Chapter 3.
Attack The night was cold, but we managed in our tent.
When we woke, Fritz and I planned to set off and learn about the land to see if we could find other survivors.
When we told the boys we were going on an adventure, they were all excited but then disappointed to not be invited.
It's too dangerous until we know more about where we are, I explained.
I don't know why we're looking for those people anyway, said Jack.
They left us.
Why should we try to find and save them?
Because, I answered, just because they were evil to us doesn't mean we can be evil to them.
They may be dying of hunger while we are not. and besides, they might help us build a house.
Fritz and I started off on our search.
As we walked on, we saw strange trees with bumps on them that I recognized as calabash trees.
These bumps, I told Fritz, are called gourds, and they are perfect for making bowls and spoons.
You can even cook in them by adding hot stones to whatever is inside until it boils.
It was a simple thing that I had remembered from Columbus's travels, which I had read again and again, but Fritz thought it was amazing.
We struggled for a while, but managed to cut some gourds from the treats.
We filled them with sand to dry them out and marked the spot before heading on.
As we walked, I cut down what appeared to be a reed.
I noticed that there was syrup running from the cut.
I tasted it and realized that it was sugar cane.
Fritz jumped for joy when he heard this and cut as many as he could carry.
But our joy quickly turned to fear.
When we came out of a clearing, we were confronted by a group of monkeys.
Fritz raised his gun to shoot them, but I stopped him.
Watch this, I told him.
As the monkeys sprang to the trees, I threw up a handful of stones and the monkeys answered by shaking the trees to drop coconuts down on us.
A live monkey in a tree is worth ten dead ones on the ground, I explained.
With that, we broke open two coconuts and ate and drank them dry.
We continued to walk along sucking on our sugar cane, and Fritz talked of how he couldn't wait to share his new discoveries with his brothers.
As we walked back to camp, our dog Turk suddenly appeared in the clearing and jumped into another troop of monkeys before they could get away.
We ran toward the group, but before we could get there, the dog had killed a mother monkey.
Fritz ran toward the dog and pulled it away, just as a baby monkey jumped into his arms and up onto his head to avoid the dog.
No matter how hard Fritz shook, the baby monkey would not let go.
Turk ran around us, barking frantically.
Finally, I managed to coax the baby down into Fritz's arms with a small biscuit.
It was no bigger than a kitten.
Father, said Fritz, let's keep it and raise it.
It's the least we can do.
If we do, I said, you have to be in charge.
You will be his parent now.
Fritz agreed, and with that we left the sad scene behind our new friend sitting on Fritz's shoulder.
The little monkey was afraid of Turk and would not come down for any reason.
Finally, Fritz had an idea.
He called Turk and tied a leash of rope around his neck and tied the monkey onto Turk's back as rider.
Neither liked it very much, but they soon became used to it.
It seemed somehow fitting after what Turk had done.
Soon we were back at camp and we were met by another dog, which we had named Juno, barking at us and the baby monkey.
The boys ran up, thrilled to see the monkey and to play with him.
The coconuts, gourds, and sugar cane amazed them.
My wife was sad, though, that we hadn't found any other people.
Fritz began to teach the boys how to get sugar from the cane and how to drink the milk from the coconuts.
My wife was happy to see our gourd bowls, and we all sat down to eat a meal of a bird that Ernest had killed.
"'I think it's a penguin,' he said."
We ate the bird and then the coconuts, which we shared with our monkey for dessert.
After that, we all settled down for bed.
In the middle of the night we awoke to the sound of a horrid and bone-chilling growling and cackling.
We all sprang up to find we were under attack.
Our entire camp had been set upon by wild jackals.
The dogs dove out to find the fiercest one, and Fritz and I shot into the herd until the lot scattered.
It made for a long sleepless night, and in the morning we decided that we needed to set ourselves up properly.
Sleeping in a makeshift tent was too dangerous.
First off, Fritz and I decided to go back to the ship and rescue as many animals as we could.
I told my wife to fly a flag that we would be able to see, so we would know they were all right while we were gone.
If she took down the flag, we would know she was in trouble and would come back immediately.
Otherwise, we would plan on coming back the next day.
Fritz and I set off in our tub boat and got to the ship to find that, although it had been wrecked on the rocks, it was still much above the water and much of it was open to us.
Once on board we built a sail on our little boat from the ship's torn sails to help us get back to shore.
We saw the flag flying and knew everything was well, so we looked around and found flour ham, vegetables and other things such as swords, knives and forks.
It took us all day to search the entire ship.
As darkness fell, we lit a fire in a large metal pan on the sloping deck and rested for the night under the stars.
The next morning, Fritz had an idea.
Let's make floating belts for all the animals and let them swim.
We tried with the sheep, and after sinking at first, it came to the surface and swam for the shore.
We did this for all the animals, even the cows, which we had to strap with big barrels to keep them afloat.
We sat down on the deck to watch the swimming animals and eat our lunch when suddenly Fritz yelled out raising his gun.
We saw that a giant shark was making its way for the first of our sheep.
Fritz took careful aim and shot at it, and the shark turned away, blood filling the water.
Our animals were safe for now.
We sailed and rowed our loaded boat back to shore, arriving at the same time as our animals.
We untied the floats and herded the animals to our family's camp.
We told the family of our adventures as they told us of theirs.
Ernest had found turtle eggs for supper to go with our ham, and my wife showed us the table she had made from a butter cask for us to eat on.
It was a wonderful dinner indeed after such a dangerous day.
