{"id":"01KG8AKT0BTT4V6Y4P1C9F0PWW","cid":"bafkreiahosus3s4osfwfr45p4onmbszckqoks5r2rejmymndxrj5lshvwu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7359,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.027Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":7294,"text":"of our vessel, were it not for a mysterious presentiment, borne to her,\r\nso our mariners averred, by this isle’s enchanted air. Nor did the\r\nwidow’s answer undo the thought.\r\n\r\n“How did you come to cross the isle this morning, then, Hunilla?” said\r\nour Captain.\r\n\r\n“Señor, something came flitting by me. It touched my cheek, my heart,\r\nSeñor.”\r\n\r\n“What do you say, Hunilla?”\r\n\r\n“I have said, Señor, something came through the air.”\r\n\r\nIt was a narrow chance. For when in crossing the isle Hunilla gained\r\nthe high land in the centre, she must then for the first have perceived\r\nour masts, and also marked that their sails were being loosed, perhaps\r\neven heard the echoing chorus of the windlass song. The strange ship\r\nwas about to sail, and she behind. With all haste she now descends the\r\nheight on the hither side, but soon loses sight of the ship among the\r\nsunken jungles at the mountain’s base. She struggles on through the\r\nwithered branches, which seek at every step to bar her path, till she\r\ncomes to the isolated rock, still some way from the water. This she\r\nclimbs, to reassure herself. The ship is still in plainest sight. But\r\nnow, worn out with over tension, Hunilla all but faints; she fears to\r\nstep down from her giddy perch; she is fain to pause, there where she\r\nis, and as a last resort catches the turban from her head, unfurls and\r\nwaves it over the jungles towards us.\r\n\r\nDuring the telling of her story the mariners formed a voiceless circle\r\nround Hunilla and the Captain; and when at length the word was given to\r\nman the fastest boat, and pull round to the isle’s thither side, to\r\nbring away Hunilla’s chest and the tortoise-oil, such alacrity of both\r\ncheery and sad obedience seldom before was seen. Little ado was made.\r\nAlready the anchor had been recommitted to the bottom, and the ship\r\nswung calmly to it.\r\n\r\nBut Hunilla insisted upon accompanying the boat as indispensable pilot\r\nto her hidden hut. So being refreshed with the best the steward could\r\nsupply, she started with us. Nor did ever any wife of the most famous\r\nadmiral, in her husband’s barge, receive more silent reverence of\r\nrespect than poor Hunilla from this boat’s crew.\r\n\r\nRounding many a vitreous cape and bluff, in two hours’ time we shot\r\ninside the fatal reef; wound into a secret cove, looked up along a\r\ngreen many-gabled lava wall, and saw the island’s solitary dwelling.\r\n\r\nIt hung upon an impending cliff, sheltered on two sides by tangled\r\nthickets, and half-screened from view in front by juttings of the rude\r\nstairway, which climbed the precipice from the sea. Built of canes, it\r\nwas thatched with long, mildewed grass. It seemed an abandoned\r\nhay-rick, whose haymakers were now no more. The roof inclined but one\r\nway; the eaves coming to within two feet of the ground. And here was a\r\nsimple apparatus to collect the dews, or rather doubly-distilled and\r\nfinest winnowed rains, which, in mercy or in mockery, the night-skies\r\nsometimes drop upon these blighted Encantadas. All along beneath the\r\neaves, a spotted sheet, quite weather-stained, was spread, pinned to\r\nshort, upright stakes, set in the shallow sand. A small clinker, thrown\r\ninto the cloth, weighed its middle down, thereby straining all moisture\r\ninto a calabash placed below. This vessel supplied each drop of water\r\never drunk upon the isle by the Cholos. Hunilla told us the calabash,\r\nwould sometimes, but not often, be half filled overnight. It held six\r\nquarts, perhaps. “But,” said she, “we were used to thirst. At sandy\r\nPayta, where I live, no shower from heaven ever fell; all the water\r\nthere is brought on mules from the inland vales.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJKV9Q5HYKXE3Z1AK9FFY","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT0BD0FDZCH5RZMNNJDP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT08WXXWPBQCS5ARD7FT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.395Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.638Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}