mense crayfish; perhaps I should call it a lobster. It was in the act of devouring a fish that had been stranded by the storm. I thrust the end of my pike into the claw, which the creature held up as if in defence, no doubt against the menaces of the dog; and happy for him the crayfish did not catch him by the nose; for it instantly clutched the iron point of my weapon, and kept hold so firmly, that by it I dragged my prize out of the water, safe upon the beach. This creature was well defended with spinous projections from its back and sides, and two large horns growing from its head; besides having two great claws, like those of a lobster, which crayfish ordinarily want. Fidele would have attacked this formidable enemy again, but my wife wisely caught the little Nimrod by the ear, and held him fast, while I secured our captive, by tying its claws with my handkerchief. We then returned to our ship, not a little pleased with our good fortune; and passed the remainder of the day in devotional exercises, and innocent amuse

ments.

Monday, 14th. The morning proved fine, and the weather appeared settled. We agreed now to land all the ducks; so we took them, eight in number, male and female, in two bags, up to the cave, where they were greeted by their two-feathered kindred, with loud and continued quacking. I left my wife there, to throw some corn to the stock, while I went back to the vessel for the table I had made for our wooden palace; and taking advantage of it to stand on, I replaced the two planks that had been blown from the roof by the storm. We then

returned to the vessel; and, while my wife got breakfast, I selected half a dozen yams, and two dozen coccos, which I put into a sack, and, with my spade and an axe, set out to the cocoa-nut grove; my dear helpmate carrying a little basket with provisions, and her boarding-pike; Fidele following. The sand was firm, and the walking good all the way; so that we reached the spot in about half an hour, notwithstanding the burdens we carried, and the heat of the day, which, out of the shade, was rather too great to be agreeable. We set down our things under the shade of three cocoanut trees, that stood close together under the rocky part of the ridge; and on a ledge of it we found a nice convenient seat. My first operation was to select, for cutting down, one of the trees on the south side of the grove, which were all laden with fruit of different sizes; and I chose the one that seemed most in the way of my plantation, for the quantity of fit ground at this place was very small. My axe being new, I soon felled the tree; and as soon as it drooped, Eliza was at my side. I cut off the cocoa-nuts, twenty-eight in number, which she undertook to carry one by one to the ledge, where our basket had been deposited. I now put off my jacket, and went to work with the spade, and was glad to find the soil tolerably good. I dug along the south side of the grove, the ground being best there, and clear of shade. In the course of my labour, I had to take up several young trees, from two to six feet high; and was pretty well fatigued by a couple of such hours' work. My poor dear wife had not carried above half the cocoa nuts, be

fore she was heartily tired too; and seating herself down on the ledge, under shadow of the rock, she spread out our frugal meal, and called me to it. I joined her at her summons; and after eating a little of what she had prepared, I split the husk off a couple of young cocoa nuts; then piercing the nuts at the top, emptied their delicious milk into a tin cup she had brought in the basket. I tasted it, and handed it to her. As she drank, she every now and then exclaimed, "How nice! how cool! how delicious!" But she did not drink quite half, being anxious that I also should taste it, which I did, and quickly finished the remainder. I now cut the tops off the nuts, and found a soft agreeable substance adhering to the sides, which we scooped out and eat.

After these dainties, we had no desire for more of our salt beef and yam; so, being content for the present with what we had taken, I proposed lying down on the rock, to repose for a while during the hottest part of the day. Eliza turned the yams and coccos out of the sack, and placing it under my head, I soon fell asleep, while she and Fidele kept sentry over me. I awoke much refreshed, and looked up with delight on the sweet eyes that were watching me as I slept. It was not time yet to go to work; the sun continued too intense; but the yams were to be slit in pieces, as we cut potatoes for planting; and while I was employed in doing this, my dear guardian angel and Fidele took their comfortable nap beside me. After the heat of the day had passed, I went to my spade again; and before evening had turned up a long narrow strip

of tolerable ground, on the southern margin of the grove, and had put in the cuttings of the yams in one part, and the coccos whole in the other. My wife, also, had brought melon and pumpkin seeds with her, and diligently sowed them wherever I directed as a fit spot. We thus finished the task we had appointed to be done, and were glad. But grateful satisfaction gave a further stimulus to exertion; and I set to cleaving the outer husks of half a dozen cocoa-nuts, putting the nuts into our sack. I emptied the canteen, on the spots where the muskmelon seeds were put in; and, not choosing to lose any of our labour, bundled up some of the young cocoa-nut trees I had uprooted, and also gathering together the fragments of our provisions, trudged back to the plank-house, where we arrived a little before sunset. I was certainly very tired; but I would not go on board until I had planted four of the trees round our palace—one at each end, to the east and west; and two behind, viz. to the north. The stars were out, when this last achievement was completed; and so wearied were we, that, without looking at our stock, we crawled on board, leaving all our burdens in the plank-house. We took a cup of wine and water each, when snugly housed in our cabin, and, with a short but fervent prayer, retired to rest.

Tuesday, 15th.-I was very stiff in the morning, and my dear wife also acknowledged the effects of her fatigue; but we got up, and went upon deck, and with only as much covering as modesty required, underwent a good sluicing with sea-water, drawn up by a bucket; by which operation we were greatly

refreshed, and instantly relieved from the stiffness produced by the labour of the preceding day. I dried myself, and dressed on deck; while she went below, and did the same. We walked up to the plank-house before breakfast, and intended visiting our stock, but we found it chiefly outside of the thicket, ready to greet us; and as there was neither door nor windows to close the house from their entrance, the goats and fowls had made free with the yams and biscuit left there in the basket last night. I could not now feel that my building was perfected, until I remedied this evil; therefore, when we returned on board to breakfast, and while my wife prepared it, I opened the main hatchway, and got up some laths; then taking the door off the captain's state-room, laid all in order for carrying them on shore, which we did soon after; neither Eliza nor myself making long meals. I nailed the laths outside the plank-house across the windows, at the distance of about four inches asunder, which piece of work I completed in less than an hour; and I then endeavoured to fit in the door, but it was neither high enough nor broad enough; so I was obliged to place a board erect, joined to one of the side-posts, by which means I narrowed the before open portal to exactly the size of the door. The hinges I nailed to the post, and then filled up the vacant space above the door, with another slip of wood. This was all done by two o'clock; and my wife was as much surprised as she was pleased to see our palace, now a castle into which nothing could intrude. Having so greatly improved our land residence, I felt disposed to do still more; and