Francis had soon become tired of playing with the long leaves his
brother had brought him, and they were thrown aside. Fritz happened to
take some of the withered leaves up, which were soft and flexible as a
ribbon, and he advised Francis to make whiplashes of them, to drive the
goats and sheep with, for the little fellow was the shepherd. He was
pleased with the idea, and began to split the leaves into strips, which
Fritz platted together into very good whiplashes. I remarked, as they
were working, how strong and pliant these strips seemed, and, examining
them closely, I found they were composed of long fibres, or filaments,
which made me suspect it to be _Phormium tenax_, or New Zealand flax, a
most important discovery to us, and which, when I communicated it to my
wife, almost overwhelmed her with joy. “Bring me all the leaves you can
without delay,” cried she, “and I will make you stockings, shirts,
coats, sewing-thread, cords—in fact, give me but flax and work-tools,
and I can manage all.” I could not help smiling at the vivacity of her
imagination, roused at the very name of flax; but there was still great
space between the leaves lying before us and the linen she was already
sewing in idea. But my boys, always ready to second the wishes of their
beloved mother, soon mounted their coursers, Fritz on Lightfoot, and
Jack on the great buffalo, to procure supplies.
Whilst we waited for these, my wife, all life and animation, explained
to me all the machines I must make, to enable her to spin and weave, and
make linen to clothe us from head to foot; her eyes sparkled with
delight as she spoke, and I promised her all she asked.
In a short time, our young cavaliers returned from their foraging
expedition, conveying on their steeds huge bundles of the precious
plant, which they laid at the feet of their mother. She gave up
everything to begin her preparation. The first operation necessary was
to steep the flax, which is usually done by exposing it in the open air
in the rain, the wind, and the dew, so as, in a certain degree, to
dissolve the plant, rendering the separation of the fibrous and ligneous
parts more easy. It can then be cleaned and picked for spinning. But, as
the vegetable glue that connects the two parts is very tenacious, and
resists for a long time the action of moisture, it is often advisable to
steep it in water, and this, in our dry climate, I considered most
expedient.
My wife agreed to this, and proposed that we should convey it to
Flamingo Marsh; and we spent the rest of the day in tying up the leaves
in bundles. Next morning, we loaded our cart, and proceeded to the
marsh: we there untied our bundles, and spread them in the water,
pressing them down with stones, and leaving them till it was time to
take them out to dry. We could not but admire here the ingenious nests
of the flamingo; they are of a conical form, raised above the level of
the marsh, having a recess above, in which the eggs are deposited, out
of the reach of danger, and the female can sit on them with her legs in
the water. These nests are of clay, and so solid, that they resist the
water till the young are able to swim.
In a fortnight the flax was ready to be taken out of the water; we
spread it in the sun, which dried it so effectually, that we brought it
to Falcon’s Nest the same evening, where it was stored till we were
ready for further operations. At present we laboured to lay up provision
for the rainy season, leaving all sedentary occupations to amuse us in
our confinement. We brought in continually loads of sweet acorns,
manioc, potatoes, wood, fodder for the cattle, sugar-canes, fruit,
indeed everything that might be useful during the uncertain period of
the rainy season. We profited by the last few days to sow the wheat and
other remaining European grains, that the rain might germinate them. We
had already had some showers; the temperature was variable, the sky
became cloudy, and the wind rose. The season changed sooner than we
expected; the winds raged through the woods, the sea roared, mountains
of clouds were piled in the heavens. They soon burst over our heads, and
torrents of rain fell night and day, without intermission; the rivers
swelled till their waters met, and turned the whole country around us
into an immense lake. Happily we had formed our little establishment on
a spot rather elevated above the rest of the valley; the waters did not
quite reach our tree, but surrounded us about two hundred yards off,
leaving us on a sort of island in the midst of the general inundation.
We were reluctantly obliged to descend from our aërial abode; the rain
entered it on all sides, and the hurricane threatened every moment to
carry away the apartment, and all that were in it. We set about our
removal, bringing down our hammocks and bedding to the sheltered space
under the roots of the trees that we had roofed for the animals. We were
painfully crowded in the small space; the stores of provisions, the
cooking utensils, and especially the neighbourhood of the animals, and
the various offensive smells, made our retreat almost insupportable. We
were choked with smoke if we lighted a fire, and inundated with rain if
we opened a door. For the first time since our misfortune, we sighed for
the comforts of our native home; but action was necessary, and we set
about endeavouring to amend our condition.
The winding staircase was very useful to us; the upper part was crowded
with things we did not want, and my wife frequently worked in the lower
part, at one of the windows. We crowded our beasts a little more, and
gave a current of air to the places they had left. I placed outside the
enclosure the animals of the country, which could bear the inclemency of
the season; thus I gave a half-liberty to the buffalo and the onagra,
tying their legs loosely, to prevent them straying, the boughs of the
tree affording them a shelter. We made as few fires as possible, as,
fortunately it was never cold, and we had no provisions that required a
long process of cookery. We had milk in abundance, smoked meat, and
fish, the preserved ortolans, and cassava cakes. As we sent out some of
our animals in the morning, with bells round their necks, Fritz and I
had to seek them and bring them in every evening, when we were
invariably wet through. This induced my ingenious Elizabeth to make us a
sort of blouse and hood out of old garments of the sailors, which we
covered with coatings of the caoutchouc, and thus obtained two capital
waterproof dresses; all that the exhausted state of our gum permitted
us to make.
The care of our animals occupied us a great part of the morning, then we
prepared our cassava, and baked our cakes on iron plates. Though we had
a glazed door to our hut, the gloominess of the weather, and the
obscurity caused by the vast boughs of the tree, made night come on
early. We then lighted a candle, fixed in a gourd on the table, round
which we were all assembled. The good mother laboured with her needle,
mending the clothes; I wrote my journal, which Ernest copied, as he
wrote a beautiful hand; while Fritz and Jack taught their young brother
to read and write, or amused themselves with drawing the animals or
plants they had been struck with. We read the lessons from the Bible in
turns, and concluded the evening with devotion. We then retired to rest,
content with ourselves and with our innocent and peaceful life. Our kind
housekeeper often made us a little feast of a roast chicken, a pigeon,
or a duck, and once in four or five days we had fresh butter made in the
gourd churn; and the delicious honey which we ate to our cassava bread
might have been a treat to European epicures.
The remains of our repast was always divided among our domestic animals.
We had four dogs, the jackal, the eagle, and the monkey, who relied on
their masters, and were never neglected. But if the buffalo, the onagra,
and the sow had not been able to provide for themselves, we must have
killed them, for we had no food for them.
We now decided that we would not expose ourselves to another rainy
season in such an unsuitable habitation; even my gentle Elizabeth got
out of temper with the inconveniences, and begged we would build a
better winter house; stipulating, however, that we should return to our
tree in summer. We consulted a great deal on this matter; Fritz quoted
Robinson Crusoe, who had cut a dwelling out of the rock, which sheltered
him in the inclement season; and the idea of making our home at Tent
House naturally came into my mind. It would probably be a long and
difficult undertaking, but with time, patience, and perseverance, we
might work wonders. We resolved, as soon as the weather would allow us,
to go and examine the rocks at Tent House.
The last work of the winter was, at my wife’s incessant request, a
beetle for her flax, and some carding-combs. The beetle was easily made,
but the combs cost much trouble. I filed large nails till they were
round and pointed, I fixed them, slightly inclined, at equal distances,
in a sheet of tin, and raised the edge like a box; I then poured melted
lead between the nails and the edge, to fix them more firmly. I nailed
this on a board, and the machine was fit for use, and my wife was all
anxiety to begin her manufacture.
* * * * *