CHAPTER XXXI

New Fishery—New Experiments—New Discoveries, and House

The enterprise of our dwelling went on, sometimes as a principal, sometimes as an intermediate occupation, according to the greater or less importance of other concerns; but though we advanced thus with moderate rapidity, the progress was such as to afford the hope of our being settled within it by the time of the rainy season.

From the moment I discovered gypsum to be the basis of the crystal salt in our grotto, I foresaw some great advantages I should derive from it; but to avoid enlarging the dimensions of our house by digging further, I tried to find a place in the continuation of the rock, which I might be able to blow up. I had soon the good fortune to meet with a narrow slip between the projections of the rock, which I could easily, by the means I proposed, convert into a passage that should terminate in our work-room. I found also on the ground a quantity of fragments of gypsum, and removed a great number of them to the kitchen, where we did not fail to bake a few of the pieces at a time when we made a fire for cooking, which, thus calcined, rubbed into a powder when cold; we obtained a considerable quantity of it, which I put carefully into casks for use when the time should come for finishing the interior of our dwelling. My notion was to form the walls, for separating the apartments, of the squares of stone I had already provided, and to unite them together with a cement of this new ingredient, which would be the means, both of sparing the timber, and increasing the beauty and solidity of the work.

One day as Jack and I were walking near the mouth of Jackal’s River, we perceived immense quantities of a large fish moving slowly towards the banks. As they came nearer, I distinguished the largest to resemble sturgeons, a fish found in higher latitudes, while the smallest I pronounced to be salmon. Jack now strutted about in ecstasies. “What say you now, father?” said he; “this is nothing like your little paltry fry! A single fish of this troop would fill a tub!”—“No doubt,” answered I; and with great gravity I added,—“Pr’ythee, Jack, step into the river, and fling them to me one by one, that I may take them home to salt and dry.”

He looked at me for a moment with a sort of vacant doubt if I could possibly be in earnest: then seizing suddenly a new idea—“Wait a moment, father,” cried he, “and I will do so”: and he sprang off like lightning towards the cavern, from whence he soon returned loaded with a bow and arrows, the bladders of the sea-dogs, and a ball of string, to catch, as he assured me, every one of the fishes. I looked on with interest and curiosity to mark what was next to happen, while the animation of his countenance, the promptitude and boyish gracefulness of his motions, and the firm determination of his manner, afforded me the highest amusement. He tied the bladders round at certain distances with a long piece of string, to the end of which he fastened an arrow and a small iron hook; he placed the large ball of string in a hole in the ground at a sufficient distance from the water’s edge, and then he shot off an arrow, which the next instant stuck in one of the largest fishes. My young sportsman uttered a shout of joy. At the same moment Fritz joined us, and witnessed this unexpected feat without the least symptom of jealousy. “Well done, brother Jack,” cried he; “but let me, too, have my turn.”—Saying this, he ran back and fetched the harpoon and the windlass, and returned to us accompanied by Ernest. We were well pleased with their opportune arrival, for the salmon Jack had pierced struggled so fiercely, that all our endeavours to hold the string were insufficient, and we dreaded at every throw to see it break, and the animal make good its escape. By degrees, however, its strength was exhausted, and, aided by Fritz and Ernest, we succeeded in drawing it to a bank, where I put an end to its existence.

This fortunate beginning of a plan for a fishery inspired us all with hope and emulation. Fritz eagerly seized his harpoon and windlass; I, for my part, like Neptune, wielded a trident; Ernest prepared the large fishing-rod; and Jack his arrow, with the same apparatus as before, not forgetting the bladders, which were so effectual in preventing the fish from sinking when struck. We were now more than ever sensible of our loss in the destruction of the tub-boat, with which we could have pursued the creatures in the water, and have been spared much pains and difficulty; but, on the other hand, such numbers of fishes presented themselves at the mouth of the river, that we had only to choose among them. Jack’s arrow, after missing twice, struck the third time a large sturgeon, which was so untractable, that we had great difficulty in securing him. I too had caught two of the same fish, and had been obliged to go up to the middle in the water to manage my booty. Ernest, with his rod and line and a hook, had also taken two smaller ones. Fritz, with his harpoon, had struck a sturgeon at least eight feet in length, and the skill and strength of our whole company were found necessary to conduct him safe to shore, where we harnessed the buffalo to him with strong cords to draw him to Tent House.

When these various concerns were complete, we began to meditate a plan for constructing a small boat as a substitute for the tub-raft, to come close in to shore. I had a great desire to make it, as the savages do, of the rind of a tree; but the difficulty was to fix on one of sufficient bulk for my purpose; for though many were to be found in our vicinity, yet each was on some account or other of too much value to be spared. We therefore resolved to make a little excursion in search of a tree of capacious dimensions, and in a situation where it was not likely to yield us fruit, to refresh us with its shade, or to adorn the landscape round our dwelling.

We arrived at Falcon’s Stream, where we intended to pass the night. We visited the ground my wife had so plentifully sowed with grain, which had sprung up with an almost incredible rapidity and luxuriance, and was now nearly ready for reaping. We cut down what was fairly ripe, bound it together in bundles, and conveyed it to a place where it would be secure from the attacks of more expert grain consumers than ourselves, of which thousands hovered round the booty. We reaped barley, wheat, rye, oats, pease, millet, lentils—only a small quantity of each, it is true, but sufficient to enable us to sow again plentifully at the proper season. The plant that had yielded the most was maize, a proof that it best loved the soil. It had already shown itself in abundance in our garden at Tent House; but here there was a surface of land, the size of an ordinary field, entirely covered with its splendid golden ears, which still more than the other plants attracted the voracity of the feathered race. The moment we drew near, a dozen at least of large bustards sprang up with a loud rustling noise, which awakened the attention of the dogs; they plunged into the thickest parts, and routed numerous flocks of birds of all kinds and sizes, who took hastily to flight. Among the fugitives were some quails, who escaped by running; and lastly some kangaroos, whose prodigious leaps enabled them to elude the pursuit of the dogs.

We were so overcome by the surprise such an assemblage of living creatures occasioned, as to forget the resource we had in our guns; we stood as it were stupid with amazements during the first moments, and before we came to ourselves, the prey was beyond our reach, and for the most part out of sight. Fritz was the first to perceive and to feel with indignation the silly part we had been playing, and to consider in what way we could repair the mischief. Without further loss of time, he took the bandage from his eagle’s eyes (for the bird always accompanied him perched upon his game-bag), and showed him with his hand the bustards still flying, and at no great distance. The eagle took a rapid flight. Fritz jumped like lightning on the back of his onagra, and galloped over everything that intervened, in the direction the bird had taken, and we soon lost sight of him.

We now beheld a spectacle which in the highest degree excited our curiosity and interest: the eagle had soon his prey in view; he mounted above one of the bustards in a direct line, without losing sight of it for an instant, and then darted suddenly down; the bustards flew about in utter confusion, now seeking shelter in the bushes, then crossing each other in every direction, in the attempt to evade the common enemy; but the eagle remained steady in pursuit of the bird he had fixed upon for his prey, and disregarded all the rest: he alighted on the unlucky bustard, fixed his claws and his beak in its back, till Fritz, arriving full gallop, got down from the onagra, replaced the bandage on the eagle’s eyes, seated him once more upon the game-bag, and having relieved the poor bustard from his persecutor, he shouted to us to come and witness his triumph. We ran speedily to the place.

At the conclusion of this adventure, we hastened forward to Falcon’s Stream, and dressed the wounds of the bustard. We perceived with pleasure that it was a male, and foresaw the advantage of giving him for a companion to our solitary female of the same species, which was completely tamed. I threw a few more bundles of maize into the cart, and without further delay we arrived at our tree.

The rest of the day was employed in picking the grains of the different sorts of corn from the stalks; we put what we wished to keep for sowing into some gourd-shells, and the Turkey wheat was laid carefully aside in sheaves till we should have time to beat and separate it. Fritz observed that we should also want to grind it; and I reminded him of the hand-mill we had secured from our departed ally the wrecked vessel.

Fritz.—But, father, the hand-mill is so small, and so subject to be put out of order:—why should we not contrive a water-mill, as they do in Europe? We have surely rapid streams of water in abundance.

Father.—This is true; but such a mechanism is more difficult than you imagine. The wheel alone, I conceive, would be an undertaking far beyond our strength or our capacity. I am, however, well pleased with the activity and zeal which prompted your idea; and we will hereafter consider whether it may be worth while to bestow upon it further attention. We have abundance of time before us, for we shall not want a water-mill till our harvests are such as to produce plentiful crops of corn. In the meantime, let us be thinking of our proposed excursion for to-morrow; for we should set out at least by sunrise.

We began our preparations accordingly. My wife chose some hens and two fine cocks, with the intention of taking them with us, and leaving them at large to produce a colony of their species at a considerable distance from our dwelling-places. I, with the same view, visited our beasts, and selected four young pigs, four sheep, two kids, and one male of each species; our numbers having so much increased that we could well afford to spare these individuals for the experiment. If we succeeded in thus accustoming them to the natural temperature and productions of our island, we should have eased ourselves of the burden of their support, and should always be able to find them at pleasure.

We took this time a new direction, which was straight forward between the rocks and the shore, that we might make ourselves acquainted with everything contained in the island we seemed destined for ever to inhabit. We found, as usual, much difficulty in pushing through the tall tough grass, and alternately through the thick prickly bushes which everywhere obtruded themselves. We were often obliged to turn aside, while I cut a passage with my hatchet: but these accidents seldom failed to reward my toil by the discovery of different small additions to our general comfort; among others, some roots of trees curved by nature to serve both for saddles and yokes for our beasts of burden. I took care to secure several, and put them in the cart.

In about an hour we found ourselves at the extremity of the wood, and a most singular phenomenon presented itself to our view: a small plain, or rather a grove of low bushes, to appearance almost covered with flakes of snow, lay extended before us. Suddenly a suspicion crossed my mind, and was soon confirmed by Fritz, who had darted forward on his onagra, and now returned with one hand filled with tufts of a most excellent species of cotton, so that the whole surface of low bushes was in reality a plantation of that valuable article. The pods had burst from ripeness, and the winds had scattered around their flaky contents; the ground was strewed with them, they had gathered in tufts on the bushes, and they floated gently in the air.

The joy of this discovery was almost too great for utterance. We collected as much cotton as our bags would hold, and my wife filled her pockets with the seed, to raise it in our garden at Tent House.

It was now time to proceed: and we took a direction towards a point of land which skirted the wood of gourds, and being high, commanded a view of the adjacent country. I conceived a wish to remove our establishment to the vicinity of the cotton plantation and the gourd wood, which furnished so many of the utensils for daily use throughout the family. I pleased myself in idea, with the view of the different colonies of animals I had imagined, both winged and quadruped; and in this elevation of my fancy, I even thought it might be practicable to erect a sort of farmhouse on the soil, which we might visit occasionally, and be welcomed by the agreeable sounds of the cackling of our feathered subjects, which would so forcibly remind us of the customs of our forsaken but ever-cherished country.

We accordingly soon reached the high ground, which I found in all respects favourable to my design. My plan for a building was approved by all, and we lost no time in pitching our tent, and forming temporary accommodations for cooking our victuals. When we had refreshed ourselves with a meal, I, for my part, resolved to look about in all directions, that I might completely understand what we should have to depend upon in this place, in point of safety, salubrity, and general accommodation. I had also to find a tree that would suit for the proposed construction of a boat; and lastly, to meet, if possible, with a group of trees, at such fit distances from each other as would assist me in my plan of erecting a farmhouse. I was fortunate enough in no long time to find in this last respect exactly what I wanted, and quite near to the spot we on many accounts had felt to be so enviable. I returned to my companions, whom I found busily employed in preparing excellent beds of the cotton, upon which, at an earlier hour than usual, we all retired to rest.