"
"I think, after all, you would scarcely find the means of supporting
yourself," I added, looking round in affected doubt; for I felt, at
each instant, how likely my companion was to adhere to his notion, and
this from knowing him so well. "I doubt if the cocoa is healthy, all
the year round, and there must be seasons when the trees do not bear."
"Have no fear of that sort. I have my own fowling-piece, and you will
leave me a musket, or two, with some ammunition. Transient vessels,
now the island is known, will keep up the supply. There are two hens
setting, at this moment, and a third has actually hatched. Then one of
the men tells me there is a litter of pigs, near the mouth of the
bay. As for the hogs and the poultry, the shell-fish and berries will
keep them; but there are fifteen hogsheads of sugar on the beach,
besides thirty or forty more in the wreck, and all above water. There
are casks of beans and peas, the sea-stores of the French, besides
lots of other things. I can plant, and fish, and shoot, and make a
fence from the ropes of the wreck, and have a large garden, and all
that a man can want. Our own poultry, you know, has long been out; but
there is still a bushel of Indian-corn left, that was intended for
their feed. One quart of that, will make me a rich man, in such a
climate as this, and with soil like that on the flat between the two
groves.
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