Chapter 4 Chapter 4 The first day of landing

As Bryant had seen earlier from the foremast-top beams, the shore was deserted.The sailboat had been stranded in the sand on the shore for an hour.There is no human habitation on the island.Not a single house or hut was to be seen anywhere, either by the bushes under the cliffs or by the swollen brook.Not a single footprint could be seen on the banks of the river, covered with long kelp, which held back the rough tide; not a single fishing boat at the mouth of the river; , There is no trace of cooking smoke curling into the sky. The first thought that popped into Bryant and Gordon's mind was to go through the woods and climb the high cliffs behind them.

"We're glad we're ashore!" exclaimed Gordon, "but where is this—a deserted island?" "The important thing is that it's not deserted here now," Bryant said. "We've got enough food and ammunition to last a while. We've got to find a place to go, at least for the little kids." "Yes, you are quite right." "We should find out where we are," Bryant continued. "We have enough time to figure it out while we can't do anything else. If this is the mainland, then we may be rescued. If Here is an island, an uninhabited island, and that is evident. Come, Gordon, and let us explore!"

Soon they came to the edge of the wood, which winds up on a cliff three or four hundred yards to the right of the mouth of the river. There was no one in the woods, not a single footprint to be found, not even a trail.The old tree that has gone through vicissitudes of life has fallen to the ground, and the leaves on the ground are almost piled up to the children's knees.The birds on the island immediately flew away when they saw people, as if they had been hurt by people.Someone must have set foot on this small island, maybe it was the people nearby. The children walked in the woods for 10 minutes. The woods became darker and darker. The rocks on both sides towered like a hundred-foot-high wall. Is there a big crack in the "wall" or is it just hollow for shelter?Just a cave would give them shelter from the wind and rain in the woods, and shelter before they scoured the depths of the interior.

Unfortunately, the cliff is as steep as a fortified city wall.There are no caves, not even a place on the cliff to climb.If you want to climb up, you have to keep the river rising until it submerges the cliff. Within half an hour, Bryant and his companions walked south along the foot of the cliff until they came to the right bank of the river that meandered from the east.Standing in the shade of the tall trees on the right bank of the river, they could see on the left bank a very different land, flat and barren like a great swamp stretching southward to the sky.With no way to climb the cliff, it is impossible to know what the land beyond is like.The children returned to the boat disappointed.

Donagan and others climbed among the rocks while Jenkins, Evanson and Toney and Costa picked up shells and played.The explorers reported what they saw.It seems best not to abandon the sailing ship until further expeditions are made.Although the bottom of the sailboat has been punctured, it is not bad as a temporary shelter.Although the deck has been cracked, the cabin can still serve as an excellent refuge from the storm.Much to the delight of the little ones, the galley was not damaged at all. Most fortunately they didn't have to move the surviving items from the boat to the shore.If the sailboat is wrecked on the reef, many things will be difficult to preserve.Rough seas will soon smash the ship to pieces.At that time, store food, weapons, clothes, and bedding.Cooking utensils, everything will be thrown messily on the beach.Fortunately the boat was buried in the sand.It seemed unseaworthy now, but at least it was habitable for a while, and the boys hoped to find a town or village before it was completely scrapped.If this is indeed an uninhabited island, the children hope to find a cave that can be converted into a shelter.

All that day they tried to make the sailboat more comfortable.The rope ladder on the right side of the ship's side became the passage for getting on and off the ship.As the waiter on the ship, Mo Ke is in charge of the kitchen affairs with some cooking skills.He cooked a dinner with Sovis' assistance.Since everyone had a good appetite, the meal was praised by everyone, even Jinkens, Evanson, Toner and Costa were very satisfied.Only Jack behaved strangely, and his personality seemed to have changed all at once.In the face of his partners' inquiries, he was only vague. After so many days and nights in danger, everyone was exhausted.What they need most now is a good night's sleep.The young children returned to the cabin early, and the others fell asleep quickly.Bryant, Gordon and Donagan took turns on duty.Will there be a beast?Or a small band of local natives who are scarier than beasts?Fortunately, nothing happened, and the whole night was safe and sound.As the sun rose, the children prayed together, thanked God for protecting them through danger, and then went to work.

The first thing to do is to make an inventory list: food, weapons, tools \ kitchen utensils, clothing, instruments and so on.The food problem is very serious because of the island where they are located.It appeared to be a deserted island.They too rely on fishing and hunting, if anything to catch.Donagan, the famous sharpshooter, noticed that there was nothing around him except the birds that settled on the reef and the sea.But it's not a good idea to live off seabirds alone.And they also had to figure out how long the sailboat's food would last, if used sparingly. In addition to biscuits, which were more adequately stocked, there were jams, ham, mince pies (of the kind made of flour, minced meat, and spices), corned beef, corned beef, and seafood, which together probably would last at most two months.So from now on, they must find a way to find food locally and save the food for later use.These stored grains will be very useful once they have to transfer to inland ports or villages and towns hundreds of miles away.

"What if the food gets spoiled," asked Baxter, "what if the sea water gets in through the hole in the bottom of the boat?" “If you’re not paying attention, there’s a good chance you’ll open the box one day and find it’s exactly what you said it was,” Gordon said, “but if we cook it a little more, it’s still edible.” "I look after the food," Moko said. "The sooner the better," Bryant told Moko, "for the first day or two, we're going to have to live off the food." "Why don't we start today?" asked Wilcox. "Shouldn't we find some birds' eggs among the rocks to the south?"

"Yes, there must be!" Tori agreed. "How about going fishing?" Webb asked, "Isn't there a fishing rod on the boat? Who wants to go?" "I'll go! I'll go!" the young children said in unison. "Okay," Bryant said, "just don't make fun of it. We only give the fishing rods to the people who do business." "Don't get too excited," Evanson said, "we're going to stay calm and be like—" "One more thing," Gordon added, "we should first list what's on board. We've got a lot of other problems to settle besides food."

"We can also get some oysters for lunch," Sovis suggested. "Excellent!" Gordon praised. "You take two or three people, and Moko will go too." This black kid is quite trustworthy. He is enthusiastic, smart and courageous. Maybe he can come in handy.He likes Bryant very much.Of course, Bryant never concealed his appreciation. "Come on!" Jenkins called. "Aren't you coming, Jack?" Bryant asked. Jack shook his head. Jinkens, Thone, Costa and Evanson went far under the leadership of Moko.They climbed onto rocks that the waves couldn't wash over.There are often a lot of conch, scallops and even oysters in the crevices of the reef.These things, whether eaten raw or cooked, are all delicious.The children were bouncing and jumping in the distance, very happy.Apparently, they treated the job like a game.They are too young to quickly forget all the ordeals they have just experienced, and it is difficult to realize the danger that is coming.

As soon as the little ones left, the older ones began to bustle about in the cabin.Donagan.Cross, Wilcox, and Webb were absorbed in counting guns, ammunition, clothing, bedding, tools, and kitchen utensils; while Bryant, Garnett, Baxter, and Sauvis were counting drinking water storage.When every item was counted, someone always reported the count loudly to Gordon who kept recording in his notebook. A complete spare set of sails was found on board, and a set of assorted tackle: ropes, chains, hawsers, and the like, and if the ship ever sailed again it was bound to be refitted, and these sails were of good quality. and ropes can no longer be used at sea, but they are also very useful in other ways.Some fishing equipment and fishing ropes are also included in the list.As long as the nearby waters are rich in fish, these things can come in handy. The list of weapons recorded in the notebook included eight center-fire shotguns, a long-range duck gun, and 12 revolvers with 300 rounds in the breech, as well as two 25-pound barrels of gunpowder and a large quantity of lead Shells, shot and bullets.There are also some night sailing flares and knife shells in the store room, which are for the two small cannons.They are not willing to use artillery to stop the attack of the locals unless absolutely necessary. Kitchen utensils seem to be complete.It was enough even if they were to stay for a long time, and though many of the bowls were broken when the sailboat hit the reef and ran ashore, there was enough left over.There is no need to keep items for entertainment.There are many more useful things: flannel trousers, cotton clothes, cotton clothes, linen clothes, etc., for example.These are enough to cope with the change of weather.If the island were at exactly the same latitude as Auckland, which is not out of the question, since the sailboat was always drifting downwind to the west, the children would face very hot summers and extremely cold winters.A sailor's box contains trousers, padded jackets, waterproof coats, and heavy woolen clothing that, with a few changes, will keep kids safe through the winter.Each could take a full bedding set if they had to abandon ship.Each bunk bed has a mattress, sheet, pillow and comforter.With a little care, these things will last a long time. For a long time, it sounds like forever.In Gordon's notebook, he also recorded all the instruments: two aneroid barometers, an alcohol thermometer, two chronometers, several copper talking horns, several adjustable distance telescopes, and a compass compass , and two small compasses, a goggle for stormy weather, some British flags and header flags, and a set of signal flags, as well as a "Howcott" boat - a small An inflatable boat, folded like a backpack, can allow a person to cross a river or a lake. There are many tools in the carpentry box: there are bags of nails, screws, iron screw caps, and various pliers necessary for boat repairs. The needles and threads are superfluous, because the children's mother has already sewed up the often broken places.The problem of fire was also solved, not to mention the matches, just the tinder and the tinder box were enough for a long time. Several large nautical maps were also found, but unfortunately only for the New Zealand coastline, not of any use to the area in which they were located.Fortunately, Gordon had brought an atlas, and there were quite good nautical books and relevant knowledge manuals in the ship's reading room.Sovis rescued two books, "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Swiss Robinson Family".Just as Kamens rescued Luciat.Garnett kept his accordion.Pencils, pens, ink, paper, and an 1860 almanac were returned to Baxter.With each passing day, a page of the calendar is torn off. "The day we stranded was March 10," he said. "March 10 and every day before that is in the past." There was also about £500 worth of gold coins in the ship's safe.Maybe the money will be useful when the kids get to some port where they can go home. Gordon carefully counted the barreled beverages stored in the cargo hold.Although many casks of liquor, ale, and wine were lost when the ship ran aground, there remained several hundred gallons of red wine, sherry, 50 gallons of gin, brandy, and whiskey, and 40 casks of ale.There were also 30 unbroken bottles of baijiu wrapped in straw. From this point of view, the 15 wrecks on board will definitely not starve in the near future.Now it's time to see if there is anything edible growing on this isolated island to increase their reserves.If it had been true that the storm had thrown them on a deserted island, it would have been more difficult for them to expect a passing ship to pick up signs of their distress and rescue them.It is not easy to repair the boat and patch the holes in the hull, and they do not have the tools to repair the boat.As for rebuilding a new ship on the basis of an old ship, they never even thought about it, because they knew nothing about navigation, how could they cross the Pacific Ocean and return to New Zealand?Originally, they might have left the isolated island in a small boat attached to the sailboat, but unfortunately, the boat had disappeared, leaving only the little sailboat circling on the shore. At noon, the children led by Moko returned.They were finally able to sit down and work quietly.They brought back many oysters.Moko went down to the kitchen with the oysters.As for the eggs, Moko observed that there were many edible ones.A kind of pigeon built a nest at the highest point of the cliff, so there should be many eggs. "Okay," Bryant said, "we'll go get some eggs one morning." "That's it," Moko said. "With three or four shots we can shoot down a lot of pigeons. It's not very difficult to climb up from the top of the rock with a rope and dig out the bird's nest." "Okay," Gordon agreed, "how about it, Donagan, are you coming tomorrow?" "Just what I want!" replied Donagan, "Webb, Cross, Wilcox, Are you going too?" "Of course!" They were overjoyed at the thought of having such a large flock of birds to hunt. "Don't kill too many pigeons," Bryant warned, "We will shoot when we need it, don't waste gunpowder and bullets!" "Got it!" Donagan was the last to listen to advice, especially Bryant's advice. "It's not the first time we've used guns." An hour later, Moko announced that dinner was ready.The children rushed to the hanging ladder, climbed into the sailboat, and sat at the table.Due to the slant of the hull, the tables are also quite slanted.But this is nothing to the children who have long been accustomed to the bumps in the sea.The shellfish, especially the scallops, were a hit with kids alike.Although the seasoning is not complete, but at that time, hunger is the best seasoning.A few biscuits, a slice of corned beef, and fresh water drawn from the sea at low tide make for a delicious meal. A whole afternoon was spent in arranging tasks.Jinkens and his friends went fishing.They play around the mouth of the river.After supper, everyone, except Baxter and Wilcox, who took turns on watch, went to sleep contentedly.