king object when finished, and it required
much ingenuity on my part to launch it. This I eventually managed,
however, by means of rollers and levers; but the boat was frightfully low
in the water at the stern. It was quite watertight though, having an
outer covering of sharks' green hide, well smeared with Stockholm tar,
and an inside lining of stout canvas. I also rigged up a mast, and made
a sail. When my boat floated I fairly screamed aloud with wild delight,
and sympathetic Bruno jumped and yelped in unison.

But when all my preparations were complete, and I had rowed out a little
way, I made a discovery that nearly drove me crazy. I found I had
launched the boat in a sort of lagoon several miles in extent, barred by
a crescent of coral rocks, over which _I could not possibly drag my craft
into the open sea_. Although the water covered the reefs at high tide it
was never of sufficient depth to allow me to sail the boat over them. I
tried every possible opening, but was always arrested at some point or
other. After the first acute paroxysm of despair--beating my head with
my clenched fists--I consoled myself with the thought that when the high
tides came, they would perhaps lift the boat over that terrible barrier.
I waited, and waited, and waited, but alas! only to be disappointed. My
nine weary months of arduous travail and half-frantic anticipation were
cruelly wasted. At no time could I get the boat out into the open sea in
consequence of the rocks, and it was equally impossible for me unaided to
drag her back up the steep slope again and across the island, where she
could be launched opposite an opening in the encircling reefs. So there
my darling boat lay idly in the lagoon--a useless thing, whose sight
filled me with heartache and despair. And yet, in this very lagoon I
soon found amusement and pleasure. When I had in some measure got over
the disappointment about the boat, I took to sailing her about in the
lagoon. I also played the part of Neptune in the very extraordinary way
I have already indicated. I used to wade out to where the turtles were,
and on catching a big six-hundred-pounder, I would calmly sit astride on
his back.

Away would swim the startled creature, mostly a foot or so below the
surface. When he dived deeper I simply sat far back on the shell, and
then he was forced to come up. I steered my queer steeds in a curious
way. When I wanted my turtle to turn to the left, I sim