that direction. Before night I
succeeded in finding some, as you know, for you have often drunk from
the spring when you have gone up for firewood. This gave me great
encouragement, for I was afraid that the want of water would have driven
me to submission. By way of bravado, I tore off; and cut with my knife,
as many boughs of the underwood on the ravine as I well could carry, and
the next morning I built a sort of wigwam for myself on the guano, to
show them that I had a house over my head as well as they had; but I
built it further up to the edge of the cliff, above the guano plain, so
that I need not have any communication with those who I knew would come
for eggs and birds for their daily sustenance.

"Before the night of the following day set in, the cabin was quite
finished.

"The weather became warmer every day, and I found it very fatiguing to
have to climb the ravine two or three times a day to procure a drink of
water, for I had nothing to hold water in, and I thought that it would
be better that I should take up my quarters in the ravine, and build
myself a wigwam among the brushwood close to the water, instead of
having to make so many journeys for so necessary an article. I knew
that I could carry eggs in my hat and pocket-handkerchief sufficient for
two or three days at one trip; so I determined that I would do so; and
the next morning I went up the ravine, loaded with eggs, to take up my
residence there. In a day or two I had built my hut of boughs, and made
it very comfortable. I returned for a fresh supply of eggs on the third
day, with a basket I had constructed out of young boughs, and which
enabled me to carry a whole week's sustenance. Then I felt quite
satisfied, and made up my mind that I would live as a hermit during my
sojourn on the island, however long it might be; for I preferred
anything to obeying the orders of one whom I detested as I did your
father.

"It soon was evident, however, how well they had done in selecting your
father as their leader. They had fancied that the birds would remain on
the island, and that thus they would always be able to procure a supply.
Your father, who had lived so long in Chili, knew better, and that in a
few weeks they would quit their nesting-place. He pointed this out to
them, showing them what a mercy it was that they had been cast away just
at this time, and how necessary it was to make a provision for the year.
But this they could not imagi