Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel IslesSuffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
General
Jethou; or, Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles
Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
Channel Islands; Jethou
Our visitor did not want much inviting, for he rolled in over the side,
and squatted down on a locker, as if he had known us all his life. He
was a little round-bodied, big-fisted, ruddy man, of about sixty; a
thorough water-dog, who, when his tongue was loosened spun yarns and
sang us songs till near midnight. He was about the merriest little man I
ever met. He had served twenty years in the navy, and was an old wooden
frigate man, full to the brim with anecdotes. I thought at the time
that it would be worth while for some enterprising editor to send out an
expedition to capture him and make him spin yarns to fill up an
otherwise uninteresting column of some weekly paper. If I had the space
at my command I would recapitulate some of his stories here, but I have
not. If I had, my readers would have to take such frequent pinches of
salt that they would have a most tantalizing drought upon them, one
which would be most difficult to quench.
We obtained information as to our whereabouts, and found that we were
anchored in a little bay in the estuary of the Colne, about a mile from
the town of Brightlingsea.
On the 7th the sun rose in great splendour, reminding one of the verse:
"The night is past, and morning, like a queen
Deck'd in her glittering jewels, stately treads,
With her own beauty flushing fair the scene,
The while o'er all her robe of light she spreads."
At six a.m. we were again under weigh (after a good breakfast), and
close in with the land, which we hugged right away to Yarmouth, as it
was our nearest course.
Speaking of breakfast reminds me of eating, and eating of diet, and diet
of health; and this again of my diet on Jethou. Two years ago I used to
laugh at vegetarians and call them "pap-eaters," "milk-and-water men,"
and other pretty names; but while I was in Jethou I had cause to think
there was not only _something_ in their theory but _much_.
When the weather was too rough for me to fish, I have often lived for a
week or ten days on vegetarian diet, for although I had tinned meat I
got tired of it in warm weather, and only ate it occasionally when the
days were cold. The pig I killed was more than three-parts thrown away,
as I did not properly salt it; so my pork store did not last long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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