I had left the shore at Queensferry with near on fifty pounds ; now I found no more than two guinea-pieces and a silver shilling . It is true I picked up a third guinea a little after , where it lay shining on a piece of turf . That made a fortune of three pounds and four shillings , English money , for a lad , the rightful heir of an estate , and now starving on an isle at the extreme end of the wild Highlands . This state of my affairs dashed me still further ; and , indeed my plight on that third morning was truly pitiful . My clothes were beginning to rot ; my stockings in particular were quite worn through , so that my shanks went naked ; my hands had grown quite soft with the continual soaking ; my throat was very sore , my strength had much abated , and my heart so turned against the horrid stuff I was condemned to eat , that the very sight of it came near to sicken me . And yet the worst was not yet come . There is a pretty high rock on the northwest of Earraid , which -LRB- because it had a flat top and overlooked the Sound -RRB- I was much in the habit of frequenting ; not that ever I stayed in one place , save when asleep , my misery giving me no rest . Indeed , I wore myself down with continual and aimless goings and comings in the rain . As soon , however , as the sun came out , I lay down on the top of that rock to dry myself . The comfort of the sunshine is a thing I can not tell . It set me thinking hopefully of my deliverance , of which I had begun to despair ; and I scanned the sea and the Ross with a fresh interest . On the south of my rock , a part of the island jutted out and hid the open ocean , so that a boat could thus come quite near me upon that side , and I be none the wiser . Well , all of a sudden , a coble with a brown sail and a pair of fishers aboard of it , came flying round that corner of the isle , bound for Iona . I shouted out , and then fell on my knees on the rock and reached up my hands and prayed to them . They were near enough to hear -- I could even see the colour of their hair ; and there was no doubt but they observed me , for they cried out in the Gaelic tongue , and laughed . But the boat never turned aside , and flew on , right before my eyes , for Iona . I could not believe such wickedness , and ran along the shore from rock to rock , crying on them piteously even after they were out of reach of my voice , I still cried and waved to them ; and when they were quite gone , I thought my heart would have burst . All the time of my troubles I wept only twice . Once , when I could not reach the yard , and now , the second time , when these fishers turned a deaf ear to my cries . But this time I wept and roared like a wicked child , tearing up the turf with my nails , and grinding my face in the earth .
If a wish would kill men , those two fishers would never have seen XXXXX , and I should likely have died upon my island .
English Iona Ross guinea-pieces left morning pounds right shanks third