Page:Once a Week Dec 1861 to June 1862.pdf/730

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ONCE A WEEK.
[June 21, 1862.

body and the legs and wings at the first joints, but otherwise leaving the bird in puris naturalibus, I proceeded to pack it in a coating of good clean mud. That done, it was carefully buried in the I live embers. In about an hour and a half it was raked out of the fire, the case knocked off, to which the feathers and down adhered, leaving the flesh perfectly clean and capitally cooked. The further necessary operations having been performed, in due time the banquet graced the board, or rather the sheet of bark which served us as a table. The bird we dined on would have fetched in the London market—if alive—from 10l. to 15l.

From that day, whoever happened to be in power, we loyally stood by each other. We were alone together some five months in all; and, although not insensible of each other’s weak points, we avoided dragging them into the foreground; and since we quite understood that we did this, because our failings were pretty evenly balanced, requiring and meeting with mutual consideration; that was the very reason, I think, which prevented our ever having an angry word. Ours was no mere sentimental friendship—it came of acts and not words. After what has been already stated, the reader will not be surprised to hear that we kept Sunday in our own unorthodox way. On that day we had to make provision for a supply of fuel or fresh meat; it was then we repaired all that had gone wrong during the previous week, and endeavoured to anticipate the wants of the coming one. Buttons were sewn on, or skewers substituted in their places; clothes were patched and washed, and “dampers” made. After such matters as these had been attended to, we often wandered off to a range of hills about four miles inland, and there spent the remainder of the day. The poet tells us that properly attuned hearts can find

A church in every tree that spreads
Its living roof above our heads.

One great advantage we enjoyed was, that our contemplations were never disturbed by the dinning of unmusical bells, for there were none, nor any formal place of worship, within sixty miles of us.

The time was now come to make our first essay in mangrove burning. We had taken the precaution to lay a clay floor about twelve feet square, which had hardened in the sun, and was quite fit to receive its load of logs. We found the work of cutting the wood, sometimes nearly up to the knees in mud, very trying, and transporting it to the place for burning much more so. The mangrove root is furnished with a series of firm, pointed spikes, thrown out at irregular intervals of from three to six inches, and protruding an inch or two from the mud. My only pair of boots failed under this test, and I put them by, working as best I could barefoot. The logs, which had to be borne ashore on our backs, were so thickly studded with a small shell-fish that they presented a surface which resembled that of a file. Our shoulders and hands were very soon rasped raw, and I fancy, from the experience gained at this time. I can realise something of the torture of being

Scraped to death with oyster-shells
Amongst the Caribees.

Much against our inclination we were forced to give over work, in order that our wounds might have time to heal.

By way of a holiday, we dug a couple of holes in the sand near the well in which to bathe, for to be covered with mud was now our usual state, and the salt water was only available at high tide, and did not cleanse us very thoroughly. These sanitary measures completed, and our hurts partially healed, we proceeded in our work of torture. We found the spikes as sharp as ever, and the shells as pointed, but we persevered. Hitherto the possibility of failure had not found a place in our calculations, but about this time it occurred to us that 100,000l. was a large sum, a very large sum indeed.

The pile rose higher and higher, and the labour became greater, as the ability to perform it grew less; but after a month's work there stood the evidence of our perseverance, some thirty or forty tons of splendid stuff, all ready to be fired as soon as fine weather set in. Meantime we continued getting more wood together in readiness for a second pile, but impatient to apply the torch to the first. At last the clouds ceased to lour, and there was every promise of a dry week. On a lovely afternoon, when no leaf moved, the air was so still, I mounted the heap, S—— fired it, we gave a cheer, and I was soon enveloped in a thick, blinding, white smoke, out of which I was glad to scramble. We sat down and watched the vapour as it ascended in volumes and gradually spread until it became a great blur in the deep blue sky. On turning in, that night, we congratulated ourselves on having planted our feet on the first step of the ladder which was to lead us to fortune. But alas!

The best-laid plans of men and mice
The best-laid plans ofGang aft a-gley.

The third evening came, the fire was nearly burnt out, and another day would have made all secure, when clouds gathered in the east, the wind blew in angry gusts, and we felt apprehensive that our patience was likely to be put to further trials. These forebodings were not groundless. At midnight a storm broke over our part of the island, and by daybreak all the work of the past month was annihilated, and a soppy and valueless mass of rubbish was all we had to show for it. One of the properties of barilla is to attract moisture, and when once thoroughly wetted during its manufacture, it loses its valuable properties. Breakfast that morning was but a sorry affair, notwithstanding we had an unlimited supply of black swan’s eggs, procured from nests amongst the creeks with which the coast a few miles from us was indented. We put the best face upon the matter; said it was no use grieving over our loss, we must repair it, and as for being beaten by trifles, not we; we would fight it out with Fortune. Fail? nonsense! But we mentioned the hateful word.

Though we lost our labour, we gained experience, and instead of building up heaps of forty tons, made them much smaller, and saved three capitally, realising stuff to the value of perhaps 20l. Here was the first item towards our 100,000l.