Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/456

216 THE CRATER; perous industry. The wild hogs and goats were now so numerous as to be a little troublesome, particularly the for mer ; but, a good many being shot, the inhabitants did not despair of successfully contending with them for the pos session of the place. There were cattle, also, on this isl and ; but they were still tame, the cows giving milk, and the oxen being used in the yoke. These were the descend ants of the single pair Woolston had sent across, less than twelve years before, which had increased in an arithmetical proportion, care having been taken not to destroy any. They now exceeded a hundred, of whom quite half were cows; and the islanders occasionally treated themselves to fresh beef. As cows had been brought into the colony in every vessel that arrived, they were now in tolerably good numbers, Mark Woolston himself disposing of no Jess than six when he broke up his farming establishment for a visit to America. There were horses, too, though riot in as great numbers as there were cows and oxen. Boats were so much used, that roadsters were very little needed; and this so much the less, on account of the great steadiness of the trades. By this time, everybody understood the last; and the different channels of the group were worked through with almost the same facility as would have been the case with so many highways. Nevertheless, horses were to be found in the colony, and some of the husband men preferred them to the horned cattle in working their lands. A week was passed in visiting the group. Something like a consciousness of having ill-treated Mark was to be traced among the people; and this feeling was manifested under a well-known law of our nature, which rendered those the most vindictive and morose, who had acted the worst. Those who had little more to accuse themselves of than a compliant submission to the wrong-doing, of others, in political matters everywhere the most numerous class of all, received their visiters well enough, and in many instances they treated their guests with delicacy and distinction. On the whole, however, the late governor derived but little pleasure from the intercourse, so much mouthing imbecility being blended with the expressions of regret and sympathy, as to cause him to mourn over the