The family Robinson Crusoe

by Johann David Wyss

Discoursing thus, we reached the little wood; and here our son Ernest had an opportunity of recognising many of the originals of the engravings in his books of natural history, and of displaying his knowledge, or his ignorance, to his heart’s content. A prodigious quantity of unknown birds were skipping and warbling on the branches of the trees, without betraying the least alarm at our vicinity. In spite of the lesson in morality which I had so lately been pronouncing, the desire of firing upon them again possessed their hearts; but this I absolutely forbade, and with the less scruple, as the trees were of so enormous a height as to be out of gun-shot reach.—No, my dear husband, you cannot possibly form an idea of the trees we now beheld! You must somehow have missed this wood; or so extraordinary a sight could not have escaped your observation; in my whole life I have never seen a single tree of so immense a size. What appeared to us at a distance to be a wood, was only a group of about fourteen of them, the trunks of which looked as if they were supported in their upright position, by so many arches on each side, the arches being formed by portions of the roots of the tree, of great thickness and extent. Meanwhile the tree itself is further supported by a perpendicular root, placed in the midst of the others, and of a smaller compass, while the projecting roots extend themselves on every side of the tree, and double the circumference it would have.

Jack climbed with considerable trouble upon one of these arch-formed roots, and with a packthread in his hand measured the actual circumference of the tree itself. He found that it measured more than fifteen braches (the brache is equal to twenty-two inches and a half). I made thirty-two steps in going round one of those giant trees at the roots; and its height from the ground to the place where the branches begin to shoot, may be about thirty-six braches. The twigs of this tree are strong and thick; its leaves moderately large in size, and bearing some resemblance to the hazel tree of Europe; but I was unable to discover that it bore any fruit. The soil immediately round the tree and under its branches, produced in great abundance a short thick kind of plant, unmixed with any of the thistle kind, and of a perfectly smooth surface. Thus every circumstance seemed to concur in inviting us to use this spot as a place of repose; and my predilection for it grew so strong that I resolved to go no further, but to enjoy its delicious coolness till it should be time to return. I sat down in this verdant elysium with my three sons around me. We took out our provision-bags; a charming stream, formed to increase the coolness and beauty of the scene, flowed at our feet, and supplied us with a fresh and salutary beverage. Our dogs were not long in reaching us; they had remained behind, sauntering about the skirts of the wood. To my great surprise, they did not ask for any thing to eat, but lay down quietly, and were soon asleep at our feet. For my own part, I felt that I could never tire of beholding and admiring this enchanting spot; it occurred to me, that if we could but contrive a kind of tent that could be fixed in one of the trees, we might safely come and make our abode here. I had found nothing in any other direction that suited us so well in every respect; and I resolved to look no further. When we had shared our dinner among us, and well rested from our fatigue, we set out on our return, again keeping close to the river, half expecting to see along the shore, some of the pieces or other vestiges of the vessel, which the waves might have washed on shore there.

But before we left our enchanting retreat, Jack entreated me to stay a little longer, and finish sewing the linen strips to his leather belt. The little coxcomb had so great an ambition to strut about and exhibit himself in his belt, that he had taken the trouble to carry the piece of wood on which he had nailed his skin to dry, along with him, through the whole of our expedition. Finding that the skin was really dry, I granted his request, preferring, since it appeared that work I must, to do it now when I had the advantage of being in the shade, than after I should be returned to the scorching of the sun outside our tent. When I had finished my task, he eagerly fastened the belt round him, and placed his pistols in it; he set himself before us in a marching step, with the knuckles of his hand turned back upon his hip, leaving to Ernest the care of putting on the dogs’ collars; which he insisted should be done, for it would give them, he said, a martial air. The little hero was all impatience for you and Fritz to see him in his new accoutrement; so that I had enough to do to walk quick enough to keep sight of him; for, in a country where no track of the foot of man is to be found, we might easily lose each other. I became more tranquil respecting him when we had got once more all together on the sea-shore; for, as I expected, we found there pieces of timber, poles, large and small chests, and other articles which I knew had come from the vessel. None of us however were strong enough to bring them away; we therefore contented ourselves with dragging all we could reach to the dry sands, beyond the reach of the waves at the highest state of the tide. Our dogs, for their part, were fully employed in fishing for crabs, which they drew with their paws to the shore, as the waves washed them up, and on which they made an excellent repast. I now understood that it was this sort of prey which had appeased their hunger before they joined us at dinner. Heaven be praised, cried I, that our animals have found means to procure sustenance at so cheap a rate! for I really began to think that, with their enormous appetites, they might some day have taken it into their heads to eat their masters.

Eat us! exclaimed my brave son Jack, you surely forget; am I not here to defend you with my pistols?

Silly young pretender! they would swallow you if they had a mind, as easily as you would swallow a pill; but in reality they are kind excellent creatures, who love us, and will never do us any harm. By swallowing us, I meant that they would so considerably diminish our provisions, that in this respect they would inflict upon us a serious misfortune.

We now suddenly cast our eyes on Ponto, whom we perceived employed in turning over a round substance he had found in the sands, some pieces of which he swallowed from time to time. Ernest also perceived what he was about, and did us the favour, with his usual composure, to pronounce just these words:—They are turtles’ eggs!

Run, my children, cried I, and get as many of them as you can; they are excellent, and I shall have the greatest pleasure in being able to regale our dear travellers on their return, with so new and delicious a dish. We found it a little difficult to make Ponto come away from the eggs, to which he had taken a great fancy. At length, however, we succeeded in collecting near two dozen of them, which we secured in our provision-bags. When we had concluded this affair, we by accident cast our eyes upon the boundless ocean, and to our great astonishment we perceived a sail, which seemed to be joyfully approaching towards the land. I knew not what to think; but Ernest, who always thinks he knows every thing, or can guess at every thing, exclaimed that it was you and Fritz; but little Francis was terribly afraid that it must be the savages come to eat us up, like those described in Robinson Crusoe’s Island. We soon, however, had the happiness of being convinced that Ernest was right, and that it was indeed our well-beloved! We ran eagerly towards the river, which Jack and Ernest recrossed as before, by leaping from one great stone to another; while I also resumed my burden of little Francis at my back, and in this manner soon arrived at the place of your landing, when we had nothing further to do but to throw ourselves into your arms! This, my dear husband, is a faithful and circumstantial narration of our journey of discovery; and now, if you wish me a great deal of happiness, you will not refuse to conduct me and your sons, with our whole train of animals, to the spot I have described, where we cannot fail to find a more agreeable asylum than here, under these scorching rocks.

And these giant trees are then the asylum you have chosen for our future abode! And you would have a tent set up in one of them, at a distance of more than sixty-six feet from the ground, where we should be perched like parrots! And pray by what means are we to ascend this tree? for at present I have no clear view of this important part of the subject.

Alas! my dear husband, I see the objections against my plan as plainly as you can do; but after all, we cannot but be considerable gainers by the change: for my part, I dared not venture further without having my dear protector at my side. Who knows, if we were to set out together upon another expedition, if we should not find a still more convenient spot, in which we could take up our abode?

I perceived a tear stealing into my wife’s eyes, on finding that she could not prevail upon me to think as favourably as she wished of her discovery, and that I treated the subject of her giant trees with so little respect: