Father.—At least they are the most ordinary ones: there are poisons which paralyse and induce a heavy sleep; such are opium, if taken in too large a quantity; hemlock, &c. &c. Others are sharp and corrosive, attacking the stomach and intestines: of this class are arsenic, sublimate, and the pernicious sorts of mushrooms. If, when either of these has been swallowed, there be not immediate assistance procured, the human machine stops, becomes disorganized, and the patient dies.—I will take this occasion, my dear children, to caution you against a kind of fruit extremely dangerous in its nature, and the more so from the remarkable attraction of its external appearance. This fruit is frequently found in America on the banks of rivers or in marshes, and you may perhaps meet with it in this island. Its aspect is agreeable to the eye, resembling a handsome kind of yellow apple with red spots. It is, however, one of the strongest poisons in the world: it is even said to be dangerous to sleep under the shade of the tree which produces it. Be very careful, therefore, should you happen to meet with it: it is known by the name of mancenilla. Indeed I cannot too seriously exhort you not to venture on eating any thing you may find, however alluring in appearance, till you have first consulted me. Promise me this, children, one and all of you.
Jack.—I promise you heartily, father; and still further, I will keep my word more faithfully than Adam did towards God, who had forbidden him to eat of a certain apple.
Father.—You will do well in this; but do not so presumptuously and so readily blame that in another which under the same circumstances you would have done yourself; I would lay a wager that you would be the first to be led away by any worthless knave who should come and tell you that I had been laughing at you all the while, that the mancenilla is the finest apple in the world, and that by eating it you would be rendered as strong as a lion; that ready appetite of yours, and that little vanity we now and then discover in you, would make you, I fear, forget my advice, and greedily devour the apple.—But this is enough on the subject; instead of thinking more of poisons, let us resort with confidence to our plentiful dish of boiled potatoes; perhaps, dear wife, you have some little relish to add to them to day:—what, I pray you, may there be in that boiling vessel yonder?
Mother.—It is the penguin that Jack killed and brought home.
To say the truth, we did not take a fancy to the dish, the bird being of a strong and fishy flavour. Jack, however, was of a different opinion, and he was left at full liberty to regale himself to his appetite’s content.
The first thing we did after dinner was to visit our fowls. Those among them which had eaten the manioc, were in excellent condition, and no less so the monkey, who gave us sufficient proofs of life and health in the multitude of gambols and grimaces he exhibited. Now then to the bakehouse, young ones, said I—to the bakehouse as fast as you can scamper. The grated manioc was soon emptied out of the bag, a large fire was quickly lighted, and when sufficiently fervent, I placed the boys where a flat surface had been prepared for them, and gave to each a plate of iron and the quantity of a cocoa nut full for them to make a cake apiece, and they were to try who could succeed the best. They were ranged in a half circle round the place, where I stood myself, that they might the better be enabled to observe how I proceeded, and adopt the same method for themselves. The result was not discouraging for a first experiment, though it must be confessed we were now and then so unlucky as to burn a cake; but there was not a greater number of these than served to feed the pigeons and the fowls, which hovered round us to claim their share of the treat. My little rogues could not resist the pleasure of frequently tasting their cake, a little bit at a time, as they went on. At length the undertaking was complete; the cakes were put in a dish and served in company with a handsome share of milk, to each person; and with this addition, they furnished us an excellent repast: what remained we distributed among our animals and fowls. I observed with pleasure that the penguins which I had preserved alive, accommodated themselves perfectly to this kind of food, and that generally, they began to lose their former timid behaviour; I therefore indulged my inclination to compassionate their captive state, and ventured to disengage them from their comrades: this indulgence procured me the pleasure of seeing them seemingly in a state of newly acquired content.
The rest of the day was employed by the boys in making several turns with their wheel-barrows, and by myself in different arrangements in which the ass and our raft had a principal share, both being employed in drawing to Tent-House the remaining articles we had brought from the ship. When all this was done we retired to rest, having first made another meal on our cakes, and concluded all with pious thanks to God for the blessings his goodness thought fit to bestow upon us.
CHAPTER XXI.
The pinnace and the cracker.
From the time of discovering the pinnace, my desire of returning to the vessel grew every moment more and more irresistible: but one thing I saw was absolutely necessary, which was to collect all my hands and go provided with sufficient strength to enable me to get her out from the situation where we had found her the day before. I therefore thought of taking with me the three boys: I even wished that my wife should accompany us; but she had been seized with such an horror of the perfidious element as she called it, the sea, that she assured me the very attempt would make her ill, and thus occasion her to be an additional trouble rather than of use. I had some difficulty to prevail upon her to let so many as three of the children go: she made me promise to return the same evening, and on no account to pass another night on-board the wreck: and to this I was, though with regret, obliged to consent.
After breakfast then, we prepared for setting out, but not without some sighing and mournful looks from my amiable partner. The boys, on the contrary, were gay and on the alert, in the expectation of the pleasure that awaited them; particularly Ernest, who had not yet made a single voyage with us to the vessel. We took with us an ample provision of boiled potatoes and cassave; and in addition, arms and weapons of every kind. We embarked and reached Safety Bay without the occurrence of any remarkable event: here we thought it prudent to put on our cork jackets; we then scattered some food for the geese and ducks which had taken up their abode there, and soon after stepped gaily into our tub-raft, at the same time fastening the new boat by a rope to her stern, so that she could be drawn along. We put out for the current, though not without considerable fear of finding that the wreck had entirely disappeared. We soon, however, perceived that she still remained firm between the rocks. Having got on-board, our first care was to load our craft with different stores, that we might not return without some acquisition of comfort for our establishment; and then all on the wings of curiosity and ardour we repaired to that part of the vessel called the bulk-head, which contained the enviable prize, the pinnace. On further observation, it appeared to me that the plan we had formed was subject to at least two alarming and perhaps insurmountable difficulties: the one was the situation of the pinnace in the ship; and the other was the size and weight it would necessarily acquire when put together. The inclosure in which she lay in pieces was far back in the interior of the ship, and close upon the side which was in the water, immediately under the officers’ cabin. Several inner timbers of prodigious bulk and weight separated this inclosure from the breach at which only we had been able to get on-board, and in this part of the deck there was not sufficient space for us to work at putting the pinnace together, or to give her room should we succeed in completing our business. The breach also was too narrow and too irregular to admit of her being launched from this place, as we had done with our tub-raft. In short, the separate pieces of the pinnace were too heavy for the possibility of our removing them even with the assistance of our united strength. What therefore was to be done? and how could we meet so formidable a difficulty? I stood on the spot absorbed in deep reflection, while the boys were running from place to place, conveying every thing portable they could find, on-board the raft.