Page:Sailing Alone Around the World (Slocum).djvu/160

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140
SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WOBLD

and the children were all beautiful. There were about forty-five souls on the island all told. The adults were mostly from the mainland of South

Robinson Crusoe's cave

America. One lady there, from Chile, who made a flying-jib for the Spray, taking her pay in tallow, would be called a belle at Newport. Blessed island of Juan Fernandez! Why Alexander Selkirk ever left you was more than I could make out.

A large ship which had arrived some time before, on fire, had been stranded at the head of the bay, and as the sea smashed her to pieces on the rocks, after the fire was drowned, the islanders picked up the timbers and utilized them in the