{"id":"01KG8AKTNAJJTQ9RG7AVWB1N0K","cid":"bafkreichr47gjuszasl3wwpzl2f6l6wjae35w74yvtl7gxu2y3dx67ftbq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7899,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.027Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":7831,"text":"strangest satiric effrontery which does not adequately appear in\r\nPorter’s version. I accordingly altered it to suit the general\r\ncharacter of its author.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSKETCH TENTH.\r\nRUNAWAYS, CASTAWAYS, SOLITARIES, GRAVE-STONES, ETC.\r\n\r\n“And all about old stocks and stubs of trees,\r\n    Whereon nor fruit nor leaf was ever seen,\r\nDid hang upon ragged knotty knees,\r\n    On which had many wretches hanged been.”\r\n\r\n\r\nSome relics of the hut of Oberlus partially remain to this day at the\r\nhead of the clinkered valley. Nor does the stranger, wandering among\r\nother of the Enchanted Isles, fail to stumble upon still other solitary\r\nabodes, long abandoned to the tortoise and the lizard. Probably few\r\nparts of earth have, in modern times, sheltered so many solitaries. The\r\nreason is, that these isles are situated in a distant sea, and the\r\nvessels which occasionally visit them are mostly all whalers, or ships\r\nbound on dreary and protracted voyages, exempting them in a good degree\r\nfrom both the oversight and the memory of human law. Such is the\r\ncharacter of some commanders and some seamen, that under these untoward\r\ncircumstances, it is quite impossible but that scenes of unpleasantness\r\nand discord should occur between them. A sullen hatred of the tyrannic\r\nship will seize the sailor, and he gladly exchanges it for isles,\r\nwhich, though blighted as by a continual sirocco and burning breeze,\r\nstill offer him, in their labyrinthine interior, a retreat beyond the\r\npossibility of capture. To flee the ship in any Peruvian or Chilian\r\nport, even the smallest and most rustical, is not unattended with great\r\nrisk of apprehension, not to speak of jaguars. A reward of five pesos\r\nsends fifty dastardly Spaniards into the wood, who, with long knives,\r\nscour them day and night in eager hopes of securing their prey. Neither\r\nis it, in general, much easier to escape pursuit at the isles of\r\nPolynesia. Those of them which have felt a civilizing influence present\r\nthe same difficulty to the runaway with the Peruvian ports, the\r\nadvanced natives being quite as mercenary and keen of knife and scent\r\nas the retrograde Spaniards; while, owing to the bad odor in which all\r\nEuropeans lie, in the minds of aboriginal savages who have chanced to\r\nhear aught of them, to desert the ship among primitive Polynesians, is,\r\nin most cases, a hope not unforlorn. Hence the Enchanted Isles become\r\nthe voluntary tarrying places of all sorts of refugees; some of whom\r\ntoo sadly experience the fact, that flight from tyranny does not of\r\nitself insure a safe asylum, far less a happy home.\r\n\r\nMoreover, it has not seldom happened that hermits have been made upon\r\nthe isles by the accidents incident to tortoise-hunting. The interior\r\nof most of them is tangled and difficult of passage beyond description;\r\nthe air is sultry and stifling; an intolerable thirst is provoked, for\r\nwhich no running stream offers its kind relief. In a few hours, under\r\nan equatorial sun, reduced by these causes to entire exhaustion, woe\r\nbetide the straggler at the Enchanted Isles! Their extent is such as to\r\nforbid an adequate search, unless weeks are devoted to it. The\r\nimpatient ship waits a day or two; when, the missing man remaining\r\nundiscovered, up goes a stake on the beach, with a letter of regret,\r\nand a keg of crackers and another of water tied to it, and away sails\r\nthe craft.\r\n\r\nNor 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","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJKV9S8QCE0A5FDTFG52X","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT0F3TC7G9K6FBWZYEG4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTNAV1NE5XT639414HHB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.066Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.935Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}