ild
as a lamb. The boy rode on his back, guiding him with a little stick,
with which he just touched the side of his neck as he wished him to
move; but if his brothers had ventured to mount, they would have been
certainly thrown off. A pretty sight was our cavalry: Fritz on his
handsome onagra, Jack on his huge buffalo, and Francis on his young
bull. There was nothing left for Ernest but the donkey, and its slow and
peaceful habits suited him very well.

Francis ran up to his favourite, who showed his delight at seeing him as
well as he was able, and at the first summons followed his master from
the stable. Fritz brought out _Lightfoot_ Jack his buffalo, and I
followed with the cow and the ass. We left them to sport about at
liberty on the humid earth, till we removed the water from their stable,
and supplied them with fresh food. We then drove them in, considering it
advisable to pursue our expedition on foot, lest the bridge should still
be overflowed. Francis was the superintendent of the fowls, and knew
every little chicken by name; he called them out and scattered their
food for them, and soon had his beautiful and noisy family fluttering
round him.

After having made all our animals comfortable, and given them their
breakfast, we began to think of our own. Francis made a fire and warmed
some chicken broth for his mother; for ourselves, we were contented with
some new milk, some salt herrings, and cold potatoes. I had often
searched in my excursions for the precious _bread-fruit_ tree, so highly
spoken of by modern travellers, which I had hoped might be found in our
island, from its favourable situation; but I had hitherto been
unsuccessful. We were unable to procure the blessing of _bread_, our
ship biscuit had long been exhausted, and though we had sown our
European corn, we had not yet reaped any.

After we had together knelt down to thank God for his merciful
protection through the terrors of the past night, and besought him to
continue it, we prepared to set out. The waves still ran high, though
the wind had subsided, and we determined merely to go along the shore,
as the roads still continued impassable from the rain, and the sand was
easier to walk on than the wet grass; besides, our principal motive for
the excursion was to search for any traces of a recent shipwreck. At
first we could discover nothing, even with the telescope; but Fritz,
mounting a high rock, fancied he discovered something floating tow