It was in this lagoon, by the way, that we
afterwards learned to take our wild duck, scores of which paddled
about quite tamely on its surface, their tameness promising poorly
for human hospitality on the farther side of the hill.
"We gained the side of the great cone at length and, rounding it,
beheld all the northern part of the island spread at our feet--in
form a narrow strip of land curving around a delicious bay and ending
in a small pinnacle of high tumbled cliff and wood. Quite obviously
this bay was the one anchorage in the island for any ship of burden;
and no ship could have asked for a better: for it made almost three
parts of a circle, and, while not completely land-locked, held
recesses in which any gale might be ridden out.
"Here, if anywhere, as I told Farrell, we should come upon human life
or the traces of it: here, if anywhere, if vessel ever made this
island, to water, she would drop hook. 'Fools we have been, to waste
months pitching camp on the other side, when this is the place of
places, and this hill gives the citadel prospect of all!'
"Farrell sat down on a rock and broke into curses.
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