OR THE DESERT ISLAND. 158

barques, that took us on board, and towed the Achilles
along; and having a fair wind and a smooth sea, we
reached Rio Janeiro, where, as our ship was new and sound,
we had her refitted. But the Portuguese ship carpenters
are so lazy a race, that we have been here ever since.”

Every one was eager to question the two islanders, who
found it as much as they could do to answer one-tenth of
the interrogatories so rapidly propounded. In return, they —
inquired into all the particulars that had transpired on
board the Achilles, They were informed that the bodies
that had floated ashore, and which they had interred on
the island, were those of a party employed to manceuvre
the pinnace, who had been separated from the ship by the
roughness of the sea, and, struck by a wind, had been bu-
ried in the waves.