ights it was pushed down. Of course
considerable power was required to raise the piston and its weights, but
there was a superabundance of power, for thousands of wondering natives
were ready and eager to do whatever they were bid. They could have
pumped the bellows had they been the size of a house! They worked
admirably in some respects, but had the same fault as the first pair,
namely, a tendency to suck in the fire! This, however, was corrected by
means of a valve at the back of the pipe which communicated with the
fire. Another fault lay in the length of interval between the blasts.
This was remedied by making another box of the same kind, and working
the two alternately, so that when one was blowing the fire, the other
was, as it were, taking breath. Thus a continuous blast was obtained,
while eight or ten grinning and delighted natives worked the levers.

The great difficulty being thus overcome, the work progressed rapidly.
A large hard stone served for an anvil, and a small stone, perforated,
with a handle affixed to it, did duty for a hammer. A pair of
carpenter's pincers served for tongs, and charcoal, made from the
cocoanut and other trees, did duty for coals. In order to obtain
planks, the missionary split trees in half with wedges and then the
natives thinned them down with adzes extemporised by fitting crooked
handles to ordinary hatchets. When a bent or twisted plank was
required, having no apparatus for steaming it, he bent a piece of bamboo
to the required shape, and sent natives to scour the woods in search of
a suitable crooked tree. Thus planks suited to his purpose were
obtained. Instead of fastening the planks to the timbers of the ship
with iron nails, large wooden pins, or "trenails," were used, and driven
into augur holes, and thus the fabric was held together. Instead of
oakum, cocoanut husk was used, and native cloth and dried banana stumps
to caulk the seams, and make them watertight. The bark of a certain
tree was spun into twine and rope by a rope-machine made for the
purpose, and a still more complex machine, namely, a turning-lathe, was
constructed for the purpose of turning the block sheaves; while sails
were made out of native mats, quilted to give them sufficient strength
to resist the wind.

By these means was completed, in about three months, a decked vessel of
from seventy to eighty tons burden--about sixty feet long by eighteen
broad. She was finally launched and na