The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3Poe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American
The chief was as good as his word, and we were soon plentifully
supplied with fresh provisions. We found the tortoises as fine as
we had ever seen, and the ducks surpassed our best species of
wild fowl, being exceedingly tender, juicy, and well-flavoured.
Besides these, the savages brought us, upon our making them
comprehend our wishes, a vast quantity of brown celery and scurvy
grass, with a canoe-load of fresh fish and some dried. The celery
was a treat indeed, and the scurvy grass proved of incalculable
benefit in restoring those of our men who had shown symptoms of
disease. In a very short time we had not a single person on the
sick-list. We had also plenty of other kinds of fresh provisions,
among which may be mentioned a species of shellfish resembling
the mussel in shape, but with the taste of an oyster. Shrimps,
too, and prawns were abundant, and albatross and other birds’
eggs with dark shells. We took in, too, a plentiful stock of the
flesh of the hog which I have mentioned before. Most of the men
found it a palatable food, but I thought it fishy and otherwise
disagreeable. In return for these good things we presented the
natives with blue beads, brass trinkets, nails, knives, and
pieces of red cloth, they being fully delighted in the exchange.
We established a regular market on shore, just under the guns of
the schooner, where our barterings were carried on with every
appearance of good faith, and a degree of order which their
conduct at the village of _Klock-klock_ had not led us to expect
from the savages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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