Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/204

 198 THE CRATER; ferred to her. A vessel was found that was about to sail for the North-west Coast, and passages were privately engaged. A great many useful necessaries were laid in, and, at the proper time, letters of leave-taking were sent to Bristol, and the whole party sailed. Previously to the embarka tion, Bob appeared to accompany the adventurers. He was attended by Socrates, and Dido, and Juno, who had stolen away by order of their young mistress, as well as by a certain Friend Martha Waters, who had stood up in meeting with Friend Robert Betts, and had become &quot; bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh;&quot; and her maiden sister, Joan Waters, who was to share their fortunes. In a word, Bob had brought an early attachment to the test of matrimony. So well had the necessary combinations been made, that the ship sailed with our adventurers, nine in number, with out meeting with the slightest obstacle. Once at sea, of course nothing but that caused by the elements was to be anticipated. Cape Horn was doubled in due time, and Doctor Heaton, with all under his care, was landed at Pa nama, just five months, to a day, after leaving New York. Here passages were taken in the same brig that Bob had returned in, which was again bound out, on a pearl-fishing voyage. Previously to quitting Panama, however, a recruit was engaged in the person of a young American shipwright, of the name of Bigelow, who had run from his ship a twelve month before, to marry a Spanish girl, and who had be come heartily tired of his life in Panama. He and his wife and child joined the party, engaging to serve the Heatons, for a stipulated sum, for the term of two years. The voyage from Panama to the pearl islands was a long one, but far from unpleasant. Sixty days after leaving port the adventurers were safely landed, with all their ef fects. These included two cows, with a young bull, two yearling colts, several goats obtained in South America, and various implements of husbandry that it had not entered into the views of Friend Abraham White to send to even the people of Fejee. With the natives of the pearl island, Bob, already known to them and a favourite, had no diffi culty in negotiating. He had brought them suitable and ample presents, and soon effected an arrangement, by which