y not coagulate. In this state they cover little clay bottles
with successive layers of it, till it attains the required thickness. It
is then dried in smoke, which gives it the dark brown colour. Before it
is quite dry, it is ornamented by lines and flowers drawn with the
knife. Finally, they break the clay form, and extract it from the mouth;
and there remains the India-rubber bottle of commerce, soft and
flexible. Now, this is my plan for shoemaking; we will fill a stocking
with sand, cover it with repeated layers of the gum till it is of the
proper thickness; then empty out the sand, and, if I do not deceive
myself, we shall have perfect boots or shoes."

Comfortable in the hope of new boots, we advanced through an
interminable forest of various trees. The monkeys on the cocoa-nut trees
furnished us with pleasant refreshment, and a small store of nuts
besides. Among these trees I saw some lower bushes, whose leaves were
covered with a white dust. I opened the trunk of one of these, which had
been torn up by the wind, and found in the interior a white farinaceous
substance, which, on tasting, I knew to be the sago imported into
Europe. This, as connected with our subsistence, was a most important
affair, and my son and I, with our hatchets, laid open the tree, and
obtained from it twenty-five pounds of the valuable sago.

This occupied us an hour; and, weary and hungry, I thought it prudent
not to push our discoveries farther this day. We therefore returned to
the Gourd Wood, placed all our treasures on the sledge, and took our way
home. We arrived without more adventures, and were warmly greeted, and
our various offerings gratefully welcomed, especially the green parrot.
We talked of the caoutchouc, and new boots, with great delight during
supper; and, afterwards, my wife looked with exceeding content at her
bag of candle-berries, anticipating the time when we should not have to
go to bed, as we did now, as soon as the sun set.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXIII.

The next morning my wife and children besought me to begin my
manufacture of candles. I remembered having seen the chandler at work,
and I tried to recall all my remembrances of the process. I put into a
boiler as many berries as it would hold, and placed it over a moderate
fire: the wax melted from the berries, and rose to the surface, and this
I carefully skimmed with a large flat spoon and put in a separate vessel
placed