riend, but rather encouraged it; being persuaded nothing
was gained by forcing upon a man duties he was hardly fitted to
discharge. Self-made men, he well knew, were sometimes very useful; but
he also knew that they must be first _made_.

The name of this new sloop was the Martha, being thus called in
compliment to her owner's sober-minded, industrious and careful wife.
She (the sloop, and not Mrs. Betts) was nearly all cabin, having lockers
forward and aft, and was fitted with benches in her wings, steamboat
fashion. Her canvas was of light duck, there being very little heavy
weather in that climate; so that assisted by a boy and a Kannaka, honest
Bob could do anything he wished with his craft. He often went to the
Peak and Rancocus Island in her, always doing something useful; and he
even made several trips in her, within the first few months he had her
running, as far as Betto's group. On these last voyages, he carried over
Kannakas as passengers, as well as various small articles, such as
fish-hooks, old iron, hatchets even, and now and then a little tobacco.
These he exchanged for cocoa-nuts, which were yet scarce in the colony,
on account of the number of mouths to consume them; baskets, Indian
cloth, paddles which the islanders made very beautifully and with a
great deal of care; bread-fruit, and other plants that abounded more at
Betto's group than at the Reef, or even on the Peak.

But the greatest voyage Betts made that season was when he took a
freight of melons. This was a fruit which now abounded in the colony; so
much so as to be fed even to the hogs, while the natives knew nothing of
it beyond the art of eating it. They were extraordinarily fond of
melons, and Bob actually filled the cabin of the Martha with articles
obtained in exchange for his cargo. Among other things obtained on this
occasion, was a sufficiency of sandal-wood to purchase for the owner of
the sloop as many groceries as he could consume in his family for twelve
months; though groceries were high, as may well be supposed, in a place
like the Reef. Betts always admitted that the first great turn in his
fortune was the money made on this voyage, in which he embarked without
the least apprehension of Waally, and his never-ceasing wiles and
intrigues. Indeed, most of his sales were made to that subtle and active
chief, who dealt very fairly by him.

All this time the Rancocus was laid up for want of something to freight
her with. At one ti