Chapter I: Preface

As the writer does not pretend to possess what is termed literary style, he would ask the indulgence of the reader in any little slip of the pen which may occur in these pages, as it is not every Crusoe who can command the facile quill, the pure style, or the lively imagination of a Daniel Defoe, to narrate his adventures.

It must be borne in mind that the island of Juan Fernandez possessed many natural features, and a far greater area than Jethou can boast of, and therefore more scope for the development of incidents and descriptive embellishment.

Doubtless many of the adventures here placed before the public will appear puny beside the exploits of the original Crusoe; but it must be taken into consideration that the author does not, like Defoe's hero, revel in the impossible. At the same time it may be noted that the adventures detailed are of a sufficiently exciting kind as to be above any suspicion of dulness.

Juan Fernandez lies about four hundred miles from the nearest land, and it is therefore very difficult to imagine from whence the savages came who were about to convert Friday into a _fricassee_. The Friday of our story, y'clept Monday, came to Jethou in a natural if in an exciting manner, and it will be found that everything else in the narrative, if not an _exact_ account of what really did happen, is at least feasible. It is in fact a practicable narrative, served up in a plain, ungarnished form, except that to make it more palatable to the general reader a little love-story has been introduced towards the conclusion, which, it is hoped, sustains the interest right to the last, and makes the volume end as all good books should, by allowing the principal actors to "live happily ever after."

E. R. SUFFLING (HARRY NILFORD).

_Blomfield Lodge_,
_Portsdown Road_,
_London, W._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. PAGE

My birth and home--My pretty cousin--Accident to the "Kittywich"--Journey to Guernsey--Pleading to become a Crusoe--My wish granted--Outfit secured--Sail to Jethou 9

CHAPTER II.

I take possession of the Island--Landing stores--A grand carousal--Farewell--Alone 24

CHAPTER III.

First thoughts and impressions--A tour of the Island and description 32

CHAPTER IV.

Farming operations--I make a plough and a cart--A donkey hunt--Dumb helpers--My live stock 44

CHAPTER V.

Canoeing--Fish of the place--The ormer and limpet--A curious fishing adventure--Queer captures from the sea--Rock fish--Construct a fish pond and water-mill 55

CHAPTER VI.

"Flapp," the gull--Surgical operation--The gull who refused to die--Taxidermy extraordinary--Feathered friends--Snakes 69

CHAPTER VII.

I build a curious "box-boat"--An unpleasant night at sea--My Sunday service--The poem, "Alexander Selkirk"--Its applicability to my lot 79

CHAPTER VIII.

A trip to St. Sampson's harbour--A horrid porcine murder--A voyage round Sark--Nearly capsized--Trip round Guernsey--The pepper-box--Curiosity of tourists 93

CHAPTER IX.

Harvest operations--Explore La Creux Derrible, and nearly lose my life--Crusoe on crutches--An extraordinary discovery--Kill a grampus--Oil on troubled waters--Make an overflow pump 112

CHAPTER X.

A storm and a wreck--The castaway--Dead--A night of horror--The boathouse destroyed--A burial at sea 126

CHAPTER XI.

Climate in Winter--Vision of my father--A warning voice--Supernatural manifestations--The falling rock--My life saved by my dog 139

CHAPTER XII.

A fairy pool--Wonders of the deep--Portrait of a poet--The cave of Fauconnaire--A letter from home and my answer to it 148

CHAPTER XIII.

Another terrible storm--Loss of the "Yellow Boy"--A ketch wrecked--I rescue a man from the sea, badly injured--He recovers 159

CHAPTER XIV.

Work and song--Sunday service--Build a larger boat, the "Anglo-Franc"--Collecting wreckage--Commence a jetty--Our cookery--Blasting operations--The opening banquet 172

CHAPTER XV.

Trawling for fish and dredging for curios--Some remarkable finds--A ghastly resurrection--The mysterious paper--The hieroglyphic--A dangerous fall--_Hors de combat_--Attempts to unravel the paper 181

CHAPTER XVI.

Yarns: The cabbages which hung their heads--The raft of spruce--Voyage of the "Dewdrop"--A lucky family--A deep, deep draught--The maire's cat 193

CHAPTER XVII.

The Will again--Searching for a clue to the paper--Barbe Rouge's Will--A probable clue--Hopes and doubts--Perplexed--A memorable trawl by moonlight--A real clue at last--The place of the skull found 207

CHAPTER XVIII.

Digging for the treasure--A noonday rest--The ghastly tenant of the treasure house--We find the treasure--An account of what we discovered 217

CHAPTER XIX.

Preparing to leave--A letter home--We lengthen and enlarge the "Anglo-Franc"--Re-christen her "Happy Return"--Love at first sight--Victualling and stowing cargo--Pretty Jeannette--The long voyage--Incidents en route--Vegetarians, and their diet--Yarmouth reached--Fresh-water navigation--My native heath 231

CHAPTER XX.

I surprise the old folks at home--All well--Is Priscilla false--We meet--The missing letters--A snake in the grass--Dreams of vengeance 250

CHAPTER XXI.

The "Happy Return" inspected--More of my father's ghost--Unpacking the treasure--Seek an interview with Walter Johnson--Two letters 257

CHAPTER XXII.

M. Oudin arrives--The Wedding Day--Division of the spoil--Alec returns to Jethou--Wedding gifts--The end 265