It was to this they had been sent, for this they had
stooped all night over the dripping oars, hourly moving
further from relief. The boat, for as small as it was,
was yet eloquent of the hands of men, a thing alone
indeed upon the sea, but yet in itself all human; and
the isle, for which they had exchanged it, was
ingloriously savage, a place of distress, solitude, and
hunger unrelieved. There was a strong glare and shadow
of the evening over all; in which they sat or lay, not
speaking, careless even to eat, men swindled out of
life and riches by a lying book. In the great good-
nature of the whole party, no word of reproach had been
addressed to Hadden, the author of these disasters.
But the new blow was less magnanimously borne, and many
angry glances rested on the captain.
Yet it was himself who roused them from their lethargy.
Grudgingly they obeyed, drew the boat beyond tidemark,
and followed him to the top of the miserable islet,
whence a view was commanded of the whole wheel of the
horizon, then part darkened under the coming night,
part dyed with the hues of the sunset, and populous
with the sunset clouds.
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