r, as it was all work for
the axe, in the use of which Jack was become wonderfully expert; but it
was quite a different affair when he came to nailing the ribs to the
keel, for we had no instrument capable of boring a large hole, and no
nails to fasten them with. We were, indeed, much perplexed here; but
Jack at length devised an instrument that served very well. He took the
remainder of our hoop-iron and beat it into the form of a pipe or
cylinder, about as thick as a man's finger. This he did by means of our
axe and the old rusty axe we had found at the house of the poor man at
the other side of the island. This, when made red hot, bored slowly
though the timbers; and, the better to retain the heat, Jack shut up one
end of it and filled it with sand. True, the work was very slowly done,
but it mattered not--we had little else to do. Two holes were bored in
each timber, about an inch and a half apart, and also down into the keel,
but not quite through. Into these were placed stout pegs made of a tree
called iron-wood; and, when they were hammered well home, the timbers
were as firmly fixed as if they had been nailed with iron. The gunwales,
which were very stout, were fixed in a similar manner. But, besides the
wooden nails, they were firmly lashed to the stem and stern posts and
ribs by means of a species of cordage which we had contrived to make out
of the fibrous husk of the cocoa nut. This husk was very tough, and when
a number of the threads were joined together they formed excellent
cordage. At first we tied the different lengths together, but this was
such a clumsy and awkward complication of knots, that we contrived, by
careful interlacing of the ends together before twisting, to make good
cordage of any size or length we chose. Of course it cost us much time
and infinite labour, but Jack kept up our spirits when we grew weary, and
so all that we required was at last constructed.

Planks were now cut off the chestnut trees of about an inch thick. These
were dressed with the axe,--but clumsily, for an axe is ill adapted for
such work. Five of these planks on each side were sufficient, and we
formed the boat in a very rounded, barrel-like shape, in order to have as
little twisting of the planks as possible; for, although we could easily
bend them, we could not easily twist them. Having no nails to rivet the
planks with, we threw aside the ordinary fashion of boat building and
adopted one of our own.