, was well quit of them. Brooms and water
were set to work immediately, but it was a month before the Henlopen
lost the peculiar odour of the cattle.

Nor were the human beings much less rejoiced to go ashore than the
brutes. Dunks gave them all a hearty welcome, and though he had little
fruit to offer, he had plenty of vegetables, for which they were quite
as thankful. Melons, however, he could and did give them, and the human
part of the cargo had an ample feast on a sort of food to which they had
now so long been strangers. The horses and cows were left on Dunks's
Island, where they stayed until word was sent to the governor that they
had eaten down all his grass, and would soon be on allowance again,
unless taken away. Means, however, were soon found to relieve him of the
stock, though his meadows, or pastures rather, having been seldom cut in
that climate, were much improved by the visit paid them. As for the
animals, they were parcelled out among the different farms, thus giving
a little milk, and a little additional force to each neighbourhood.
Fowls and pigs had been distributed some time previously, so that not a
man in the group was without his breeding sow, and his brood of young
chickens. These were species of stock that increased so rapidly, that a
little care alone was wanting to make eggs and pork plenty. Corn, or
maize, grew just for the planting; though it was all the better,
certainly, for a little care.

After sufficient time had been allowed to make the necessary
preparations, the vessels sailed with the immigrants for the Reef. There
was many a glad meeting between friends and relatives. Those who had
just arrived had a great deal to tell those who had preceded then by
eighteen months, and those who now considered themselves old settlers,
entertained the new ones with the wonders of their novel situations.

Chapter XXIV.

"Welter upon the waters, mighty one--
And stretch thee in the ocean's trough of brine;
Turn thy wet scales up to the wind and sun,
And toss the billow from thy flashing fin;
Heave thy deep breathing to the ocean's din,
And bound upon its ridges in thy pride,
Or dive down to its lowest depths, and in
The caverns where its unknown monsters hide
Measure thy length beneath the gulf-stream's tide."

Brainard's _Sea-Serpent._

The colony had now reached a point when its policy must have an eye to
its future destinies. If it wer