Chapter 12, The Island of Despair As soon as I was able to stand, I looked around.
Where were all my shipmates?
Were they all lost?
Was I the only one to survive?
Very soon, the real truth of my situation came to light.
All I could find of them was one cap, three hats, and two shoes.
No, I howled.
Say it isn't so.
I can't be the only one to survive.
There was little hope for me now.
I had no idea of my location.
I had no dry clothes, no drinking water and nothing to use to hunt for food.
I might not have drowned like the rest of my poor sailors, but my hope for survival was slim.
Only thing I had in my pocket was a small knife.
What good would one knife do me in a strange place with no shelter and no food?
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
My situation was hopeless.
Night was falling.
I needed to find shelter.
There were a number of trees just beyond the beach area.
It didn't take me long to find one that looked like it would be a good place to hide for the night.
I climbed up and found a comfortable branch.
The traumatic situation must have tired me right out because I actually got a little bit of sleep.
The sun shone brightly the next morning.
The sea was calm and the storm had stopped.
Despite the weather turning favorable, neither my spirits nor my situation was much improved.
I climbed down from my perch and made my way back to the beach.
Oh, my goodness!
I exclaimed.
The ship was stuck on some rocks about a league away from where I washed up.
It wasn't destroyed.
If we had only stayed on board, we would have all been saved.
But I couldn't think about that now.
Now, I thought, that's hopeful.
All I have to do is figure out how to get to the supplies.
I may have a chance of survival yet.
I waited for the tide to go out.
The water was now almost shallow enough for me to walk out to the ship.
I pulled off most of my clothes to keep them dry.
The water scared me but I needed to get to the ship.
I swallowed my fears and started walking.
When the water grew too deep I swam the rest of the way.
There was a rope hanging down off the side of the boat that I used to climb on board.
I took my time and looked around on the ship, which had landed almost entirely on one side.
The hold was full of water.
Half of it was completely wet, while the other remained quite dry.
Luckily, the dry half contained a lot of the supplies.
I climbed down into the bread room and quickly ate some biscuits.
Once my stomach stopped growling, I started gathering things I knew I would need.
I used whatever spare wood and rope I could find to build a small raft to get the supplies from the ship back to shore.
After testing it out a couple of times, it was fit to use for even the heaviest of objects.
First, I rescued the dog we had on board.
It was a miracle he survived the storm at all.
Many of the sailors' personal items were damaged by water, so I decided to use their chests to store and gather my food.
There was bread, rice, cheeses, goat meat, and a little bit of European corn.
Rats had spoiled the wheat.
I was disappointed by that, but there wasn't anything I could do about it now.
I thought, I hope the sea stays calm long enough for me to get back.
No more dilly-dallying.
I found clothes, a carpenter's chest, and some weapons.
That's enough for today, I decided.
It's time to go.
With two broken oars I found on board, I rowed myself to shore.
The rocks in front of the beach where I landed yesterday were too dangerous.
In order to land my raft safely, I needed to find a small stream or river.
There must be one nearby, I reasoned, so I rowed out and away from the beach.
The sea was still calm, thankfully.
The wind blew in my favor, but I knew these sorts of things could change in an instant.
The sea rocked the raft back and forth.
I used my legs to hold on tightly to my cargo.
The dog barked.
I couldn't bear to lose a single thing, so I tried to be very, very careful.
I rowed around until i found a river, and then it took a couple of hours to find a good place to land.
Once i had pulled all my stuff ashore, i secured the raft so i could use it to-morrow.
The next important step was finding somewhere safe to store everything.
The dog jumped off the raft almost immediately.
He started exploring and smelled everything in sight.
I armed myself with a pistol and some powder.
My aim was to find a bit of shelter, something more comfortable than a tree.
I noticed a small hill in the distance, about a mile away.
Maybe I could see better from up there.
With the dog in tow, I started off in that direction.
Well, I said to him, you're going to need a name if we're going to be friends.
What should I call you?
He barked an answer and I laughed for the first time in two days.
I know I'll call you Shippy because I saved you from the ship.
We walked for a while and it got quite hot.
When I got to the top of the hill, I saw that I was on an island.
There were no other people around, well, none that I could see anyway.
There were lots of beautiful birds, but I didn't recognize any particular species.
After surveying the island quickly, I walked back down to the raft.
I unpacked and organized my supplies.
Much to my surprise, that took me the rest of the day.
I ate some more biscuits and then made a kind of hut with the seed chests.
I didn't want to get eaten by any animals at night.
