Chapter 2 - Page 2

knew pretty well ('specially looking over the side in the
dead calm of that strong current) what dangers to expect, and what
precautions to take against 'em. In short, we were driving head on to an
island. There was no island in the chart, and, therefore, you may say it
was ill-manners in the island to be there; I don't dispute its bad
breeding, but there it was. Thanks be to Heaven, I was as ready for the
island as the island was ready for me. I made it out myself from the
masthead, and I got enough way upon her in good time to keep her off. I
ordered a boat to be lowered and manned, and went in that boat myself to
explore the island. There was a reef outside it, and, floating in a
corner of the smooth water within the reef, was a heap of sea-weed, and
entangled in that sea-weed was this bottle."

Here the captain took his hand from the bottle for a moment, that the
young fisherman might direct a wondering glance at it; and then replaced
his band and went on:--

"If ever you come--or even if ever you don't come--to a desert place, use
you your eyes and your spy-glass well; for the smallest thing you see may
prove of use to you; and may have some information or some warning in it.
That's the principle on which I came to see this bottle. I picked up the
bottle and ran the boat alongside the island, and made fast and went
ashore armed, with a part of my boat's crew. We found that every scrap
of vegetation on the island (I give it you as my opinion, but scant and
scrubby at the best of times) had been consumed by fire. As we were
making our way, cautiously and toilsomely, over the pulverised embers,
one of my people sank into the earth breast-high. He turned pale, and
'Haul me out smart, shipmates,' says he, 'for my feet are among bones.'
We soon got him on his legs again, and then we dug up the spot, and we
found that the man was right, and that his feet had been among bones.
More than that, they were human bones; though whether the remains of one
man, or of two or three men, what with calcination and ashes, and what
with a poor practical knowledge of anatomy, I can't undertake to say. We
examined the whole island and made out nothing else, save and except
that, from its opposite side, I sighted a considerable tract of land,
which land I was able to identify, and according to the bearings of which
(not to trouble you with my log) I took a fresh departure. When I got
aboard again I opened the bottle, which was oilskin-covered as you see,
and glass-stoppered as you see. Inside of it," pursued the captain,
suiting his action to his words, "I found this little crumpled, folded
paper, just as you see. Outside of it was written, as you see, these
words: 'Whoever finds this, is solemnly entreated