class="x-ebookmaker-pageno" title="[Pg 28]"/> him alone of the whole ship's crew, King Pippin began to consider in what manner he should spend the night, which now drew on apace. Not knowing but there might be wild beasts on the island, he was for some time at a loss how to secure himself, till recollecting he had read, that Robinson Crusoe, when he was cast away on an uninhabited island, had spent the night on the top of a thick tree, he had recourse to the same method, and after the great fatigue he had undergone, slept very soundly till morning, when he descended from his new lodging, and walked several miles about the island, to discover if it was inhabited, but not being able to find the least traces of any human creature, he returned towards the sea-side, in hopes that some of the ship's provisions might be driven on shore; in this too, however, he was disappointed, and hunger obliged him to set about inventing a snare for taking some of the goats, of which he had seen great numbers in his morning walk, but they were so exceeding wild, that it proved a very laborious task, and employed the greatest part of King Pippin's time during his stay on the island; indeed he was sometimes so unsuccessful, that a few vegetables alone were his only sustenance for days together. Some months after he had been cast away on this solitary place, being one day greatly fatigued, by a fruitless pursuit of some of these goats, he sat himself down on the side of a hill, and looking with desponding eyes towards the sea, he flattered himself that he saw something like a sail at a great distance; after gazing attentively for several hours, without once suffering his attention to be diverted from the wished for object, he was at last, to his unspeakable joy, convinced that it was a ship, and that she was making directly for the land: about five o'clock in the evening, they came to anchor at a small distance from the shore, and having hoisted out their boat, rowed directly into a little creek near the edge of a wood, where King Pippin, having descended from the hill, had concealed himself: as soon as they had landed, perceiving as well by their dress as their language, that they were his countrymen, he discovered himself to them, and was received with the greatest kindness and humanity; and to add to the happiness of his delivery, he found upon enquiry, that they were going to the same island for which he had been originally bound, but had been driven so far out of their course by a violent storm which they had encountered a few days before. Having repaired their vessel, and procured such refreshments as the place afforded, in about a week they again set sail, and arrived at their destined port without any farther accident.

Immediately upon their arrival, King Pippin took upon him the care of Sir William Worthy's estate, and adopted such prudent regulations in the management of it, as rendered it in a few years almost double in its value; in return for which care and assiduity, he was taken into partnership by Sir William. This good fortune, however, did not fill his mind with that pride and ostentation too frequently attendant on success in life; King Pippin still continued the same engaging respect to his acquaintance, and the same courteous affability to his inferiors, which had marked his character in every sphere of life, nor did it pass unrewarded; for the governor of the island falling a sacrifice to those pestilential diseases which are common to hot climates, the inhabitants unanimously joined in a petition to the King requesting him to appoint King Pippin his successor to the government, recommending him as a person, endowed with every qualification requisite to the happiness of his subjects. Though virtue is generally a poor recommendation at court, in this instance it succeeded, and King Pippin was immediately appointed to the government of the island.