After some hesitation I yielded to his great wish, which was to return by sea in his cajack round Cape Disappointment, and so meet us at Rockburg.
He was much interested in examining the outlines of the coast, and the rugged precipices of the Cape. These were tenanted by vast flocks of sea-fowl and birds of prey; while many varieties of shrubs and plants, hitherto unknown to us, grew in the clefts and crevices of the rocks, some of them diffusing a strong aromatic odour. Among the specimens he brought I recognized the caper plant, and, with still greater pleasure, a shrub which was, I felt sure, the tea-plant of China—it bore very pretty white flowers, and the leaves resembled myrtle.
Our land-journey was effected without accident or adventure of any kind.
Jack, mounted as usual on Hurry, the ostrich, carried the mysterious wet bag very carefully slung at his side, and when near home started off at a prodigious rate in advance of us.
He let fall the drawbridge, and we saw no more of him until, on reaching Rockburg, he appeared leisurely returning from the swamp, where apparently he had gone to deposit his “moist secret,” as Franz called it.
We were all glad to take up our quarters once more in our large and convenient dwelling, and my first business was to provide for the great number of birds we now had on our hands, by establishing them in suitable localities, it being impossible to maintain them all in the poultry-yard. Some were, therefore, taken to the islands; and the black swans, the heron, the graceful demoiselle cranes, and our latest acquisition, the splendid sultan-cock, soon became perfectly at home in the Swamp, greatly adding to the interest of the neighbourhood of Safety Bay.
The old bustards were the tamest of all our feathered pets, and
