rt in it if it came to the question "kill or be
killed."
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FOOTNOTE:
1: It so happened that only a few years since, a young lady,
taking a row after church one Sunday evening, lost an oar overboard and
drifted out to sea. In the morning she was picked up (being then quite
out of sight of land) by a vessel bound for Canada, and actually taken
to Newfoundland, from whence in about a month she arrived home safely,
much to the joy of her sorrowing friends, who had given her up as
drowned.
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CHAPTER VIII.
A TRIP TO ST. SAMPSON'S HARBOUR--A HORRID PORCINE MURDER--A VOYAGE
ROUND SARK--NEARLY CAPSIZED--TRIP ROUND GUERNSEY--THE
PEPPER-BOX--CURIOSITY OF TOURISTS.
From time to time I made many improvements in the "Yellow Boy," and
learnt her capabilities, so that in time I took quite long cruises as
far as Guernsey, and even to Sark.
It will be remembered that two of the conditions my father imposed upon
me, were that I should not land on any other island nor speak to anyone
under any pretence whatever, and these rules I rigorously carried out.
Many a time passing boatmen hailed me, but a wave of the hand and my
finger pointed to my output tongue was the only answer they received,
consequently I was called the "Dumb Man of Jethou," or the "Yellow Boy,"
and as such and by no other name many of the fishermen knew me. Those
who did not know my history pitied me as a kind of voiceless castaway or
semi-sane being.
My long trips were sometimes undertaken on calm moonlight nights: one, I
remember, was to St. Sampson's Harbour, Guernsey. I started about three
a.m., and reached the harbour before four o'clock, so that I had a good
look around the little haven, and at the shipping before anyone was
astir. I moored to the cable of a big brigantine which was lying
alongside the wharf ready for her cargo of granite for London. Curb
stones, blocks for paving, and broken metal for macadam roads are all
shipped here to the amount of several thousand tons weekly, so that the
granite quarrying and dressing give occupation to about 2,000 men,
women, and children. Granite working and fruit growing are the two great
industries of the island, which seems to me to be composed principally
of two extremely different materials--granite and glass; at any rate it
is not the place for stone throwing.
As I
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