pressing necessities; I therefore made the grave up again, covering it carefully over with boughs, and heavy stones, so to protect the body from the wild dogs.
Finding all my efforts to communicate with the ship useless, and after passing another night in great distress, I made my way back to the tribe. The vessel remained where she was for several days longer—a period to me of indescribable misery. What the ship was, or where she was bound to, or where from, I was never able to make out, in consequence of my ignorance of dates. During the period we were watching her, the natives told me another vessel had anchored nearly in the same place, a long time previous; from which vessel, two white men were brought ashore by four or five others, who tied them to trees, and shot them,—leaving their bodies bound.
A few months after these efforts of mine to communicate with the ship, I found a large boat stranded on the beach. It appeared to have belonged to a whaler, as there were eight large oars laying about her, partly buried in the sand; there were also three blankets rigged as a sail, with ropes, mast, and other articles, used by some unfortunate mariners who had been cast away. The blankets, after being washed, I spread over the boat to dry, and when that was done, a fire was visible at some distance, to which I went, and there found a party of natives cooking and eating fish, and other food. On seeing the blankets, they began capering about in their usual fantastic manner, expressing the most extravagant joy. Acting on prudential mo-
