The walls at any rate had a high commercial value! When the wet season set in I built a third wall at one end, and erected a sort of double awning in front, under which I always kept my fire burning.

I also put a straw thatch over the hut, proudly using my own straw which I had grown with blood.
In course of time I made myself crude articles of furniture, including a table, some chairs, a bed, &c.

My bedding at first consisted of sails, but afterwards I was able to have a mattress filled with straw from my corn patch.

The kettle I had saved from the wreck was for a long time my only cooking utensil, so when I had anything to prepare I generally made an oven in the sand, after the manner of the natives I had met on the New Guinea main.

I could always catch plenty of fish--principally mullet; and as for sea-fowls, all that I had to do was walk over to that part of the island where they were feeding and breeding, and knock them over with a stick.