and to pluck the fruit at pleasure!

As for figs, melons, limes, shaddocks, and even cocoa-nuts, all were now
to be had, and in quantities quite sufficient for the population. In
time, the colonists craved the apples of their own latitude, and the
peach; those two fruits, so abundant and so delicious in their ancient
homes; but the novelty was still on them, and it required time to learn
the fact that we tire less of the apple, and the peach, and the potato,
than of any other of the rarest gifts of nature. That which the potato
has become among vegetables, is the apple among fruits; and when we rise
into the mere luscious and temporary of the bountiful products of
horticulture, the peach (in its perfection) occupies a place altogether
apart, having no rival in its exquisite flavour, while it never produces
satiety. The peach and the grape are the two most precious of the gifts
of Providence, in the way of fruits.

That night, most of the immigrants slept in the ship; nearly all of
them, however, for the last time. About ten in the forenoon, Brown came
running down to the Reef, through the eastern passage, to report Waally
well off, having quitted the group to windward, and made the best of his
way towards his own islands, without turning aside to make a
starting-point of Rancocus. It was a good deal questioned whether the
chief would find his proper dominions, after a run of four hundred
miles; for a very trifling deviation from the true course at starting,
would be very apt to bring him out wide of his goal. This was a matter,
however, that gave the colonists very little concern. The greater the
embarrassments encountered by their enemies, the less likely would they
be to repeat the visit; and should a few perish, it might be all the
better for themselves. The governor greatly approved of Brown's course
in not following the canoes, since the repulse was sufficient as it was,
and there was very little probability that the colony would meet with
any further difficulty from this quarter, now that it had got to be so
strong.

That day and the next, the immigrants were busy in landing their
effects, which consisted of furniture, tools and stores, of one sort and
another. As the governor intended to send, at once, forty select
families over to the Peak, the Abraham was brought alongside of the
quay, and the property of those particular families was, as it came
ashore, sent on board the schooner. Males and females were all