ere was no time to attempt
anything further that day. But on the day following I sailed over to
Bowata's island and explained to him my requirements, finding him more
than eager to do anything and everything he could to oblige me. The
domestic question was very easily arranged, Bowata suggesting that I
should employ a man whom he could especially recommend, and who, with
his two wives, would be able to do everything required in that
particular direction; while as for labour for the building of the
cutter, he assured me I might have as many men as I wished, for as long
a time as I needed them. Nothing could be more satisfactory than this,
the only point I felt doubtful about being the domestic part of the
arrangement; but Billy settled this by undertaking to supervise the work
until the man and his wives should be trained to efficiency; and the
plan, when put into operation, worked excellently. The keel of the new
boat being now ready, the next thing was to set it up, accurately plumb,
longitudinally and transversely, upon the building blocks; and to do
this I obtained the loan of twenty natives for a day, for the keel, with
stem and sternpost attached, was much too heavy a mass of timber for
Billy and me to manipulate without assistance; and with their help the
work was most satisfactorily accomplished, they doing the manual work
under Billy's guidance while I supervised and directed the adjustments
that were frequently necessary. I next set up five stout moulds, one at
the midship section of the boat, with two aft and two forward of it,
giving the exact shape of the boat at those points, and to the moulds I
firmly attached several temporary wales and stringers, thus obtaining a
kind of skeleton giving an accurate idea of the form of the finished
boat. And when I had got thus far with my work and inspected the result
from various view-points, I was as much amazed at my own audacity in
attempting so ambitious an undertaking as I was gratified at the
appearance which it presented; for I saw before me the outline of a very
shapely, yacht-like little ship that, if I knew anything of such
matters, promised to be fast, weatherly, and a very fine sea-boat, quite
capable of taking care of herself when hove-to, even in a heavy gale of
wind. It was my intention to plank her upon the diagonal principle,
using three thicknesses of comparatively thin plank, for I had no means
by which to steam a single layer of planking of the