one, killed three goats; dressed them with leaves of the cabbage-tree; and brought them down to the shore. The ship anchored, and a Musquito Indian, who was on board, with other sailors, landed. Running to his brother Indian, he threw himself upon his face at his feet. The islander lifted him up; and then fell at his feet in the He was afterwards hailed by the crew,

same manner.

when his joy was signified in every action.

Not long after the departure of this Indian, Alexander Selkirk was thrown upon the same island, and passed upon it several years. His history is well known. It was he that planted the oats, which Commodore Anson saw growing, some years afterwards. The island rises high out of the water, and has a steep shore, fine woods and savannahs. The soil in the vales consists of a black and fruitful earth; and there is good water in almost every part. It has been peopled by the Spaniards; and there is a regular garrison and a governor. From this account we learn, that Juan Fernandez was peopled with goats by the discoverer; and first planted with oats by a man, who was unfortunate enough to be cast upon it.

In recurring to the fate of Alexander Selkirk, the imagination reverts to the distress of Philoctetes, on the desert island of Lemnos.

As, wearied with the tossing of the waves,
They saw me sleeping on the shore, beneath
This rock's rude covering, with malignant joy

They left me, and sail'd hence.

Think from that sleep, my son, how I awoke,

When they were gone! Think on my tears, my groans.-
Such ills lamenting, when I saw my ships,

With which I hither sail'd, all out at sea,

And steering hence; no mortal in the place;

Not one to succour me;-not one to lend
His lenient hand to mitigate my wound!

On every side I roll'd my eyes, and saw
Nothing but wretchedness.

The manner in which this unfortunate formed his cave, and administered to his daily wants, is also exceedingly interesting.

Time after time roiled on; this narrow cave

I made my mansion; and these hands alone

Supplied my wants.-My bow procured me food.
Fire was not here ;-I struck

Flint against flint, and raised the latent spark

With pain:-thus cherish'd life has been preserved.

Euripides. Potter.

IV.

Upon a rock, twenty-nine miles north-west of Nooaheevah, in the South Seas, an American passed three years. With three companions (who died soon after their landing), he had quitted his ship for the purpose of procuring feathers. The rock, upon which they were cast, was barren and desolate; but he contrived to live upon the flesh and blood of birds. The skulls of his companions were his only drinking vessels. In 1818 the crew of the Queen Charlotte discovered a fire on the rock, made of dried sea-weeds. Knowing the rock to be barren, their curiosity was excited; and the captain sending off a boat, they discovered the forlorn seaman, and took him to Bombay. This man had a few seeds in his pocket; and he planted them; but they refused to propagate.

In the year 1808 or 1809, a sailor, named Jeffery, on board the Recruit, having stolen a little spruce beer, his

commander, Captain Lake, set him on shore on the uninnabited island of Sombrero, in the Atlantic archipelago. Two months after this, the Recruit returning to the same latitude, the captain sent a boat, with several seamen, in order to retake the man on board; but he was nowhere to be seen:--and the crew concluded, that he had been devoured by the large birds, which frequent that barren rock in vast numbers. Jeffery, in the meantime, having been landed by two officers, with only the clothes he had on, was left helpless and hopeless, to endure all the agony of the apprehension of being devoured by birds, or of dying of want. There was no shelter, and the heat of a tropical sun almost drove the unfortunate man to madness. The island being a low rock, after searching for some time, he discovered water in some of the hollows, and a considerable quantity of birds' eggs, and a few limpets. On these he lived for nine days; during which time he observed several ships pass in the distance, to which he made signals, but without effect; until he was discovered by the master of an American schooner, who took him on board, and landed him at Marblehead, in the county of Essex, in the province of Massachusetts.

In the meantime, the conduct of Captain Lake having been reported to the commander-in-chief of the WestIndia station, he was tried before a court-martial, and sentenced to be dismissed his Majesty's service. The Parliament of Great Britain, too, having, at the instance of Sir Francis Burdett, recommended a search for the unfortunate seaman, he was brought to England, and arrived in London in the month of October, 1809. When I first saw him, I was particularly struck with the mo

*P

VOL. II.

desty of his manners, and the grave simplicity of his conversation. Deeply impressed with gratitude to Heaven for his preservation, there was a solemnity of tone in the artlessness of his remarks, that struck me with no small degree of admiration. He was about one-and-twenty years of age.

Captain Lake's family having rewarded him for the sufferings, he had experienced, Jeffery left London for Cornwall, where he was born, in order to visit his mother. He was met near Polperro by his father-in-law, who, soon after their first greeting, returned to apprize his mother of his arrival. The whole village now came forth to meet him; and nothing could exceed the joy with which he was welcomed. The meeting between him and his mother was affecting in the highest degree. She gazed upon him with bewildered anxiety, as if she could scarcely believe what she saw; but, recovering herself, they rushed into each other's arms, and, for some moments, were lost in sobs and tears. Nothing but the arrival of Jeffery was talked of; while the joy of the villagers, and the tumultuous endearments of the mother and son, consecrated an evening, that will for many years be remembered in that village with the liveliest satisfaction.

Those tears are thine, which gem the eye,
And all her tears and anguish smother;
First when an infant's feeble cry

Proclaims the lovely fair" a mother."
And when that infant,-grown a man,—
O'er seas beset with wild alarms,
(Contracting space into a span,)

Shall spring into that mother's arms,

Who, that e'er felt as mothers feel,

Would her soft, trickling, tears forego?

Not all the gold, that burnished steel

E'er won upon the field of woe,
Could tempt the mother, father, wife,

To check the rapturous, throbs and tears,

Which quicken into instant life,

When that delighted son appears.

277

Ode to the Nymph of the Fountain of Tears.

V.

The Gallipagos islands are of volcanic origin; and every hill retains evidence of being the crater of an extinguished volcano. The only one, ever inhabited, was taken possession of by a native of Ireland (Watkins), who quitted his ship; and taking up his abode there, built a hovel, planted potatoes and pumpkins, and lived a miserable life, for several years, on tortoises and other marine animals; bartering vegetables for rum, and other necessaries.

cone.

The island of Tristan da Cunna is an entire mass of lava. It rises 5000 feet above the sea, in the form of a With the exception of a plain, six miles in length, and two furlongs in breadth, this island is entirely covered with copse wood. Not a day passes without rain. The common thistle, the lichen, a species of goosefoot, and storksbill, are found there. There, too, are found two or three species of seal, of which the leonine is so little alarmed at the presence of men, that persons may get on their backs, and be carried into the water. The black albatross breed there in a gregarious manner; and upon being touched, throw out a deluge of foetid oil fluid. Wild goats and hogs, too, are seen among the bushes, a few having been left by early navigators. In 1814, this