ne that it was possible to do without salt
to cure the birds with; but he knew how beef was preserved without salt
on the continent, and showed them how to dry the birds in the sun.
While therefore I was up in the ravine, they were busy collecting and
drying them in large quantities, and before the time of the birds
leaving they had laid up a sufficient supply. It was he also that
invented the fishing-lines out of the sinews of the legs of the birds,
and your mother who knotted them together. At first, they caught fish
with some hooks made of nails, but your father showed them the way to
take them without a hook, as you have learnt from me, and which he had
been shown by some of the Indians on the continent.

"Owing to your father, they were well prepared when the birds flew away
with their young ones, while I was destitute. Previous to the flight, I
had fared but badly, for the eggs contained the young birds half formed,
and latterly so completely formed that I could not eat them; and as I
had no fire, and did not understand drying them, I had no alternative
but eating the young birds raw, which was anything but pleasant. I
consoled myself, however, with the idea that your father and mother and
the rest were faring just as badly as myself, and I looked forward to
the time when the birds would begin to lay eggs again, when I resolved
to hoard up a much larger supply while they were fresh. But my schemes
were all put an end to, for in two days, after a great deal of noise and
flying about in circles, all the birds, young and old, took wing, and
left me without any means of future subsistence.

"This was a horrid discovery, and I was put to my wits' ends. I
wandered over the guano place, and, after the third day of their
departure, was glad to pick up even a dead bird with which to appease my
hunger. At the same time, I wondered how my former companions got on,
for I considered that they must be as badly off as I was. I watched
them from behind the rocks, but I could perceive no signs of uneasiness.
There was your mother sitting quietly on the level by the cabin, and
your father or the captain talking with her. I perceived, however, that
two of the party were employed fishing off the rocks, and I wondered
where they got their fishing-lines; and at last I concluded that it was
by catching fish that they supported themselves. This, however, did not
help me--I was starving, and starvation will bring down the pride