I must have developed fever in my slumber, for I have no clear recollections of the next few days.

I vaguely recall roaming like a demented being among those solitudes in search of water, and finding a boiling spring.

The water, when cooled, was drinkable.

I suppose that saved my life.

For food, there was shell-fish and mutton-bird eggs, with no lack of boiling water to cook them.
"I lived there so long that I forgot the flight of time.