"
"You said that you had communication with Europe?"
"We have occasionally visits perforce, from those who are cast away in
ships or boats; but the people who come here, have never returned. The
difficulty of leaving the island is very great: and we flatter
ourselves, that few who have remained any time with us, have ever felt
the desire."
"What--not to leave a barren rock, without even a blade of grass upon
it."
"Happiness," replied my conductor, "does not consist in the variety of
your possessions, but in being contented with what you have"--and he
commenced the descent of the hill.
I followed him in a melancholy mood, for I could imagine little comfort
in such a sterile spot.
"I am not a native of this island," observed he, as we walked along; "it
is more than four hundred years since it was first inhabited, by the
crew of a French vessel, which was lost in the Northern Ocean. But I do
not wish to leave it. I was cast on it in a whale boat, when separated
from the ship in a snow-storm, about twenty-five years ago. I am now a
married man, with a family, and am considered one of the wealthiest
inhabitants of the island, for I possess between forty and fifty
whales."
"Whales!" exclaimed I, with astonishment.
"Yes," replied my conductor, "whales, which are the staple of this
island, and without them we should not be so prosperous and so happy as
we are. But you have much to see and learn; you will by-and-bye
acknowledge that there is nothing existing in the world, which, from
necessity and by perseverance, man cannot subject to his use.
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