Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/65

Rh in the whaling vessel Meridian, Captain Benjamin Worth, of New Bedford. But neither patriotism nor pecuniary considerations could induce the whaler to take any more passengers, and Captain Clarke as well as the sailors remained captives of fortune, living in a native house and employing a native cook, while they discussed their chances of escape.

The first plan attempted was to get to sea in some sort of a boat, with a possibility of being picked up by a passing vessel. Accordingly a native boat, sloop-rigged,twenty-two feet long and six feet wide was purchased, hauled up and examined, but finally rejected by Captain Clarke as too hazardous. After this failure Lemont and one of his companions determined to settle on the island, and purchased a piece of land with an orange grove on it, commencing to build a house. They had the sides wattled with willows, the thatched roof partly on, and were having the walls plastered with a mortar made with lime from burnt coral and cocoanut oil, when they were seized with an incurable homesickness, sitting one night on the beach and talking of Bath. The next morning the house and land were sold, and the two lads were reviewing the discarded boat.

The mortar made with the coral lime and oil was discovered to be impervious to water. With this they decided to plaster the boat, after renailing it and before sheathing it with a soft wood. This it was decided would make it safe; and so it did, for when it was launched it was found to be perfectly tight. The next care was for rigging and provisions. Wild pork bought from the natives in the mountains, boned and salted down, cocoanuts, plantains, bananas and arrow-root constituted their prospective bill of fare, to which several barrels of water were added. All was now ready for a 4