ISLAND OF COZUMEL. 



363 



occupant than either, being no other than our old 

 friend Mr. George Fisher, that " citizen of the 

 world" introduced to the reader in the early part 

 of these pages, who, since our separation in Mer- 

 ida, had consummated the history of his wander- 

 ing life by becoming the purchaser of six leagues, 

 or eighteen miles, of the island, had visited it him- 

 self with surveyors, set up his crosses along the 

 shore, and was about undertaking a grand enter- 

 prise, that was to make the lonely island of Cozu- 

 mel known to the commercial world. 



Our act of taking possession was unusually ex- 

 citing. It was an immense relief to escape from the 

 confinement of the canoa. The situation command- 

 ed a view of the sea, and, barely distinguishable, in 

 the distance was the coast of Yucatan. On the bank 

 were large forest trees which had been spared in the 

 clearing, and orange and cocoanut trees planted by 

 Molas. The place had a sort of piratical aspect. 

 In the hut were doors and green blinds from the 

 cabin of some unlucky vessel, and reeving blocks, 

 tar buckets, halliards, drinking gourds, fragments of 

 rope, fishing nets, and two old hatches were scat- 

 tered on the ground. Above all, the first object we 

 discovered, which would have given a charm to a bar- 

 ren sand bank, was a well of pure and abundant wa- 

 ter, which we fell upon at the moment of landing, 

 and were almost like the Spanish soldier in the expe- 

 dition of Cordova, who drank till he swelled and 

 died. And, besides the rehef of a pressing want, 



