IN ENGLAND
It was on the 20th of October that the _Unicorn_ had left New
Switzerland on her way back to England. On her return, when the
Admiralty sent to take possession of the new colony in the Indian Ocean,
after a brief stop at the Cape of Good Hope, she was to bring back Fritz
and Frank Zermatt, Jenny Montrose and Dolly Wolston. The two brothers
took the berths left vacant by the Wolstons who were now settled on the
island. A comfortable cabin had been placed at the disposal of Jenny and
her little companion Dolly, who was going to join James Wolston and his
wife and child at Cape Town.
After rounding the False Hope Point the _Unicorn_ sailed westward before
the wind and came down to the south again, leaving the island of Burning
Rock to her starboard. Before finally leaving New Switzerland Lieutenant
Littlestone decided to reconnoitre its eastern coast as well, in order
to satisfy himself that it really was an isolated island in these seas,
and to form an approximate idea of the size of a colony which would soon
be included among the island dominions of Great Britain. As soon as he
had done this, the corvette, with a fair wind behind her, left the
island to the north-west, after getting little more than a glimpse of
its southern portion through the haze and fog.
Fortune favoured the first few weeks of the voyage. The passengers on
the _Unicorn_ were delighted with the weather, as well as with the
cordial treatment which they received from the commander and the other
officers. When they all met at table in the officers’ mess, or under the
awning on the poop, the conversation generally turned upon the wonders
of New Switzerland. If the corvette met with nothing to delay her they
all hoped to see it again within the year.
Fritz and Jenny often talked of Colonel Montrose, and of the gladness
that would be his when he clasped in his arms the daughter whom he had
thought he would never see again. For three years no news had been
received of the _Dorcas_, whose loss with nearly all hands had been
confirmed, by the survivors who had been taken to Sydney. But when they
reached England Jenny would present to her father the man who had
rescued her, and would beg him to bless their union.
As for Frank, though Dolly Wolston was only fourteen, it would not be
without a bitter pang that he would leave her at Cape Town, and keen
would be his longing to come back to her side!
After crossing the Tropic, off the Isle of France, the _Unicorn_
encountered less favourable winds. These delayed her arrival at her port
until the 17th of December, two months after her departure from New
Switzerland.
The corvette came to anchor in the harbour of Cape Town, where she was
to remain for a week.
One of the first visitors to come aboard was James Wolston. He knew that
his father, mother, and two sisters had taken passages on the _Unicorn_,
and his disappointment can be imagined at finding that there was only
one sister for him to meet. Dolly presented Fritz and Frank Zermatt to
him.
“Your father and mother and sister Hannah are living in New Switzerland
now, Mr. Wolston,” Fritz told him; “an unknown island on which my family
was cast twelve years ago, after the wreck of the _Landlord_. They have
decided to remain there and expect you to join them. When she comes back
from Europe the _Unicorn_ will take you and your wife and child to our
island, if you are willing to go with us.”
“When is the corvette due back at the Cape?” James Wolston enquired.
“In eight or nine months,” Fritz replied, “and she will go from here to
New Switzerland where the British flag will be flying. My brother Frank
and I have availed ourselves of this opportunity to take back to London
the daughter of Colonel Montrose who, we hope, will consent to come and
settle with her in our second fatherland.”
“And with you too, Fritz dear; for you will have become his son,” Jenny
added, giving him her hand.
“That is my most ardent wish, Jenny dear,” said Fritz.
“And we and our parents do very much want you to bring your family and
settle in New Switzerland,” Dolly Wolston added.
“You must insist on the fact, Dolly,” Frank declared, “that our island
is the most wonderful island that has ever appeared above the sea.”
“James will be the first to agree, when he has seen it,” Dolly answered.
“When once you have set foot in New Switzerland, and stayed at Rock
Castle——”
“And roosted at Falconhurst, eh, Dolly?” said Jenny, laughing.
“Yes, roosted,” the little girl replied; “well, then you will never want
to leave New Switzerland again!”
“You hear Mr. Wolston?” said Fritz.
“I hear, M. Zermatt,” James Wolston answered. “To settle in your island
and open up its first commercial relations with Great Britain is a
proposition that I find peculiarly inviting. My wife and I will talk
about it, and if we decide to go we will wind up our affairs and hold
ourselves in readiness to embark upon the _Unicorn_ when she comes back
to Cape Town. I am sure Susan will not hesitate.”
“I will do whatever my husband wishes,” Mrs. Wolston said.
Fritz and Frank shook James Wolston’s hand warmly as Dolly kissed her
sister-in-law.
“While the corvette stays here,” James Wolston then explained, “we
expect you all to accept the hospitality of our house. That will be the
best way to knit our friendship, and we will talk as much as you please
about New Switzerland.”
Naturally the passengers on the _Unicorn_ accepted this invitation in
the spirit in which it had been offered.
An hour later Mr. and Mrs. James Wolston received their guests. Fritz
and Frank were given a room between them, and Jenny shared the one
allotted to Dolly, as she had shared her cabin during the voyage.
Mrs. James Wolston was a young woman of twenty-four, gentle,
intelligent, and devoted to her husband. He was an earnest and active
man, very much like his father. They had one boy, Bob, now five years
old, whom they adored.
During the ten days that the _Unicorn_ remained in the port, from the
17th to the 27th of December, little was talked about but New
Switzerland, the events of which it had been the stage, the various
works undertaken, and the many contrivances and improvements effected on
the island. The subject was never exhausted. Dolly would expatiate on
all these wonderful things, and Frank would encourage her to go on, and
even find fault with her for not saying enough. Then Jenny Montrose
would embroider the tale, to Fritz’s keen delight.
In a word, the time sped, and James Wolston and his wife quite made up
their minds to leave the Cape for New Switzerland. During the voyage of
the corvette home and out again, Wolston would employ himself winding up
his affairs and realising his capital; he would be ready to start
directly the _Unicorn_ reappeared; and he would be one of the first
emigrants to the island.
The last good-byes had to be said at length, with the comforting
reflection that in another eight or nine months they would be at Cape
Town again, and that then they would all put to sea together, outward
bound for New Switzerland. Nevertheless, the parting was a painful one.
Jenny Montrose and Susan Wolston mingled their kisses and tears, to
which Dolly’s were added. The child was much distressed by Frank’s
departure, and his heart, too, was heavy, for he had grown very fond of
her. As he and his brother clasped James Wolston’s hand they could
assure themselves that they were leaving there a true friend indeed.
The _Unicorn_ put to sea on the 27th, in somewhat overcast weather. Her
passage was of average length. For several weeks winds varied from
north-west to south-west. The corvette spoke Saint Helena, Ascension,
and the Cape Verde Islands. Then, after passing in sight of the Canaries
and Azores, off the coasts of Portugal and France, she came up the
Channel, rounded the Isle of Wight, and, on the 14th of February,
dropped anchor at Portsmouth.
Jenny Montrose wanted to start at once for London, where her aunt lived.
If the Colonel were on active service she would not find him there,
since the campaign for which he had been recalled from India might have
lasted for several years. But if he had retired, he would have settled
near his sister-in-law, and it would be there that he would at length
set eyes again upon her whom he believed to have perished in the wreck
of the _Dorcas_.
Fritz and Frank offered to escort Jenny to London, whither business
called them also, and Fritz naturally wanted to meet Colonel Montrose
soon. So all three set out the same evening, and arrived in London
during the morning of the 23rd.
But bitter grief fell upon Jenny Montrose. She learned from her aunt
that the colonel had died during his last campaign, without the
happiness of knowing that the daughter whom he had mourned for was still
alive. After coming back from the far waters of the Indian Ocean to
embrace her father, hoping never to part from him again, to present her
saviour to him, and to beg for his consent to their union and his
blessing on it, Jenny would never see him more!
Her distress was great. In vain her aunt lavished on her words of
consolation; in vain Fritz sorrowed with her. The blow was too cruel.
She had never even thought of the possibility that her father might be
dead.
A few days later, in a conversation broken by tears and regrets, Jenny
said to him:
“Fritz, dear Fritz, we have just experienced the bitterest of
misfortunes, you and I. If you have not changed your mind at all——”
“Oh, Jenny, my darling!” Fritz exclaimed.
“Yes, I know,” said Jenny, “and my father would have been happy to call
you his son. I am sure he would have wanted to go with us and share our
life in the new English colony. But I must give up that happiness. I am
alone in the world now, and have only myself to depend upon! Alone? No,
no! You are there, Fritz.”
“Jenny,” said the young man, “the whole of my life shall be devoted to
your happiness.”
“And mine to yours, Fritz dear! But since my father is no longer here to
give us his consent, since I have no near relations living, and since
yours is the only family I can call my own——”
“You have belonged to it three years already, Jenny dear, ever since the
day when I found you on Burning Rock.”
“I love them all, and they love me, Fritz! Well, in a few months more we
shall be with them all again; we shall be back——”
“Married, Jenny?”
“Yes, Fritz, if you wish it, since you have your father’s consent and my
aunt will not refuse me hers.”
“Jenny, dear Jenny!” Fritz exclaimed, falling on his knees beside her.
“Our plans will not be changed at all, and I shall take back my wife to
my father and mother.”
Jenny Montrose remained henceforth in her aunt’s house, where Fritz and
Frank came every day to see her. Meanwhile all the necessary
arrangements were made for the celebration of the marriage within the
briefest time that the law permitted.
But there was other business of some importance to be attended to,
business which had been the purpose of the two brothers in coming to
Europe.
There was the sale of the various articles of value collected on the
island, the coral gathered on Whale Island, the pearls taken from the
bay, the nutmegs and the vanilla. M. Zermatt had not been mistaken about
their market value. They produced the considerable sum of eight thousand
pounds sterling.
When one remembered that the banks of Pearl Bay had been no more than
skimmed, that coral was to be found on many parts of the coast, that
nutmegs and vanilla could be produced in large quantities, and that
there were many other treasures in New Switzerland, one had to
acknowledge that the colony was destined for a height of prosperity
which set it in the foremost of the over-sea dominions of Great Britain.
In accordance with M. Zermatt’s instructions part of the sum realised
from the sale of these articles was to be spent upon things required to
complete the stock at Rock Castle and the farms in the Promised Land.
The rest, about three-quarters of the whole sum, and the ten thousand
pounds coming from Colonel Montrose’s estate, were deposited in the Bank
of England, upon which M. Zermatt would be able to draw in the future as
he might require, thanks to the communication which would soon be
established with the capital.
Restitution was made of the various jewels and monies belonging to the
families of those who had been lost with the _Landlord_, who had been
traced after enquiry.
Finally, a month after the arrival of Fritz Zermatt and Jenny Montrose
in London, their marriage was celebrated there by the chaplain of the
corvette. The _Unicorn_ had brought them as an engaged couple, and would
take them back to New Switzerland a married couple.
All these events excited a considerable interest throughout Great
Britain in the family which had been abandoned for a dozen years on an
unknown island in the Indian Ocean, and in Jenny’s adventures and her
stay on Burning Rock. The story which had been written by Jean Zermatt
appeared in the English and foreign newspapers, and under the title of
“The Swiss Family Robinson,” it was destined to a fame equal to that won
already by the immortal work of Daniel Defoe.
The consequence of all this was that the Admiralty decided to take
possession of New Switzerland. Moreover, this new possession had some
very considerable advantages to offer. The island occupied an important
position in the east of the Indian Ocean, near the entrance to the Sunda
seas, on the road to the Far East. Seven hundred and fifty miles at most
separated it from the western coast of Australia. The sixth part of the
world, discovered by the Dutch in 1605, visited by Abel Tasman in 1644
and by Captain Cook in 1774, was destined to become one of England’s
principal dominions. Thus the Admiralty could but congratulate itself on
its acquisition of an island so near that continent.
And thus the despatch of the _Unicorn_ to its waters was decided upon.
The corvette would set out again in a few months under the command of
Lieutenant Littlestone, promoted captain on this occasion. Fritz and
Jenny Zermatt were to sail in her with Frank, and also a few colonists,
pending the time when other emigrants, in larger numbers, would sail in
other ships to the same destination.
It was arranged that the corvette should put in at the Cape to pick up
James and Susan and Dolly Wolston.
The lengthy stay of the _Unicorn_ at Portsmouth was due to the fact that
repairs of some magnitude had become absolutely necessary after her
voyage from Sydney to Europe.
Fritz and Frank did not spend the whole of this time in London or in
England. They and Jenny regarded it as a duty to visit Switzerland, so
as to be able to take to M. and Mme. Zermatt some news of their native
land.
So they went first to France, and spent a week in Paris. The Empire had
just ended at this date, as also had the long wars with Great Britain.
Fritz and Frank arrived in Switzerland, the country which they had
almost forgotten, so young had they been when they left it, and from
Geneva they went to the canton of Appenzel.
Of their family none remained except a few distant relatives of whom M.
and Mme. Zermatt knew little. But the arrival of the two young men
caused a great sensation in the Swiss Republic. Everybody knew the story
of the survivors of the wreck of the _Landlord_, and knew the island now
on which they had found refuge. Thus, although their fellow countrymen
were little inclined to run the risks involved in emigration, several
declared their intention of joining those colonists to whom New
Switzerland promised a cordial welcome.
It was not without a pang that Fritz and Frank left the land of their
origin. Even if they might hope to visit it again in the future, that
was a hope which M. and Mme. Zermatt, advancing now in years, would
hardly realise.
Crossing France, Fritz and Jenny and Frank returned to England.
Preparations for the sailing of the _Unicorn_ were drawing to a close,
and the corvette would be ready to set sail in the last few days of
June.
Both Fritz and Frank were received with flattering attention by the
Lords of the Admiralty. England was grateful to Jean Zermatt for having
of his own free will offered Captain Littlestone immediate possession of
his island.
As has been explained, when the corvette left New Switzerland, the
greatest portion of the island was still unexplored, save the district
of the Promised Land, the littoral on the north, and part of the
littoral on the east as far as Unicorn Bay. Captain Littlestone was
therefore to complete its survey both on the west and south and also in
the interior. In a few months more, several ships would be fitted out to
take emigrants and the materials required in colonisation and to put the
island in a proper state of defence. Then regular communication would be
established between Great Britain and those distant waters of the Indian
Ocean.
On the 27th of June the _Unicorn_ was ready to weigh anchor, and only
waited for Fritz and Jenny and Frank. On the 28th the three arrived at
Portsmouth, whither the stores purchased on behalf of the Zermatt family
had been sent in advance.
They were warmly welcomed aboard the corvette by Captain Littlestone,
whom they had had one or two opportunities of meeting in London. How
happy they were in the thought of seeing James and Susan Wolston again
at Cape Town, and also the charming little Dolly, whom Frank had kept
constantly supplied with news, and good news too, of everybody.
In the morning of the 29th of June, the _Unicorn_ left Portsmouth with a
fair wind, flying at the peak the English flag which was to be planted
upon the shores of New Switzerland.