he animal's back. He cut steps with his ax in the slippery carcass, and
got up to it as well as he could, extracted it by cutting and pulling,
and threw it down into his boat, but not till he had taken the precaution
to stick a great piece of blubber on the barbed point. He then sawed and
hacked under difficulties, being buffeted and bothered with thousands of
birds, so eager for slices that it was as much as he could do to avoid
the making of minced fowl; but, true to his gentle creed, he contrived to
get three hundred-weight of blubber without downright killing any of
these greedy competitors, though he buffeted some of them, and nearly
knocked out what little sense they had.

He came ashore with his blubber and harpoon, and when he came to examine
the latter, he found that the name of the owner was cut deeply in the
steel-- Josh. Fullalove, J. Fernandez. This inscription had a great
effect on Robert Penfold's mind. It seemed to bring the island of Juan
Fernandez, and humanity in general, nearer to him.

He boiled down the blubber, and put a barrel of oil on board his
life-boat. He had a ship's lantern to burn it in. He also pitched her
bottom as far as he could get at it, and provisioned her for a long
voyage: taking care to lash the water-cask and beef-cask to the
fore-thwart and foremast, in case of rough weather.

When he had done all this, it occurred to him suddenly that, should he
ever escape the winds and waves, and get to England, he would then have
to encounter difficulties and dangers of another class, and lose the
battle by his poverty.

"I play my stake now," said he. "I will throw no chance away."

He reflected, with great bitterness, on the misery that want of money had
already brought on him; and he vowed to reach England rich, or go to the
bottom of the Pacific.

This may seem a strange vow for a man to make on an unknown island; but
Robert Penfold had a powerful understanding, sharpened by adversity, and
his judgment told him truly that he possessed wealth on this island, both
directly and indirectly. In the first place, knowledge is sometimes
wealth, and the knowledge of this island was a thing he could sell to the
American merchants on the coast of Chili; and, with this view, he put on
board his boat specimens of the cassia and other woods, fruit, spices,
pitch, guano, pink and red coral, pearl oysters, shells, cochineal,
quartz, cotton, etc., etc.

Then he took his chisel, and struck all th