Sir Ibumpbrv? Dax> 327 



resisted them with his crutches, and halting along, 

 threw himself from an elevation of five or six feet, 

 with his crutches and a little parcel of wooden boats 

 that he carried under his arm, on the sand of the 

 beach. He had to scramble at least 100 yards over 

 hard rocks, before he reached the water, and he 

 several times fell down and cut his naked limbs 

 on the bare stones. Being in the water, he seemed 

 in an ecstasy, and immediately put his boats in 

 sailing order, and was perfectly inattentive to the 

 counsel and warning of the spectators, who shouted 

 to him that he would be drowned. His whole at- 

 tention was absorbed by his boats. He had formed 

 an idea that one should outsail the rest, and when 

 this boat was foremost he was in delight ; but if any 

 one of the others got beyond it, he howled with 

 grief; and once I saw him throw his crutch at one 

 of the unfavoured boats. The tide came in rapidly 

 he lost his crutches, and would have been drowned, 

 but for the care of some of the spectators : he was, 

 however, wholly inattentive to anything save his 

 boats. He is said to be quite insane and perfectly 

 ungovernable, and will not live in a house, or wear 

 any clothes, and his whole life is spent in this one 

 business making and managing a fleet of wooden 

 boats, of which he is sole admiral. How near this 

 mad youth is to a genius, a hero, or to an angler, 

 who injures his health and risks his life by going into 

 the water as high as his middle, in the hope of catching 

 a fish which he sees rise, though he already has a 

 pannier full ! ' 



