CHARCOAL BURNING. 259 



are far inferior in numbers to the Christians, in the 

 proportion of about three to one, a great deal more 

 credit is due. 



August 6th, — Being a very fine morning, I had 

 my alga brought into the garden, and superin- 

 tended TTalderheros and Goodaloo making the pile 

 of wood for burning it into charcoal ; covering it 

 with the stalks of the thorn apple-plant, which 

 alone seemed to flourish around my house to the 

 exclusion of every other kind of herb. Upon this 

 green kind of thatch a layer of earth was placed, and 

 all being completed, fire was applied below, and the 

 aperture through which it was introduced imme- 

 diately closed up ; a vent, or chimney, through the 

 centre alone being left open. 



Instead of any length of time being necessary, I 

 found my charcoal-heap blazing away as if air entered 

 at twenty places. Being my first attempt as a prac- 

 tical burner, I somehow expected this, and therefore 

 carried off the failure as a thing intended, for Walder- 

 heros began to think his learned master a bit of a 

 quack when he found that I was ignorant of the simple 

 native cure for hernia ; and he would now have been 

 downright sure of it had he not supposed that all my 

 present proceedings, regarding the charcoal-burn- 

 ing, was necessary to produce the excellent article 

 required to make gunpowder as it was manu- 

 factured in my country. I therefore sat and 

 looked at the blazing pile, revolving in my mind 

 what could possibly have caused the failure, for I 

 s 2 



