320 Life of Audubon. 



every isle in succession, shoot as many birds as they 

 need, collect the fresh eggs, and lay in a cargo. At 

 every step each ruffian picks up an egg, so beautiful that 

 any man with a feeling heart would pause to consider the 

 motive which could induce him to carry it off. But noth- 

 ing of this sort occurs to the egger, who gathers and 

 gathers until he has swept the rock bare. The dollars 

 alone chink in his sordid mind, and he assiduously plies 

 the trade which no man would ply who had the talents 

 and industry to procure subsistence by honorable means. 

 With a bark nearly filled with fresh eggs they proceed to 

 the principal rock, that on which they first landed. But 

 what is their surprise when they find others there helping 

 themselves as industriously as they can ! In boiling rage 

 they charge their guns, and ply their oars. Landing on 

 the rock, they run up to the eggers, who, like themselves, 

 are desperadoes. The first question is a discharge of 

 musketry ; the answer another : now, man to man, they 

 fight like tigers. One is carried to his craft with a frac- 

 tured skull, another limps with a shot in his leg, and a 

 third feels how many of his teeth have been driven 

 through the hole in his cheek. At last, however, the 

 quarrel is settled, the booty is to be equally divided ; and 

 now see them all drinking together. Oaths and curses 

 and filthy jokes are all that you hear ; but see ! stuffed 

 with food, and reeling with drink, down they drop, one 

 by one ; groans and execrations from the wounded mingle 

 with the snorings of the heavy sleepers. There let the 

 brutes lie ! Again it is dawn, but no one stirs. The sur 

 is high ; one by one they open their heavy eyes, stretch 

 their limbs, yawn and raise themselves from the deck. 

 But see a goodly company. A hundred honest fisher- 

 men, who for months past have fed on salt meat, have 

 felt a desire to procure some eggs. Gallantly their boats 

 advance, impelled by the regular pull of their long oars. 



