Chapter 5 No.5

Strange Surroundings; Building a House.

My next sensation was that of the sun shining in my face when I awoke in the morning. At first, as I looked out from beneath my shelter I could scarcely comprehend where I was or how I came there; but the events of the day before soon returned to me. For a few minutes I lay still, looking around upon my beautiful surroundings. What a perfect paradise it was, and how overjoyed I should be were I here under different circumstances.

There was a gentle breeze stirring, just enough to move the feathery leaves of the palms and to slightly bend the tall grass; and though I could not see any of them, I heard birds giving forth discordant notes in the forest around.

But I must stir myself, for there was much to do. My house must be finished, I must devise some articles for personal use, and the problem of my future sustenance must be solved, for I could not long continue to work and subsist entirely upon cocoanuts and oranges, although they would answer well enough for the present.

So I sprang up and going directly to the stream I bathed my face and hands. Having no towel and seeing no substitute for one, I sat down and dried myself in the sun.

Cracking another cocoanut in the same manner as I did the day before and gathering some oranges, I sat down with my back against the palm tree and proceeded with my frugal breakfast. As I had neglected to provide myself with a meal ere I retired the night before, I was very hungry and my appetite was not satisfied until I had eaten nearly a dozen oranges, beside the cocoanut. Using a half shell of the cocoanut as a cup, I took a long drink of water from the stream and turned again toward my embryo dwelling.

I thought it best to construct the walls first in order to provide against the possible attacks of wild animals, and knowing this to be the first part of the dry season which, in the latitude in which I judged myself to be, lasts from the middle of November until May, there was no immediate necessity for providing shelter from rain.

The necessity of devising some plan for keeping an accurate account of each day as it passed, now occurred to me, and as I walked back to the pool for another supply of bamboos, I revolved the question in my mind. The record which I proposed to keep must be indestructible, and in some compact, portable form so that I could easily take it with me in the event of sudden departure from my habitation. One of the halves of the cocoanut shells which caught my eye as I passed the spot where I had partaken of breakfast, gave me an idea which I at once adopted.

Then and there I put the plan into execution. It was this: I resolved to use only the halves of the cocoanut shells that contained the natural holes through which the shoots of the germinating nut emerge from the shell. The meat was removed from the half shell, leaving the two holes through it.

At the close of each day, as near sunset as possible, I would cut a deep notch in the edge of the shell, and each shell should have as many notches as there were days in the month. On the completion of the month I would carve with my knife the name of the month and year; and in this way I hoped to preserve a correct record of the time. As each month was finished I proposed to pass a cord through one of the holes; and for the purpose I at once braided a strong cord from the fibres of the cocoanut cloth from which I had constructed my head gear.

I remembered, accurately the day of the wreck, and as I had been on shore one day, I out the first notch, and engraved on the shell: "December 18th, 18--."

As I marked upon my calendar I wondered how many shells I should have upon my string ere I was rescued from my lonely position. "Perhaps," I thought, "I may never see any other place." But I resolved not to harbor gloomy thoughts; and tying a large hard knot in one end of the cord, I strung the shell upon it, inserting it from the outside. Succeeding shells strung upon the cord would fit into one another like a nest of bowls. Thus I would have a complete record, and a practically imperishable one.

As I knew the day of the week on which I had commenced my lone life, I resolved, for each Sunday, to bore a hole instead of cutting a notch, for I intended to observe the Sabbath by abstaining from work.

Continuing my way to the pool, I set to work cutting bamboos. I selected only those measuring about two inches in diameter, and before the sun reached the zenith I had thirty of them cut and trimmed, ready to drag to my house.

I found it hot work, and I threw myself down to rest. For the first time I caught sight of the birds that had been making such a babel of discordant sounds all the morning. Several of them were flying about near the opposite side of the pool, and I at once recognized them as parrots.

"What a consolation it would be," I thought, "if I could capture one and teach it to talk. It certainly would prove far better than no companion."

Having landed the bamboos at the house, I set about cutting them into lengths corresponding to the height of the corner posts. These I set into the ground at regular intervals, in line with the posts, lashing the upper ends to the horizontal poles resting in the forks, and to the poles across the other two sides, using for the purpose a long, supple vine which I found growing in plenty in the edge of the woods, twisting around the trunks of the trees.