Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/251

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 11 word, orders were given to make all the arrangements ne cessary i or the occasion. It was not Jong ere a report came down from Bigelow. It was brought by his Spanish wife, who had accompanied her husband to the Peak, and who came running in, half breathless, to say that the ocean was covered with canoes and catamarans; a fleet of which was paddling directly for the island, being already within three leagues of it. Although this intelligence was expected, it certainly caused long faces and a deep gloom to pervade that little com munity. Mark s fears were always for the Reef, where there happened to be no one just at that moment but the black women, who were altogether insufficient to defend it, under the most favourable circumstances, but who were now without a head. There was the hope, however, of the Indians not seeing those low islands, which they certainly could not do as long as they remained in their canoes. On the other hand, there was the danger that some one might cross from the Reef in one of the boats, a thing that was done as often as once a week, in which case a chase might ensue, and the canoes be led directly towards the spot that it was so desirable to conceal. Juno could sail a boat as well as any man among them, and, as is usually the case, that which she knew she could do so well, she was fond of doing ; and she had not now been across for nearly a week. The cow kept at the crater gave a large mess of milk, anc the butter produced by her means was delicious when eater, fresh, but did not keep quite as well in so warm a climate as it might have done in one that was colder, and Dido was ever anxious to send it to Miss Bridget, as she still callec her mistress, by every available opportunity. The boat usee by the negresses on such occasions, was the Dido, a perfect ly safe craft in moderate weather, but she was just the dull est sailer of all those owned by the colony. This created the additional danger of a capture, in the event of a chase. Taking all things into consideration therefore, Mark ad journed the council to the Peak, a feverish desire to look out upon the sea, causing him to be too uneasy where he was, to remain there in consultation with any comfort tc himself. To the Peak, then, everybody repaired, with the exception of Bigelow, Peters, and Jones, who were no