small plain gold ring, and a very fine one set with
diamonds, which he showed me upon two of his fingers. I wondered how the
child, who had never before seen such things, or the use of them, should
happen to apply these so properly; but he told me in playing with
this, meaning the diamond ring, about his fingers, it slipped over his
middle-finger joint, and he could not get it off again, so he put the
other upon another finger to keep it company.

We watched daily, as usual on such occasions, for the arrival of our
fleet. It was surprising that none of the chests which Youwarkee shot
down the gulf were ever half so long in their passage as I was myself,
but some came in a week, some in a few days more, and even some in less,
which I attributed to their following directly the course of the water,
shooting from shelf to shelf as the tide sat; and I believe my keeping
the boat I sailed in so strictly and constantly in the middle of the
stream, was the reason of my being detained there so long. In less than
a fortnight everything came safe but one chest, which, as we never heard
of it, I suppose was either sunk or bulged.

Being one day upon shore, watching to see if anything more was come
through the cavern, I spied at a distance somewhat looking very black
and very long, and by the colour and shape thereof I took it for a young
whale. Having observed it some time making very little way, I took my
old boat and followed it, but was afraid to go near it, lest a stroke
with its tail--which I then fancied I saw move--might endanger my boat
and myself too; but creeping nearer and nearer, and seeing it did not
stir, I believed it to be dead; whereupon, taking courage, I drew so
close that at length I plainly perceived it was the ship's second boat
turned upside down. It is not easy to express the joy I felt on this
discovery. It was the very thing I was now, as I have said, in the
greatest want of. I presently laid hold of it and brought it ashore; and
it was no small pleasure to find, on examining, that though it had lain
so long dry, it was yet quite sound, and all its chinks filled up in
its passage; and it proved to me afterwards the most beneficial thing I
could have had from the ship.

I got all my goods home from the lake to my grotto, by means of the
cart, as usual. My wife and daughters waited with impatience for me
to unpack, that they might take possession of such things as would be
needful for rigging out the famil