invitations that he, and his party, now
received to make merry. He traded a little with Ooroony's people,
obtaining many things that were useful in exchange for old iron, and
other articles of little or no value. What was more, he ascertained that
sandal-wood was to be found on Rancocus Island in small quantities, and
in this group in abundance. A contract was made, accordingly, for the
cutting and preparing of a considerable quantity of this wood, which was
to be ready for delivery in the course of three months, when it was
understood that the schooner was to return and take it in. These
arrangements completed, the Friend Abraham White sailed for home.

Instead of entangling himself in the channels to leeward, Mark made the
land well to the northward, entering the group by a passage that led him
quite down to the Reef, as the original island was now uniformly
called, with a flowing sheet. Of course the schooner was seen an hour
before she arrived, and everybody was out on the Reef to greet the
adventurers. Fears mingled with the other manifestations of joy, when
the result of this great enterprise came to be known. Mark had a
delicious moment when he folded the sobbing Bridget to his heart, and
Friend Martha was overcome in a way that it was not usual for her to
betray feminine weakness.

Everybody exulted in the success of the colony, and it was hoped that
the future would be as quiet as it was secure.

But recent events began to give the governor trouble, on other accounts.
The accession to his numbers, as well as the fact that these men were
seamen, and had belonged to the Rancocus, set him thinking on the
subject of his duty to the owners of that vessel. So long as he supposed
him self to be a cast-away, he had made use of their property without
compunction, but circumstances were now changed, and he felt it to be a
duty seriously to reflect on the possibility of doing something for the
benefit of those who had, undesignedly it is true, contributed so much
to his own comfort. In order to give this important subject a due
consideration, as well as to relieve the minds of those at the Peak, the
Abraham sailed for the cove the morning after her arrival at the Reef.
Bridget went across to pay Anne a visit, and most of the men were of the
party. The Neshamony had carried over the intelligence of Waally's
repulse, and of the Abraham's having gone to that chief's island, but
the result of this last expedition remained t