"But, he might just as well have left him at Providence, for all the good the voyage has done him!" "Well, he has spoilt our sealing, as he said he would," observed Eric after a bit, when they were rounding the western promontory of their own little bay, and their cottage home was just in sight.
"Only to-day, or, at the worst, for but a short time longer," replied Fritz.

"The islanders will not stay for any period after they've filled their boat; and, of course, he will return with them to Tristan.

He's too lazy to stop here and shift for himself, although he would have been glad to sponge upon us." "Joy go with him when he leaves!" cried Eric heartily on the keel of their whale-boat touching the beach, when they then proceeded to draw her up on the shingle and take all their traps and gear out of her.
They did this in case their American friend might persuade the islanders to come round to the bay and make a raid on their property, so as to prevent them from interfering with their sealing--that being the only grievance which they could possibly have against them.
However, as next morning, the whale-boat lay intact where they had left her, their suspicions of the Tristaners' bad faith proved to be quite unfounded.
Still, the brothers were glad to find, from Eric's observations on the tableland, whence he kept a constant watch on the visitors' movements, that, after a ten days' stay they left the little island once more to them alone; although, as they also discovered to their grief a short time after their departure, the Tristaners took away with them the greater number of the goats on the plateau, or else killed them for their sustenance whilst they remained.
This was a sad discovery.

The islanders were quite welcome to the pigs, thought the brother crusoes; but the flesh of the goats was so delicate and needful besides, as a change of diet to their ordinary salt provision, that any diminution of their numbers was a serious loss to them.
It was not until a week at least after the Tristaners had left, that Eric reported the presence of seals again on the west beach, where, probably, the fact of the islanders camping on the spot had quite as much to do with scaring away the timid creatures from the coast as the warfare waged upon them.

Fortunately, however, the poor animals had an affection for the place; for, having now observed, no doubt from some of their number sent out as scouts, that their enemies had departed, they once more returned to the rock caverns they had before frequented.
"There are some of those `elephants,' as you call them, amongst them, too," said Eric when he came down the cliff with the news to Fritz.
"There are a great many more than I saw last time." "Ah, we must try and catch some of the gentlemen this trip," remarked Fritz.