AN ISLAND HERMIT. 153 



he had shambled down the path, and with strange, old- 

 world politeness, had bid us welcome to his stronghold. 



Afterwards, we came to recognize this old man for the 

 Hermit of the Island. Here he lived entirely by himself 

 in soKtary loneHness. There are only two other human 

 dwe'lliags on this rather strange island. Each of them 

 is more than two miles distant, and his only liak with 

 human intercourse is a little path, which winds its way, 

 up hill and down dale, through a wilderness of cactus and 

 rocks. Why he lived here, in this most primitive of 

 dwellings, was a mystery we never solved. 



But it was strange to see, what an attraction his little 

 fenced-in homestead had for our sailors, whose steps 

 invariably led them to visit this old anchorite, who, on 

 his part, seemed always pleased to do the simple honours 

 of his strange abode. 



According to his own account, he was the brother of 

 the man who rented the island from the Venezuelan 

 Government, and who Uved in patriarchal style in the 

 " homestead " at the south-west end of it. Here, in later 

 Tisits, we found a little family coterie, at the nominal 

 head of which was the still more aged father of these two 

 brothers. This venerable Abraham, with his children 

 and his children's children, to the fourth generation, 

 possess the land; and everywhere their flocks multiply 

 ^d replenish the earth. Not another aUen soul obtrudes 

 his unwelcome presence upon their island home, which 

 is nothing more nor less than a huge donkey and goat 

 ranche. Here, too, they have dug their wells, that their 

 flocks may drink ; but if, like Abraham, they possess 

 much gold and silver, it is not apparent from their mode 

 of life, which is extremely primitive. 



Possibly, in the case of our old hermit whose acquaint- 

 ance we first made, there had been some family feud or 

 some jealous Sarah, and he had been turned out to 

 wander alone upon the face of the desert. Possibly, it 

 was merely his pleasure to lead the simple Ufe, or rather 

 the still simpler Ufe. At any rate he seemed happy 



