CHAPTER XXXVII

The Approach of Winter and Wet Season—Invention of a New Light—Literary Acquisitions

The season of rains was fast approaching, and we used all possible expedition to get in everything necessary. The grain, the fruits of all sorts which surrounded our habitation, potatoes, rice, guavas, sweet acorns, pineapples, anise, manioc, bananas, nothing in short was forgotten. We sowed our seeds as we had done the year before, hoping that the European sorts would sprout quicker and more easily on account of the moisture of the atmosphere.

My wife made us sacks of canvas which we filled, and by the aid of our patient beasts carried to the magazines, where they were emptied into large hogsheads prepared for them. But these labours were not accomplished without much trouble; for as we had planted our corn and wheat at different times, we were obliged to choose out the ripe stalks from a whole field—a work of no small difficulty. I resolved to devise some plan for a more regular cultivation the next year. We had a pair of buffaloes for all the labour that would have to be done; and all that was required, in addition to our present stock of harness, was a double yoke, which I intended to make during our winter seclusion.

But the rains had already commenced; several times we had been visited by heavy showers, which hastened our remaining occupations. By degrees the horizon became covered with thick clouds, the winds swept fearfully along the coast, the billows rose, and for the space of fifteen days we were witnesses of a scene of whose majesty and terrific grandeur man cannot form an idea. Nature seemed overturned, the trees bent to the terrible blasts, the lightning and the thunder were mingled with the wind and the storm; in one word, it was a concert of Nature’s many voices, where the deep tones of the thunder served for the bass, and harmoniously blended with the sharp whistlings of the storm. It seemed to us that the storm of last year had been nothing in comparison to it. Nevertheless, the winds began to calm, and the rain, instead of beating down upon us in torrents, began to fall with that despair-inspiring uniformity, which we felt would last for twelve long weeks. The first moments of our seclusion were sad enough, but necessity reconciled us to our situation, and we began as cheerfully as possible to arrange the interior of our subterranean habitation.

We devoted our attention first to a crowd of minor wants which we only discovered by occupation, but yet were of primary necessity. I have said that our apartments were all on one floor; but the ground had not been carefully levelled, and we set to work to fill up the cavities and cut away the projections, so as to prevent any of us from breaking our necks. The fountain I had made did not answer the purpose, and the one great necessity of a good supply of water was as yet unprovided for. We also made tables and chairs, prepared for all the exigencies of our position, and endeavoured to render our long confinement as supportable as possible. But there was yet an inconvenience. We had not imagined we wanted light. There were but three openings in the grotto, besides the door: one in the kitchen, one in the work-room, and a third in my sleeping-chamber. The boys’ room, and all the rest of our habitation, was plunged in the most complete darkness. The light never penetrated into the recesses of the grotto. I discovered that three or four more windows were necessary; but they could not be made before the return of fine weather, and I devised the following remedy for the defect.

Among the bamboos that I had procured as leaders for the water, was one of great size, which I had preserved. This bamboo I found by chance was just the height of our grotto. I trimmed it, and planted it in the ground about a foot deep, surrounding it with props to make it steady. I then gave Jack a hammer, a pulley, and a rope, and, appealing to his agility, I asked him to climb the pole. In a moment he was at the top, and, after having driven the pulley into the roof of the grotto, and thrown the cord over it, he descended safely to the ground. I then suspended to one end of the cord a large lantern which we found in the ship. Francis and my wife were officially charged with its supervision, and, thanks to the thousand reflectors which lined the sides of the rock, our grotto was as light as if it had been broad day. The light was an immense benefit to us, and enabled us to carry on our different occupations with zeal and comfort.

Ernest and Francis charged themselves with the task of arranging our library, and disposing, in its different shelves, the works we had saved from the wreck. Jack aided his mother in the kitchen; and Fritz, being stronger than his brothers, assisted me in the work-room.

We arranged there, by the window, a superb English turning-lathe, with all its equipments. I had often amused myself by turning in my younger days, and I now could put my knowledge of the art to some use. We also constructed a forge; anvils were fixed in large blocks of wood, and all the tools of the wheelwright and the cooper were laid out in long array on the racks I had put up next the wall. Our shop began to assume a business-like appearance, of which I was proud; and often did I congratulate myself that I had sufficiently acquainted myself, in youth, with mechanics to prevent their being entirely new to me.

The grotto every day grew more agreeable, and we were enabled to wait without ennui for the welcome light of the sun. We had our work-room, our dining-room, and our library, where we could refresh our minds after the fatigues of the body; for the cases we had saved from the ship contained a quantity of books which had belonged to the captain and officers. Besides Bibles and books of devotion, we found works on history, botany, philosophy, voyages, and travels, some enriched with engravings, which were a real treasure to us. We had also maps, several mathematical and astronomical instruments, a portable globe—an English invention, which blew up like a balloon; but the sort of works which prevailed were grammars and dictionaries of different nations: they generally form the chief stock of ship libraries.

We all knew a little of French, for this is as much in use as German throughout Switzerland. Fritz and Ernest had commenced to learn English at Zurich, and I had myself paid some attention to the language, in order to superintend their education. I now urged them to continue their studies, as English was the language of the sea, and there were very few ships that did not contain some one who understood it. Jack, who knew nothing at all, began to pay some attention to Spanish and Italian, the pomp and melody of these two languages according with his character. As for myself, I laboured hard to master the Malay tongue; for the inspection of charts and maps convinced me that we were in the neighbourhood of these people.

Our grotto grew every day so comfortable that the children could not think of any name suitable to call it by: some wanted it called The Fairy Palace, others The Resplendent Grotto; but after a long discussion, we came to the conclusion that it should be called simply “Felsenheim,” or the dwelling in the rock. Time rolled away so rapidly in all these occupations, that two months of the rainy season had elapsed, and I had not yet found time to make my double yokes, or a new pair of carding-combs, that my wife had teased me for a long time.