WOLSTON.


The early adventures of the Swiss family, who were wrecked on an
unknown coast in the Pacific Ocean, have already been given to the
world. There are, however, many interesting details in their
subsequent career which have not been made public. These, and the
conversations with which they enlivened the long, dreary days of the
rainy season, we are now about to lay before our readers.

Becker, his wife, and their four sons had been fifteen years on this
uninhabited coast, when a storm drove the English despatch sloop
_Nelson_ to the same spot. Before this event occurred, the family had
cleared and enclosed a large extent of country; but, whether the
territory was part of an island or part of a continent, they had not
yet ascertained. The land was naturally fertile; and, amongst other
things that had been obtained from the wreck of their ship, were
sundry packages of European seeds: the produce of these, together with
that of two or three heads of cattle they had likewise rescued from
the wreck, supplied them abundantly with the necessaries of life. They
had erected dwellings here and there, but chiefly lived in a cave near
the shore, over the entrance to which they had built a sort of
gallery. This structure, conjointly with the cave, formed a commodious
habitation, to which they had given the name of _Rockhouse_. In the
vicinity, a stream flowed tranquilly into the sea; this stream they
were accustomed to call _Jackal River_, because, a few days after
their landing, they had encountered some of these animals on its
banks. Fronting Rockhouse the coast curved inwards, the headlands on
either side enclosing a portion of the ocean; to this inlet they had
given the name of _Safety Bay_, because it was here they first felt