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Nat the Naturalist: A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 42. An Experiment In Boat-Building |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY TWO. AN EXPERIMENT IN BOAT-BUILDING "It is of no use to be down-hearted, Nat," said my uncle the next morning. "Cheer up, my lad, and let's look our difficulties in the face. 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. This loss of the boat and then of our follower, if he is lost, are two great misfortunes, but we must bear in mind that before all this hardly anything but success attended us." "Except with the savages, uncle," I said. "Right, Nat: except with the savages. Now let's go down to the shore and have a good look out to sea." We walked down close to the water, and having satisfied ourselves that no canoes were in sight, we made a fire, at which our coffee was soon getting hot, while I roasted a big pigeon, of which food we never seemed to tire, the supply being so abundant that it seemed a matter of course to 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 rays through 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 and see 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 was wondering 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. It took hundreds of years to make a good bark canoe, Nat, and I'm afraid the 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 will take a long time." "Yes, Nat, but suppose we try the medium way. I propose that we cut down a moderately-sized tree, and hollow it out for the lower part of our boat, drive pegs all along the edge for a support, and weave in that a basket-work of cane for the sides as high as we want it." "But how could we make the sides watertight, uncle?" I said; "there seem 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 the earth, if we can discover any. The Malays called it _dammar_, and use it largely for torches. It strikes me that we could turn it into a splendid varnish, seeing what a hard resinous substance it is. Ebo would have found some very soon, I have no doubt." "Then I must find some without him, uncle," I said. "I shall go hunting for it whenever I am not busy boat-building." He smiled at my enthusiasm, and after examining the skins to see that they were all dry and free from attacks of ants, we each took a hatchet and our guns, and proceeded along by the side of the shore in search of a 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 of labour, and only learn by experience which kind of tree would be suitable, perhaps having to cut down several before we found one that would do. "And that will be bad, uncle," I said. "It will cause us a great deal of labour, Nat," he replied smiling; "but it will make us handy with our hatchets." "I did not mean that, uncle," I replied; "I was thinking of savages coming 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 cut off so from the rest of the island, we must be hopeful that we may get our work done before they come." We spent four days hunting about before we found a tree that possessed all the qualities we required. We found dozens that would have done, only they were far away from the shore, where it would have been very difficult to move our boat afterwards to the water's edge. But the tree we selected offered us a thick straight stem twenty feet long, 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 our work unseen. We set to at once to cut it down, finding to our great delight as soon as we were through the bark that the wood was firm and fibrous, and yet easy to cut, so that after six hours' steady chopping we had made a big gap 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 it while I gave a few more cuts, and down it went with a crash amongst the other 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 top at the length we intended to have our boat, a task this which saved the labour of chopping off the branches. I worked hard, and the labour was made lighter by Uncle Dick's pleasant conversation. For he chatted about savage and civilised man, and laughingly pointed out how the latter 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 of cross-cut saws and a circular saw worked by steam this tree could be soon reduced to thin boards ready for building our boat." Birds came and perched near us, and some were very rare in kind, but we felt that we must leave them alone so as to secure those we had obtained, and we worked patiently on till at the end of a week the tree began to wear outside somewhat the shape of a boat, and it was just about the length we required. It was terribly hard work, but we did not shrink, and at last, after congratulating ourselves upon having got so far without being interfered with by the savages, we had shouldered our guns and were walking back to the hut one evening when we caught sight of a black figure running across 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 can help it, but it is their lives or ours, and we must get safely back home." "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!" came shrilly 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, rolling on the ground, hugging us, and seeming half mad with delight as he dragged 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 boat apparently quite uninjured. As Ebo danced about and patted the boat and then himself, it was plain enough to read the cause of his disappearance. He had gone off along the shore following the savages to their village, and then watched his opportunity to sail off. And this he had of course done, placing the boat safely in its old moorings. He made signs for something to eat, and then I noticed that he looked very thin; and it was evident that the poor fellow had suffered terrible privations in getting back our treasure, and proving himself so good a friend. _ |
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