Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/59

43 working gang; the Governor being anxious to occupy them in this way, if settlers will pay a superintendent.

This day I sowed many seeds: onion, cauliflower, broccoli, endive, French sorrel, brett (a Port Louis vegetable), spinach, parsley, and three sorts of tobacco, for experiment. My garden is nearly filled, and begins to look well. Caught in the garden a beautiful snake, about eighteen inches long, with a black head and yellow body; put him into a bottle of rum, along with many other such things; he vibrated his tongue most rapidly and wickedly. Caught a centipede, nearly four inches in length, when moving my trunks to-day; it is in the bottle of preserves also.

Captain Mangles, RN., Mr. Andrews, and Mr. Elliott stopped at my landing-place for a few minutes on their way up the river: they promised to call again, but, returning, shouted out they had not time: those whom we are most anxious to see are generally the most expeditious in their movements. This evening I took tea, sitting on my canteen opposite a blazing fire placed on a brick hearth a little above the level of the floor: no invidious fender to keep my feet from receiving the benefit of the fire: neither sashes nor windows, thanks to the erratic disposition of my carpenter.

10th.—Delightful day! I have been amusing myself in the garden, making a new bed for pumpkin, water melon, orange, lemon, and cucumber seeds; and these I mean to cover during the winter, from the heavy rain and frost (if there be any). John busy to-night mending his shoes; I rummaged out bristles, awls, thread, a ladle to make wax, and cut the legs off a pair of boots for leather, which cracks so rapidly with the heat, that we wear out a pair of shoes in two or three weeks.