 for the erection of suitable
houses in which to cure the article, and for the services of himself and tribe
in gathering as much as possible, while he himself took advantage of the fine
weather to prosecute his voyage to the southward. Upon mentioning this project
to the chief he seemed very willing to enter into an agreement. A bargain was
accordingly struck, perfectly satisfactory to both parties, by which it was
arranged that, after making the necessary preparations, such as laying off the
proper grounds, erecting a portion of the buildings, and doing some other work
in which the whole of our crew would be required, the schooner should proceed on
her route, leaving three of her men on the island to superintend the fulfilment
of the project, and instruct the natives in drying the biche-de mer. In regard
to terms, these were made to depend upon the exertions of the savages in our
absence. They were to receive a stipulated quantity of blue beads, knives, red
cloth, and so forth, for every certain number of piculs of the biche de mer
which should be ready on our return.
    A description of the nature of this important article of commerce, and the
method of preparing it, may prove of some interest to my readers, and I can find
no more suitable place than this for introducing an account of it. The following
comprehensive notice of the substance is taken from a modern history of a voyage
to the South Seas:
    »It is that mollusca from the Indian Seas which is known to commerce by the
French name bouche de mer (a nice morsel from the sea). If I am not much
mistaken, the celebrated Cuvier calls it gasteropoda pulmonifera. It is
abundantly gathered in the coasts of the Pacific islands, and gathered
especially for the Chinese market, where it commands a great price, perhaps as
much as their much-talked-of edible birds' nests, which are probably made up of
the gelatinous matter picked up by a species of swallow from the body of these
molluscæ. They have no shell, no legs, nor any prominent part, except an
absorbing and an excretory, opposite organs; but, by their elastic wings, like
caterpillars or worms, they creep in shallow waters, in which, when low, they
can be seen by a kind of swallow, the sharp bill of which, inserted in the soft
animal, draws a gummy and filamentous substance, which, by drying, can be
wrought into the solid walls of their nest. Hence the name of gasteropoda
pulmonifera.
    This mollusca is oblong, and of different sizes, from three
