INTRODUCTORY. vii 



communities, descended for the most part from ship- 

 wrecked sailors, who live as isolated and uneventful an 

 existence as one could vokmtarily wish to do. 



It was fchen to these last several classes of derelict 

 islands, and to some unfrequented and out of the way 

 spots on the fringes of the mainland, that after " doing " 

 the usual round we soon began to turn our attention. 



It is one of the charms of yachting that one can wander 

 far off the beaten highway, throw aside all the tiresome 

 conventions of modern life, and yet while not " roughing " 

 it in the very least, be brought, as it were, to the very feet 

 of Nature. To those who are unable to appreciate the 

 charms of " camping-out " this may sound highly attrac- 

 tive ; but it has this disadvantage for the writer, that 

 everything proceeds so smooth^ tiiat there are none of 

 the hundred and one little incidents and contretemps 

 which constantly crop up under such circumstances to 

 lend a note of adventure to his account. 



It will be found therefore, that although we visited 

 more than one island which might well have done duty 

 for another Robinson Crusoe — yet alas ! we had no such 

 adventures, suffered no shipwrecks, experienced no 

 struggles with savage inhabitants, no desperate straits, 

 nothing in fact which one might reasonably have expected 

 or secretly hoped for. 



