Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/112

96 island as chief magistrate, with Gell and Dana as my vice-gerents and assessors. My duties chiefly consisted in settling rival claims to parcels of land which in the first settlement of the island were not precisely defined. The people recognised that I tried to act justly, and there was no appeal from my decisions.

I had taken care to bring with me the whole of my library, which was a good scientific one, besides containing the best literary works of all nations—not such an unwieldy number, after all—and my medicine chests, which were fortunately well-stocked. My most important duties were perhaps those of physician and surgeon to the whole community; but I was also general instructor and minister of religion! It was impossible for me to continue to exercise these multiple functions, so I persuaded young Dana to learn as much as I could teach him of the science of medicine, he merely stipulating that nothing should deprive him of the command of his beloved ships, which he kept in perfect order, and would occasionally take for a short cruise with such of the sailors as would accompany him.

Poor Gell, who never could get over the loss of his