that, to procure what was required, he never would converse. He did
however mutter to himself, and talk in his sleep, and I used to lie
awake and listen, that I might gain information; not at first, but
when I grew older. He used to cry out in his sleep constantly.--"A
judgment, a judgment on me for my sins, my heavy sins--God be
merciful!" But what judgment, or what sin was, or what was God, I did
not then know, although I mused on words repeated so often.

I will now describe the island, and the way in which we lived. The
island was very small, perhaps not three miles round; it was of rock,
and there was no beach nor landing place, the sea washing its sides
with deep water. It was, as I afterwards discovered, one of the group
of islands to which the Peruvians despatch vessels every year to
collect the guano, or refuse of the sea birds which resort to the
islands; but the one on which we were was small, and detached some
distance from the others, on which the guano was found in great
profusion; so that hitherto it had been neglected, and no vessel had
ever come near it. Indeed, the other islands were not to be seen from
it except on a very clear day, when they appeared like a cloud or
mist on the horizon. The shores of the island were, moreover, so
precipitous, that there was no landing place, and the eternal wash of
the ocean would have made it almost impossible for a vessel to have
taken off a cargo. Such was the island upon which I found myself in
company with this man. Our cabin was built of ship-plank and timber,
under the shelter of a cliff, about fifty yards from the water; there
was a flat of about thirty yards square in front of it, and from the
cliff there trickled down a rill of water, which fell into a hole dug
out to collect it, and then found its way over the flat to the rocks
beneath. The cabin itself was large, and capable of holding many more
people than had ever lived in it; but it was not too large, as we had