peopled? by barbarians and savages; and who knows what they may become some future day?"

"What! the negroes become a great nation ?”

"That is exactly what the Romans might have said in former days: What! the British barbarians become a great nation? and yet they have become so."

"But the negroes, father,—they are blacks."

Very true; but that is no reason to the contrary. As to darkness of the skin, the majority of the Moors are quite as black as the negroes; yet they were once a great nation, and, moreover, the most enlightened nation of their time, with a great many excellent qualities, full of honour, generosity, politeness, and chivalry. They conquered and held the major part of Spain for many hundred years; introduced arts and sciences then unknown, and were as brave and heroic as they were virtuous and honourable. You have never read the history of the Moors in Spain."

No, father; I should like to read it very much."

:

"And you will like it much more when you have read it it is a history full of adventures and incidents, probably the most amusing that were ever collected together. I have it in the

224

HISTORY OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN.

library which I made in the expectation of arriving at Sydney; but whether it is among the books which have been saved I cannot tell by-and-by we shall have more time to look after them."

"There were two cases of books thrown ashore, I think, father?"

"Yes, two or three; but, if I recollect right I had fifteen or sixteen altogether.-Now that we have finished cutting the potatoes, let us go and assist Ready in planting them and the seeds which we have brought down with us.”

THAT night Ready sat up for two or three hours working by candlelight (William keeping him company), very busily engaged fitting up the fishinglines with leads and hooks. At last two were complete.

"What bait must we use, Ready?"

"I should think that the best would be one of the fish out of the shells which are in the sand; but a piece of pork fat will, I dare say, do as well."

VOL. I.

"And whereabouts would you fish, Ready?”

"The best place, I should think, would be at the farthermost end of the point, where I got the boat through the reef-the water is deep there close to the rocks."

"I was thinking, Ready, if those gannets and men-of-war birds would be good eating."

"Not very, Master William; they are very tough and very fishy we must try for those when we can get nothing better. Now that we have got in the seeds and potatoes, we must all set to tomorrow morning to fell and carry the timber. I think Mr. Seagrave had better use the axe with me; and you and Juno can, when I have shown you how, hang the timber to the axle, and wheel it out to the place where we have decided upon building the house. And now we had better go to bed."

William, however, had made up his mind to do otherwise; he knew that his mother would be very glad to have some fish, and he determined, as the moon shone bright, to try if he could not catch some before he went to bed; so he waited very quietly till he thought Ready was asleep, as well as the others, and then went out with the lines, and went down to the beach, where he picked up

FORTUNATE ESCAPE.

227

three or four shells, and, breaking them between two pieces of rock, took out the fish and baited his hooks. He then walked to the point. It was a beautiful night; the water was very smooth, and the moonbeams pierced deep below the surface. William threw in his line, and as soon as the lead touched the bottom he pulled it up about a foot, as Ready had instructed him; and he had not held his line more than half a minute, when it was jerked so forcibly, that, not expecting it, he was nearly hauled into the water; as it was, the fish was so strong that the line slipped through his hand and scored his fingers; but after a time he was able to pull it in, and he landed on the beach a large silver-scaled fish, weighing nine or ten pounds. As soon as he had dragged it so far away from the edge of the rocks as to prevent its flapping into the water again, William took out the hook and determined to try for another. His line was down as short a time as before, when it was again jerked with violence; but William was this time prepared, and he let out the line and played the fish till it was tired, and then pulled it up, and found that the second fish was even larger than the first. Satisfied with his success, he wound up his lines, and, running a piece of string through the