300 CHARLES DARWIN 



to it some vanity, that you perhaps are the first man who ever 

 stood on this pinnacle or admired this view. 



A strong desire is always felt to ascertain whether any 

 human being has previously visited an unfrequented spot. 

 A bit of wood with a nail in it, is picked up and studied as 

 if it were covered with hieroglyphics. Possessed with this 

 feeling, I was much interested by finding, on a wild part of 

 the coast, a bed made of grass beneath a ledge of rock. Close 

 by it there had been a fire, and the man had used an axe. 

 The fire, bed, and situation showed the dexterity of an Indian ; 

 but he could scarcely have been an Indian, for the race is 

 in this part extinct, owing to the Catholic desire of making 

 at one blow Christians and Slaves. I had at the time some 

 misgivings that the solitary man who had made his bed on 

 this wild spot, must have been some poor shipwrecked sailor, 

 who, in trying to travel up the coast, had here laid himself 

 down for his dreary night. 



December 28th. The weather continued very bad, but it 

 at last permitted us to proceed with the survey. The time 

 hung heavy on our hands, as it always did when we were 

 delayed from day to day by successive gales of wind. In 

 the evening another harbour was discovered, where we 

 anchored. Directly afterwards a man was seen waving a 

 shirt, and a boat was sent which brought back two seamen. 

 A party of six had run away from an American whaling 

 vessel, and had landed a little to the southward in a boat, 

 which was shortly afterwards knocked to pieces by the surf. 

 They had now been wandering up and down the coast for 

 fifteen months, without knowing which way to go, or where 

 they were. What a singular piece of good fortune it was 

 that this harbour was now discovered ! Had it not been for 

 this one chance, they might have wandered till they had 

 grown old men, and at last have perished on this wild coast. 

 Their sufferings had been very great, and one of their party 

 had lost his life by falling from the cliffs. They were some- 

 times obliged to separate in search of food, and this explained 

 the bed of the solitary man. Considering what they had 

 undergone, I think they had kept a very good reckoning of 

 time, for they had lost only four days. 



December joth. We anchored in a snug little cove at the 



