I read:
_Fellow Adventurers and Mariners in Distress:_
By this time there may be naught left of you but a whitening
huddle of bones, surf bleached on the end of Wecanicut,--for
I know well what meager fare are eiligugs' eggs and barnacles.
However, I take the chance of finding at least one of you
alive, and address you fraternally as a companion in distress.
I am myself stranded on a cheerless island where, against my
will, I am kept captive--for how long a time I cannot guess.
I was brought here at night, only forty-eight hours ago, and
landed from a vessel which almost immediately departed whence
it had come, into the darkness. My captors left me to go with
the vessel, the chief of them threatening to return every week
to torment me unless I obeyed his slightest command. I stand in
great fear of this man, who is tall and bearded, for he brings
with him instruments of torture and bottles containing, without
doubt, poison.
Can you imagine my joy when, tottering down the beach this
morning, supporting my frame upon two sticks, I beheld your bottle
cast up on the sands? Now, thought I, I can unburden myself to
these three unfortunate men, obviously in even greater distress
than my own, and we can, perhaps, ease each other's monotonous
maroonity. Scholars, too, I perceive you to be,--witness the
Latin following your signatures.
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