To so great a hardship; but he could
not treat us otherwise, he said, on pain of the consul's displeasure.
How long we were to be confined, he did not know; nor what was to be
done with us in the end.
As noon advanced, and no signs of a meal were visible, someone
inquired whether we were to be boarded, as well as lodged, at the
Hotel de Calabooza?
"Vast heavey" (avast heaving, or wait a bit) - said Bob - "kow-kow"
(food) "come ship by by."
And, sure enough, along comes Rope Tarn with a wooden bucket of the
Julia's villainous biscuit. With a grin, he said it was a present
from Wilson: it was all we were to get that day. A great cry was now
raised; and well was it for the land-lubber that lie had a pair of
legs, and the men could not use theirs. One and all, we resolved not
to touch the bread, come what come might; and so we told the natives.
Being extravagantly fond of ship-biscuit - the harder the better - they
were quite overjoyed; and offered to give us, every day, a small
quantity of baked bread-fruit and Indian turnip in exchange for the
bread. This we agreed to; and every morning afterward, when the
bucket came, its contents were at once handed over to Bob and his
friends, who never ceased munching until nightfall.
Our exceedingly frugal meal of bread-fruit over, Captain Bob waddled
up to us with a couple of long poles hooked at one end, and several
large baskets of woven cocoa-nut branches.
Not far off was an extensive grove of orange-trees in full bearing;
and myself and another were selected to go with him, and gather a
supply for the party. When we went in among the trees, the
sumptuousness of the orchard was unlike anything I had ever seen;
while the fragrance shaken from the gently waving boughs regaled our
senses most delightfully.
In many places the trees formed a dense shade, spreading overhead a
dark, rustling vault, groined with boughs, and studded here and there
with the ripened spheres, like gilded balls. In several places, the
overladen branches were borne to the earth, hiding the trunk in a
tent of foliage. Once fairly in the grove, we could see nothing else;
it was oranges all round.
To preserve the fruit from bruising, Bob, hooking the twigs with his
pole, let them fall into his basket. But this would not do for us.
Seizing hold of a bough, we brought such a shower to the ground that
our old friend was fain to run from under. Heedless of remonstrance,
we then reclined in the shade, and feasted to our heart's content.
Heaping up the baskets afterwards, we returned to our comrades, by
whom our arrival was hailed with loud plaudits; and in a marvellously
short time, nothing was left of the oranges we brought but the rinds.
