ed Brazil nuts, pepper, and cinnamon; no other
medicines or condiments were required on the voyage, except table salt,
which we also had.

One musket and a carbine--which had already stood us in good
stead--together with ammunition and three cutlasses were stowed away for
last use, to be used, nevertheless, in case of necessity.

The light goods I stowed in the ends of the canoe, the heavier in the
middle and along the bottom, thus economizing space and lending to the
stability of the canoe. Over the top of the midship stores a floor was
made, which, housed over by a tarpaulin roof reaching three feet above
the deck of the canoe, supported by a frame of bamboo, gave us sitting
space of four feet from the floor to the roof, and twelve feet long
amidships. This arrangement of cabin in the centre gave my passengers a
berth where the least motion would be felt; even this is saying but
little, for best we could do to avoid it we had still to accept much
tossing from the waves.

Precautionary measures were taken in everything, so far as our resources
and skill could reach. The springy and buoyant bamboo was used wherever
stick of any kind was required, such as the frame and braces for the
cabin, yards for the sails, and, finally, for guard on her top sides,
making the canoe altogether a self-righting one, in case of a capsize.
Each joint in the bamboo was an air-chamber of several pounds buoyant
capacity, and we had a thousand joints.

The most important of our stores, particularly the flour, bread, and
coffee, were hermetically sealed, so that if actually turned over at
sea, our craft would not only right herself, but would bring her stores
right side up, in good order, and it then would be only a question of
baling her out, and of setting her again on her course, when we would
come on as right as ever. As it turned out, however, no such trial or
mishap awaited us.

While the possibility of many and strange occurrences was felt by all of
us, the danger which loomed most in little Garfield's mind was that of
the sharks.

A fine specimen was captured on the voyage, showing five rows of pearly
teeth, as sharp as lances.

Some of these monsters, it is said, have nine rows of teeth; that they
are always hungry is admitted by sailors of great experience.

How it is that sailors can go in bathing, as they often do, in the face
of a danger so terrible, is past my comprehension. Their business is to
face danger, to be sure,