Year: 1876

fic, and making the islet or rock of Salas y Gomez, a barren monolith, about two hundred miles from Easter Island, tke commander thought, as it was an unusually calm day, he would go ashore and taken an observation from the rock itself, thus getting the exact position of the spot and correcting its bearings upon the chart, pro viding they differed from his own, as he never had heard of anybody having been upon the rock, and like d true navigator, wished to seize the opportunity for the bene- fit of all who might sail those waters in all time to come. Man. hing a boat they pulled for the rock, and discovered that there was but one landing-a small shelving place-the rest of the iSlet being bold and precipitous. The entire length of this lonely place was not more than quar- ter of a mile, without vegetation of any kind Walking up the as- cent, they found the bleached skeleton of man lying upon a level space, and near by they noticed broad, flat, upright for nation of the rock, covered with figures or letters, which, on eX- animation, proved to be the jour- nal of the unfortunate man whose bones were lying before the terri bly, pathetic record of his isola- tiOn.

 With some sharp pointed stone or shell he had cut into the sur face Of this natural tablet the date of his ShipWreck, the name of the vessel, the ! ear, month and day of the commencement of his miser- able imprisonment, each day scratching one more little notch to the terrible record, marking off each 365 nOtches with a longer, deeper line, to tell the weary, hopeless years that had dragged along since Fate had led him to the eXpiatiOn of her cruel sen tence.

 Tn this awful record were notes of passing sails, sometimes years intervening between those days when the mOnOtony of his eXis- tence was changed to the wild emotions of hope by the sight of these passing ships, bearing his fellOW-men in full life and hope and health before his straining vision, and then his dull despair as they passed on, ignorant of his existence. We can imagine the frantic energy with which he ran up and down his narrow prison, shouting, gesticulating and wild ly endeavoring to attract their at- tentiOn, until, conscious of the ut, ter futility of all his efforts, he threw himself upon his face and gave way to the bitterness of his life.

 From the record, it seemed he had been entirely naked since the second year of his ShipWreck, and had teen on the island thirty eight years and six months, the last marks having been made about six months before the gun boat had touched at the lonely theatre of this sad drama in 8 hu- man life.

 During all these thirty-eight years, this unfortunate man had lived upon raw shell-fish and birds. The birds he caught at night, creeping upon them while they slept. There was no wood, or any kind of vegetation, noth- ing to make a signal-fire or cloud of smoke to attract the passing ship. The man was more com pletely cut off from any of the means of escape. or of personal comfort, than any human being of whom history tells Us. Selkirk had fruits, running streams, birds and animals, and during half of his comparatively short isolation the society of his man Friday. But this pitiable human creature lived upon uncOOked fish and re- puIsive birds, and drank water from hollows in the rocks, sup piled by the frequent rains of those attitudes; but ill all those years he never tasted bread or vegetable, nor looked upon a hu- man face; never heard any sound save the scream of sea-birds and the ceaseless murmur of the re- mOrseiess sea, that forever sur rounded him and kept him pri- SOner.

 Napoleon at St. Helena, Selkirk on Juan Fernandez, cease to aWak en the sympathy which for years has been given them, now we have read this sad history.

 There is no doubt of the truth of this statements, which we re- ceived from a gentleman who has resided for many years in Tahiti, and who read the copy of the re- cord taken from the tablet rock by the French Commander, who was a good English scholar.