U A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



and there they were on a desert shore without 

 food or water and no way to get either. I sup- 

 pose they camped on the headand in the hope of 

 haihng a passing ship. But the vessels that pass 

 up and down this coast usually keep out of sight 

 of land. Maybe the poor devils sighted a dis- 

 tant topsail — ^no one knows — but if they did the 

 ship sank beyond the horizon without paying any 

 attention to their frantic signals. So they died 

 miserably there on the headland. 



" Next year, a whale ship found their bodies 

 and erected a cairn of stones marked by the cross 

 you see over the spot where the three sailors 

 were buried together. This is a bad country to 

 run away in/' the captain added. " JNTo food, no 

 water, no inhabitants. It's sure death for a run- 

 away." 



Having spun this tragic yarn. Captain Win- 

 chester went aft again, feeling, no doubt, that he 

 had sowed seed on fertile soil. The fact is his 

 story had an instant effect. Most of the men 

 abandoned their plans to escape, at least for the 

 time being, hoping a more favorable opportunity 

 would present itself when we reached the Hawai- 



