large hole, and no nails to fasten them with. We were, indeed,
much perplexed here; but Jack at length devised an instrument that
served very well. He took the remainder of our hoop-iron and beat
it into the form of a pipe or cylinder, about as thick as a man's
finger. This he did by means of our axe and the old rusty axe we
had found at the house of the poor man at the other side of the
island. This, when made red hot, bored slowly though the timbers;
and, the better to retain the heat, Jack shut up one end of it and
filled it with sand. True, the work was very slowly done, but it
mattered not - we had little else to do. Two holes were bored in
each timber, about an inch and a half apart, and also down into the
keel, but not quite through. Into these were placed stout pegs
made of a tree called iron-wood; and, when they were hammered well
home, the timbers were as firmly fixed as if they had been nailed
with iron. The gunwales, which were very stout, were fixed in a
similar manner. But, besides the wooden nails, they were firmly
lashed to the stem and stern posts and ribs by means of a species
of cordage which we had contrived to make out of the fibrous husk
of the cocoa nut. This husk was very tough, and when a number of
the threads were joined together they formed excellent cordage. At
first we tied the different lengths together, but this was such a
clumsy and awkward complication of knots, that we contrived, by
careful interlacing of the ends together before twisting, to make
good cordage of any size or length we chose. Of course it cost us
much time and infinite labour, but Jack kept up our spirits when we
grew weary, and so all that we required was at last constructed.

Planks were now cut off the chestnut trees of about an inch thick.
These were dressed with the axe, - but clumsily, for an axe is ill
adapted for such work. Five of these planks on each side were