PLANNING AND WORKING
During the first few days following the departure of the _Unicorn_
deep depression reigned at Rock Castle. M. and Mme. Zermatt were
inconsolable at having let two of their children go, although they
realised the necessity of doing so.
But it is vain to ask of a parent's heart more than it is able to give.
Fritz, that gallant young fellow, was gone, Fritz, the stout right arm
of his family, in whose eyes he represented the future. Gone, too, was
Frank, following in the footsteps of his eldest brother.
Ernest and Jack were left, it is true. Ernest had never lost his taste
for study and, thanks to his reading, his education was as solid as
it was practical. Jack shared Fritz's love of hunting and fishing
and riding and sailing, and, keenly eager to wrest her last secrets
from New Switzerland, he would take his brother's place in daring
explorations.
And lastly, she, too, was gone, the charming and beloved Jenny, whose
absence Betsy regretted as much as that of a dear daughter. It was
heart-breaking to see their places in the rooms of Rock Castle, their
seats at table and in the hall where all assembled in the evenings,
empty.
They would all come back, no doubt, and then the grief of the parting
and the sadness of their absence would be forgotten. They would all
come back, and new friends with them--Colonel Montrose, who would be
unwilling to be separated from his daughter after he had given her as
wife to her rescuer, and Dolly Wolston, and her brother James with his
wife and child. They would all be glad to settle in this land. And
other emigrants would soon be coming to populate this remote colony of
Great Britain.
Yes: in a year at latest, one fine day a ship would appear out beyond
False Hope Point, sailing from the west, not to disappear in the north
or east! She would shape her course into Deliverance Bay. Most likely
she would be the _Unicorn_. But whatever ship she was, she would bring
Colonel Montrose and his daughter, Fritz and Frank, Mr. and Mrs.
Wolston's children!
The situation was entirely altered. The inhabitants of this New
Switzerland were no longer merely the shipwrecked survivors of the
_Landlord_, who had found refuge on an unknown land. The position of
this land was definitely established now in latitude and longitude.
Lieutenant Littlestone had its exact bearings. He would report them to
the Admiralty, and the Admiralty would give the necessary orders for
taking possession. When she left New Switzerland the corvette uncoiled
behind her, as it were, a cable thousands of miles in length, a cable
which bound New Switzerland to the old world, and which nothing could
break thereafter.
As yet, indeed, only a portion of its northern coast was known, the
thirty or forty miles, at most, between Unicorn Bay and the seas to the
east of Burning Rock. Even the three deep bays, Deliverance, Nautilus
and Pearl, had not been completely explored. In the whole course of
these eleven years M. Zermatt and his sons had scarcely set foot beyond
the great rampart of mountain outside the defile of Cluse. They had
confined their excursions to the middle line of the Green Valley, and
had never ascended the opposite heights.
Owing to the presence of the Wolstons the number of inhabitants of Rock
Castle had not been diminished by the departure of the _Unicorn_.
Mr. Wolston, at this time forty-five years of age, was a man of sound
constitution. He had been weakened by fever contracted in New South
Wales, but the healthy climate of New Switzerland and the care which
would be lavished on him there would soon restore him to health and
strength. His engineering knowledge and experience could not fail to
be of the greatest service, and M. Zermatt fully intended to use them
in effecting improvements which he had not been able to carry out
hitherto. But first of all Mr. Wolston, to whom Ernest felt himself
drawn by a certain resemblance of tastes and character, must regain his
health.
Mrs. Wolston, Merry, was a few years younger than Mme. Zermatt. The two
women could not fail to like each other, and their friendship would
grow as they knew each other. Household duties engaged them together
at Rock Castle, and they would share the work when visiting the
farmsteads at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, and Sugar-cane
Grove.
Hannah Wolston was only seventeen. Her health, like her father's, had
been impaired, and it was certain that her stay in the Promised Land
would strengthen her constitution and bring back the colour to her pale
cheeks. She gave promise of developing into a very attractive woman,
being fair, with pretty features, a complexion which would soon recover
its bloom, a pleasant look in her blue eyes and a graceful carriage.
She presented a great contrast to her sister, the sparkling Dolly, with
her fourteen years, and her fresh and ringing laugh, which would have
filled the rooms of Rock Castle, a brunette who was always singing,
always chattering, and full of merry repartee. But she, too, would come
back soon, the bird that had flown away, and her warbling would again
delight all this little world.
Meantime the enlargement of Rock Castle was a matter of pressing
necessity. When the _Unicorn_ returned this dwelling would be too
small. If only Colonel Montrose and Jenny, Fritz and Frank, James
Wolston and his sister, wife, and child, were reckoned, they could not
live there together unless some parts of the great cave were specially
adapted to their use. If any fresh colonists came with them new houses
would have to be built. There would be plenty of room for these along
the right bank of Jackal River, the shore towards Flamingo Bay, or the
shady road between Rock Castle and Falconhurst.
M. Zermatt had many long talks with Mr. Wolston on this subject, talks
in which Ernest eagerly took part, making sound suggestions.
During this time Jack, who now undertook alone the duties he had
formerly shared with his eldest brother, made it his constant business
to supply the needs of the larder. Followed by his dogs, Brownie
and Fawn, he went hunting every day in the woods and plains, where
game, furred and feathered, abounded. He ransacked the marshes, where
wild duck and snipe furnished a change for the daily bill of fare.
Coco, Jack's jackal, was an ardent rival of the dogs, whose constant
companion he was on these hunting expeditions. Sometimes the young
hunter bestrode his onager, Lightfoot, who abundantly justified his
name; sometimes the buffalo, Storm, who swept like a storm across the
forest land. Strict injunctions had been laid upon the daring young
fellow never to venture outside the confines of the Promised Land, and
never to go through the defile of Cluse, opening into the Green Valley,
where he would run the risk of encountering fierce animals. Yielding
to his mother's urgent entreaty, he had promised not to be away longer
than a day at a time, and always to come home for the evening meal. But
in spite of his promises Betsy could not hide her fears when she saw
him vanish like an arrow from a bow beyond the trees near Rock Castle.
For his part, Ernest preferred the peaceful occupation of fishing
to hunting. He would settle himself by the side of Jackal River or
at the foot of the rocks in Flamingo Bay. There were quantities of
crustaceans, molluscs, and fish there--salmon, herrings, mackerel,
lobster, crayfish, oysters, and mussels. Sometimes Hannah Wolston would
join him, not a little to his satisfaction.
The young girl was unsparing of her attentions to the cormorant and
the jackal brought from Burning Rock. It was to her that Jenny had
committed them before she went away, and they were in good hands. When
she came back Jenny would find her two faithful companions in the
pink of health, and at liberty to come and go as they pleased in the
paddocks of Rock Castle.
While the cormorant agreed very well with the other inhabitants of the
poultry yard, the jackal was on bad terms with Jack's jackal, which had
tried in vain to make friends. The two creatures were jealous of each
other, and were forever scratching and quarrelling.
"I give up trying to make them agree," Jack said one day to Hannah,
"and I hand them over to you."
"Trust me, Jack," Hannah replied. "With a little patience I hope to
bring them together."
"Try, my dear girl, for jackals should always be friends."
"It seems to me, Jack, that your monkey, too----"
"Nip the Second? Oh, all he wants is to bite Jenny's pet!"
And really, Nip the Second did appear to be very ill-disposed towards
the newcomer. Tame as these creatures were with human beings, it would
be difficult to establish harmony between them.
The days slipped by. Betsy and Merry never had an idle hour. While
Mme. Zermatt was mending clothes, Mrs. Wolston, who was a very clever
needle-woman, was making dresses and petticoats out of the materials
that had been treasured from the wreck of the _Landlord_.
The weather was superb, the heat still not excessive. In the forenoon
the breeze blew off the land, in the afternoon off the sea. The nights
remained fresh and restful. The last week of October, the April of the
southern latitudes, was about to retire before November, the month of
renewal, the month of spring in that hemisphere.
The two families paid frequent visits to the farms, sometimes on foot,
sometimes in the cart drawn by its team of buffaloes. More often than
not Ernest rode the young ass, Rash, and Jack bestrode the ostrich. Mr.
Wolston got much benefit from these walks. He had fewer and lighter
attacks of fever.
They used to go from Rock Castle to Falconhurst by the fine road
planted ten years before, which was now completely shaded by chestnut,
walnut, and cherry trees. Sometimes the stay at the aerial country-seat
was prolonged for four and twenty hours; and it was delightful, when
they had climbed the winding staircase inside, to step out onto the
platform sheltered beneath the foliage of the magnificent mangrove. The
dwelling-place seemed rather small now; but in Mr. Wolston's opinion
there was no need to consider its enlargement. And one day M. Zermatt
answered his argument thus:
"You are quite right, my dear Wolston. To live among the branches of a
tree was all very well for the Robinsons, whose first care was to find
a refuge from wild beasts, and that was our case at the beginning of
our life on this island. But now we are colonists, real colonists."
"And besides," Mr. Wolston pointed out, "we have to get ready for the
return of our children, and we have none too much time to put Rock
Castle into a condition to receive them all."
"Yes," said Ernest, "if there are any enlargements to be made it is at
Rock Castle. Where could we find a more secure home during the rainy
season? I agree with Mr. Wolston; Falconhurst has become insufficient,
and during the summer I think it would be better to move into Wood
Grange or Sugar-cane Grove."
"I should prefer Prospect Hill," Mme. Zermatt remarked. "It would be
quite easy with supplementary arrangements."
"An excellent idea, mamma!" Jack exclaimed. "The view from Prospect
Hill is delightful, right over the sea to Deliverance Bay. That hill is
simply marked out as the site for a villa."
"Or a fort," M. Zermatt replied; "a fort to command that point of the
island."
"A fort?" Jack repeated enquiringly.
"Well, my boy," M. Zermatt answered, "we must not forget that New
Switzerland is going to become an English possession, and that it will
be to the interest of the English to fortify it. The battery on Shark's
Island would not be strong enough to defend the future town which will
probably be built between Flamingo Bay and Rock Castle. So it seems to
me indispensable that Prospect Hill should be used in the near future
for a fort."
"Prospect Hill, or a little farther forward, on False Hope Point," Mr.
Wolston suggested. "In that case the villa might be preserved."
"I should like that much better," Jack declared.
"And so should I," Mme. Zermatt added. "Let us try to keep all these
memorials of our early days, Prospect Hill as well as Falconhurst. I
should be very sorry to see them disappear."
Of course, Betsy's feeling was a very natural one. But the situation
had changed. While New Switzerland belonged to the shipwrecked
survivors of the _Landlord_ only, there had never been any question
of putting it in a state of defence. When it became a dependency of
England, it must have coast defences.
And all things considered, could its first occupants really regret the
consequences involved by the arrival of the _Unicorn_ in these waters
of New Switzerland?
"No," was M. Zermatt's conclusion, "so let us leave the future to bring
about gradually all the various changes it requires."
Moreover, there were other things to be done that were much more urgent
than the repairs at Falconhurst and Prospect Hill. It was nearly time
to get in all the crops, to say nothing of the attention that had to
be given to the animals at Wood Grange, the hermitage at Eberfurt, and
Sugar-cane Grove.
When they paid their first visit to Whale Island M. Zermatt and Mr.
Wolston had been amazed at the number of rabbits it contained. There
were hundreds of these most prolific rodents. Fortunately the island
produced quite enough herbaceous plants and roots to guarantee their
food supply. So Jenny, to whom M. Zermatt had made a present of this
island, would find it in a highly prosperous condition when she
returned.
"You were very wise to enclose your rabbits there," Mr. Wolston
remarked. "There will be thousands of them some day, and they would
have eaten up every field in the Promised Land! In Australia, where I
come from, these creatures threaten to become a worse plague than the
locusts in Africa, and if the most stringent measures are not taken
against the depredations of the breed, the entire surface of Australia
will be consumed."[2]
[Footnote 2: Mr. Wolston was not deceived in speaking like this;
seventy years later the extraordinary increase of the rabbits had
become such a menace to Australia that the most active steps had to be
taken for their destruction.]
During these latter months of the year 1816 it was obvious more than
once that Fritz and Frank were badly missed, although the Wolstons did
not spare their efforts. The harvest season was always a very busy
one. An immense amount of work was involved in the proper farming of
the fields of maize and tapioca and of the rice plantation beyond the
marsh near Flamingo Bay, in the cropping of the fruit trees, both the
European species and the indigenous species, such as bananas, guavas,
cacaos, cinnamons, and others, in the extraction and preparation
of sago, and finally in the harvesting of the grain, wheat, rice,
buckwheat and barley, and the cutting of the sugar-canes, which grew in
such abundance on the farm fields of Sugar-cane Grove. All this made
heavy work for four men, although the three women helped them bravely.
And it would all have to be begun over again in a few months, for the
soil was so prolific that there was no danger of its being exhausted by
two crops every year.
On the other hand, it was important that Mme. Zermatt, Mrs. Wolston,
and Hannah should not give up entirely their domestic work. And for
this reason, while Mr. Wolston and M. Zermatt and his two sons went off
to work out of doors, they most commonly remained at Rock Castle.
Fertile as the soil of the Promised Land was, however, there was yet
the possibility that its yield might be prejudicially affected by an
excessive drought during the summer. What was lacking was a system
of irrigation suitably carried all over the surface of this area of
several hundred acres. The only water-courses were the Jackal and
Falconhurst Rivers to the east, and to the west the Eastern River,
which ran into the south end of Nautilus Bay. This defect had struck
Mr. Wolston, and one day, the 9th of November, after the midday meal,
he brought the conversation round to this subject.
"Nothing would be easier," he said, "than to fix up a water-wheel,
using the Jackal River fall a mile and a half above Rock Castle. There
are two ship's pumps among the material you took out of the _Landlord_,
my dear Zermatt. Well, the wheel, once it is fixed, could work them
with quite sufficient force, could pump the water up into a reservoir
and carry it through pipes as far as the fields at Wood Grange and
Sugar-cane Grove."
"But the pipes," said Ernest; "how can we make them?"
"We would do on a big scale what you have already done on a small scale
to bring water from Jackal River to the kitchen garden at Rock Castle,"
Mr. Wolston replied. "Instead of using bamboos, we would use trunks of
the sago-tree, cleared of their pith. An installation like that would
not be beyond our powers."
"Splendid!" Jack declared. "When we have made our land more fertile
still it will produce more; it will produce too much, and we shall not
know what to do with our crops, for after all, there is no market yet
at Rock Castle."
"There will be one, Jack," M. Zermatt replied, "as there will be a town
by and by, and then several towns, not only in the Promised Land, but
all over New Switzerland. We must look ahead, my son."
"And when there are towns," Ernest added, "there will be inhabitants
whose food supply must be secured. So we must get out of the soil all
that it is capable of yielding."
"We shall get it all right," Mr. Wolston added reassuringly, "by means
of this system of irrigation, which I will study if you like."
Jack held his tongue and did not give in. It was by no means an
agreeable idea to him that the English colony would some day number a
considerable population, and if Mme. Zermatt's inmost heart could have
been read the same regret at the thought of the future might have been
found there.
However this may be, in the few hours of leisure left to them
occasionally by their work in the fields, Mr. Wolston, M. Zermatt and
Ernest, who found this kind of task most interesting, studied the
question of irrigation. They ascertained accurately the line and level
of the country, and were convinced that its disposition was favourable
to the construction of a canal.
Rather more than half-a-mile to the south of Wood Grange lay Swan Lake,
filled by the rains during the rainy season, but attaining during the
dry season a low water mark which rendered it useless. The trenches
that might have been cut would not have enabled the water at summer
level to drain away. But if they succeeded in keeping a constant
surplusage in the lake, by drawing upon Jackal River, it would be easy
to divert it over the surrounding land and bring fresh elements of
fertility to it by a carefully considered system of irrigation.
The distance between the waterfall and the southern extremity of the
lake was a good two and a half miles, it is true, and to build a
conduit of that length could not fail to be a task of much magnitude.
It would necessitate the felling of a great many sago-trees.
Happily, another examination of the ground, carried out by Ernest and
Mr. Wolston, demonstrated the fact that the length of the conduit could
be materially reduced.
One evening, when the two families were sitting together in the common
hall after a busy day both in and out of doors, Ernest said:
"Papa, Mr. Wolston and I have found out all about the levels. If we
raise the water from Jackal River thirty feet, that will be enough to
carry it four hundred yards to the place where the ground begins to
slope again down to Swan Lake. A trench cut from that point will serve
as a canal for the water and will take it direct into the lake."
"Good!" said M. Zermatt. "That will simplify the task enormously."
"And then Swan Lake will form the reservoir for irrigating the fields
at Wood Grange, Sugar-cane Grove, and even the hermitage," Mr. Wolston
added. "Besides, we will only supply it with enough water for the
actual requirements of the irrigation system, and if a surplusage
should accumulate we could easily drain it off towards the sea."
"Quite so," said M. Zermatt. "We shall deserve the thanks of all future
colonists when once we have completed this canal."
"But not of the old ones, who were satisfied with what nature had given
them!" Jack remarked. "Poor old Jackal River! They are going to tire it
out turning a wheel; they are going to take a bit of it away; and all
for the material advantage of people we do not even know!"
"It is plain that Jack is not an advocate of colonisation," said Mrs.
Wolston.
"Our two families settled in this district, and their existence
assured--what more could we wish for, Mrs. Wolston?"
"Good!" said Hannah Wolston. "But Jack will change his ideas with all
the improvements you are going to introduce."
"Do you think so?" Jack answered with a laugh.
"When shall you begin this great undertaking?" Betsy enquired.
"In a few days, dear," M. Zermatt assured her. "After we have got
in our first harvest we shall have three months' leisure before the
second."
This being settled, a most laborious task ensued, lasting for five
weeks from the 15th of November to the 20th of December.
Expeditions had to be made to Prospect Hill for the purpose of
felling several hundred sago-trees in the adjacent woods. There was
no difficulty in hollowing them out, and their pith was carefully
collected in bamboo barrels. It was the hauling of the trees that
constituted the really hardest part of the work. This devolved upon
M. Zermatt and Jack, assisted by the two buffaloes, the onager, and
the young ass, which drew a kind of trolley or truck, like those used
later in Europe. It was Ernest who hit upon the idea of suspending
these heavy lengths of timber to the axle-tree of the two wheels of
the waggon, previously detached from the body for that purpose. If the
tree-trunks did scrape along the ground, they only did so at one end,
and their hauling was effected under much easier conditions.
All the same, buffaloes, onager and ass had plenty to do, so much,
indeed, that one day Jack said:
"It is a pity, papa, that we have not got a pair of elephants in our
service! What a lot of fatigue our poor beasts would be saved!"
"But not the worthy pachyderms themselves," M. Zermatt
replied--"converted into our poor beasts in their turn."
"Oh, elephants have plenty of strength," Jack retorted; "they would
drag these sago-tree trunks along like so many matches! There are some
in New Switzerland, and if we could only----"
"I am not very keen on these creatures getting into the Promised Land,
Jack. They would soon get our fields into a pretty mess!"
"No doubt, papa. But if we should have an opportunity of meeting them
in the savannahs of Pearl Bay, or in those plains where the Green
Valley opens out----"
"We would take advantage of it," M. Zermatt answered. "But don't let us
create the opportunity. It is better not to."
While M. Zermatt and his son were proceeding with these many hauling
journeys, Mr. Wolston and Ernest were busy making and fixing the
pumping machine. In the construction of the water-wheel the engineer
displayed great skill, and particularly interested Ernest, who had a
great bent for everything connected with mechanics.
This wheel was set up at the foot of the waterfall in Jackal River, in
such a way as to work the _Landlord's_ pumps. The water, brought up to
a height of thirty feet, would be stored in a reservoir hollowed out
between the rocks on the right bank, and this would be fitted with the
water-pipes made from the sago-tree trunks, the first of which were
soon laid along the river bank.
The work was carried on so steadily and methodically that about the
20th of December it was finished, including the trench or drain cut
through the surface of the ground to the southern end of Swan Lake.
"Shall we have an opening ceremony?" Hannah Wolston asked that evening.
"I rather think so!" Jack replied. "Just as if it were a matter of
opening a canal in our own old Switzerland! What do you say, Mamma?"
"Just as you like, dears," Betsy answered.
"Then that is settled," said M. Zermatt. "The ceremony shall begin
to-morrow with the starting of our machinery."
"How shall it end?" Ernest asked.
"With an excellent dinner in honour of Mr. Wolston."
"And of your son Ernest," said Mr. Wolston, "for he deserves great
praise for his keenness and intelligence."
"I am delighted with your praise, sir," the young fellow replied, "but
I had a good teacher."
The next day, about ten o'clock, the canal was formally opened in the
presence of the two families who had assembled near the waterfall. The
wheel, set in motion by the fall, revolved regularly, the two pumps
worked and the water was let into the reservoir, which was filled in an
hour and a half. Then the sluices were opened and the water travelled
through the conduit, a distance of four hundred yards.
Everybody hastened to this spot, and there was much clapping of hands
when the first trickles of water entered the portion of the canal
which was open to the sky. After Ernest had thrown in a little buoy,
the members of both families got into the waggon, which was waiting,
and drove off towards Swan Lake, Jack speeding in front mounted on his
ostrich.
The waggon made such good speed that, although it had a détour to make,
it reached the far end of the canal at the same moment that the buoy
floated out onto the surface of the lake.
Loud cheers greeted it; the work had been brought to a satisfactory
conclusion. It would only be necessary to make a few breaches in the
banks for the water, even in the height of the drought, to irrigate
generously all the surrounding country during the hot weather.
Three months had now passed since the _Unicorn_ had sailed. If nothing
occurred to delay her she ought to be seen again off Deliverance Bay
in three times that time.
Not a day passed without some talk about the absent ones. They were
followed at every stage of their voyage. Now they had reached the Cape
of Good Hope, where James Wolston was waiting for his sister Dolly. Now
the corvette was working up the Atlantic, along the African coast. Now
she was arriving at Portsmouth; Jenny and Fritz and Frank were landing
and reaching London. There Colonel Montrose was clasping in his arms
the daughter whom he had never thought to see again, and, with her,
him who had rescued her from the Burning Rock, whose union with her he
would sanction with his blessing.
Thus ended the year 1816, which had been marked by events whose
consequences must profoundly alter the situation of New Switzerland.