hat Jensen was
gone. Certain of the soldierly men and two or three of the most
cool-headed amongst the colonists made up the total of this council,
whose only task would be to apportion the fair share of labour to each
man in making the island as habitable a place as might be till our
return. For, after all, it was by no means certain that we should have
better luck with the near island, and in any case it was well to be
prepared for all emergencies.

It was late on the second day of our arrival at the island that Lancelot
and Marjorie and I with our companions set off on our expedition. We
followed the coast-line of our island a long while, keeping a
sufficiently wide berth for fear of the shoals. When we had half
circumnavigated it there lay ahead of us the island for which we were
making. It lay a good way off, and, as the day was very fine and still,
it seemed nearer to us than it proved to be. As far as we could judge at
that distance, it seemed to be a very much larger island than the one
which we had just left; and so indeed it proved to be.

The shallop was a serviceable vessel, and ran bravely before the wind on
the calm sea. Had the wind been fully in our favour we should have made
the island for which we were steering within the hour; but it blew
slightly across our course, compelling us to tack and change our course
often, so that it was a good two hours before we were close to our goal.
When we came close enough we saw that the island seemed in all respects
to be a more delectable spot than that island on which chance had first
cast us. There was a fine natural bay, with a strand of a fine, white,
and sparkling sand such as recalled to me the aspect of many of the
little bays and creeks in the coast beyond Sendennis, and in the
recollection brought the tears into my mouth, not into my eyes. From
this strand we could see that the land ran up in a gentle elevation
that was very thickly wooded. Beyond this again rose in undulating
succession several high hills, that might almost be regarded as little
mountains, and these also seemed to be densely clothed with trees.
Marjorie declared that the place looked in its soft greenness and the
clean whiteness of its shore a kind of Earthly Paradise, and indeed our
hearts went out to it. I found afterwards, from conversation with my
companions, that every man of us felt convinced on our first close sight
of Fair Island, as we afterwards called it, that we should find t