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 though I dare not bid you trust in a successful result, yet we may 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 mean time let us be thinking, boy, of our proposed excursion for to-morrow, for we should set out, at latest, by sun-rise.
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 stable, 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.
The next morning, after loading the cart with all things necessary, not forgetting the rope ladder and the portable tent, we quitted Falcon’s Stream. The animals with their legs tied, were all stationed in the vehicle. We left abundance of food for those that remained behind; the cow, the ass, and the buffalo were harnessed to the cart; and Fritz mounted on his favourite, the onagra, pranced along before us to ascertain the best and smoothest path for the cavalcade.
We took this time a new direction, which was straight forward between the rocks and the shore, that we might make ourselves acquainted with every thing contained in the island we seemed destined for ever to inhabit.
In effect, the line proceeding from Falcon’s Stream to the Great Bay, might be said to be the extent of our dominions; for though Fritz and I had discovered the adjacent exquisite country of the buffalos, yet the passage to it by the end of the rocks was so dangerous, and at so great a distance, that we could not hope to domiciliate ourselves upon its soil, as we had done on our side of the rocks. We found, as usual, much difficulty in pushing through the tall tough grass and alternately through the thick prickly bushes which every where 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.
When we had spent about an hour in getting forward, 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. Little Francis was the first to call our attention to it, he being seated in the cart:—Look, father, cried he, here is a place quite full of snow; let me get down and make some snow-balls: Oh, how glad I am that we shall now have snow instead of the ugly rain which made us all so uncomfortable!
I could not resist a hearty laugh; and though sure what we saw could not in the midst of such scorching heat be snow, yet I was completely at a loss to explain the nature of what in colour and appearance bore so near a resemblance to it. Suddenly, however, 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. This most useful of almost the whole range of vegetable productions bestowed by Providence on man, which with the cost of only a little labour supplies him with apparel and commodious beds for the repose of his limbs, is found in such abundance in islands, that I had been surprised at not meeting with any before. 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, and was shared by all but Francis, who was sorry to lose his pretty snow-balls; and his mother, to soothe his regret, made the cotton into balls for him to play with, and promised him some new shirts and dresses: then turning to me, she poured out her kind heart in descriptions of all the comfortable things she should make for us, could I construct a spinning-wheel, and then a loom for weaving.
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.