Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
“Our two companions had been fortunate enough to reach that part of
the island in which the vessel was still in sight; and by finding
the remains of a sea-elephant that had been recently killed, they
ascertained that the crew had been on shore, and they hastened to
kindle a fire; but finding they could not attract the attention of
those in the vessel from the beach, they proceeded with all haste to
ascend a hill in the direction she was still steering. Spesinick,
however, became exhausted, and was unable to proceed further. Soper
went on, but had to descend into a valley before he could gain another
elevated spot to make a signal from. Spesinick, returning to the beach
where they had kindled the fire, to his great joy, saw a boat from the
vessel coming on shore. The crew had reached the beach before Spesinick
got to it; but his voice was drowned by the noise of a rookery of
macaroonys he had disturbed on the hill. Seeing the fire, the smoke of
which had first attracted their attention, they were convinced that
there were human beings on the island, and had commenced a search. In
the interim, Spesinick had made for the boat, and having reached it
clung to it in a fit of desperate joy that gave him the appearance of
a maniac; and the crew, on returning, found him in such questionable
guise that they hailed him before approaching. Dressed in shaggy fur
skins, with a cap of the same material, and beard of nearly two years’
growth, it was not probable that they should take him for a civilized
being. They soon, however, became better acquainted, and he gave them
an outline of the shipwreck, the number of men on the island, and that
Soper was not far off.
“The vessel proved to be an American schooner called the _Philo_, Isaac
Perceval, master, on a sealing and trading voyage.
“Soper, being still unaware of the boat having gone ashore, as it must
have done so, while he was crossing the valley, on coming to a place
where, on a foraging excursion, we had erected a shelter at the opening
of a cave, he set the place on fire, and the boat which had returned
with Spesinick put off and took him on board also, much to his joy.
By this time it was nearly dark, and too late to send or make any
communication to us on that evening, but on the following morning, 22
January, the captain of the schooner sent his boat to fetch off the
remaining ten.
“We had by this time almost given up all hopes of our expected
deliverance, and had gone to a neighbouring rookery to gather all
the eggs we could collect. Shortly after ten a shout from one of our
companions, Millichant, aroused our attention, and we soon perceived
the American schooner’s boat coming round the point. Down went the
eggs. Some capered, some ran, some shouted, and three loud cheers from
us were quickly answered by those in the boat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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