brooding over something which appeared ever to occupy his thoughts,
and angry if roused up from his reverie.




Chapter II


The reader must understand that the foregoing remarks are to be
considered as referring to my position and amount of knowledge when I
was seven or eight years old. My master, as I called him, was a short
square-built man, about sixty years of age, as I afterwards estimated
from recollection and comparison. His hair fell down his back in
thick clusters and was still of a dark color, and his beard was full
two feet long and very bushy; indeed, he was covered with hair,
wherever his person was exposed. He was, I should say, very powerful
had he had occasion to exert his strength, but with the exception of
the time at which we collected the birds, and occasionally going up
the ravine to bring down faggots of wood, he seldom moved out of the
cabin unless it was to bathe. There was a pool of salt water of about
twenty yards square, near the sea, but separated from it by a low
ridge of rocks, over which the waves only beat when the sea was rough
and the wind on that side of the island. Every morning almost we went
down to bathe in that pool, as it was secure from the sharks, which
were very numerous. I could swim like a fish as early as I can
recollect, but whether I was taught, or learnt myself, I cannot tell.
Thus was my life passed away; my duties were trifling; I had little
or nothing to employ myself about, for I had no means of employment.
I seldom heard the human voice, and became as taciturn as my