CHAPTER XIV.
PICKAXE AND TROWEL.
That same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town, and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the _Tampico_ for New Orleans.

He was to engage an army of workmen to bring back the greater part of the working-stock.

The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa Town in order to set on foot the preliminary work with the assistance of the inhabitants of the country.
Eight days after its departure the _Tampico_ returned to the Espiritu-Santo Bay with a fleet of steamboats.

Murchison had succeeded in getting together 1,500 workmen.

In the evil days of slavery he would have lost his time and trouble; but since America, the land of liberty, has only contained freemen, they flock wherever they can get good pay.
Now money was not wanting to the Gun Club; it offered a high rate of wages with considerable and proportionate perquisites.