Smelt my iron and make Bessemer steel and all kinds of tools. Erect an
anvil and forge. Build a saw mill, and plant a farm and kitchen garden.
Having gotten everything all ready for my purpose, I placed, as nearly
as I could judge, about a ton of the broken ore in my kiln to be
roasted or calcined, and after this was accomplished, I transferred it
to my blast furnace and added to the calcined ore about a ton and a
half of half-burned coal, and one-third of a ton of limestone; these
being the proper proportions, as I was well aware. Under this, and
around it, I placed a large amount of coal fuel, and having ignited it
by means of a large quantity of wood placed under the whole mass, I
went, when it was well started, to my gateway on Rapid River, and set
my machinery agoing, which started the fan-wheel, which immediately
created a terrific blast, and the whole furnace was soon in a glow.
I kept this up by feeding new fuel, till by certain signs I felt
confident that the mass of ore was smelted, when I shut down my gateway
so as to regulate the blast to its minimum and keep the fan-wheel just
revolving. I then dug away the clay at the orifice of the blast-furnace
that opened into the smelting-room, and had the supreme satisfaction
of seeing the molten ore flow out like water into the furrows of sand
that I had formed and excavated to receive it. I had made this furrow
for a purpose also, and had something in mind when I formed the sand
mould, something like a foot in depth and eighteen inches in length,
exactly under the nozzle of the delivery orifice of the furnace. The
molten ore ran into this rapidly and soon filled it, forming a rough
block of iron a foot thick, a foot wide, and eighteen inches long. When
the fiery fluid had completely filled this, I shut off the discharge
by thrusting some moist clay into the orifice. This block that I had
just made was to be my anvil, and as it was large and would take time
to cool, I directed the orifice of the furnace to one side by means of
a clay channel, so that the next discharge should not interfere with
it; and as my desire was now to get steel in smaller quantities so that
I could use it, I drew narrow and shallow channels through my sand at
quite long distances from the blast furnace, but all coming together in
one deep channel under the orifice, but spreading to different parts
of the smelting house, as the ribs of a fan do from the point at which
they are collected. Into these channels I allowed the remainder of the
molten ore to flow, and it extended itself through all these minor
channels, and when it was cool I had several long bars of cast steel
that, on my anvil, I could work up into any form.
After a few days, when my anvil was perfectly cool, I mounted it upon
a block of wood and commenced to build a forge near by it, of brick
and stone, into the fire-place of which I led a branch flexible tube
of goat's skin from the fan-wheel, which I could easily detach and
connect, and which gave me a blast instead of the usual bellows. At
this forge I worked for a week steadily, turning out the simplest and
most necessary tools, such as chisels, hammers, hatchets, axes, nails,
bolts, plane irons, gouges, etc., which I tempered and hardened when
needful. I also made myself tongs and shovels, pickaxe, and crowbars,
and as fast as one tool was made at my forge, such as a pair of tongs
and a hammer, I had means to make others better and rapidly. In this
week I saw treasures gather up about me fast, and, having finished my
iron work, I set to, to arrange them into tools. In the first place,
by means of cold chisels, I cut out from a large mass of soft stone,
that seemed as if it would suit my purpose, a grindstone some two feet
in diameter; this I set up on two standards and connected with my
water wheels. By means of this I could sharpen and bring into shape
all the rough pieces of iron tools that I had forged out, and I had
no difficulty in sharpening all my axes, planes, hatchets, chisels,
etc., and, when necessary, giving them a finer edge on a whetstone,
which I had found to suit my purpose. After getting these all in shape,
my next task was to affix handles to them. This was not difficult
to do, and it is hardly credible how soon I had my shop hung round
about with useful tools. I soon had my planes in order, and my work
then commenced to have a finish that it had before lacked. I did not
stop here, however, for I was now in my element. I was ambitious of
producing much better tools than I had yet finished by the very means
that I already had, made to my hands, for creating them. I hope it is
understood that the result of my smelting was not common iron, but
what is known as Bessemer steel. By the numerous air passages through
the ore and my fan-wheel, I had been enabled to turn out the result in
steel in bulk by what is called the Bessemer process, leaving the metal
all ready to my hand for tools, etc. This steel was not hard enough
for some purposes for which I needed it, and having forged some pieces
into the proper shape, I treated them to the crucible and blast, having
beforehand stamped them with a cold chisel, and finally turned out some
splendid files, which was what I most needed to advance in my iron
work. As a boy, I used to be expert in this case-hardening of files and
steel, and my knowledge now stood me in excellent need.
As soon as I got my files made, I felt as if I could make anything,
and my next smelting procured for me--for it only took about twelve
or fourteen hours to smelt--some thin sheets of steel, which I set to
work upon to smooth by means of my grindstone, so as to make hand-saws;
and, of a larger and thicker piece, two fine up-and-down sawmill saws,
destined for my sawmill yet to be built. All of these I sharpened and
hardened to the necessary temper, and by this time I discovered that my
iron was of an excellent quality and as tough as possible. I had never
seen finer, even in imported Swedish iron so much sought for at home.
I think that the pleasantest noises I had yet heard since arriving on
the island was my axe cutting into the side of a tree; my saw splitting
the same into small boards when needed; and my planes smoothing these
easily to a fine level surface. I did not attempt to saw out one board
more than I needed, for I intended that my sawmill should do all that
for me, and the planing too without much trouble on my part. So I set
to work at this matter in earnest and cast me an axle for my water
wheel, which I concluded to erect on my own side of the river. This
wheel that I made was not much like the other, but was of wood and
iron, strong and well built, and fastened with iron bolts, and set in
iron sockets.
I dug away quite a space of the natural fall of Rapid River, and
erected a strong flume and gateway, so as to control my wheel
perfectly. I took little pains with the covering of my mill, making
it hastily and with little care; but the foundations I laid out well
and strong, and built it parallel with the side of the river, and had
running down into the latter, from the mill, smooth timbers at an angle
of about forty-five degrees, on which I intended, by means of my goats
or the machinery of the mill itself, to "parbuckle" the logs up into
the mill in front of the saw. For a mechanic the arranging of my mill
was an easy task, not easy in its details, being laborious and hard,
but easy I mean in its mechanical construction, which did not give me
a moment's thought. About six weeks saw it all finished and everything
in place; revolving knives for my planing-machine and a splendid
up-and-down saw for my log-splitting. Of course all my machinery was
of a different style, now that I had means to work with, than the
rude wheels on the other side of the river. I had before me a good,
substantial sawmill--rather rough, to be sure, in some details, but I
did not care for that. Nobody, I am sorry to say, would ever look upon
it and find fault with its want of finish.
Having this all done, I launched the "Fairy" above the falls and
paddled up the river for about half a mile, marking on either bank
with my axe the trees I wished to cut down--some of pine and cedar,
and others of a hard, dark wood, like walnut, that I knew not the name
of. A week's hard work with the axe saw some twenty of these in the
water and floated to the dam, whence I rolled them out of the water as
I needed them, and cut them into the requisite lengths for my sawmill,
when I pushed them by handspikes again into the stream, and floated
them in front of my inclined planes, up which they soon mounted by
rolling themselves over and over in the two bights of a rope at each
end, being slowly wound by the machinery of the mill on a drum inside,
or, in other words, as sailors would say, "parbuckled" into the mill,
where a few movements of the handspike put them in position on the
cradle in front of the saw. Let it suffice for me to say that in a week
or two I had all the planed boards that I should need for years, and
also plank and joist nicely piled outside the mill, and covered with a
light roof of rushes and cane from the rain and sun. It was a great
thing for one man to be able to do so much, but then I had now got a
start where nothing could stop me. Nature was under my thumb; I was the
master.
All these works in iron, steel, and mill-building brought me to
spring-like weather, in the month of October, and I began to see
signs of returning summer. I hastened, therefore, to drop all these
matters, and put myself and goats seriously to work to provide for
my coming wants in the vegetable line, and for this purpose went to
the landing-place and cleared a space of I should think an acre with
a light subsoil plough and two yokes of goats, and planted the whole
with different kinds of the seeds that I still had on hand, and which I
had preserved. About this open space, or natural glade, were the usual
trees and shrubs of the island, and with my axe I made them serve at
distances for posts, filling in the intervals with limbs and shrubs,
and, where absolutely necessary, using some of my precious boards,
till I had made a very coarse, rough, but serviceable fence about my
garden that goats or other animals could not get through and destroy
the young vegetation when it should sprout up. It was here that I sowed
some of my precious wheat, retaining a little in case of accident. In
this garden I planted seeds that would mature late in the season, and
would in a measure take care of themselves. Near the Hermitage I laid
out a similar garden, with the same kind of fence, but not more than
one hundred feet square. In this I planted all the little things that
I needed at hand for my table, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, beans,
radishes, celery, blackberries, strawberries, lettuce.
I found that my apple and pear seeds had taken root, for I visited them
before winter had set in, and I took this opportunity, in ploughing, to
manure with chopped fish the circular places that I had planted before
the winter, and care to avoid turning up with the ploughshare any of
the soil where these precious seeds were buried, and where the small,
slight stems, leafless, now protruded. Spring came rapidly forward, and
I found myself in almost warm weather and pleasant days before I had
finished all my gardening, which was near the end of September.
These tasks nearly finished the year for me, within a month and a few
days, and what had I accomplished? On Thursday, November 9, 1865, I
was, by the providence of God, saved when all my shipmates were lost. I
had been preserved for some good purpose evidently, or else the hand of
the Almighty would have swept me out of existence with my messmates.
On that terrible day in November I was cast on shore, with scarcely any
food, no hat, no coat, and without water. With no aid but that given me
by God, and by the use of my own hands and brain, I was to-day sitting
in front of my home, erected by myself alone. In this short space of
time, one year, I had wrested from Nature many things, showing the
supremacy of mind over matter, and knowledge, over ignorance and sloth.
I had in this year made fire without the aid of matches, distilled
salt water to procure fresh, made myself implements of defence, and
erected towers of perpetual lamps, made myself flint, steel, and
tinder, bows and arrows, fish-hooks and lines; discovered coal,
sulphur, saltpetre, and iron, and captured goats, fish, seals, birds,
etc., and at the end of the year found myself sitting at my house door
surrounded with my flock of goats, my garden and farm planted, my
mill and smelting-house in running order, my canoe at my feet in the
quiet water of the cove, and everything about me that could please or
charm the eye. From absolutely nothing I had created everything; that
is to say, the ground was now so laid out that in the future I saw no
end to the daring attempts that I should make, and could make with
every chance of success. I felt, now that the year was ending, that my
hardest work was done; that I had so much now to do with, that all that
I should now undertake would be comparatively easy; but then, on the
other hand, my ambition was so great that I could see things in the dim
future that would tax the strength and brain of any man to consummate,
but which from my temperament and loneliness I knew I should be forced
to attempt. Many problems were already turning themselves over in my
head, and from them I picked out this one, What is the position of your
island in latitude and longitude?
I gave myself this as a special task, and whilst I was at work at
little matters around about the Hermitage my mind kept asking me
(for it had no one else to talk to), What is the position of your
island in latitude and longitude? and it was repeated so often and so
persistently that I tried to answer it, which I did in the following
manner, as you shall hear.