succeeded, though not without smashing a
considerable number of the eggs.
October 1st.—To day I complete six months’
miserable imprisonment on this wretched island,
and have no more prospect of getting off than
I had the first week that I came on shore. In-
stead of becoming reconciled to my situation,
I think I am lately more and more wretched:
every species of pastime or occupation I could
think of or invent, I have exhausted. I sit for
hours together watching the horizon, with the
faint hope of catching sight of a vessel, and
thinking of my friends in England. Previous
to the return of Spfing, my gun was a source
of amusement, though my game, generally
speaking, was no better than gulls and various
kinds of aquatic birds : but now, even that
employment is denied me. This being the
breeding'season, they strew themselves in all
directions about the island ; and as they place
their nests in the most exposed situations, it
totally destroys any pleasure I might have in
the pursuit of them ; for, however unaccountable,
it is the fact, that the principal pleasure
of shooting is the excitement, the uncertainty,
and difficulty of following and bringing down
your prize. Now, that I am so surrounded
with birds, that I might easily take a waggon
load with my hands, I do not feel the slightest
inclination to touch any of them.
I go almost every day in pursuit of goats,
of which I have taken great numbers; but the
intolerable fatigue and risk is almost too much
for me, and I am getting still more unwilling
to go far from the settlement, from a nervous
fear that a ship might heave in sight during
my absence. We have now had fine weather
for a considerable time, except the morning
of the 2d, which proved blustering with a
heavy sea, and surf breaking on the beach.
At about eleven o’clock, a ship hove in sights
and passed quite close to the island; when
abreast one of our houses she hoisted Dutch
colours; we all imagined her to be a corvette.
It is needless to repeat the impression another
vessel passing and leaving me still a prisoner
made upon me. Let those who are always
complaining bitterly, and lamenting over the
merest trifle, be placed in my situation, that
they may know what it is to feel, as it were,