give him a free hand he would design us something which
would not only be fairly easy to build, but would also be safe and
comfortable, and quite capable of conveying us all to any part of the
world we might choose as our destination. This struck me as a far too
ambitious project for five men to undertake; but when, later on, we
again discussed the matter, with a chart of the Pacific before us, and I
discovered that the Sandwich Islands, the nearest civilised land, lay
some fourteen hundred miles distant, I changed my opinion. I had
already done one ocean trip in an open boat, and had no desire to
attempt another.

On our way back to the beach abreast the wreck, which now constituted
our temporary home, we took a look at North Bay. With this, as a place
of residence, we instantly became violently enamoured: because, in the
first place, it was open to the north-east Trade wind, and was therefore
far cooler and more pleasant than the beach of South-west Bay, shut in
as the latter was under the lee of high cliffs, and opposed to the
afternoon sun; next, there was a little stream of delicious fresh water
falling over a low cliff into a small rock basin, affording an ideal
freshwater bath; next, we discovered a fine large, perfectly dry cave,
close to the shore, with an entrance so narrow that it constituted of
itself a perfect rock fortress; and, lastly, a large and varied
assortment of very fine fruit trees was discovered growing quite close
to the beach, only needing to be cleared of the undergrowth to make a
splendid orchard. The one drawback to the bay was that it was about two
miles distant from the wreck, near which we should of necessity be
obliged to establish our shipyard; but its many advantages so far
outweighed this that we took possession of the cave there and then, and
slept in it that night.

And now ensued a particularly busy time for us all; for when we came to
consider the situation we found that there were several matters
demanding our attention, and they were all of so urgent a character that
it was rather difficult for us to determine offhand which should be the
first to receive it. For, to begin with, we were all agreed that unless
something quite unforeseen and unexpected, in the nature of a call at
the island by a ship, should occur in the meantime, we must be prepared
for a sojourn of at least a year in our present quarters; and that, of
course, meant that we should be obliged to give serious