The Mysterious Island
Of course they were jolted over the somewhat rough road, but the vehicle
arrived without any accident, and was soon loaded with the case and
rigging of the balloon.
At eight o’clock that evening the cart, after passing over the Mercy
bridge, descended the left bank of the river, and stopped on the beach.
The onagers being unharnessed, were thence led to their stable, and
Pencroft before going to sleep gave vent to his feelings in a deep sigh
of satisfaction that awoke all the echoes of Granite House.
Chapter 8
The first week of January was devoted to the manufacture of the linen
garments required by the colony. The needles found in the box were used
by sturdy if not delicate fingers, and we may be sure that what was sewn
was sewn firmly.
There was no lack of thread, thanks to Cyrus Harding’s idea of
re-employing that which had been already used in the covering of the
balloon. This with admirable patience was all unpicked by Gideon Spilett
and Herbert, for Pencroft had been obliged to give this work up, as it
irritated him beyond measure; but he had no equal in the sewing part
of the business. Indeed, everybody knows that sailors have a remarkable
aptitude for tailoring.
The cloth of which the balloon-case was made was then cleaned by means
of soda and potash, obtained by the incineration of plants, in such a
way that the cotton, having got rid of the varnish, resumed its natural
softness and elasticity; then, exposed to the action of the atmosphere,
it soon became perfectly white. Some dozen shirts and sock--the latter
not knitted, of course, but made of cotton--were thus manufactured. What
a comfort it was to the settlers to clothe themselves again in clean
linen, which was doubtless rather rough, but they were not troubled
about that! and then to go to sleep between sheets, which made the
couches at Granite House into quite comfortable beds!
It was about this time also that they made boots of seal-leather, which
were greatly needed to replace the shoes and boots brought from America.
We may be sure that these new shoes were large enough and never pinched
the feet of the wearers.
With the beginning of the year 1866 the heat was very great, but
the hunting in the forests did not stand still. Agouties, peccaries,
capybaras, kangaroos, game of all sorts, actually swarmed there, and
Spilett and Herbert were too good marksmen ever to throw away their shot
uselessly.
Cyrus Harding still recommended them to husband the ammunition, and he
took measures to replace the powder and shot which had been found in
the box, and which he wished to reserve for the future. How did he know
where chance might one day cast his companions and himself in the
event of their leaving their domain? They should, then, prepare for the
unknown future by husbanding their ammunition and by substituting for it
some easily renewable substance.
To replace lead, of which Harding had found no traces in the island, he
employed granulated iron, which was easy to manufacture. These bullets,
not having the weight of leaden bullets, were made larger, and each
charge contained less, but the skill of the sportsmen made up this
deficiency. As to powder, Cyrus Harding would have been able to make
that also, for he had at his disposal saltpeter, sulphur, and coal; but
this preparation requires extreme care, and without special tools it is
difficult to produce it of a good quality. Harding preferred, therefore,
to manufacture pyroxyle, that is to say gun-cotton, a substance in which
cotton is not indispensable, as the elementary tissue of vegetables may
be used, and this is found in an almost pure state, not only in cotton,
but in the textile fiber of hemp and flax, in paper, the pith of the
elder, etc. Now, the elder abounded in the island towards the mouth of
Red Creek, and the colonists had already made coffee of the berries of
these shrubs, which belong to the family of the caprifoliaceae.
The only thing to be collected, therefore, was elder-pith, for as to the
other substance necessary for the manufacture of pyroxyle, it was only
fuming azotic acid. Now, Harding having sulphuric acid at his disposal,
had already been easily able to produce azotic acid by attacking the
saltpeter with which nature supplied him. He accordingly resolved to
manufacture and employ pyroxyle, although it has some inconveniences,
that is to say, a great inequality of effect, an excessive
inflammability, since it takes fire at one hundred and seventy
degrees instead of two hundred and forty, and lastly, an instantaneous
deflagration which might damage the firearms. On the other hand, the
advantages of pyroxyle consist in this, that it is not injured by damp,
that it does not make the gun-barrels dirty, and that its force is four
times that of ordinary powder.
To make pyroxyle, the cotton must be immersed in the fuming azotic acid
for a quarter of an hour, then washed in cold water and dried. Nothing
could be more simple.
Cyrus Harding had only at his disposal the ordinary azotic acid and not
the fuming or monohydrate azotic acid, that is to say, acid which emits
white vapors when it comes in contact with damp air; but by substituting
for the latter ordinary azotic acid, mixed, in the proportion of from
three to five volumes of concentrated sulphuric acid, the engineer
obtained the same result. The sportsmen of the island therefore soon
had a perfectly prepared substance, which, employed discreetly, produced
admirable results.
About this time the settlers cleared three acres of the plateau, and
the rest was preserved in a wild state, for the benefit of the onagers.
Several excursions were made into the Jacamar Wood and the forests of
the Far West, and they brought back from thence a large collection of
wild vegetables, spinach, cress, radishes, and turnips, which careful
culture would soon improve, and which would temper the regimen on which
the settlers had till then subsisted. Supplies of wood and coal were
also carted. Each excursion was at the same time a means of improving
the roads, which gradually became smoother under the wheels of the cart.
The rabbit-warren still continued to supply the larder of Granite House.
As fortunately it was situated on the other side of Creek Glycerine,
its inhabitants could not reach the plateau nor ravage the newly-made
plantation. The oyster-bed among the rocks was frequently renewed and
furnished excellent molluscs. Besides that, the fishing, either in
the lake or the Mercy, was very profitable, for Pencroft had made some
lines, armed with iron hooks, with which they frequently caught fine
trout, and a species of fish whose silvery sides were speckled with
yellow, and which were also extremely savory. Master Neb, who was
skilled in the culinary art, knew how to vary agreeably the bill of
fare. Bread alone was wanting at the table of the settlers, and as has
been said, they felt this privation greatly.
The settlers hunted too the turtles which frequented the shores of
Cape Mandible. At this place the beach was covered with little mounds,
concealing perfectly spherical turtles’ eggs, with white hard shells,
the albumen of which does not coagulate as that of birds’ eggs. They
were hatched by the sun, and their number was naturally considerable, as
each turtle can lay annually two hundred and fifty.
“A regular egg-field,” observed Gideon Spilett, “and we have nothing to
do but to pick them up.”
But not being contented with simply the produce, they made chase after
the producers, the result of which was that they were able to bring back
to Granite House a dozen of these chelonians, which were really valuable
from an alimentary point of view. The turtle soup, flavored with
aromatic herbs, often gained well-merited praises for its preparer, Neb.
We must here mention another fortunate circumstance by which new stores
for the winter were laid in. Shoals of salmon entered the Mercy, and
ascended the country for several miles. It was the time at which the
females, going to find suitable places in which to spawn, precede the
males and make a great noise through the fresh water. A thousand of
these fish, which measured about two feet and a half in length, came up
the river, and a large quantity were retained by fixing dams across
the stream. More than a hundred were thus taken, which were salted and
stored for the time when winter, freezing up the streams, would render
fishing impracticable. By this time the intelligent Jup was raised
to the duty of valet. He had been dressed in a jacket, white linen
breeches, and an apron, the pockets of which were his delight. The
clever orang had been marvelously trained by Neb, and any one would have
said that the Negro and the ape understood each other when they talked
together. Jup had besides a real affection for Neb, and Neb returned
it. When his services were not required, either for carrying wood or for
climbing to the top of some tree, Jup passed the greatest part of his
time in the kitchen, where he endeavored to imitate Neb in all that he
saw him do. The black showed the greatest patience and even extreme
zeal in instructing his pupil, and the pupil exhibited remarkable
intelligence in profiting by the lessons he received from his master.
Judge then of the pleasure Master Jup gave to the inhabitants of Granite
House when, without their having had any idea of it, he appeared one
day, napkin on his arm, ready to wait at table. Quick, attentive, he
acquitted himself perfectly, changing the plates, bringing dishes,
pouring out water, all with a gravity which gave intense amusement to
the settlers, and which enraptured Pencroft.
“Jup, some soup!”
“Jup, a little agouti!”
“Jup, a plate!”
“Jup! Good Jup! Honest Jup!”
Nothing was heard but that, and Jup without ever being disconcerted,
replied to every one, watched for everything, and he shook his head in a
knowing way when Pencroft, referring to his joke of the first day, said
to him,--
“Decidedly, Jup, your wages must be doubled.”
It is useless to say that the orang was now thoroughly domesticated at
Granite House, and that he often accompanied his masters to the forest
without showing any wish to leave them. It was most amusing to see him
walking with a stick which Pencroft had given him, and which he carried
on his shoulder like a gun. If they wished to gather some fruit from
the summit of a tree, how quickly he climbed for it. If the wheel of the
cart stuck in the mud, with what energy did Jup with a single heave of
his shoulder put it right again.
“What a jolly fellow he is!” cried Pencroft often. “If he was as
mischievous as he is good, there would be no doing anything with him!”
It was towards the end of January the colonists began their labors in
the center of the island. It had been decided that a corral should be
established near the sources of the Red Creek, at the foot of Mount
Franklin, destined to contain the ruminants, whose presence would have
been troublesome at Granite House, and especially for the musmons, who
were to supply the wool for the settlers’ winter garments.
Each morning, the colony, sometimes entire, but more often represented
only by Harding, Herbert, and Pencroft, proceeded to the sources of the
Creek, a distance of not more than five miles, by the newly beaten road
to which the name of Corral Road had been given.
There a site was chosen, at the back of the southern ridge of the
mountain. It was a meadow land, dotted here and there with clumps of
trees, and watered by a little stream, which sprung from the slopes
which closed it in on one side. The grass was fresh, and it was not
too much shaded by the trees which grew about it. This meadow was to
be surrounded by a palisade, high enough to prevent even the most agile