CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
AN EXPERIMENT IN BOAT-BUILDING.
"It is of no use to be down-hearted, Nat," said my uncle the nextmorning. "Cheer up, my lad, and let's look our difficulties in theface. That's the way to overcome them, I think."
"I feel better this morning, uncle," I said.
"Nothing like a good night's rest, Nat, for raising the spirits. Thisloss of the boat and then of our follower, if he is lost, are two greatmisfortunes, but we must bear in mind that before all this hardlyanything but success attended us."
"Except with the savages, uncle," I said.
"Right, Nat: except with the savages. Now let's go down to the shoreand have a good look out to sea."
We walked down close to the water, and having satisfied ourselves thatno canoes were in sight, we made a fire, at which our coffee was soongetting hot, while I roasted a big pigeon, of which food we never seemedto tire, the supply being so abundant that it seemed a matter of courseto shoot two or three when we wanted meat.
"I'd give something, Nat," said my uncle, as we sat there in the soft,delicious sea air, with the sunshine coming down like silver raysthrough the glorious foliage above our heads--"I'd give something, Nat,if boat-building had formed part of my education."
"Or you had gone and learned it, like Peter the Great, uncle."
"Exactly, my boy. But it did not, so we must set to work at once andsee what we can do. Now what do you say? How are we to make a boat?"
"I've been thinking about it a great deal, uncle," I said, "and I waswondering whether we could not make a bark canoe like the Indians."
"A bark canoe, eh, Nat?"
"Yes, uncle. I've seen a model of one, and it looks so easy."
"Yes, my boy, these things do look easy; but the men who make them,savages though they be, work on the experience of many generations. Ittook hundreds of years to make a good bark canoe, Nat, and I'm afraidthe first manufacturers of that useful little vessel were drowned. No,Nat, we could not make a canoe of that kind."
"Then we must cut down a big tree and hollow it out, uncle, only it willtake a long time."
"Yes, Nat, but suppose we try the medium way. I propose that we cutdown a moderately-sized tree, and hollow it out for the lower part ofour boat, drive pegs all along the edge for a support, and weave in thata basket-work of cane for the sides as high as we want it."
"But how could we make the sides watertight, uncle?" I said; "thereseem to be no pine-trees here to get pitch or turpentine."
"No, Nat, but there is a gum to be found in large quantities in theearth, if we can discover any. The Malays called it _dammar_, and useit largely for torches. It strikes me that we could turn it into asplendid varnish, seeing what a hard resinous substance it is. Ebowould have found some very soon, I have no doubt."
"Then I must find some without him, uncle," I said. "I shall go huntingfor it whenever I am not busy boat-building."
He smiled at my enthusiasm, and after examining the skins to see thatthey were all dry and free from attacks of ants, we each took a hatchetand our guns, and proceeded along by the side of the shore in search ofa stout straight tree that should combine the qualities of being light,strong, easy to work, and growing near the sea.
We quite came to the conclusion that we should have a great deal oflabour, and only learn by experience which kind of tree would besuitable, perhaps having to cut down several before we found one thatwould do.
"And that will be bad, uncle," I said.
"It will cause us a great deal of labour, Nat," he replied smiling; "butit will make us handy with our hatchets."
"I did not mean that, uncle," I replied; "I was thinking of savagescoming in this direction and seeing the chips and cut-down trees."
"To be sure, Nat, you are right. That will be bad; but as we are cutoff so from the rest of the island, we must be hopeful that we may getour work done before they come."
We spent four days hunting about before we found a tree that possessedall the qualities we required. We found dozens that would have done,only they were far away from the shore, where it would have been verydifficult to move our boat afterwards to the water's edge.
But the tree we selected offered us a thick straight stem twenty feetlong, and it was so placed that the land sloped easily towards the sea,and it was sufficiently removed from the beach for us to go on with ourwork unseen.
We set to at once to cut it down, finding to our great delight as soonas we were through the bark that the wood was firm and fibrous, and yeteasy to cut, so that after six hours' steady chopping we had made a biggap in the side, when we were obliged to leave off because it was dark.
We worked the next day and the next, and then my uncle leaned against itwhile I gave a few more cuts, and down it went with a crash amongst theother trees, to be ready for working up into the shape we required.
Next morning as soon as it was light we began again to cut off the topat the length we intended to have our boat, a task this which saved thelabour of chopping off the branches. I worked hard, and the labour wasmade lighter by Uncle Dick's pleasant conversation. For he chattedabout savage and civilised man, and laughingly pointed out how thelatter had gone on improving.
"You see what slow laborious work this chipping with our axes is, Nat,"he said one day, as we kept industriously on, "when by means ofcross-cut saws and a circular saw worked by steam this tree could besoon reduced to thin boards ready for building our boat."
Birds came and perched near us, and some were very rare in kind, but wefelt that we must leave them alone so as to secure those we hadobtained, and we worked patiently on till at the end of a week the treebegan to wear outside somewhat the shape of a boat, and it was justabout the length we required.
It was terribly hard work, but we did not shrink, and at last, aftercongratulating ourselves upon having got so far without being interferedwith by the savages, we had shouldered our guns and were walking back tothe hut one evening when we caught sight of a black figure runningacross an opening, and we knew that our time of safety was at an end.
"It is what I have always feared, Nat," said my uncle quickly. "Quick;put big-shot cartridges in your gun. We will not spill blood if we canhelp it, but it is their lives or ours, and we must get safely backhome."
"What shall we do now?" I said huskily.
"Wait and see what the enemy mean to do, and--"
"Hi, yi, yi--Hi, yi, yi--Hi, yi, yi. Hey. Nat, mi boy. Ung-kul!" cameshrilly through the trees.
"Hooray!" I shrieked, leaping out of my hiding-place. "Ebo! Ebo! Hi,yi, yi--Hi, yi, yi. Hooray!"
We ran to meet him, and he bounded towards us, leaping, dancing, rollingon the ground, hugging us, and seeming half mad with delight as hedragged us down to the sea-side, where a new surprise awaited us.
For there upon shore, with her anchor fixed in the sands, lay our boatapparently quite uninjured.
As Ebo danced about and patted the boat and then himself, it was plainenough to read the cause of his disappearance. He had gone off alongthe shore following the savages to their village, and then watched hisopportunity to sail off. And this he had of course done, placing theboat safely in its old moorings.
He made signs for something to eat, and then I noticed that he lookedvery thin; and it was evident that the poor fellow had suffered terribleprivations in getting back our treasure, and proving himself so good afriend.
Nat the Naturalist: A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas Page 42