"There isn't the slightest chance that the ship we're now standing
on will ever float again. Even if the engines could be put
in order,--and that is possible, I am told,--the vessel cannot be
raised. If anybody has been nursing that sort of hope, he may as
well get rid of it. It's no good. We are here to stay, unless help
comes from the outside. There's the plain English of it. We may
have to live here on this island, like poor old Robinson Crusoe,
for years,--for a great many years. I'm going to stop just a few
seconds to let that soak into your brains. We've got to face it.
We've got to make the best of it. It is not for Captain Trigger or
me or any one else to say that we will not be taken off this island
some time--maybe sooner than we think. Whaling vessels must visit
these parts. That's neither here nor there. We've got our work
cut out for us, friends. We've got to think of the present and let
the future take care of itself. Now, here are the facts. We cannot
remain on board this wreck. We've got to go to work, every man,
woman and child of us. I don't know what can be cultivated on this
island, but we've got to find out, and when we find out we've got
to begin raising it.
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