our way; till we arrived at the vessel, a little after sunset. Too tired to make tea, we regaled ourselves with a little wine and water and some biscuit; and then, kneeling down in the presence of God, rendered to him that which is justly due, the sacrifice of praise, and prayer, and thanksgiving; and retired

to rest.

Monday, 7th.—I set to work hard upon the plank house; and, having before carried all the materials to the spot, was now occupied entirely in its construction. I kept at my task nearly the whole day, with my wife and Fidele beside me; and, as the promontory threw us into shadow, the air was by no means unpleasantly hot, at any part of the time.

Tuesday, 8th.

We kept close at our work upon the ridge, and both were delighted to see it drawing to a close. On Wednesday the 9th, I got the roof on; and, before sunset, had the satisfaction to see the tent completed. My dear wife had brought a bottle of wine from the vessel; and, with beef and biscuit for our dinner, and our canteen replenished from the spring, we sat down on the floor of our wooden palace, and regaled ourselves cheerily. Fidele and the goats were of the party; he eating of our general fare; the goats coming in now and then for a piece of biscuit, which they took kindly from the hand. We, however, kept them on the outside of our palace-door, not wishing to give them the habit of coming in. I was overjoyed at the achievement of my task, which I had found much more laborious than we had first expected. My dear wife thanked me over and over again for what I had

done, as it had been undertaken at her suggestion; and thus well repaid for all my labour, although much fatigued, I retired with even a jocund step to our ship; and, after our kneeling to prayer, retired to well-earned sleep.

constant custom of enjoy the sweets of

CHAP. V.

THURSDAY, 10th January.-I employed the early part of this morning in arranging matters on board; but before I secured the main hatchway, I got up some half-inch board and a plank, to make a table at my leisure, for the tent. We talked over our intended operations, at breakfast; and it was resolved to put some seeds and roots into the ground without loss of time, by which we hoped to be able to propagate every vegetable we had, excepting the plantain; for in it we found no seeds. As a preliminary step, we locked over our store of fruit and roots, and saw all sound, save one musk-melon, which had been a little bruised, and was beginning to spoil. Having stowed all away again, after airing them on the deck, I proposed going on shore; and, taking a couple of chairs from the cabin, and our muskmelon, we marched up to the plank-house. I felt myself not a little important, I believe, when the two chairs were placed in the new building. There was a manifest exultation felt by us both at the moment; gratulatory and smiling, we sat ourselves down, for the first time, in our chairs, under the roof of a building made with my own hands. After a brief period in our new situation, Eliza went to the cave to feed the poultry, and I to get thence the

spade and hoe. The fowls were there; but we could not see either ducks or goats: I confess we were agitated, if not alarmed; and I more especially, thinking they were lost. "Don't fear, dear Edward," said she; "we shall find them; the poor things are only gone to seek something to drink; you perceive there is no water in the bucket." I approved her suggestion, and hastened with her to the spring, where we found the stragglers, and were thus relieved from our anxiety. We first thought of driving them directly back to the thicket; but, as I was to be gardening near, during the best part. of the day, they were allowed to remain and feed where they were. My wife, meanwhile, supplied the fowls in the cave with water; but, as we did not undertake to provide for all the wild pigeons in the place, she strewed her corn on the path leading from the cavern to the outside of the thicket, and thus drew the fowls out after her. When I came up from my work, to take my dinner at the plankhouse, which she had spread there, I saw them feeding near the door; and, as we sat at our meal, we threw them small pieces of biscuit, which they picked up piece by piece, the cock generally getting hold of each crumb first, then calling the hens to receive it from him.

By sunset, I had put in several melon-seeds of both sorts, and also seeds of the pumpkin, and had turned up and hoed a nice spot of ground in the neighbourhood of the spring; but I could not but perceive that this place was too shady for any thing but pumpkins and Indian corn: however, as we had plenty of seeds, I remarked, "Little could be lost

but the labour." We were glad to see the pine-top look well; and I gave it water, after putting some more good earth round it. We now drove the goats and ducks up to the cave; and in this operation Fidele took a conspicuous part, which pleased us much, as we foresaw the use our little friend and companion might be to us, in bringing "our flocks and herds home at even-tide."

The sun did not set with its usual beauty, this evening; the western horizon was overcast, and there had been little sea-breeze all day. We loitered some time in the vicinity of our new habitation, treating the goats with the rind of our muskmelon, and in other domestic trifling. The sky, in the meanwhile, became completely overcast: the goats suddenly deserted us, uttering an unusual cry, and ran into the thicket: we looked up, and, apprehending rain, hastened towards our vessel: but we had scarcely set forth, before it came on, pouring down on us in torrents, so that we were wet to the skin in two minutes. At this time, there was not a breath of wind, and it had suddenly become quite dark. We got on board with difficulty, not only drenched, but fatigued, and with poor Fidele, like a drowned rat, following us. As we descended into the cabin, I pulled the top of the companion over; but there was already much water below, in the steerage passage. It was quite dark in the cabin; and, from our being very wet, the want of light made us doubly uncomfortable. I drew the charge from one of my pistols, and struck fire in the pan, so as to ignite some paper I placed on a plate upon the table; and, keeping the flame up with a