Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/352

 112 THE CRATER; which they were not initiated. Even young Ooroony was kept in ignorance of what was to be found on that dreaded island. He saw vessels going and coining, knew that the governor often went there, saw strange faces appearing oc casionally on the Reef, that were understood to belong to the unknown land, and probably to a people who were much more powerful than those who were in direct com munication with the natives. The governor induced his Kannakas to work by interest ing them in the explosions of the blasts, merely to enjoy the pleasure of seeing a cart-load of rock torn from its bed. One of these men would work at a drill all day, and then carry off the fragments to be placed in the walls, after he had had his sport in this operation of blasting. They seemed never to tire of the fun, and it was greatly ques tioned if half as much labour could have been got out of them at any other work, as at this. C 1 A good deal of attention was paid to rendering the soil pf the colony garden fertile, as well as deep. In its shal lowest places it exceeded a foot in depth, and in the deepest, spots where natural fissures had aided the drill, it required four or five feet of materials to form the level. These deep places were all marked, and were reserved for the support of trees. Not only was sand freely mixed with the mud, or muck, but sea-weed in large quantities was laid near the surface, and finally covered with the soil. In this manner was a foundation made that could not fail to sustain a gar den luxuriant in its products, aided by the genial heat and plentiful rains of the climate. Shrubs, flowers, grass, and ornamental trees, however, were all the governor aimed at in these public grounds; the plain of the crater furnishing fruit and vegetables in an abundance, as yet far exceeding the wants of the whole colony. The great danger, indeed, that the governor most apprehended, was that the benefi cent products of the region would render his people indo lent; an idle nation becoming, almost infallibly, vicious as well as ignorant. It was with a view to keep the colony on the advance, and to maintain a spirit of improvement that so much attention was so early bestowed on whaJ might otherwise be regarded as purely intellectual pursuits