He had lost his ship on what he was pleased to call an unknown island in the Pacific.

He applied the word "unknown" for the only reason that I could understand, that he did not know it was there until his ship struck on it.

He regarded killing a whale as the highest object a man had to live for, and had no very high respect for the mariner who had never "looked round Cape Horn," or engaged a whale in mortal combat.

He was on his way home to report the loss of his ship to his owners.

An act of kindness, and finding that I knew something of the sea, and could sympathize with a sailor in misfortune, made us firm friends to the end of our journey.
To this odd little man, then, I am indebted for the story of the old pirate of "No Man's Island," and what took place in "Dunman's Cave;" for it was in just such a place, according to his own account, that he lost his ship.