He, however, taught Charley a much longer prayer than this, suitable, as he considered, to his condition.
The rough sailor and the child having finished their devotions, lay down on their beds, and, fearless of evil, fell asleep.
Next day after breakfast Dick, leading Charley by one hand and taking his gun in the other, set out to explore the island. On reaching the top of the nearest height, which was of no great elevation, being a mass of barren rock thrown up by some convulsion of nature, he looked around him. The island was of small size, a couple of miles perhaps in length and about a quarter as broad, with deep indentations, bays, or small gulfs. The larger portion was barren, but here and there were spots overgrown with the richest vegetation of the tropics. The shores were rocky, but in no part high, while around in every direction were seen extensive reefs, some rising above the water, others only to be distinguished by the line of foam which danced above them.
“From the look of the place, ships are likely to give this a wide berth,” observed Dick. “However, we can manage to live here pretty comfortably, and may be some day or other we shall get off again, but how, is more than I can tell.”
On descending from the hill they reached a cocoa-nut grove. Dick looked up at the nuts, now almost ripe, with a well-satisfied eye.
“We will have some of those before long, and the milk will be good food for you, Charley,” he observed. “Ah, and we shall have some cabbages, too.” He pointed to some smaller palm-trees, the crown of which yields the cabbage, so prized in the tropics as one of the most delicious vegetables.
Sometimes Dick carried Charley on his shoulders, sometimes he let him run alongside him, and he thus made his progress to the farther end of the island. One part appeared very barren, low, and sandy, with wild rocks rising up on either side.
“After all, this place may be our best hunting-ground,” observed Dick, on discovering that it was the habitation of wild fowl, who came there to lay their eggs and rear their young.
At length he reached the extreme end of the island. Near it was a grove of cocoa-nut and other palms, a beautiful sandy bay, and what Dick was in search of, a spring of clear water which bubbled out of the rock.
“We shall be better off here, and out of the way of those gentry if they return to the island, and I don’t think they will come so far to look for us,” said Dick. “We will move up the stores, and after that I will build a hut; it will be more comfortable than the tent, especially in the hurricane season, and we can’t tell how long we may have to stop.”