CHAPTER XXVIII

Flax, and the Rainy Season

Francis for a short time was highly amused with his sword-leaves, and then, like all children, who are soon tired of their toys, he grew weary of them, and they were thrown aside. Fritz picked up some of them that were quite soft and withered; holding up one which was pliable as a riband in his hand, “Francis,” said he, “you can make whips of your sword-grass, and they will be of use in driving your goats and sheep.” It had been lately decided that it should be the business of Francis to lead these to pasture. Fritz accordingly sat down to help him to divide the leaves, and afterwards plait them into whipcords. As they were working, I saw with pleasure the flexibility and strength of the bands: I examined them more closely, and found they were composed of long fibres, or filaments; and this discovery led me to surmise that this supposed sword-grass might be a very different thing, and not improbably the flax plant of New Zealand. This was a valuable discovery in our situation: I knew how much my wife wished for the production, and that it was the article she felt the most the want of; I therefore hastened to communicate the intelligence to her, and she expressed the liveliest joy. “This,” said she, “is the most useful thing you have found; lose not a moment in searching for more of these leaves, and bring me the most you can of them; I will make you stockings, shirts, clothes, thread, ropes;—in short, give me flax, looms, and frames, and I shall be at no loss in the employment of it.” I could not help smiling at the scope she gave to her imagination on the bare mention of flax, though so much was to be done between the gathering the leaves and having the cloth she was already sewing in idea. Fritz whispered a word in Jack’s ear; both went to the stable, and, without asking my leave, one mounted Lightfoot, the other the buffalo, and galloped off towards the wood, so fast that I had no time to call them back: they were already out of sight. Their eagerness to oblige their mother in this instance pleaded their forgiveness, and I suffered them to go on without following them, purposing to proceed and bring them back if they did not soon return.

In a quarter of an hour our deserters came back; like true hussars, they had foraged the woods, and heavily loaded their cattle with the precious plant, which they threw at their mother’s feet with joyful shouts. It was next proposed that all should assist her in preparations for the work she was to engage in, and previously in steeping the flax.

Next morning the ass was put to the small light car, loaded with bundles of leaves; Francis and the monkey sat on them, and the remainder of the family gaily followed with shovels and pickaxes. We stopped at Flamingo Marsh, divided our large bundles into smaller, which we placed in the water, pressing them down with stones, and leaving them in this state till it was time to remove and set them in the sun to dry, and thus render the stems soft and easy to peel.

In a fortnight we took the flax out of the water, and spread it on the grass in the sun, where it dried so rapidly that we were able to load it on our cart the same evening, and carry it to Falcon’s Stream, where it was put by till we had time to make the beetles, wheels, reels, carding-combs, etc., required by our chief for the manufacture. It was thought best to reserve this task for the rainy season, and to employ the present time in collecting a competent stock of provisions for ourselves and for all the animals. Occasional slight showers, the harbingers of winter, had already come on; the temperature, which hitherto had been warm and serene, became gloomy and variable; the sky was often darkened with clouds, the stormy winds were heard, and warned us to avail ourselves of the favorable moment to get all that might be wanted ready.

Our first care was to dig up a full supply of yams and other roots for bread, with plenty of cocoa-nuts and some bags of sweet acorns. It occurred to us, while digging, that, the ground being thus opened and manured with the leaves of plants, we might sow in it to advantage the remainder of our European corn. Notwithstanding all the delicacies this stranger land afforded us, the force of habit still caused us to long for the bread we had been fed with from childhood. We had not yet laid ourselves out for regular tillage, and I was inclined to attempt the construction of a plough of some sort as soon as we had a sufficient stock of corn for sowing. For this time, therefore, we committed it to the earth with little preparation: the season, however, was proper for sowing and planting, as the ensuing rain would moisten and swell the embryo grain, which otherwise would perish in an arid burning soil. We accordingly expedited the planting of the various palm-trees we had discovered in our excursions at Tent House, carefully selecting the smallest and the youngest. In the environs we formed a large handsome plantation of sugar-canes, so as to have hereafter everything useful and agreeable around us, and thus be dispensed from the usual toil and loss of time in procuring them.

Unfortunately, the weather changed sooner than we had expected, and than, with all our care, we could be prepared for: before we had completed our winter establishment, the rain fell in such heavy torrents that I could not refrain from painful apprehension in surmising how we should resist such a body of water, that seemed to change the whole face of the country into a lake.

The first thing to be done was to remove our aërial abode, and to fix our residence at the bottom of the tree, between the roots and under the tarred roof I had erected: for it was no longer possible to remain above, on account of the furious winds that threatened to bear us away, and deluged our beds with rain through the large opening in front, our only protection here being a piece of sail-cloth, which was soon dripping wet and rent to pieces. In this condition we were forced to take down our hammocks, mattresses, and every article that could be injured by the rain; and most fortunate did we deem ourselves in having made the winding stairs, which sheltered us during the operation of the removal. The stairs served afterwards for a kind of lumber-room; we kept all in it we could dispense with, and most of our culinary vessels, which my wife fetched as she happened to want them. Our little sheds between the roots, constructed for the poultry and the cattle, could scarcely contain us all; and the first days we passed in this manner were painfully embarrassing, crowded all together, and hardly able to move in these almost dark recesses, which the fœtid smell from the close adjoining animals rendered almost insupportable: in addition, we were half stifled with smoke whenever we kindled a fire, and drenched with rain when we opened the doors. For the first time since our disaster, we sighed for the comfortable houses of our dear country:—but what was to be done? We were not there, and losing our courage and our temper would only increase the evil. I strove to raise the spirits of my companions, and obviate some of the inconveniences. We confined our live stock to a smaller number, and gave them a freer current of air, dismissing from the stalls those animals that, from their properties, and being natives of the country, would be at no loss in providing for themselves. That we might not lose them altogether, we tied bells round their necks; Fritz and I sought and drove them in every evening when they did not spontaneously return.

As to the smoke, our only remedy was to open the door when we made a fire; and we did without fire as much as we could, living on milk and cheese, and never making one but to bake our cakes: we then used the occasion to boil a quantity of our favourite roots and salt meat enough to last us a number of days. Our dry wood was also nearly expended, and we thanked Heaven the weather was not very cold; for had this been the case, our other trials would have much increased. A more serious concern was our not having provided sufficient hay and leaves for our European cattle, which we kept housed to avoid losing them. The cow, the ass, the sheep, and the goats, the two last of which were increased in number, required a large quantity of provender, so that we were ere long forced to give them our tuberous roots and sweet acorns, which, by the bye, they found very palatable, and we remarked that they imparted a delicate flavour to their milk; the cow, the goats, and even the sheep, amply supplied us with that precious article. Milking, cleaning the animals, and preparing their food, occupied us most of the morning, after which we were usually employed in making flour of the manioc root, with which we filled the large gourds, previously placed in rows. The gloom of the atmosphere and our low windowless habitation sensibly abridged our daylight; fortunately we had laid in a huge store of candles, and felt no want of that article. When darkness obliged us to light up, we got round the table, where a large taper fixed on a gourd gave us an excellent light, which enabled my wife to pursue her occupation with the needle, while I on my part was forming a journal, and recording what the reader has perused of the narrative of our shipwreck and residence in this island, assisted from time to time by my sons and their admirable mother, who did not cease to remind me of various incidents belonging to the story. To Ernest, who wrote a fine hand, was entrusted the care of writing off my pages in a clear legible character; Fritz and Jack amused themselves by drawing from memory the plants and animals which had most struck their observation; while one and all contributed to teach little Francis to read and write. We concluded the day with a devotional reading in the Holy Bible, performed by each in turn, and we then retired to rest, happy in ourselves and in the innocent and peaceful course of our existence.

It was unanimously resolved on, however, that we would not pass another rainy season exposed to the same evils; even my gentle-tempered and most beloved consort was a little ruffled now and then with our inconvenient situation, and insisted more than any of us on the plan of building elsewhere a more spacious winter residence; she wished, however, to return to our castle in the tree every summer, and we all joined with her in that desire. The choice of a fresh abode now engrossed our attention, and Fritz in the midst of consultation came forward triumphantly with a book he had found in the bottom of our clothes chest. “Here,” said he, “is our best counsellor and model, Robinson Crusoe; since Heaven has destined us to a similar fate, whom better can we consult? As far as I remember, he cut himself a habitation out of the solid rock: let us see how he proceeded; we will do the same, and with greater ease, for he was alone; we are six in number, and four of us able to work.” This idea of Fritz was hailed by all. We assembled, and read the famous history with an ardent interest; it seemed, though so familiar, quite new to us; we entered earnestly into every detail, and derived considerable information from it, and never failed to feel lively gratitude towards God, who had rescued us all together, and not permitted one only of us to be cast, a solitary being, on the island.

Francis expressed his wish to have a Man Friday; Fritz thought it better to be without such a companion, and to have no savages to contend with. Jack was for the savages, warfare, and encounters. The final result of our deliberations was to go and survey the rocks round Tent House, and to examine whether any of them could be excavated for our purpose.

Our last job for the winter, undertaken at my wife’s solicitation, was a beetle for her flax, and some carding combs. I filed large nails till they were even, round, and pointed; I fixed them at equal distances in a sheet of tin, and raised the side of it like a box; I then poured melted lead between the nails and the sides to give firmness to their points, which came out four inches. I nailed this tin on a board, and the machine was fit to work. My wife was impatient to use it; and the drying, peeling, and spinning her flax, became from this time a source of inexhaustible delight.