True, the work was very slowly done, but it mattered not--we had little else to do.

Two holes were bored in each timber, about an inch and a half apart, and also down into the keel, but not quite through.

Into these were placed stout pegs made of a tree called iron-wood; and, when they were hammered well home, the timbers were as firmly fixed as if they had been nailed with iron.

The gunwales, which were very stout, were fixed in a similar manner.

But, besides the wooden nails, they were firmly lashed to the stem and stern posts and ribs by means of a species of cordage which we had contrived to make out of the fibrous husk of the cocoa nut.