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  CHAPTER TWO.

  THE TROPICAL ISLAND.

  A COCOA-PALM--VIEWS OF DESERT ISLAND LIFE.

  "O had we some bright little isle of our own, In the blue summer ocean, far-off and alone."

  Wandering along the shore, (taking care to keep in sight of Mr Frazer,under whose convoy, in virtue of his double-barrelled fowling-piece, weconsidered ourselves), we came to a low and narrow point, running out alittle way into the sea, the extremity of which was adorned by a statelygroup of cocoa-nut trees.

  The spot seemed ill adapted to support vegetation of so magnificent agrowth, and nothing less hardy than the cocoa-palm could have derivednourishment from such a soil. Several of these fine trees stood almostat the water's edge, springing from a bed of sand, mingled with blackbasaltic pebbles, and coarse fragments of shells and coral, where theirroots were washed by every rising tide: yet their appearance was thriftyand flourishing, and they were thickly covered with close-packed bunchesof tassel-like, straw-coloured blossoms, and loaded with fruit invarious stages of growth.

  Johnny cast a wistful glance at the compact clusters of nuts, nestlingbeneath the graceful tufts of long leaves that crowned each straight andtapering trunk; but he had so recently learned from experience, thehopelessness of undertaking to climb a cocoa-nut tree, that he was notat present disposed to renew the attempt. Max, however, who greatlyvalued himself upon his agility, and professed to be able to do anything that could be done, in the way of climbing, manifested anintention to hazard his reputation by making the doubtful experiment.After looking carefully around, he selected for the attempt, a youngtree near the shore, growing at a considerable inclination from theperpendicular; and clasping it firmly, he slowly commenced climbing, orrather creeping, along the slanting trunk, while Johnny watched theoperation from below, with an interest as intense as if the fate ofempires depended upon the result.

  Max, who evidently considered his character at stake, and who climbedfor "glory," rather than for cocoa-nuts, proceeded with caution andperseverance. Once he partly lost his hold, and swung round to theunder side of the trunk, but by a resolute and vigorous effort hepromptly recovered his position, and finally succeeded in establishinghimself quite comfortably among the enormous leaves that drooped fromthe top of the tree. Here he seemed disposed to rest for a while, afterhis arduous and triumphant exertions, and he sat, looking complacentlydown upon us from his elevated position, without making any attempt tosecure the fruit which hung within his reach in abundant clusters.

  "Hurrah!" cried Johnny, capering about and clapping his hands with glee,as soon as this much desired consummation was attained, "Now, Max, pitchdown the nuts!"

  Having teased Johnny, and enjoyed the impatience caused by thetantalising deliberation of his own movements, Max detached two entireclusters of nuts from the tree, which furnished us an abundant supply.

  Selecting a pleasant spot beside the beach, we sat down to discuss thecocoa-nuts at our leisure, which occupied us some little time. Uponlooking round, after we had finished, we discovered that our convoy haddisappeared, and Johnny, whose imagination was continually haunted byvisionary savages and cannibals, manifested considerable uneasiness uponfinding that we were alone.

  As the sun was already low in the west, and we supposed that the partyengaged in getting wood had, in all probability, finished their work, weconcluded to return, and to wait for Mr Frazer, and the rest of theshore party at the boats, if we should not find them already there.

  As we skirted the border of the grove, on our return, Johnny every nowand then cast an uneasy glance towards its darkening recesses, as thoughexpecting to see some wild animal, or a yelling troop of tattooedislanders rush out upon us. The forest commenced about two hundredyards from the beach, from which there was a gradual ascent and wascomposed of a greater variety of trees than I had observed on the otherislands of a similar size at which we had previously landed. Arthurcalled our attention to a singular and picturesque group ofTournefortias, in the midst of which, like a patriarch surrounded by hisfamily, stood one of uncommon size, and covered with a species of fern,which gave it a striking and remarkable appearance. The group covered alittle knoll, that crowned a piece of rising ground, advanced a shortdistance beyond the edge of the forest. It was a favourable spot for asurvey of the scene around us. The sun, now hastening to his setting,was tingeing all the western ocean with a rich vermilion glow. Thesmooth white beach before us, upon which the long-rolling waves broke ineven succession, retired in a graceful curve to the right and was brokenon the left by the wooded point already mentioned.

  As you looked inland, the undulating surface of the island, risinggradually from the shore, and covered with the wild and luxuriantvegetation of the tropics, delighted the eye by its beauty and variety.The noble Bread-fruit tree--its arching branches clothed with itspeculiarly rich and glossy foliage; the elegantly shaped Casuarina, theluxuriant Pandanus, and the Palms, with their stately trunks, and greencrests of nodding leaves, imparted to the scene a character of orientalbeauty.

  "Why do they call so lovely a spot as this a desert island, I wonder?"exclaimed Johnny, after gazing around him a few moments in silence.

  "Did you ever hear of a desert island that wasn't a lovely spot!"answered Max. "Why, your regular desert island should combine therichest productions of the temperate, torrid, and frigid zones--a choiceselection of the fruits, flowers, vegetables, and animal; of Europe,Asia, and Africa. This would by no means come up to the averagestandard. I doubt if you could find upon it so much as a goat or apoll-parrot much less an `onager,' a buffalo, or a boa-constrictor, someof which at least are indispensable to a desert island of anyrespectability."

  "Why, then, do they call such delightful places desert islands!"repeated Johnny. "I always thought a desert was a barren wilderness,where there was nothing to be seen but sand, and rocks, and Arabs."

  "I believe they are more properly called _desolate_ islands," saidArthur; "and that seems proper enough; for even this island with all itsbeauty, is supposed to be uninhabited, and it would be a very lonely and_desolate_ home. Would you like to live here, Johnny, like RobinsonCrusoe, or the Swiss family?"

  "Not all alone, like Robinson Crusoe. O no! that would be horrible; butI think we might all of us together live here beautifully a littlewhile, if we had plenty of provisions, and plenty of arms to defendourselves against the savages; and then of course we should want a houseto live in, too."

  "Nonsense," said Max, "what should we want of provisions?--the sea isfull of fish, and the forest of birds; the trees are loaded with fruit;there are oysters and other shell-fish in the bays, and no doubt thereare various roots, good for food, to be had by digging for them. As toa house, we might sleep very comfortably, in such weather as this, underthese Tournefortias, and never so much as think of taking cold; or wecould soon build a serviceable hut, which would be proof against sun andrain, of the trunks and boughs of trees, with a thatch of palm-leavesfor a roof. Then in regard to arms, of course, if it should be our fateto set up for desert islanders, we should be well supplied in that line.I never heard of any one, from Robinson Crusoe down, being cast away ona desert island, without a good store of guns, pistols, cutlasses,etcetera, etcetera. Such a thing would be contrary to all precedent,and is not for a moment to be dreamed of."

  "But we haven't any arms," said Johnny, "except those old rustycutlasses that Spot put into the yawl, and if we should be cast away, orleft here, for instance, where should we get them from?"

  "O, but we are not cast away yet," replied Max. "This is the way thething always happens. When people are cast away, it is in a ship, ofcourse."

  "Why, yes; I suppose so," said Johnny, rather doubtfully. "Well--theship is always abundantly supplied with every thing necessary to adesert island life; she is driven ashore; the castaways--the futuredesert islanders--by dint of wonderful good fortune, get safely to land;the rest of course are all drowned, and so disposed of; then, in duetime, the ship goes to piec
es, and every thing needful is washed ashoreand secured by the islanders--that's the regular course of things--isn'tit, Arthur!"

  "Yes, I believe it is, according to the story-books, which are thestandard sources of information on the subject."

  "Or sometimes," pursued Max, "the ship gets comfortably wedged inbetween two convenient rocks, (which seem to have been designed for thatspecial purpose), so that the castaways can go out to it on a raft, orfloat of some kind, and carry off every thing they want--and singularlyenough, although the vessel is always on the point of going to pieces,that catastrophe never takes place, until every thing which can be ofany use is secured."

  "Do you suppose, Arthur," inquired Johnny, "that there are manyuninhabited islands, that have never been discovered!"

  "There are believed to be a great many of them," answered Arthur, "andit is supposed that new ones are constantly being formed by the laboursof the coral insect. A bare ledge of coral first appears, just at thesurface; it arrests floating substances, weeds, trees, etcetera; soonthe sea-birds begin to resort there; by the decay of vegetable andanimal matter a thin soil gradually covers the foundation of coral; acocoa-nut is drifted upon it by the winds, or the currents of the sea;it takes root, springs up, its fruit ripens and falls, and in a fewyears the whole new-formed island is covered with waving groves."

  "Mr Frazer says he has no doubt that these seas swarm with suchislands, and that many of them have never been discovered," said Max;besides, here's poetry for it:--

  "`O many are the beauteous isles, Unseen by human eye, That sleeping 'mid the Ocean smiles, In happy silence lie. The ship may pass them in the night, Nor the sailors know what lovely sight Is sleeping on the main;'

  "But this poetical testimony will make Arthur doubt the factaltogether."

  "Not exactly," answered Arthur, "though I am free to admit that withoutMr Frazer's opinion to back it your poetical testimony would not govery far with me."

  "Hark! There go Mr Frazer's two barrels," cried Max, as two reports inquick succession were heard, coming apparently from the grove, in thedirection of the spring; "he has probably come across a couple of `rarespecimens,' to be added to his stuffed collection."