{"id":"01KG6YHAB7E8W4AM5E5JZKZ73X","cid":"bafkreiccyg73enficj6sktpmnxpfbk4jqirtftwe6s4jgocgook53slyga","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7961,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":7892,"text":"Nor have there been wanting instances where the inhumanity of some\r\ncaptains has led them to wreak a secure revenge upon seamen who have\r\ngiven their caprice or pride some singular offense. Thrust ashore upon\r\nthe scorching marl, such mariners are abandoned to perish outright,\r\nunless by solitary labors they succeed in discovering some precious\r\ndribblets of moisture oozing from a rock or stagnant in a mountain\r\npool.\r\n\r\nI was well acquainted with a man, who, lost upon the Isle of\r\nNarborough, was brought to such extremes by thirst, that at last he\r\nonly saved his life by taking that of another being. A large hair-seal\r\ncame upon the beach. He rushed upon it, stabbed it in the neck, and\r\nthen throwing himself upon the panting body quaffed at the living\r\nwound; the palpitations of the creature’s dying heart injected life\r\ninto the drinker.\r\n\r\nAnother seaman, thrust ashore in a boat upon an isle at which no ship\r\never touched, owing to its peculiar sterility and the shoals about it,\r\nand from which all other parts of the group were hidden—this man,\r\nfeeling that it was sure death to remain there, and that nothing worse\r\nthan death menaced him in quitting it, killed seals, and inflating\r\ntheir skins, made a float, upon which he transported himself to\r\nCharles’s Island, and joined the republic there.\r\n\r\nBut men, not endowed with courage equal to such desperate attempts,\r\nfind their only resource in forthwith seeking some watering-place,\r\nhowever precarious or scanty; building a hut; catching tortoises and\r\nbirds; and in all respects preparing for a hermit life, till tide or\r\ntime, or a passing ship arrives to float them off.\r\n\r\nAt the foot of precipices on many of the isles, small rude basins in\r\nthe rocks are found, partly filled with rotted rubbish or vegetable\r\ndecay, or overgrown with thickets, and sometimes a little moist; which,\r\nupon examination, reveal plain tokens of artificial instruments\r\nemployed in hollowing them out, by some poor castaway or still more\r\nmiserable runaway. These basins are made in places where it was\r\nsupposed some scanty drops of dew might exude into them from the upper\r\ncrevices.\r\n\r\nThe relics of hermitages and stone basins are not the only signs of\r\nvanishing humanity to be found upon the isles. And, curious to say,\r\nthat spot which of all others in settled communities is most animated,\r\nat the Enchanted Isles presents the most dreary of aspects. And though\r\nit may seem very strange to talk of post-offices in this barren region,\r\nyet post-offices are occasionally to be found there. They consist of a\r\nstake and a bottle. The letters being not only sealed, but corked. They\r\nare generally deposited by captains of Nantucketers for the benefit of\r\npassing fishermen, and contain statements as to what luck they had in\r\nwhaling or tortoise-hunting. Frequently, however, long months and\r\nmonths, whole years glide by and no applicant appears. The stake rots\r\nand falls, presenting no very exhilarating object.\r\n\r\nIf now it be added that grave-stones, or rather grave-boards, are also\r\ndiscovered upon some of the isles, the picture will be complete.\r\n\r\nUpon the beach of James’s Isle, for many years, was to be seen a rude\r\nfinger-post, pointing inland. And, perhaps, taking it for some signal\r\nof possible hospitality in this otherwise desolate spot—some good\r\nhermit living there with his maple dish—the stranger would follow on in\r\nthe path thus indicated, till at last he would come out in a noiseless\r\nnook, and find his only welcome, a dead man—his sole greeting the\r\ninscription over a grave. Here, in 1813, fell, in a daybreak duel, a\r\nlieutenant of the U.S. frigate Essex, aged twenty-one: attaining his\r\nmajority in death.\r\n\r\nIt is but fit that, like those old monastic institutions of Europe,\r\nwhose inmates go not out of their own walls to be inurned, but are\r\nentombed there where they die, the Encantadas, too, should bury their\r\nown dead, even as the great general monastery of earth does hers.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBWBP27MZM102JNCMSXJ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAB7VQ66Z5B5689HFS4K","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAB7GYDV7P40FZP3ATBG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:57.479Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:07.547Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}