156 THE CAST-AWAY. 



Portuguese discoverer, whose name the island 

 bears, put in his first appearance, so I have read, 

 in 1506. He certainly deserves to have his name 

 thus immortalized for he gave the world a new 

 treasure, indeed — a very pearl of an island, seven 

 miles across, as round as a dollar, and enclosing a 

 fresh-water lake which never freezes. That, no 

 doubt, is explained by the volcanic nature of the 

 whole formation. Cliffs, straight as a castle wall, 

 tower up from the water's edge to a height of 

 two thousand feet. Harbor there is none, and 

 but for a narrow inlet on the north side, no ade- 

 quate landing place. A group of white-washed 

 stone houses on the north-west shore is the 

 nearest approach to a town anywhere on the 

 island. 



Now the reason all these details have fastened 

 themselves so tenaciously upon my memory is 

 that right here I came near losing my ship. It 

 was late in the afternoon, and we were taking off 

 supplies from the shore. The wind — our only 

 stay since it was too deep water for our best 

 bower to touch bottom — had died out to a calm. 

 It was an Irishman's hurricane, straight up and 

 down; and yet the strong ground-swell of the 

 ocean kept carrying us further and further in 

 shore. We cracked on every stitch of canvas we 



