312 APPENDIX. 



rock, marks the day in his memory, and gives orders to 

 depart. The light breeze enables them to reach another 

 harbor a few miles distant, one which, like the last, lies 

 concealed from the ocean by some other rocky isle. 

 Arrived there, they re-act the scene of yesterday, crush- 

 ing every egg they can find. For a week, each night 

 is passed in drunkenness and brawls, until, having reached 

 the last breeding place on the coast, they return, touch 

 at every isle in succession, shoot as many birds as they 

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

 every step, each ruffin 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 

 nothing 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 assidu- 

 ously plies the trade which no man would ply who had 

 the talents and industry to procure subsistence by hon- 

 orable means. 



" With a bark nearly half-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 1o the 

 eggers, who, like themselves, are desperadoes. The first 

 question is the discharge of musketry, the answer an- 

 other. Now man to man, they fight like tigers. One 

 is carried to his boat with a fractured 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." 



A similar traffic, though less extensive and more peace- 

 able, is carried on among the Keys of Florida, in pro- 



