OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 95 tarpaulin, as a sort of sign of his own orthodoxy in the faith of his fathers ; making it a point to do as they had done in meeting, and slightly concerned lest his companion might fall into the error of supposing he was a man likely to be converted. Mark also observed that, in the course of that Sabbath, Bob used the pronouns thee and thou/ on two or three occasions, sounding oddly enough in the mouth of the old salt. Well did both our mariners prove the efficacy of the divine provision of a day of rest, in a spiritual sense, on the occasion of this their first Sabbath on the reef. Mark felt far more resigned to his fate than he could have be lieved possible, while Betts declared that he should be absolutely happy, had he only a better boat than the dingui ; not that the dingui was at all a bad craft of its kind, but it wanted size. After the religious services, for which both our mariners had shaved and dressed, they took a walk together, on the reef, conversing of their situation and future proceedings. Bob then told Mark, for the first time, that, in his opinion, there was the frame and the other materials of a pinnace, or a large boat, somewhere in the hold, which it was intended to put together, when the ship reached the islands, as a convenience for cruising about among them to trade with the savages, and to trans port sandal-wood. The mate had never heard of this boat, but acknowledged that a part of the hold had been stowed while he was up at Bristol, and it might have been taken in then. Bob confessed that he had never seen it, though he had worked in the stevedore s gang; but was confident he had heard Friend Abraham White and Captain Crutch- ely talking of its dimensions and uses. According to his recollection it was to be a boat considerably larger than the launch, and to be fitted with masts and sails, and to have a half-deck. Mark listened to aM this patiently, though he firmly believed that the honest fellow was de ceiving himself the whole time. Such a craft could scarcely be in the ship, and he not hear of it, if he did not actually see it; though he thought it possible that the captain and owners may have had some such plan in contemplation, and conversed together on it, in Betts s presence. As there were plenty of tools on board, however, by using
