nd his family.
Mark longed to see his sister Anne, and his two brothers participated in
this wish, if possible, in a still more lively manner.

The meeting of these members of the same family was of the most touching
character. The young men found their sister much better established than
they had anticipated, and in the enjoyment of very many more comforts
than they had supposed it was in the power of any one to possess in a
colony still so young. Heaton had erected a habitation for himself, in a
charming grove, where there were water, fruits, and other conveniences,
near at hand, and where his own family was separated from the rest of
the community. This distinction had been conferred on him, by common
consent, in virtue of his near affinity to the governor, whose
substitute he then was, and out of respect to his education and original
rank in life. Seamen are accustomed to defer to station and authority,
and are all the happier for the same; and the thought of any jealousy on
account of this privilege, which as yet was confined to Mark and Heaton,
and their respective families, had not yet crossed the mind of any one
on the island.

About twelve, or at midnight, the Abraham entered the cove. Late as was
the hour, each immigrant assumed a load suited to his or her strength,
and ascended the Stairs, favoured by the sweet light of a full moon.
That night most of the new-comers passed in the groves, under tents or
in an arbour that had been prepared for them; and sweet was the repose
that attended happiness and security, in a climate so agreeable.

Next morning, when the immigrants came out of their temporary dwellings,
and looked upon the fair scene before them, they could scarcely believe
in its reality! It is true, nothing remarkable or unexpected met their
eyes in the shape of artificial accessories; but the bountiful gifts of
Providence, and the natural beauties of the spot, as much exceeded their
anticipations as it did their power of imagining such glories! The
admixture of softness and magnificence made a whole that they had never
before beheld in any other portion of the globe; and there was not one
among them all that did not, for the moment, feel and speak as if he or
she had been suddenly transformed to an earthly paradise.

Chapter XXII.

"You have said they are men;
As such their hearts are something."

Byron.

The colony had now reached a point when it became necessary to p