Make chairs, and arrange my house, seal-skins, and goat-skins. Provide
provisions for winter. Discover wild grapes, and make wine and
vinegar. Find potassium, or saltpetre. Make gunpowder, and by means of
my compass discover iron. Thoughts of the future.
The completion of my canoe, which I named the "Fairy," was a great
delight to me, and I made several trips in her along the coast in
Stillwater Cove, and made an exploration near the place where I had
first landed. Somewhat into the interior of the island, I came upon
what was a great discovery for me,--although I had the seeds amongst my
stores, and had already planted some,--and that was grapes, in large
and abundant clusters, growing wild and naturally. Here was both food
and drink for me, and they were at this time in their prime. From them
I could make vinegar, wine, and raisins. I gathered a large quantity,
which I placed in the canoe and transported to the Hermitage, and
although late in season hung up many bunches to dry in the still quite
warm sun, and from the remainder I extracted the juice by pressing them
between my hands and catching the liquor in several of my numerous
earthen jars. The flavor of these grapes was a little wild, but
pleasant and agreeable. I knew that fermentation would take place, and
that in time I should have a light claret wine, and thereafter good
wine vinegar. To cause fermentation, and to improve the flavor, I put a
piece of goat's flesh into each vessel, and covered up the mouths with
earthen covers that I had made to each.
I was no longer in any fear about expending my manilla rope, for I
had some time since begun to use strips of rawhide of the goats skins
for lashings, than which nothing could be better, and I also cut many
skins into very fine strips after they were tanned, which served me for
smaller strings, and even thread for rough sewing. For finer sewing
I often used the sinews of these creatures, and I had by this time
converted several of my nails into steel, after having pierced them
with an eye, and by grinding them down and polishing them upon stones I
had made several very good sail-needles, which were extremely useful,
and it was a small matter to make a "palm," or sailor's thimble, from
the skin of a goat, to go upon the right hand, to force the needle
through any material, exactly the same as is done by sailors in all
their stitching and sail-making. In place of the little round thimble
fixed into the centre of the palm, to receive the head of the needle
in pushing, I inserted a flint-stone with a roughened surface, which
answered the purpose very well, and I could now do all kinds of rough
sewing without the use of my awl, which had been a slow and laborious
manner of proceeding. From this time forth I had no difficulty in
sewing my jackets and trousers with strong sinews, which held them
firmly together in the seams. It is scarcely credible how many things I
gathered around about me that were useful as well as ornamental.
Before I had done completely furnishing my house I set about making me
a movable chair, as well as the easy ones that I had made of old roots,
and this I did by means of my hatchet. I procured four smooth limbs of
trees, two of which were about four feet in length and two about one
foot six inches. The latter were to serve as the front legs, the former
as the back legs and also the back of the chair. These limbs were about
two inches in diameter, as I did not wish the chair to be heavy, but
light and portable. Into all these uprights I bored holes at proper
distances by means of my anchor shank, heated to a red heat, which I
thrust through them, and cutting smaller round limbs for rungs I forced
them into the holes made by the hot iron, and soon had the skeleton of
a nice light chair made to my hand. I was so pleased with it that I set
about another immediately, and soon had it also finished. It was not
at all a difficult job for a mechanic. For the seat of these chairs,
upon one I wove rushes thick and strong, and upon the other I laced a
fine piece of seal skin with the fur left on. They were both useful and
comfortable, but rather straight in the back, like the old ancestral
chairs that I used to see in the attics in Vermont.
I had got tired by this time shooting at the wild pigeons with
my arrows, and found no difficulty in capturing all I wanted by
means of snares, made from the hair of my goats, which I set at the
watering-place whenever I wanted any of them for food, and gave over
firing ten or fifteen shots before I could kill one, when I could
capture a dozen in an hour should I need them.
I took down my goat-skins at the windows and replaced them by thin
skins of the same animal, almost parchment, which gave some light
through them, and fastened them up with thorns, driven into the wood,
for the winter, the open door giving me, with their subdued light,
enough to see by so as to perform all the work that I wanted to inside,
and when night came I had my lamps in full blast, for oil cost me
nothing.
I made, before winter set in, several excursions, in all directions,
and especially one in the direction of the mountain that lay upon my
right hand, only about a mile from the Hermitage, when I went to the
coal-mine. This mountain I made up my mind to ascend, and see if I
could not make some new discovery. I fought my way up its steep sides
till I had arrived at nearly one-half the distance, apparently, from
its summit, when I was halted by the appearance of a small brook that
trickled past my feet. I noticed that the water and the stones were
both of a brown, rusty color, and it flashed upon me that it must be
caused by iron. If I could only find that substance I thought that I
could be almost happy, even in my solitude. What could I not do with
that metal to aid me? the handling of it would be to me child's play.
I could make of it cast-steel, and of cast-steel all manner of tools
by means of moulds. This working in iron had been my trade, and I had
no occasion to consult my book to know how to avail myself of it should
I be so fortunate as to find it. I followed this little trickling
brook, not over six inches wide, till it branched into two smaller
ones, and, still following the smaller one, traced it till I came to a
place where, in a bubbling spring, the water issued from the mountain's
side. The discoloration of all the stones near me proved to me that I
was near iron, and that the mountain whence the tiny streams issued
contained it; but in how large masses I could not judge.
I left my little stream and looked about me carefully, to the right
and left, for I did not want to pierce the mountain whence the water
issued, as I wanted a dryer spot to make my explorations, and knew
that if there was iron it would be found near by the brook as well
as in the exact spot whence the spring burst forth. I finally, at a
little distance to the left hand and rather down the hill, found a
place that looked as if it might prove a good locality to prosecute my
search. The ground was covered with boulders, of different sizes, and
there was quite an opening on the mountain side, the undergrowth being
only shrubs and plants, with the trees and groves below me in larger
groups. In this opening I set to work, turning over such boulders as I
could lift, and there were many that by aid of a handspike, cut from
a sapling with my hatchet, I was able to remove and send bounding
down the mountain side. I scratched into the side of the mountain
in this way till I had made quite a little excavation, but I was
obliged to give it up and return home for my pickaxe, as I called my
anchor-fluke, and with this instrument, and carrying my dinner with
me, I attacked the mountain the next day and made more progress. After
working some little, in an irregular way, into the mountain side,--for
I had to avoid the heavier boulders and solid stone,--I came upon a
crystallized mass between two rocks that seemed to be exuding from the
mountain side. It looked something like common salt, and I put some of
it in my mouth to see if I could recognize what it was by the taste.
It had hardly reached my palate before I sank down upon the earth
where I stood, with the excitement of the knowledge of the discovery
that I felt sure I had made. My sense of taste told me plainly that I
had found saltpetre, and saltpetre meant _gunpowder_! GUNPOWDER! and
gunpowder meant strength to protect myself with and power to blow the
mountain to atoms to come at my iron should nature try to resist me by
enfolding it concealed in its bosom. I grasped my pickaxe and picked
out quite a lump of my precious discovery, and started hastily for home.
It was too late to do much on that day, as my usual household cares
and the milking of my goats and getting supper took up most of my
time; besides I wanted to consult my book as to the proportions in
which to mix my ingredients to make gunpowder. I knew nearly the
right proportions, and felt confident that I could get it exactly by
repeated experiment, but I also knew that my book would give it to me
exactly and save me much loss of time in this direction. I knew also
that willow or alder made the best charcoal for gunpowder, and, thank
God, there was no lack of these trees upon the island. If I obtained
gunpowder I could make some kind of a gun, for I knew that, in ancient
history, cannon even had been made of _leather_, and fired repeatedly
without bursting. I could certainly make a tube of some kind, so
strongly reinforced with skin and twine and raw hide, that it would
stand the discharge of a small quantity of powder without bursting, and
if I found iron I would soon solve all the difficulties about a gun
barrel, let me once get hold of the raw material in any quantity.
A thought struck me in this connection. I would soon prove whether
there was iron in the mountain side by taking my compass there on the
next trip, and seeing if it was drawn from the true north towards
the mountain side, and if so, in what direction: this would tell me
how to dig towards my treasure, and not waste time by going in any
wrong direction. This seemed a happy thought, and I was jubilant over
having conceived it. The only thing that I did to help things along
for the morrow was to pick out carefully, from my wood-fire ashes,
small pieces of charcoal that I thought would serve my purpose, and
to pick off from several pieces of my coal a quantity of sulphur all
ready for my experiments. The next morning I set to work in good
earnest, and having discovered the proportions in which to add my
different ingredients, I soon had the pulverized charcoal, sulphur, and
saltpetre together, and then, moistening the mass slightly, I kneaded
them together till they were completely incorporated. I then, by a slow
heat, dried my gunpowder cake upon hot stones that I heated at the
fire and then carried to a distance, first carefully dusting them, and
placed my gunpowder paste upon them in an earthen jar to be dried. As
my cake was not very large, I was not very many hours in doing this;
and as I knew that I ought not to use any iron or stone in pulverizing
the mass, whilst this was going on, I procured a smooth rolling-pin
made from the round branch of a tree, and smoothed quite a surface
on the upper side of a large fallen tree with my hatchet, so that I
had a sort of table to roll my powder upon. Again, to prevent all
accidents, when my cake was thoroughly dry, I carried it bit by bit,
having broken it by a blow of my wooden rolling-pin, to my fallen-tree
table, where I crushed it under the roller, putting pieces no larger
than my thumb-nail under the roller at one time, so if there should be
an explosion, it would be on so small a scale that it would not injure
me in the least, should it take place. As fast as this small amount was
pulverized, I carried it again to a distance and placed it in a gourd
for safe keeping, but I pulverized very little before I interrupted
my task to rush with quite a handful to my fire, and, taking a pinch,
I cast it into the flame, and, puff, puff, puff, it ignited as it
struck the fire, just as the particles used to do in my boyhood days.
Even this did not, however, satisfy me. I laid the rest down upon the
floor, and standing at a distance with a coal in one end of a cleft
stick, touched it, when it exploded as quickly and completely as any
ever turned out by any mill. One more proof and I would be convinced. I
ran and got from the sea-shore one of the large shells for which I have
no name, but which I had formerly used as lamp reservoirs, and going
to my powder table, soon pulverized enough to pour a handful into it,
and to close up the lips with moist clay, except one orifice; to this I
laid a piece of manilla soaked in the dampened powder as a slow match,
and having set fire to the same, and retired to a safe distance, I
awaited the result. It seemed an eternity before the slow match burned
to the orifice, but when I had almost given up hope, in one instant,
with a loud report, the sea-shell was burst into a thousand fragments.
I was successful; power and strength were added to my resources. I
lay down upon the sand by the sea-shore where I had retired to watch
the explosion, and fell into a brown study, which enwrapped me, body
and soul, for many hours, till I was called to myself again by the
decreasing light of the setting sun. The next day I sallied forth,
armed with my compass, for the mountain side, and upon arrival I noted
the direction of the magnetic north by my compass, the card of which I
had released from its packing and set upon its pivot. Having carefully
ascertained this, I entered the small hole that I had made in the
mountain side, and held the compass in several places against the
earth, when the needle turned perceptibly away from the magnetic north
and pointed in towards the interior of the mountain, and by several
experiments I found out in just what direction I ought to advance, and
by the attraction of the needle I felt sure that the ore, which I now
was convinced was there, could not be very far distant from where I
stood, and that one large blast would lay it open to me. I therefore
went to work and gathered quite a quantity of the saltpetre and started
for home to make my gunpowder for the blast that was to open up to me
my long-sought treasure, valuable to me far beyond any other metal on
this earth in the circumstances in which I was placed.
In five days' time I found myself in possession of over twenty pounds,
I should judge, of good gunpowder. I found by my book that it was not
at all peculiar to find potassium as I had found mine, and further,
that to purify it I needed to mix it with equal parts of wood-ashes,
and then add water and allow it to stand a few hours, and then draw off
the lye and place it for three days in the sun, in shallow vessels,
to evaporate, and then boil down what was left, to procure absolutely
pure saltpetre, all of which I did. And when I had manufactured my
powder, and observed by experiment that it was much sharper and louder
in explosions than before, showing the improvement of purifying the
saltpetre, I placed the whole lot in my goatskin bag and started for
the mountain. Arriving at my excavation, I looked about to see what
I could do to make my explosion effectual and do the most good. By
examination, I found that there was quite a space between the two inner
boulders that obstructed my way, and a sort of vent-hole that led, I
knew not where. Into this I commenced to pour my powder, and used up
over two-thirds of all I possessed before I saw any result. Finally,
the crevice, just as I began to despair and thought I had thrown away
and lost it all, showed that it was full by refusing to receive any
more. As soon as I noticed this, I knew that I had an excellent chance
to make a good blast, and I therefore pushed in the powder in sight,
and was able, by shoving it downwards, to add at least two pounds
more. I then carefully inserted a strand of manilla previously soaked
in wet powder, and dried, into the mouth of this crevice, and well
down into the powder; I then stuffed the whole with small pebbles and
moist earth, and finally placed quite a large rock against the vent,
and, with a prayer for success I lighted the fuse and retired to a
safe distance to watch the effect. As before, it seemed as if it would
never ignite, and I waited and waited, taking care to be well distant
and well sheltered behind a large boulder, till finally, with a dull,
low, smothered noise, the charge exploded. I was disappointed, and was
afraid that my powder was too weak or ill-made, but when I arrived
at the spot I was amazed at the execution that had taken place: the
whole roof had been uplifted and thrown open, and the boulders that had
resisted my further entrance cast to one side, and the whole side of
the mountain pierced and opened in a wonderful manner. I dashed into
the opening that had been made, and the first fragment that my hand
closed upon was pure iron ore. I was like one mad with joy. I acted as
insanely as I had once or twice before since landing upon the island,
and danced and sang, and ended by sitting down and bursting into tears.
Upon further examination I was inclined to believe that the whole
mountain was composed of iron, and that I only needed to pierce the
crust in any direction to get the precious metal. My discovery lay just
about one mile from my home, and quite accessible.
I found that the blast had brought to view quite a large surface, on
one side, of my saltpetre, whilst further to the southward appeared
the iron ore in masses that I could pry out with my pickaxe. After
having feasted my eyes long enough upon my treasure, I started down the
mountain, smoothing the pathway wherever it was rough, and opening up a
way for my team and sled to bring down the ore to the hermitage.
I absolutely saw no end to the improvements that I could make now that
I had iron to work with. I could do anything within reason, and make
anything I chose to make. A thousand and one schemes of escape by
its means rose up before me. If at this moment I could have had the
companionship of my fellow-kind, I should, I think, have been unable
to ask any blessing to be added to my lot. Here was I in evidently one
of the finest climates of the earth, with everything about me even now
to sustain life, and with many of its luxuries, and with the foundation
laid for many more.
Upon a close examination of the specimen that I had brought away with
me in my bag, home to the Hermitage, and by consultation with my book,
I felt convinced that I had discovered what is called magnetic iron;
that is, iron ore that is most universally dispersed over the earth.
The action of the compass added to this belief, and the limestone
formation was exactly fitted to this kind of ore, which is the same as
is generally called the Swedish iron ore, one of the best-known irons
in the world. The color was a sort of black iron shade, and the ore
brittle and attracted by the magnet of my compass; whereas, if my iron
ore had been hematite it would have been of a dull steel color, and
probably without magnetic properties.
How I revelled in what I was going to do. First, I was to build my kiln
and put the ore through that to purify it of sulphur, arsenic, water,
&c., then to a blast furnace, to be heated with a flux of limestone
and coal, and in the melted form run into pigs in the sand of the
smelting-room. Once in this melted form I could make, from moulds,
chisels, axes, hatchets, plane-irons, and saws, by a treatment of the
melted iron ore. By means of blasts of cold air I could change the
whole mass into Bessemer steel. With the tools I have named, in my
hand, I could go to work at once to erect a sawmill on Rapid River,
near the Hermitage, and with the greatest ease saw out all the plank
I should want for any purpose under the sun. Then my thoughts strayed
away to nautical instruments, some kind of a quadrant, then the
latitude and longitude of my island, and then a chart on Mercator's
projection from my Epitome; and then turning-lathes, iron boats,
electric wire, gunmaking, steam engine and propeller boat, torpedoes
for defence, and all the means to escape from this miserable solitude.
All these things, I say, ran through my head like wildfire. Nothing was
now impossible. I had got my genie, and I was determined to make him
work. The weather was getting cooler and cooler, and one or two storms
had already warned me of the approach of winter. The leaves began to
fall, and the whole island commenced to look dreary and forsaken; the
grass, however, retained its freshness in a remarkable degree.
It was in the latter part of May that I discovered my iron ore, and
I knew that this was the same month comparatively as November would
be in the northern hemisphere; and although there had as yet been no
actual frost, much less any ice or snow, yet I saw signs, not to be
disregarded, that the weather would be more severe and colder before
the spring days would come, and yet evidently I had not much to fear
from a very great degree of cold, as my theory concerning the climate
had so far been singularly correct. I commenced, therefore, at once,
without loss of time, to collect my ore by means of my team of goats,
and transport it from the mountain to Rapid River. I did not bring it
over as I had the coal, for I determined to erect my blast furnace
and kiln on the further side, and opposite to my home, as being more
convenient in many respects.
I worked hard myself, and worked my team hard, in bringing to Rapid
River both the iron ore and coal, and also quite a large quantity of
the potassium, which I carefully took into the hermitage till I should
need it to make more powder. It did not take very many trips, however,
after all, to get the iron ore that I should use during the winter, at
least, but the coal to smelt it took me longer. After I had gathered
all of each that I thought I should need I gave my goats a rest, and
set to work to make arrangements for my smelting-furnace, kiln, and
smelting-room, and how I proceeded I will now go on to relate.