Karel Čapek

“ While they were sailing in the open sea, a gale overtook them, and their ship was tossed about on the waves like a cork, without direction or guidance. For three days the gale increased, and raged with unabated fury, and on the third night the ship foundered on a coral reef. Amid the most appalling noise Dom Luiz felt himself lifted high and pitched down again ”

“ He began to taste the sweetness of this island, and it seemed to him an isle of love. Sometimes the savages would seek him; they held him in high esteem. When they crouched round him they looked like fattened geese; they were tattooed, and some of them were very old; they brought him food and cared for him. When the time of the rains came, Dom Luiz went to live in the woman’s hut. Thus he lived among the savages and was naked like them ”

“ At last the old officer got up and said: ‘Boys, we will have a look at this island which we have discovered, and we will all return before sundown and set sail. We will start to-night on our return journey under God’s protection. But you,’ he turned to Luiz, ‘if you should possess anything in this place which you would like to take with you, as a remembrance, bring it hither and await our return at sunset.’
The sailors dispersed along the shore, and Dom Luiz turned towards the woman’s hut. The nearer he drew, the more he hesitated ”

“ Then the precious gift of speech will return to you, for man’s greatest possession is that he can talk, and communicate to others what has happened to him and what his feclings are.’
While the officer thus spoke, a young sailor began to sing a lovely song. He sang of a man who sails across the sea, while his sweetheart entreats the sea, the winds and the heavens to send him back to her. ”