rder to get rid of them before I could again go to sleep.
However, I got tired of this operation, and at length dropped off to
sleep, allowing them to sting me at their will.

I soon found that I ought to have been grateful for having been cast on
this island. Scarcely had I left my abode the next morning, when I came
upon a tree with enormous leaves, many of them a foot wide and a foot
and a half long. From it hung a fruit in the form of a melon, attached
by its stem directly to the trunk or limbs. I recognised it at once as
the valuable bread-fruit tree. Here was a supply of wholesome food for
me as long as I might have, I hoped, to live on the island. To get at
the fruit, however, was the difficulty, though it was at no great
height. I bethought me, therefore, that I would make a ladder of
bamboo. I should have liked to have had some fruit for breakfast, but
as it would take some time to make my ladder securely, I had to content
myself with the remainder of the crab and some more cocoa-nut, and a
draught of water from my well. I had, indeed, to go towards the well
for the purpose of obtaining a bamboo. To secure the rounds, I cut a
quantity of fine ratan, or some of the smaller creeper, which answered
the purpose pretty well; and to prevent them slipping, I secured from
the top to the bottom a piece of ratan twined round them on both sides.
My ladder, though not very sightly, was, I hoped, thus made secure. On
reaching the bread-fruit, I was delighted to find that it was scarcely
yet mature,--the best state, indeed, for eating. I eagerly cut down a
couple of the melon-like fruit and descended with them to the ground.

As my breakfast had not been substantial, I lost no time in cutting up a
bread-fruit into slices, which I toasted before the fire, pouring over
it a little cocoa-nut milk.

I must not take up too much space in describing the various events of my
life on the island. I spent most of the clay on the beach, sometimes
clambering up to the top of a high rock, whence I could gain an
extensive view of the sea, in the hope of seeing some vessel passing,
and being able to attract her attention.

I may say at once that I had an abundance of food, both crabs and
shell-fish, and various fruits, so that I was kept in good health. My
clothes, however, had already been much worn, and were now torn almost
into tatters by my excursions through the woods.

I had just climbed up a rock, when I saw a fleet