xteen complete skeletons--fourteen
adults, and two younger people, possibly women! They lay alongside one
another, covered by sand that had been blown over them by the wind.

CHAPTER III

On the wreck--Efforts to kindle a fire--My flagstaff--Clothing
impossible--Growing corn in turtles' blood--My house of pearl shells--How
the pelicans fished for me--Stung by a "sting-rae"--My amusements--A
peculiar clock--Threatened madness--I begin to build a boat--An appalling
blunder--Riding on turtles--Preaching to Bruno--Canine sympathy--A
sail--How I got fresh water--Sending messages by the pelicans--A
wonderful almanac--A mysterious voice of hope--Human beings at last.

That morning I made my breakfast off raw sea-gulls' eggs, but was unable
to get anything to drink. Between nine and ten o'clock, as the tide was
then very low, I was delighted to find that it was possible to reach the
wreck by walking along the rocks. So, scrambling aboard, I collected as
many things as I could possibly transfer ashore. I had to take dangerous
headers into the cabin, as the whole ship's interior was now full of
water, but all I could manage to secure were a tomahawk and my bow and
arrows, which had been given me by the Papuans. I had always taken a
keen interest in archery, by the way, and had made quite a name for
myself in this direction long before I left Switzerland. I also took out
a cooking-kettle. All these seemingly unimportant finds were of vital
importance in the most literal sense of the phrase, particularly the
tomahawk and the bow, which were in after years my very salvation time
after time.

I was very delighted when I secured my bow and arrows, for I knew that
with them I could always be certain of killing sea-fowl for food. There
was a stock of gunpowder on board and a number of rifles and shot-guns,
but as the former was hopelessly spoiled, I did not trouble about either.
With my tomahawk I cut away some of the ship's woodwork, which I threw
overboard and let drift to land to serve as fuel. When I did eventually
return to my little island, I unravelled a piece of rope, and then tried
to produce fire by rubbing two pieces of wood smartly together amidst the
inflammable material. It was a hopeless business, however; a full half-
hour's friction only made the sticks hot, and rub as hard as I would I
could not produce the faintest suspicion of a spark. I sat down
helplessly, and wondered how the savages I had re