A few weeks later, some more humans came, and this time they did take me away. I was afraid they would take me away, but they didn’t. It was in 1971 that some scientists came to the island. Many years went by and I filled my time as best I knew how: I ate cactus pads and other vegetation, I lounged in the shade or in the mud (when I could find some: Pinta is very dry) and I looked around the island for my friends and family, always with no luck. I explored the island but it was as I had feared: I was alone. One day, a ship came and took the last of my fellow tortoises. We hated them because they were so quick and nimble: there was no way we could ever beat them to a tasty snack. It didn’t help that the goats were there: I remember seeing them for the first time, hairy beasts that ate all of our food. It seems every day there were fewer and fewer of my friends left. I didn’t know why they did, but I suspected that it was for no good reason, so I always hid in the shade when they came. Humans came to the island from time to time, and they often carried off my friends and family with them. I was frightened of no animal, really: once I was safe from the hawks, there were no more predators I had to fear…or so I thought. When I was little, I had to keep one eye open for the hawks that circled far above, but once I was a little bigger and my shell was strong I feared them no more. My friends were swallow-tailed gulls, lava lizards and my fellow tortoises: if I went down to the water I could see the sea lions playing in the water and the marine iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks. I grew up on Pinta, northernmost of the Galapagos Islands, far away from people.
0 kommentar(er)
