touched, we had to throw
it all away, but some bacon and hams were quite good. We had four or
five cases of preserved meats, but, as Jenny observed, we could eat
those up in a week, and then what were we to do for meat. I gave her
clearly to understand that we must do without meat for the future, which
caused her to drop one of our saucepans in surprise and dismay, while
she exclaimed, "Whatever, Ma'am, shall we do about Master Felix if he
has no meat, and he growing so fast?" "Whatever, Jenny, shall we do if
you knock holes in the saucepans in such a careless way?" said I. Jenny
apologised as best she could, but it was evident all the saucepans in
the world might get punched into holes provided her little master had
meat for his dinner every day; she comforted herself very much, however,
thinking of the ducks and chickens, though she bewailed over his great
affection for mutton chops and beef steaks, and now for the future that
weakness of his would run no chance of being gratified.

The potatoes were nearly all gone, as before mentioned, but that was to
be only a temporary deprivation. We had stores sufficient to last for
six months of rice, sago, tapioca, tea, coffee, sugar, raisins, and all
those kind of things; but the ship's provisions, which had been mostly
left behind to lighten the vessel (the Captain having only taken what
was just necessary) were greatly damaged by the rain; they had not been
in good tin cases like ours, and eventually were of little use. The
packets of seeds became now our most valuable possessions. We had a
great quantity of ropes, spars, sails, and other things belonging to the
vessel, carpenters' tools, nails, screws, &c., all of which became
invaluable to us, though we afterwards discovered a good substitute for
nails in the thick sharp thorns of a species of Cactus. We had a great
deal of furniture, sofas, bedding, hammocks, tables, chairs, bookcases,
a great deal of pantry furniture, of which we were now most careful,
knowing we could never replace the china or glass; also, we had a plate
chest, in which we had silver to the value of L200. Of kitchen utensils
we were greatly in want, almost everything having been lost in the
caboose when it was washed away. We had two kettles and a small boiler.
The men had constructed a sort of fire-place and oven for Jenny before
they left, but it was so far from the dining place that we had
everything generally cold. We had about six dozen bottles of