A SPECIMEN OF YANKEE WOOD-CHOPPING. 283 



The houses are of stone, and neatly fashioned : 

 mahogany being applied to all the various purposes 

 of the architect — its great plentifulness and durability 

 rendering it preferable to any other wood they 

 possess. 



The following day, the wind still being unfavor- 

 able and precluding our departure, the officers in 

 charge of the expedition ])egau to feel alarmed as to 

 the insufficiency of their funds — the whole amount 

 of money brought being ten pounds, or fifty dollars ; 

 this amount would not go very far towards the sup- 

 port of thirteen men, for any length of time, in a 

 place where all the necessaries of life were held at 

 an exorbitant price. Now that their suspicions had 

 worn ofl' as to our true character, I do not think 

 that they would have allowed us to want ; still, we 

 did not feel inclined to depend on their charity, so 

 we asked them if there was any work that we could 

 perform. The only branches of business open were 

 wood-chopping and supplying the community with 

 fresh fish ; they possessing no boats, and the snapper 

 banks being some distance from the settlement, it is 

 only by chance that they are enabled to indulge their 

 appetites for them. We, on this information, held a 

 consultation, and one party, including the two officers, 

 shouldered axes and went into the woods, where 

 they gave the colonials a specimen of Yankee wood- 

 chopping ; the rest of us took the boats, and, having 

 been supplied with tackle, made their hearts glad by 

 a display of fish superior to any they had seen for a 

 long time. 



This was a pretty specimen of occupation for gen- 

 tlemen's sons to engage in j but it only verifies our 



