Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/249

Rh they spent two years, and Goodridge, who was a man of respectable family and tolerably good education, has described in a simple but interesting way, the life of these unfortunate castaways in this desolate spot.

When the vessel struck, Goodridge and his companions took to the boats and pulled lustily through the breakers. The night was dark and rainy, but after four hours' labour, skirting along the almost perpendicular rocks which lined the shore, they found an opening and effected a landing. Their boat, however, was swamped, and it was with great difficulty they succeeded in dragging it ashore; which they at length accomplished, and by turning it bottom upwards and propping up one side, they crept under and obtained some little shelter from the rain, being all miserably cold, wet, and hungry. Thus they remained huddled together till daylight appeared, when they sallied forth in search of a sea-elephant, with which they were already familiar from their voyages among these islands. Although they were rather scarce at that period of the year, they soon found one and dispatched it. With its blubber they kindled a fire, and such parts as were eatable were, with the assistance of a frying-pan saved from the wreck, soon cooked. They also made a fire of some blubber under their boat, and by this they dried their clothes and warmed themselves as well as they could. No superior officer was among the party, and Goodridge being a man of some education, naturally assumed the direction of their enterprises. When the party had in some measure recruited their strength, they set out over the hills in the direction of the spot where the vessel was wrecked, in order to ascertain her fate.