en, to aid his friend in finishing this task. Even
this strong body of labourers was busy two months longer, before the
governor pronounced the great end accomplished. Then he dismissed his
neighbours with such gifts and pay as sent away everybody contented.
Many persons thought the experiment of bringing so many savages to the
Reef somewhat hazardous; but no harm ever came of it. On the contrary,
the intercourse had a good effect, by making the two people better
acquainted with each other. The governor had a great faculty in the
management of those wild beings. He not only kept them in good-humour,
but what was far more difficult, he made them work. They were converted
into a sort of Irish for his colony. It is true, one civilized man could
do more than three of the Kannakas, but the number of the last was so
large that they accomplished a great deal during their stay.

Nor would the governor have ventured to let such dangerous neighbours
into the group, had there not been still more imposing mysteries
connected with the Peak, into which they were not initiated. Even young
Ooroony wag kept in ignorance of what was to be found on that dreaded
island. He saw vessels going and coming, knew that the governor often
went there, saw strange faces appearing occasionally on the Reef, that
were understood to belong to the unknown land, and probably to a people
who were much more powerful than those who were in direct communication
with the natives.

The governor induced his Kannakas to work by interesting them in the
explosions of the blasts, merely to enjoy the pleasure of seeing a
cart-load of rock torn from its bed. One of these men would work at a
drill all day, and then carry off the fragments to be placed in the
walls, after he had had his sport in this operation of blasting. They
seemed never to tire of the fun, and it was greatly questioned if half
as much labour could have been got out of them at any other work, as at
this.

A good deal of attention was paid to rendering the soil of the colony
garden fertile, as well as deep. In its shallowest places it exceeded a
foot in depth, and in the deepest, spots where natural fissures had
aided the drill, it required four or five feet of materials to form the
level. These deep places were all marked, and were reserved for the
support of trees. Not only was sand freely mixed with the mud, or muck,
but sea-weed in large quantities was laid near the surface, and finally
covered