This time I made up my mind to go up to the men, but not with a
view to kill them, for I felt that it would be wrong to do so.
With such a load of arms, it took me two hours to reach the spot
where the fire was; and by the time I got there, the men had all
gone; but I saw them in four boats out at sea.

Down on the shore, there was a proof of what the work of these
men had been. The signs of their feast made me sick at heart, and
I shut my eyes. I durst not fire my gun when I went out for food
on that side the isle, lest there should be some of the men left,
who might hear it, and so find me out. This state of things went
on for a year and three months, and for all that time I saw no
more men.

On the twelfth of May, a great storm of wind blew all day and
night. As it was dark, I sat in my house; and in the midst of the
gale, I heard a gun fire! My guess was that it must have been
from some ship cast on shore by the storm. So I set a light to
some wood on top of the hill, that those in the ship, if ship it
should be, might know that some one was there to aid them. I then
heard two more guns fire. When it was light, I went to the South
side of the isle, and there lay the wreck of a ship, cast on the
rocks in the night by the storm. She was too far off for me to
see if there were men on board.

Words could not tell how much I did long to bring but one of the
ship's crew to the shore! So strong was my wish to save the life
of those on board, that I could have laid down my own life to do
so. There are some springs in the heart which, when hope stirs