ince my stay on the island, and I
spread most of my garments to dry. Of water I drank my careful fill, and
I calculated there was ten days' supply if carefully husbanded. It was
amazing how rich I felt with this vast wealth of brackish water. And no
great merchant, with all his ships returned from prosperous voyages, his
warehouses filled to the rafters, his strong-boxes overflowing, could
have felt as wealthy as did I when I discovered, cast up on the rocks,
the body of a seal that had been dead for many days. Nor did I fail,
first, to thank God on my knees for this manifestation of His
ever-unfailing kindness. The thing was clear to me: God had not intended
I should die. From the very first He had not so intended.

I knew the debilitated state of my stomach, and I ate sparingly in the
knowledge that my natural voracity would surely kill me did I yield
myself to it. Never had sweeter morsels passed my lips, and I make free
to confess that I shed tears of joy, again and again, at contemplation of
that putrefied carcass.

My heart of hope beat strong in me once more. Carefully I preserved the
portions of the carcass remaining. Carefully I covered my rock cisterns
with flat stones so that the sun's rays might not evaporate the precious
fluid and in precaution against some upspringing of wind in the night and
the sudden flying of spray. Also I gathered me tiny fragments of seaweed
and dried them in the sun for an easement between my poor body and the
rough rocks whereon I made my lodging. And my garments were dry--the
first time in days; so that I slept the heavy sleep of exhaustion and of
returning health.

When I awoke to a new day I was another man. The absence of the sun did
not depress me, and I was swiftly to learn that God, not forgetting me
while I slumbered, had prepared other and wonderful blessings for me. I
would have fain rubbed my eyes and looked again, for, as far as I could
see, the rocks bordering upon the ocean were covered with seals. There
were thousands of them, and in the water other thousands disported
themselves, while the sound that went up from all their throats was
prodigious and deafening. I knew it when: I saw it--meat lay there for
the taking, meat sufficient for a score of ships' companies.

I directly seized my oar--than which there was no other stick of wood on
the island--and cautiously advanced upon all that immensity of provender.
It was quickly guessed by me that these