ur goose. Guavas
and sweet acorns, which had escaped the storm, and which my sons
brought, completed our repast. Fritz had killed a large bird in the
marsh, which I took at first for a young flamingo; but it was a young
cassowary, the first I had seen in the island. This bird is remarkable
for its extraordinary size, and for its plumage, so short and fine that
it seems rather to be hair than feathers. I should have liked to have
had it alive to ornament our poultry-yard, and it was so young we might
have tamed it; but Fritz's unerring aim had killed it at once. I wished
to let my wife see this rare bird, which, if standing on its webbed
feet, would have been four feet high; I therefore forbade them to
meddle with it.

[Illustration: "Fritz, with a strong hatchet forced the chest open, and
we all eagerly crowded to see the contents."]

As we ate, we talked of the chest, and our curiosity being stronger than
our hunger, we swallowed our repast hastily, and then ran down to the
shore. We were obliged to plunge into the water up to the waist, and
then had some difficulty to extricate it from the weed and slime, and to
push it on shore. No sooner had we placed it in safety than Fritz, with
a strong hatchet, forced it open, and we all eagerly crowded to see the
contents. Fritz hoped it would be powder and fire-arms; Jack, who was
somewhat fond of dress, and had notions of elegance, declared in favour
of clothes, and particularly of linen, finer and whiter than that which
his mother wove; if Ernest had been there, books would have been his
desire; for my own part, there was nothing I was more anxious for than
European seeds, particularly corn; Francis had a lingering wish that the
chest might contain some of those gingerbread cakes which his grandmamma
used to treat him with in Europe, and which he had often regretted; but
he kept this wish to himself, for fear his brothers should call him
"little glutton," and assured us that he should like a little
pocket-knife, with a small saw, better than anything in the world; and
he was the only one who had his wish. The chest was opened, and we saw
that it was filled with a number of trifling things likely to tempt
savage nations, and to become the means of exchange,--principally glass
and iron ware, coloured beads, pins, needles, looking-glasses,
children's toys, constructed as models, such as carts, and tools of
every sort; amongst which we found some likely to be useful, such as
h