nd we can be
comfortable in the meantime Tanda here, who helped me to put up the
other house, will be of great assistance; and with so many hands, we can
soon get it ready."

I forgot to mention the creatures which had accompanied us into the
fort: we had to pull down some of our stockade to let them out. And
now, much in the order in which we had arrived, we returned to the site
of the house; near which we found our friends had put up very
comfortable huts for the reception of Mr Sedgwick and Oliver, and the
ladies.

It was night by the time we arrived. Our two-footed and four-footed
friends seemed delighted to get back to their old location, and began
feeding away eagerly, there being an abundance of provender suited to
their tastes scattered about.

"Up, lads, up!" I heard my uncle shouting out next morning. The sound
made me open my eyes. "Up, lads, up! We have work to do: a house to
put up, and a vessel to build; provisions to collect, and stores to
prepare."

All hands of our little community were soon on foot.

"Yah! yah! yah!" I heard the Frau cry out. "I will prepare breakfast.
You men go and work. Yah!"

With axes, knives, and saws, most of us started for the nearest bamboo
grove, and were soon cutting and hacking away, bringing down the huge
stalks and clearing them of their leaves. Oliver and I, however, went
in search of the boat, promising to join them. We eagerly hastened to
the spot where we had left it, scarcely, however, expecting to find, it
safe. It had escaped discovery, and we returned with the satisfactory
information.

As the stalks of the bamboos were cut down, they were formed into
bundles of a size which we could manage to drag over the ground to the
site of the house. Two of the party, under the direction of my uncle,
dug the holes where the uprights were to be inserted. Mr Hooker and I
undertook to drag the bundles. When we arrived with the first, we found
the Frau, aided by the girls, busily employed in roasting and boiling
before a huge fire which she had kindled. Oliver was still unable to do
any work. He therefore remained at the camp--as I may call it--in the
careful hands of the kind Frau; she or one of the girls being constantly
at his side, either with some cooling beverage, or with some delicacy
which they thought might tempt his appetite. At a little distance, in
the shade of some boughs, lay the wounded Malay. I saw his eyes fixed
on the girls with an