
They behave to each other with the greatest justness and openness of
heart. It is a crime to keep anything hidden. On the other hand, the
least pilfering is unpardonable, and punished by death. And indeed
there can be no great temptation to steal when it is reckoned a point
of honour never to refuse a neighbour what he wants; and when there is
so little property of value it is impossible there should be many
disputes over it. If any happened, the wise-ones interposed, and soon
put an end to the difference.

In all my travels I never met with happier or more gently disposed
persons than the people of the Male and Female Islands of Engano.

CHAPTER XXXIX

I BECOME A VICTIM OF DOMESTIC INFELICITY

Next morning the wise-ones, according to promise, informed me, by means
of their power of second sight, that my ship was in the place where I
had left her, which seemed probable, as it would no doubt be on land
that Hartog and my friends would be looking for me.

I passed my word to the wise-ones that Hartog's vessel would not visit
the Engano Islands, since strangers were not welcome; and, having bid
good-bye to the Amazons, I once more embarked with Sylvia in her canoe,
and was paddled round the east end of the Great Barren Island, where,
in the distance, was the "Golden Seahorse" still at anchor in the bay
where I had last seen her.

When I came aboard Hartog was overjoyed at my return. "I shall have to
keep thee tied up, Peter," he said to me, in jest at my frequent
mishaps. "You are for ever either falling overboard or running away."
But when I told him of my adventure on Amazon Island he listened with
great interest, expressing regret that I should hav