Fair Are the Woodlands

By Inglis Cook

This novel is based on the diary of a member of a religious utopian community established on a remote archipelago in the mid-nineteenth century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546202172

Inglis Cook

Inglis Cook was born in the Midwest and attended schools in that area. Upon graduating from college, he served in the US Army Reserves, after which he began a graduate studies program. Among his interests are communitarian settlements, Feminist movements, and religious ferment in mid-nineteenth century USA and their influence on trends in the 20th century. He published two previous novels-"Fair Are The Woodlands" and "The Parsley Eater."

Book preview

CHAPTER I

O f all the memories of the times in the islands, I think that the most vivid are those of the birds. There were millions of them and they were everywhere. And they had little fear of humans. In the forests by the ocean were nests of shags, terns, whalebirds, mollymauks, and burrows of petrels and penguins. On the cliffs were nests of storm petrels, and other sea birds that had no name in the homeland, but only occurred in southern latitudes. In the breeding season, the storm petrels and other sea fowl descended from the sky by the millions after their foraging, an unforgettable image. All these birds were preyed on by falcons, gulls, skuas, and the large, powerful adzebill, which could barely fly. Farther inland were flocks of pigeons, parrots, and songbirds. Less social wood hens, geese, owls, snipes, and other species abounded. Coots and ducks teemed in the island lakes and ponds. In the numerous island caves were colonies of swifts. I find it odd that considering the events that took place involving the men and women who colonized the islands, that the memory most impressed in my mind is that of the birds-their aerial acrobatics, smell, singing, and cacophony.

The journey to the islands took several months, seemingly forever. I will not dwell on our afflictions during this time-sickness, bad food, frequent storms, etc. Fortunately the crew of our vessel was most capable and the ship’s Master was considerate of our situation.

Along the way we made port in the West Indies, Brazil, the island where Napoleon was taken after Waterloo, the Cape of Good Hope, and in Australia.

When we crossed the equator, we received the traditional initiation.

The leg of the journey from the Cape of Good Hope to the Australian mainland was memorable for terrible weather. We were exhausted by the time we made port in the British colony in New South Wales. Our church maintained a mission in Sydney, and we enjoyed a welcome recuperation from the ordeal of our sea voyage. When it came time to proceed to our new home in the southernmost of the islands, we laid in necessary supplies for the last part of our journey and for the first years of our stay. Additionally, we purchased livestock. The ship-the Pleione- that would bring us to that remote island would return to Australia and load goods for China along with our animals. Then the ship would deliver the beasts to us and proceed to Canton.

There were eighteen of us. Our leaders were Reverend Ezekiel and Mrs. Helen Auld, he our minister and she a healer. Joseph Dunn was a retired whaler and his wife Sarah was our teacher. The Aulds and Dunns were some years older than the three couples who brought their children- Jacob and Letitia Snyder and their son Henry, Frederick and Christina Pfeiffer with sons Mathew and David, and Abraham and Lucy Cunningham with sons George and Amos. Uncle Paul, Aunt Rebecca, and me comprised the rest of the contingent. I was adopted by my aunt and uncle when I was an infant.

We were the advance party of what was planned to be a much larger migration. It was assumed that we would not have an easy time of it until the second wave would arrive. That is why only healthy families with boys were selected. We were briefed by Mr. Dunn about what to expect on the island that was chosen as our initial settlement. He served on a whaling ship that visited the island on his last voyage. The island had a large seal colony when it was discovered, but these beasts were soon slaughtered. The sealers abandoned their temporary settlement after it was no longer profitable to maintain it, and by the time we arrived only visits by occasional whalers were to be expected. We would pretty much be on our own. Mr. Dunn advised us that where the sealers had set up their settlement there was good grass, good timber, and fertile soil. When we finally arrived, we found that this information was accurate.

Our settlement was located at the head of a large bay near the middle of the east coast of the island- by far the best anchorage on the island. When we arrived, the abandoned makeshift buildings that the sealers used were in poor repair and filled with bird guano. The sealers left behind much equipment, piled in various clutters among the buildings, including large rendering pots. Surprisingly, the pier that they built was still standing.

The unloading of our equipment was interrupted by a squall, unfortunately common at that time of year. We would endure many of these storms in the years ahead.

The ship’s crew helped us to unload our belongings and even assisted us to cover them with canvases, which provided the only protection from the weather until we constructed wooden buildings. When it was time to depart, I watched the vessel that had been our home for most of the past few months move slowly out of sight. We were hopeful that the ship would return with our livestock, but after it sailed out of sight we all wondered how long it would be before we had any other contact with the rest of the world. As far as we knew, it might be as late as when our relief was supposed to arrive in two years. After all, the reason we came here was to live our lives undisturbed by outside influences. The remote location of the islands virtually assured that we would not be bothered, or so we believed.

We immediately got busy cleaning the dilapidated sealers’ buildings, which we planned to use as housing for our animals. Mr. Dunn assured us that we could survive on the fish, birds, and plants on the island, but we would need milk, and agriculture would be difficult without oxen. We were able to draw fresh water from a well that the sealers had dug a few hundred feet inland. This was a major inconvenience. Eventually we got most of our water from rainwater that was collected in barrels.

The first nights we slept in tents, as we would do until robust wooden structures were built, which task would occupy much of our time for the first few months. The men and boys kept busy clearing the nearby timber. Some of the trees provided suitable lumber and others firewood-it would be some time before we were able to construct a sawmill to cut boards from logs. While the men and boys were busy cutting wood and patching up the existing buildings, the six women scouted out the best cropland. They discovered that the soil could be fairly easily worked and they quickly managed to spade a small garden and plant onions, cabbages, potatoes, and other vegetables. We were filled with such enthusiasm in those early days!

We ate off of the supplies we brought with us at first- barrels of flour, molasses, sugar, salt pork, hard tack, dried peas and beans, raisins and other dried fruits, and sauerkraut put up in jars and sealed by tin lids and sealing wax. We had plenty of coffee and tea. We worked so hard during the days that we had no trouble sleeping, even though the island birds were not completely silent during the night. Particularly annoying was the shriek of the large owl, one of which posted itself close to our camp. When we woke up in the mornings, we were serenaded by the beautiful songs of some of the island land birds. These songs were like nothing else we had heard at our former home. Then Reverend Auld would lead a brief service, after which we would eat breakfast.

As the days passed, we became apprehensive about the arrival of our livestock. The only animal with us was a stray mongrel I picked up in Australia. The poor canine-I named her Rusty- was near starvation when I found her, and I pleaded with Reverend Auld to let me take her with me. A dog might prove to be a valuable asset to our group in a wild area, as I pointed out. Reverend Auld finally agreed.

It was with great relief that our livestock finally arrived. The Pleione had been blown off course by another squall-much like the one that had greeted us the day we arrived. Fortunately the precious oxen had survived the voyage, as had the goats. The only casualty was a chicken.

The animals and birds were quickly unloaded. Then the Pleione took on a load of the fresh water we collected and some wild cress that grew on the island, which Mr. Dunn claimed was a cure for scurvy. Reverend Auld also entrusted a letter with the Master that was eventually to be delivered to our church’s headquarters. The letter reported our experiences on the island in the little time we had been there and included suggestions of what kinds of equipment and materials should be brought along with the next group. The Pleione then set sail for Canton. This time we watched the ship disappear over the horizon with even more feelings of potential abandonment than before. We could not initiate contact with anyone else in the world, having only one small craft- a whaleboat which could only be employed for fishing close to shore and could hardly be used to embark on an ocean voyage.

We got busy again. The oxen enabled us to plow ground and plant wheat, barley and oats. Mr. Cunningham, the most experienced farmer, supervised the plowing. The women expanded the vegetable and herb garden. More trees were felled. The first building we erected was a combination chapel, schoolroom, and storehouse, partly made from boards that we brought with us. Then we built a cookhouse and six cabins-actually one room huts-for each couple. The last two buildings constructed were a bunk house for us boys and a dining hall, where we took our morning and evening communal meals. The structure was designed so that it could be enlarged in later years.

School for us boys began as soon as the chapel building was finished. Mrs. Dunn was our teacher. Her six pupils sat on barrels or on the floor while she drilled us. Later on we were provided with benches and simple chairs, made by Mr. Snyder, our carpenter.

We boys spent most of our time at work or in school but also accompanied the men on short trips of exploration beyond our little settlement on the bay. The first excursions we made were along the beach a mile or so to the north and to the south when the weather and tides permitted. The beaches of the island were plagued with sand fleas and bot flies, which delivered painful and annoying bites. Fortunately they were preyed upon by swifts, who darted above the beaches snapping up these pests. Without these birds, the beaches would have been unendurable in calm weather. It took strong winds to keep these insects from attacking us. Our only defense was to smear exposed areas of skin with bacon grease, forcing the bugs to concentrate on our eyes! Fortunately the bugs did not invade our habitations away from the beaches and they were not active at night. No matter how many flies the swifts and a few other birds captured, there always seemed to be more. As the year progressed, their numbers decreased, probably due to the need of the birds to capture more of them to feed their young. In the cooler season, the insects were not quite so active, but every spring there were swarms of them.

Walking inland from the beaches was difficult, due to undergrowth and the large number of abandoned bird burrows. Stepping on top of one risked ankle sprains. During the initial exploration along the beach to the north we proceeded as far as a small dead whale that had been washed ashore and was covered by multitudes of the flies and consumed by a mob of various avian scavengers-skuas, gulls, and adzebills-our first contact with this remarkable and unfamiliar bird. We also saw several pairs of large gray geese when we left the beach and entered the coastal forest. They rarely left the forest and we rarely saw them fly. They always occurred in pairs or small flocks.

Eventually we explored the seacoast for several miles north and south. This was done for motives other than curiosity. We needed to investigate the food resources of the island. On the seacoast we quickly found that spiny lobsters and abalone were abundant, in addition to several kinds of edible fish. The bay where we settled was the home of numerous flounders. A bottom feeding fish that Mr. Dunn claimed was a kind of codfish was found on all coasts and was good eating. The kelp beds which surrounded the island were home to many different kinds of fish, some of which were edible. We sometimes took the whaleboat out to deeper waters during calm days and caught fish that thrived further offshore. Afloat we were not bedeviled by insect pests as we were when we fished on or near the shore. The deeper waters were patrolled by various sharks, some of great size. One time one of these monsters rammed our boat, which put the crew in a great fright and caused them to row back to the coast. From that time on, most of our fishing was done from land at times when the insects were less active.

Mr. Dunn also pointed out some varieties of seaweed that the sealers had eaten. All along the shore was a species of thistle that grew just above high tide and could be used for fodder. Another conspicuous plant grew in areas where masses of the huge bull kelp plants had been washed ashore by storms. It had large leaves and beautiful blue flowers. It was a favorite of our goats.

After we explored the coasts a few miles from our settlement, Mr. Dunn led a few of us-including Rusty- to the large lake in the middle of the island, about twelve miles away, but uphill and through heavily wooded country. For most of the journey we walked along the bank of the stream that flowed into the bay where we lived, which was fairly easy going. For most of its course, the stream cut through a forest of tall, straight trees, wide of girth and covered with moss, much different from the smaller trees nearest the coast. Masses of ferns grew beneath the trees in the interior forest. After we travelled about seven miles, the stream was confined to a steep gorge, at the mouth of which was a series of cascades. We made our way along the lip of the gorge. In the gorge were stands of trees that looked like pines. These trees were so tall that they grew above the lip of the gorge. After passing the waterfalls, we could see the two peaks that loomed over the lake. As we climbed further, we entered a stand of even taller trees with strange fan-shaped, waxy leaves. Mr. Dunn claimed that these trees would be valuable sources of ship timber if it would be possible to get them to the coast. The trees also bore edible nuts, which we harvested annually in later years. Mr. Dunn cautioned us that the nuts had to be treated in order to make them edible. He learned how to do it from a China Hand who had seen similar nuts sold in Canton. The nuts were encased in a foul smelling pulp, which had to be stripped and thrown away. The nuts then were dried, after which they were roasted. They could be stored for long periods of time and became a significant part of our diet.

When we passed through this forest, we entered an open area covered by shrubs, grasses, and a cabbage-like plant that was one of the objectives of our exploration. Mr. Dunn claimed that it cured scurvy. We encountered a strange ground parrot, green in color, that did not seem to want to fly, but scurried about eating vegetation like a cow or sheep. Like all the birds, it had no fear of us. Finally, after a full day’s hike, we crossed over the top of a ridge and looked down on the lake. It was an amazing site. The body of water was more or less round, almost two miles across, and surrounded by cliffs-we learned that it was a crater lake-and teemed with various water birds-ducks, mud hens, and rails. Other kinds of birds roosted in the trees that grew by the lake. Curiously, there were no fish of any kind-only various bugs, frogs, and large numbers of a small shrimp. We camped out by the lake that night. Next morning we walked along the lake for a while, watching the birds feeding on the surface. Mr. Dunn directed us to some hot springs that emptied into the lake. The waters that bubbled up from the depths of the earth were too warm to bathe in even if anyone wanted to. Thick mats of slimy plant material grew in the area where the hot water emptied into the lake. Many bugs crawled around in these slimy plants, as did the small shrimps. After we stayed at the hot springs for a while, we turned homeward and collected some of the wild cabbages along the way. The cabbages we planted in our garden were still a long way from being harvested. We also collected some of the edible nuts that we noticed the day before. The nuts were stored in a special bag that fit on Rusty’s back. The bag was a miniature of regular saddlebag and was fashioned out of goat hair by the women.

When we got back to our settlement we were able to transplant most of the wild cabbages into our garden. We ate the rest. They did not taste particularly good, had a strange smell, and were tough, but at least they were edible. This plant became one of the staples of our agriculture. We found that they could be made into a sauerkraut that was more palatable than the cooked plants.

The days went by in a blur, following an established routine with interruptions for purposes of exploration.

CHAPTER II

T he island is oval shaped, approximately thirty miles from north to south and twenty miles from east to west. The highest elevation is a peak in the north end, about three thousand feet in height. In the middle of the island, overlooking the crater lake, are two peaks, each somewhat over two thousand feet elevation. A few miles southeast of the lake is a third peak, somewhat less than two thousand feet in height. The west coast and most of the south coast are cliff bound, a few of the cliffs up to a hundred feet high. We did not get to the west coast until some time after we arrived. This part of the island bears the brunt of the incessant winds, which are less onerous in the area where we lived. Off the west and south coasts of the island are several smaller islets, stacks, and rocks. They were homes to penguin, mollymauk, and other seabird colonies. On the largest islet, the seals were making a comeback-any attempt to land a boat on the islet would be dangerous because of its rocky shores, its steepness, and the rough seas. The sealers wisely left the seal colony there alone.

The climate of the island is mild to chilly. In summer, temperatures rarely exceed the low seventies. In winter it is almost always chilly but never extremely cold. We never experienced a frost where we lived, but at higher elevations it sometimes snows. One of the more unpleasant features of the winter is the prevalence of mists. In both seasons there are many overcast and rainy days, but also frequent sunny days where we lived. The higher elevations seemed to wear a crown of clouds most of the time. But the main feature of the climate is the wind. Rarely did we experience a completely calm day. Our settlement by the bay was one of the most protected places on the island. But we had warm clothing and soon got used to the weather.

The climate appeared to be ideal for the cultivation of potatoes, swede turnips, onions, and cabbages, which became our main vegetable crops. Their growth was enhanced by the abundant bird guano and kelp that we used for fertilizer. Grains did tolerably well, as did peas and beans. Mrs. Auld planted a small orchard, but we would not eat the fruits for several years. We cleared enough of the coastal forest to provide barely enough meadow to support our two oxen. The goats easily adjusted to the island plants. The chickens feasted on the bugs that crawled all over the island.

Mrs. Dunn supervised our schooling, with help from Aunt Rebecca and Reverend Auld. We six boys were of various ages when we arrived on the island, between twelve and sixteen. I was the oldest. Mrs. Dunn taught us English, Arithmetic, History, and Geography. Reverend Auld taught us Bible Class. Aunt Rebecca taught us French, a language she learned at a girl’s school. What good it did for us boys on a remote island we could not fathom, but we got it three days a week anyway. Reverend Auld owned several books and we were encouraged to read the ones that were suitable for us. The Bible, of course, was the focus of our schooling, as was an eclectic reader and Webster’s speller for the younger boys. But we also read Pilgrim’s Progress, Plutarch’s Lives, Aesop’s Fables, novels by Walter Scott, Catherine Sedgwick, and Mrs. Dunn’s favorite author, Jane Austen. She also read to us many poems by the great poets, and we were required to memorize and recite some of them. As we grew older, we studied Shakespeare’s plays. I particularly enjoyed the book Robinson Crusoe, which I thought was relevant to our situation.

Henry Snyder, who hated school, wondered why we had to waste time studying our lessons-particularly French-if we were to be living on a remote island the rest of our lives or until judgement day, at which time we would not need book learning. None of the adults heard him say this, but I am sure that there would have been a satisfactory answer if they had. It seemed to me that our schooling was a precaution against the failure of our venture. Still, I agreed with Henry that it would be unlikely that we would end up in France no matter what happened.

In addition to school, which occupied five mornings each week, the boys learned the trades of their fathers, or in my case, my uncle. Uncle Paul was a cobbler, and he taught me the fundamentals of leatherwork and shoemaking. It was one of the things we did to keep busy on the outward voyage and was continued after we landed on the island.

My mother died shortly after I was born, and my father died a few years later. Uncle Paul and Aunt Rebecca adopted me. They had no children of their own. Uncle Paul was Aunt Rebecca’s second husband. Her first husband died a few years after their marriage, and their only child lived but a a few weeks. Such was life in those days. The grim reaper was never far away.

Aunt Rebecca was a shrew and Uncle Paul was afraid of her. She constantly criticized him and he rarely fought back. When she was not after him, she was finding fault with me. In my case, the punishment was more than verbal. I got frequent whippings with a cane and sometimes with a razor strap, which hurt terribly, and I learned to live in fear of doing anything that would cause Aunt Rebecca to inflict that punishment. She believed that sparing the rod spoiled the child. She let up a bit after she and Uncle Paul joined our church, but soon reverted to form, picking on me for every little thing. I never in my life met another woman with such a temper and mean streak. But there was another side to her, as I would discover later, and she was a hard, diligent worker-very good at the things that she did. After we had been on the island for a while, I slept in the boy’s bunkhouse and avoided her as much as possible. Also I studied hard in her French class, which she appreciated, so I managed to escape her corporal punishments and most of the time even her verbal scoldings.

The other boys got paddled once in a while, but usually by their fathers or, if they misbehaved in school, by Mrs. Dunn. She had a strong arm and we boys learned not to fool around in her classes. When we were not learning, we were sleeping or working, and there was always plenty to do. We applied ourselves to the necessary toil, everyone pitching in to the best of their energy and ability. We were full of enthusiasm that first year. Additionally, we did not know what we would face when the cooler season arrived, so we wanted to finish our construction efforts before the weather turned.

In the days when we slept in tents, we were frequently visited by a large lizard with a crest on its back, which only came out at night. It was almost a yard long from nose to tail but was not in any way dangerous. It ate the bugs that bothered us at night, which was a benefit, but otherwise its tameness made it a pest. For some reason, Rusty, our dog, would not attack this creature. We found that there were many of them all along the seashore and inland. During the day, it lived in abandoned bird burrows.

Food was not a problem. We always had plenty to eat, most of it the bounty of the sea, but also the easily caught pigeons, geese, woodhens, and even parakeets. We saved the salt pork for potential emergencies, only dipping into the supplies when we had to. Soon our hens were laying, so we had enough eggs for our breakfast. The nanny goats supplied some milk and eventually enough to make cheese, which I never liked. Our flour ration enabled us to have sufficient bread, and native plants were soon supplemented by lettuces and radishes from the garden. One of the large woodhens took up residence in the garden and ate any of the bugs that our chickens missed. At night the crested lizards patrolled the garden.

But it was not all toil. We had our fun. In the warm season we played quoits. The women played shuttlecock. All year long we played draughts, dominos, and backgammon-card playing was forbidden. Reverend Auld was the undisputed champion of draughts. No one ever beat him. Many evenings after supper we would sing songs, accompanied by Mr. Cunningham on his banjo and Mrs. Pfeiffer playing her flute. Reverend Auld would sometimes recite from a book of poetry. Others would share stories. On occasional warm summer evenings, the adults would hold dances. Either Mr. Cunningham or Mrs. Pfeiffer would provide musical accompaniment. Mrs. Snyder especially loved to dance, and she taught all of us boys our first steps.

On Sundays we all attended church services, first in the open and then indoors after our small chapel was built. At first we had to sit on the floor or on barrels until Mr. Snyder built enough chairs and benches for everyone. We sang several hymns and Reverend Auld, who led the services, read many bible verses and gave long sermons, usually concerning the impending millennium. Following the regular service we attended a bible study session, after which we ate a communal meal. During the remainder of the sabbath we indulged in various recreations- or occasionally in brief explorations- or did nothing in particular. Work that was not absolutely necessary was forbidden on this day of rest. After the light evening meal there was a brief service.

One Sunday, which happened to be the warmest day of the year, a large adzebill walked into the chapel. It was a stocky creature, almost four feet in height, with a curved bill that looked like it would inflict a nasty peck. The bird strode confidently down the center aisle of the chapel and up to the lectern where Reverend Auld was winding up his sermon, waving his arms and in full throat denunciation of the devil and all his works. The bird then pooped. This caused some of the boys to giggle. I had to put my hand in front of my face to conceal my laughter. The men appeared to have no response and some of the women were shocked. Mrs. Dunn exclaimed: How vulgar! Mr. Dunn picked up a stick and chased the bird out of the building.

During the warmest months of our first year on the island, the bay became filled with jellyfish, which made fishing somewhat difficult. These jellyfish were eaten by large sea turtles, which showed up at the time of the jellyfish bloom. Sharks also seemed to be most abundant at this time of year.

One weekend in mid- December we took a break and a few of us decided to climb to the highest peak on the island. We followed a tributary of the stream that emptied into the bay up to its source, which was near the point where a forest of tall trees with an understory of ferns and mosses gave way to an area of wind twisted small trees and shrubs-a goblin forest- with several kinds of strange plants, among them the wild cabbage. Most unusual were the plants that grew together to form large cushions. We had seen some of them on our trip to the crater lake. It almost seemed as though they huddled together to keep warm. It was almost impossible to walk through large stands of these peculiar plants, so we had to thread our way around them. A tiny rail seemed to find them hospitable, probably because they were safe there. These small birds scurried about like mice. We also saw many of them in the moss forest, along with a small songbird.

On the day we ascended to the high point of the island it was calm, an unusual event. The shrubs above the moss forest tended to lean in a direction opposite that of the prevailing wind, so it appeared that we had come on a lucky day. The green ground parrot was abundant in this area. It was never observed at lower elevations. It hardly ever flew and behaved more like a partridge than a parrot. Like most of the other island birds, it ignored our presence.

One bird that did not ignore our presence was a large falcon, which actually attacked us. On one pass it knocked the cap off the head of Mr. Dunn. Had he not been wearing it, the birds talons could have inflicted a serious cut. The bird and its mate screamed at us continually and made numerous passes at us, which we managed to dodge. We had to elevate our walking sticks above our heads every time the birds made a pass. They were very persistent. Apparently the birds had a nest in the area.

It took us a while to climb to the top of the peak, the last hundred feet or so being a rocky massif with obsidian at its base. When we got to the top, we were rewarded by a magnificent view, which we found out later to be unusual-normally the peak was either above the clouds or encompassed by them. But at that time we could see for miles, even the seacoasts of the northern portion of the island. Using a spyglass that Mr. Dunn brought, we noticed that directly west there was a small offshore islet that seemed to harbor some seals and numerous penguins. It was good to see that the sealers had not been completely thorough in their grisly work. We also observed that there were falcon nests on the sides of the massif. The birds would fly to the seacoast and bring back catches of seabirds to feed their fledglings.

We camped out in the moss forest that evening. While our meal was cooking Mr. Dunn showed us how to work the obsidian that we collected into useful blades. After we ate, we crawled into the shelters that we prepared and then sacked out. Not even the cries of the owls could interrupt our sleep that night. It was chilly and the fire we lit kept us warm for a while. I was happy to have my dog Rusty next to me through the night.

It seemed odd to us to celebrate Christmas during a time of warmth, with blossoms of beautiful flowering trees of various colors in the forests by our settlement. There were no gifts to exchange, but we did have a church service, singing the old familiar carols. We also ate a meal of roast duck.

At the end of December a British navy vessel sailed into the bay to take on fresh water and wood. It was the first human contact we had in several months. The visit with the ship’s crew was pleasant and the Captain was very curious about our settlement. He advised us that we could profit greatly as provisioners and refitters for passing whalers, whom he warned us were sometimes a rough lot. They were always needful of food- such as potatoes and cabbages. We informed him that we would not have any food to spare at the time but might in future years. He also informed us that there was an uninhabited island to the north that might have sandalwood. If we could get there and harvest the trees, it would be a good source of income for us. He agreed to take a report from Reverend Auld back to his next port of call and get it mailed to our church headquarters. Mrs. Auld put a request for some items of comfort in the report, such as soft chairs and sofas. There was no reason for us to be essentially camping out for our entire stay on the island. We were pioneers and knew that we would have to undergo the rigors expected of us until our relief came, but after that we should enjoy some creature comforts.

The Captain also mentioned that botanists in England might be interested in having us collect the island plants for them and might pay us to do it. He would personally look into the prospect when he returned home. Possibly more information would be provided in the future, although few vessels other than whalers sailed our way. The visit indicated that we might not experience the complete isolation from the rest of the world that had been hoped for.

When the cabins, cookhouse, and chapel were finished, we began construction of a mill house and waterwheel to install the millstones we brought with us. Mr. Pfeiffer, a millwright, planned and supervised the construction. The first wheat crop, which was small, was turned to flour using quern stones, a most laborious process. Our settlement on the bay was situated by a small river. Some distance up the stream was an ideal spot for the mill, where the current was rapid. This construction project took us a long time. It took a while for us to locate a tree of exactly the correct girth and strength to house the waterwheel. Most of the trees near the coast were not very tall and were spindly. After we felled the right tree, it took our oxen an entire day to haul it to the mill site.

We were visited by two whalers soon after the New Year. They took on water and both of them traded with us for goat milk, cheese, fresh eggs, and some of the medicinal seaweeds that Mr. Dunn collected. The crews did appear to be a rough lot, but they did not cause us any trouble while they were on land. Reverend Auld insisted that there be no swearing or tobacco use by the crews as a condition of their landing, and the Masters agreed. One of the Masters provided us with some information about the islands nearest to us. There was a small island about three hundred nautical miles northwest of us. It had no fresh water and there was nothing there of any value. Also it was overrun with land crabs. About a hundred miles north of that island was a somewhat larger island with good timber, but no fresh water. Neither of these two islands was high and both were hard to get around in because of concealed holes in the rocks. The next island was another two hundred miles further north and was a high island, with peaks almost as elevated as ours. But it was not as large. It had fresh water and good timber and he had heard that sandalwood grew in the interior. But it also harbored dangerous crocodiles and giant spiders in the forests, which covered the entire island. The growth was so thick that it was difficult to get around. There were also stories about giant horned turtles, larger even than those reported to be found on islands off the coast of South America. The Master had never seen these creatures nor knew anyone who had. The story supposedly was from a sailor who was marooned on the island after a shipwreck. Only a few of his mates survived the wreck, reaching the island in a lifeboat. He was the only one of those who lived to tell of it, the rest dying from crocodile attacks or spider bites. When he was rescued he was in bad shape, almost delirious, and did not live long afterward. The Master did not know how the story about the sandalwood came about. Supposedly the shipwrecked sailor was the only person to have spent much time on the island. There had been other brief landings for water and timber, so there might have been sandalwood growing close to shore.

Both Masters agreed to take letters from Reverend Auld to their home bases and forward them to our church’s headquarters.

After the second whaler left, several of us explored along the northeast shore of the island collecting more kelp and guano from the cliff bottoms for our gardens. During our return journey, we discovered another beached whale a few miles north of our settlement. It was a kind of beaked whale that Mr. Dunn had never seen before. The carcass was fresh and we recovered the hide and the blubber, which we rendered and then cooked to recover the oil. Rusty even ate some of the meat, which was a change from her diet of fish and fowl.

One of the uses of the whale oil was soap manufacture. This was accomplished by leaching the ashes from our fires and letting the solution evaporate. The lye that was recovered then was cooked up with the whale oil to provide soap. We brought a large quantity of soap along with us, but we were using it at such a rate that we would surely run out before our relief came.

Our gardens did well. We harvested a surprisingly good potato crop, along with cabbages, peas, beans, onions, swede turnips, and cucumbers. The grain yields were not very good-it had not been very warm that summer, but we still had much of the flour that we brought with us. So we were well fixed for the cold season. There were also some berries which grew in the forest that we were able to harvest. They were not particularly tasty but did provide a welcome variation to our diet. Mrs. Auld mentioned that she requested strawberry plants in the letter that was sent with the British ship.

We made a few more explorations after the New Year. We finally made it to the west coast on one expedition. We climbed the southernmost peak on the island and then walked to the large crater lake, discovering another, smaller lake along the way. It too teemed with waterfowl. It was without fish, its waters inhabited only by various bugs and the small shrimp, like the crater lake. We followed the outlet stream of the crater lake to the west coast, discovering a beautiful waterfall a mile or so past the outlet. The stream flowed through a deep canyon for another two miles below the foot of the falls. Then it opened out into a broad valley, through which it flowed to the ocean. It is the largest stream on the island-almost a small river-and abounded with eels. The valley, and much of the west side of the island, was covered with a type of evergreen that did not grow on the eastern side. It was heavily branched, with the lower ones drooping. It tolerated the brisk winds very well. Seedlings were collected and we planted them between our gardens and the