With his help I rose and went to it. Now none could know that it had
been a boat. Still, the _balsa_ it was and nothing else, and tied in its
tangled mass still remained those things which we had brought with us,
such as my black bow and armour, though all the jars were broken.
"It has borne us well, but will never bear us again," I said.
"That is so, Master. But if we were in my own country yonder I would set
its fragments in a case of gold and place them in the Temple of the Sun
as a memorial."
Then we went to a pool of rainwater that lay in a hollow rock near by,
and drank our fill, for we were very thirsty. Also among the ruins of
the _balsa_ we found some of the dried fish that was left to us, and
having washed it, filled ourselves. After this we limped to the crest of
the land behind and perceived that we were on a little island, perhaps
two hundred English acres in extent, whereon nothing grew except some
coarse grass. This island, however, was the haunt of great numbers of
seafowl which nested there, also of the turtles that I have mentioned,
and of certain beasts like seals or otters.
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