eir next visit to the Peak, they found things
flourishing, and the garden looking particularly well. The Vulcanists
had their melons in any quantity, as well as most vegetables without
limits. It was determined to divide the cows, leaving one on the Peak,
and sending the other to the crater, where there was now sufficient
grass to keep two or three such animals. With a view to this
arrangement, Bob had been directed to fence in the garden and stack, by
means of ropes and stanchions let into the ground. When the Anne
returned to the Reef, therefore, from her first voyage to the Peak, a
cow was sent over in her. This change was made solely for the
convenience of the milk, all the rest of the large stock being retained
on the plain, where there was sufficient grass to sustain thousands of
hoofs.

But the return cargo of the Anne, on this her first voyage, was composed
mainly of ship-timber. Heaton had found a variety of the teak in the
forests that skirted the plain, and Bigelow had got out of the trees the
frame of a schooner that was intended to measure about eighty tons. A
craft of that size would be of the greatest service to them, as it would
enable the colonists to visit any part of the Pacific they pleased, and
obtain such supplies as they might find necessary. Nor was this all; by
mounting on her two of the carronades, she would effectually give them
the command of their own seas, so far as the natives were concerned at
least. Mark had some books on the draughting of vessels, and Bigelow had
once before laid down a brig of more than a hundred tons in dimensions.
Then the stores, rigging, copper, &c., of the ship, could never be
turned to better account than in the construction of another vessel, and
it was believed she could furnish materials enough for two or three such
craft. Out of compliment to his old owner, Mark named this schooner in
embryo, the 'Friend Abraham White,' though she was commonly known
afterwards as the 'Abraham.'

The cutting of the frame of the intended schooner was a thing easy
enough, with expert American axemen, and with that glorious implement of
civilization, the American axe. But it was not quite so easy to get the
timber down to the cove. The keel, in particular, gave a good deal of
trouble. Heaton had brought along with him both cart and wagon wheels,
and without that it is questionable if the stick could have been moved
by any force then at the command of the colony. By suspending it