Island of the Blue Dolphins

Summer is the best time on the Island of Blue Dolphins. The sun is warm then and the winds blow milder.

It was during these days that the ship might return and now I spent most of my time on the rock, looking out from the high headland into the east, towards the country where my people had gone, across the sea that was never-ending.

Once while I watched I saw a small object which I took to be the ship, but a stream of water rose from it and I knew that it was a whale spouting. During those summer days I saw nothing else.

The first storm of winter ended my hopes. If the white men’s ship were coming for me it would have come during the time of good weather. Now I would have to wait until winter was gone, maybe longer.

The thought of being alone on the island while so many suns rose from the sea and went slowly back into the sea gilled my heart with loneliness. I had been sure that the ship would return. Now my hopes were dead. Now I was really alone. I could not eat much, nor could I sleep without dreaming terrible dreams.

The storm blew out of the north, sending big waves and strong winds against the island. I moved my bed to the foot of the rock and for protection kept a fire going throughout the night. I slept there five times. The first night the dogs came and stood outside the ring made by the fire. I killed three of them with arrows, and they did not come again.

On the sixth day, when the storm had ended, I went to the place where the canoes had been hidden. This part of the shore was sheltered from the wind and I found the canoes just as they had been left. The dried food was still good, but the water was stale, so I went back to the spring and filled a fresh basket.

I had decided during the days of the storm that I would take one of the canoes and go to the country that lay towards the east.

Yet I cannot say that I was really afraid as I stood there on the shore. I knew that my ancestors had crossed the sea in their canoes. I was not nearly so skilled with a canoe as these men, but what might befall me on the endless waters did not trouble me. It meant far less than the thought of staying on the island alone, without a home or companions, pursued by wild dogs.

I chose the smallest of the four canoes, which was still very heavy because it could carry six people. The task was to push it down to the rocky shore, a distance four or five times its length.

I first removed all the large rocks in front of the canoe. I then filled in all these holed with pebbles and along this path laid down long strips of seaweed, making a slippery bed. Once I got the canoe to move with its own weight, it slid down the path and into the water.

The sun was in the west when I left the shore. The sea was calm behind the high cliffs. Using the paddle I quickly skirted the south part of the island. As I reached the sandpit the wind struck. I was paddling from the back of the canoe because you can go faster kneeling there, but I could not handle it in the wind.

Kneeling in the middle of the canoe, I paddled hard and did not pause until I had gone through the tides that run fast round the sandpit. I was soon wet, but as I come out from behind the spit the spray lessened and the waves grew long and rolling.

At dusk the Island of the Blue Dolphins had disappeared. This was the first time that I felt afraid. There were only hills and valleys of water around me now.

Night fell and I drank from the basket. The water cooled my throat.

The sea was black and there was no difference between it and the sky. The waves made no sound, only faint noises as they went under the canoe or struck against it. Sometimes the noises seemed angry and at other times like people laughing. I was not hungry because of my fear.

The first star made me feel less afraid. It came out low in the sky, towards the east. Other starts began to appear all around, but it was this one I kept my gaze upon. It was in the figure that we call serpent, a star which shone green and which I knew. Now and then it was hidden by mist, yet it always came out brightly again.

Without this star I would have been lost, for the waves never changed. They came always from the same direction and kept pushing me away from the place I wanted to reach. But somehow I kept moving towards the star.

The wind grew quiet. Since it always died when the night was half over, I knew how long I had been travelling and how far away the dawn was.

The canoe was leaking. Before dark I had emptied one of the baskets and used it to dip out the water that came over the sides.

I stopped paddling and worked with the basket until the bottom of the canoe was almost dry. Then I found the place near the bow where water was seeping through a crack. It leaked whenever the canoe dipped forward in the waves. I tore a piece of fibre from my skirt and pressed it into the crack.

Dawn broke in a clear sky. There was no wind and the long waves went quietly under the canoe. I therefore moved faster than during the night.

I was very tired but more hopeful than I had been since I left the island. If the good weather did not change I would cover many leagues before dark. Another night and another day might bring me within sight of the shore towards which I was going.

Not long after dawn, while I was thinking of this strange place and what it would look like, the canoe began to leak again.

It was suddenly clear to me that it was dangerous to go on. The voyage would take two more days, perhaps longer. By turning back to the island I would not have nearly so far to travel.

The thought of turning back after all this labor was more than I could bear. Even greater was the thought of the deserted island I would return to, of living there alone and forgotten. For how many suns and how many moons?

The canoe drifted idly on the calm sea, but when I saw the water seeping through the crack again, I picked up the paddle. There was no choice except to turn back towards the island. I knew that only by the best of fortune would I ever reach it.

The wind did not blow until the sun was overhead. With the wind I went more slowly and had to stop more often because of the ware spilling over the sides, but the leak did not grow worse.

This was my first good fortune. The next was when a swarm of dolphins appeared. They came swimming out of the west, and began to follow me. They swam up slowly and so close that I could see their eyes, which are large and the color of the ocean. Then they swam on ahead of the canoe, crossing back and forth in front of it, diving in and out.

Dolphins are animals of good omen. It made me happy to have them swimming around the canoe and, though my hands had begun to bleed, just watching them made me forget pain. I was very lonely before they appeared, but now I felt that I had friends with me and did not feel the same.

The blue dolphins left me shortly before dusk. They left as quickly as they had come, going on into the west, but for a long time I could see the last of the sun shining on them. After night fell, I could still see them in my thoughts and it was because of this that I kept on paddling when I wanted to lie down and sleep.

More than anything, it was the blue dolphins that took me back home.

Fog came with the night, yet from time to time I could see the red star called Magat. The night was very long. I was more afraid than I had ever been. But the morning broke clear and in front of me lay the dim line of the island.

I reached it before the sun was high. My legs were stiff from kneeling and as the canoe struck the sand I fell when I rose to climb out. I crawled through the shallow water and up the beach. There I lay for a long time, hugging the sand in happiness. I was too tired to think of the wild dogs. Soon I fell asleep.