The Piazza Tales Chapter 5 - The Encantadas - Sketch Ninth. Hood's Isle and the Hermit Oberlus.

In which a solitary and savage spirit, Oberlus, asserts an autocratic dominion over a deserted isle, wielding crude arms and a fierce will against both nature and shipwrecked strangers; his savage sovereignty grows through cunning cruelty and the subjugation of hapless men, shaped by a desolate solitude and a capacity for degradation surpassing even the brutes among whom he dwells. This grim tale unfolds as visitations by seafaring men bring unwelcome encounters and reveal a sombre portrait of tyranny bred in isolation, where human baseness and ambition alike are laid bare upon a volcanic stage.