rbour. The anchor down, and
everything made snug below and aloft, we were actually allowed a run
ashore free from restraint. I could hardly believe my ears. We had got
so accustomed to our slavery that liberty was become a mere name; we
hardly knew what to do with it when we got it. However, we soon got used
(in a very limited sense) to being our own masters, and, each following
the bent of his inclinations, set out for a ramble. My companion and I
had not gone far, when we thought we saw one of the boulders, with which
the island was liberally besprinkled, on the move. Running up to examine
it with all the eagerness of children let out of school, we found it to
be one of the inhabitants, a monstrous tortoise. I had some big turtle
around the cays of the Gulf of Mexico, but this creature dwarfed them
all. We had no means of actually measuring him, and had to keep clear
of his formidable-looking jaws, but roughly, and within the mark, he was
four feet long by two feet six inches wide. Of course he was much more
dome-shaped than the turtle are, and consequently looked a great deal
bigger than a turtle of the same measurement would, besides being much
thicker through. As he was loth to stay with us, we made up our minds to
go with him, for he was evidently making for some definite spot, by the
tracks he was following, which showed plainly how many years that same
road had been used. Well, I mounted on his back, keeping well astern,
out of the reach of that serious-looking head, which having rather a
long neck, looked as if it might be able to reach round and take a
piece out of a fellow without any trouble. He was perfectly amicable,
continuing his journey as if nothing had happened, and really getting
over the ground at a good rate, considering the bulk and shape of him.
Except for the novelty of the thing, this sort of ride had nothing to
recommend it; so I soon tired of it, and let him waddle along in peace.
By following the tracks aforesaid, we arrived at a fine stream of water
sparkling out of a hillside, and running down a little ravine. The sides
of this gully were worn quite smooth by the innumerable feet of the
tortoises, about a dozen of which were now quietly crouching at the
water's edge, filling themselves up with the cooling fluid. I did not
see the patriarch upon whom a sailor once reported that he had read the
legend carved, "The Ark, Captain Noah, Ararat for orders"; perhaps he
had at last closed his peacefu