a piece of white cloth tied to the foot of a
bird which he had struck down with a stick, on which were these words:
"Save a poor soul, who is on the rock from which you may see the smoke
rise."

He thought that this rock could not be far off, and that he ought to set
off at once in search of it.

"I have a thought," said he; "I will tie a piece of cloth, like that I
found, to the leg of the bird, and on it I will write, 'Have faith in
God: help is near.' If the bird goes back to the place from whence it
came, our brief note may reach the eye of the lone one in the rock. At
any rate, it can do no harm, and may do some good."

He at once took the bird, which was an AL-BA-TROSS, tied the strip of
cloth to its foot, and let it go.

"And now," said he, "tell me what you think of this. If we should, find
a new friend, what a source of joy it will be. Will you join me in the
search?"

"To be sure I will," said I; "and so shall the rest; but we will not yet
tell them of this."

They were all glad to take a trip in the large boat, but they could not
make out why we went in such haste.

"The fact is," said Jack, "Fritz has found some queer thing on the coast
that he can't bring home, and wants us to see it. But I dare say we
shall know what it all means in good time."

Fritz was our guide, and went first in his bark boat, or CA-NOE. In this
he could go round the rocks and shoals that girt the coast, which would
not have been safe for the large boat. He went up all the small creeks
we met with on the way, and kept a sharp look-out for the smoke by which
he would know the rock we came out to find.

I must tell you that once when he came to these parts with Ernest he met
with a TI-GER, and would have lost his life had it not been for his pet
Ea-gle. The brave bird, to save Fritz from the beast, made a swoop down
on its head. Fritz thus got off with a scratch or two, but the poor bird
was struck dead by a blow from the paw of its foe. This was a sad loss
to Fritz, for his pet had been a kind friend, and would go with him at
all times when he went far from home.

There was scarce a spot we came to that did not bring to the mind of
one of us some such tale as this, so that we were full of talk while the
boat bore us on.

We had been out some days, but could find no trace of what we went in
search. I rose from my berth at dawn, and went on deck with Fritz. I
told him that as we had no clue to the place, we must now give up