The storm had lasted for almost a week and it was getting worse. Our ship had been blown far off course and we were lost. Suddenly there came a cry of "Land ho!"—but at that moment the ship struck a rock and began to sink.

Up on deck we could hear the sound of shouts and running footsteps. I made my way up to the deck only to see, through the spray, the last of the ship's boats casting off! We had been forgotten! I rushed to the side and shouted, but the sailors could not hear my voice over the noise of the storm.

By now the ship was stuck fast on the rocks. It was no longer in danger of sinking, so I returned to my family to calm their fears. We spent the night listening to the storm, which gradually died away. Next morning all was quiet. The wind had dropped, and the sea was calm.

Since all the boats had gone, we would have to make one. We searched the ship, and found food, tools, guns and even some animals—two dogs, some sheep, cows, goats, hens and a pig! My wife fed the animals while my sons, Fritz, Ernest, Jack and little Francis, helped me to make a boat out of planks and barrels.

Early next morning we launched our strange boat and slowly paddled to the nearby island. We called it New Switzerland, after our homeland. Tall palm trees swayed in the breeze and beneath them the grass was rich and green.

After offering up a short prayer thanking God for our safe arrival, we began unloading the boat. Later we built a tent from poles and a piece of sailcloth. While the children were collecting dry grass and moss for our beds, I made a fireplace using stones from the beach and lit a fire. My wife put a large stewpot on the flames and began cooking our dinner.

Then the children went exploring. Jack found an enormous lobster in a pool—or rather it found him! It grabbed him by the leg and I had to stun it with my axe. Ernest gathered mussels and oysters from the rocks, and later we used the shells as spoons. Fritz took one of the guns and went hunting. He came back with a small wild pig and the news that chests and barrels from the ship had been washed up in one of the bays.

That night we slept well. When Fritz and I went exploring next day with one of the dogs, called Turk, we found many strange plants and fruits. Some of the fruits were like large nuts and we spent some time making dishes and bowls out of them.

By mid-day we had climbed to the top of a steep hill from which we could see the whole of the island, which was much bigger than we expected. So much was growing that we knew that we would never starve.

In the swampy land at the bottom of the hill I discovered sugar cane growing. As we were gathering a large bundle to take back, a tribe of monkeys started to scream at us.

Suddenly I had an idea. Picking up a large stone, I threw it into the trees, and the monkeys flew into a rage and threw coconuts at us.

I picked up some of the nuts, Fritz gathered up the sugar cane, and we set off back to the family.

As we went through a wood we came up on a dead monkey with a live baby clinging to it. As Fritz knelt beside them, the baby sprang onto his back and held on tightly to his hair. The baby monkey was very frightened and would not let go until I calmed it down by gently stroking it.

Fritz carried the little animal, but soon he got tired since we had so many other things to carry. Then he had an idea. He took a piece of rope and put it round Turk's neck, then set the little monkey upon his back where it rode all the way home.

The family were delighted with the things we had found, and they all loved our new pet.

My wife had a fine meal waiting for us. She was roasting a large bird that Francis had killed, and she had made a huge pot of soup.

Next day we decided to return to the wreck, for there were still many useful things aboard. My wife and the younger children stayed ashore while Fritz and I rowed back to the ship. First we fed the animals we had left aboard and then we searched the ship from top to bottom. We loaded our little boat so heavily that it sank low in the water.

Night fell quickly, so we stayed there until the following day. Our next problem was how to get the animals ashore, for we knew that they would not be able to swim all that way. After some thought, we tied small casks to them, pushed them into the sea, and towed them ashore behind our boat.

The animals were delighted to get ashore. As the boys and I struggled to take off their life jackets, my wife made an enormous omelette with some turtles' eggs she had found.

While we had been away my wife and the children had discovered some huge trees in which she suggested we should build a tree house.

It took us a long time to collect all the animals and to pack up our belongings before we set off.

The trees were the biggest I had ever seen. Since it was now too late to begin building a tree house, that night we slept in hammocks we had brought from the ship.

My first job next day was to make a ladder, for the lowest branches of the tree I had chosen were forty feet above the ground. Quickly I made a bow and arrow from some bamboo canes we had cut. My wife gave me a reel of cotton and I tied the end of it to the arrow. Then, taking careful aim, I shot the arrow over a branch. A thin rope was tied to the thread an with this we pulled it over the branch. Now we could pull up a rope ladder.

While I had been doing this the boys had cut some thick bamboo to make rungs for our ladder. Soon it was fixed and we were able to begin making our tree house.

My wife and the younger children fetched wood from the beach while Fritz and I worked high in the tree. The work took us several days. At last our new house was complete.

That night we climbed up and I pulled the rope ladder after us. For the first time we felt safe as we slept.

As we ate lunch on the following day we decided to give names to the different places we had found. First of all we named the place where we had landed. After discussing it for a while, my wife suggested that we should call it Providence Bay. The spot where we had our first camp we called Tent House, then we talked for a long time about the name for our new home.

Ernest wanted to call it Tree Castle, Fritz wanted to call it Eagle's Nest, and Jack suggested Fig Town. To settle the matter I named it Falcon's Nest.

We named the stream Jackal River because we had seen jackals there, and we called the marsh nearby, Flamingo Marsh, after the birds who nested there. Lastly, we named the little island nearby Shark Island, since we had seen a shark near it.

Later that afternoon when it was cooler, the whole family set off back to Tent House where we were keeping many of our supplies. Fritz wanted some gunpowder and shot and my wife needed some butter from a cask that had been washed up on the shore.

We set off. The older boys and myself each carried a gun, while little Francis carried a bow and arrow. The dogs went in front with the little monkey perched on Turk's back, and a flamingo, who was becoming quite tame, following on behind.

Half-way to the beach Ernest called to us excitedly. He had found a patch of potatoes. We spent a while digging them up until we had filled our bags. Following the stream we found cactuses and rare plants growing, and to our surprise, hidden behind some rocks we discovered pineapples!

By the time we arrived at Jackal River and the beach, we had almost as much as we could carry.

At the beach everything was as we had left it. My wife went in search of the butter cask, and Fritz looked for the gunpowder. Ernest and Jack tried to catch the ducks and geese, but they had become rather wild and the boys could not get near them. Ernest tied some biscuits onto a piece of string and threw them into the water. He pulled the biscuits closer to him each time the birds went to eat until he was able to capture them.

Carrying everything back to Falcon's Nest was not going to be easy, so I decided to make a sledge which could be pulled along by the donkey. The next morning Ernest and I collected pieces of wood from the beach and nailed them together. Two lengths of rope were fixed to the front and our sledge was ready. We loaded it with the cask of butter, a barrel of gunpowder and some tubs of cheese.

Half-way back to the Falcon's Nest one of the dogs ran off after a most unusual animal which bounded away from us. It was the strangest animal we had ever seen. It had an enormous tail and large hind legs but only small front legs. It was a red kangaroo!

As the wreck was still afloat Fritz and I returned to see what we could collect. We made several journeys to the wreck and on the last occasion Fritz found a sailing boat in the hold. It was in pieces and needed putting together.

It took us many days to build the little ship. When we had finished, it was so large that we had to blow a hole in the side of the wreck with gunpowder to get it out.

Our new boat had masts and sails and in the bows, two small cannon. We had a fine little ship!

Now it was time for another expedition to explore the forests. During the morning we found many strange birds and plants. After lunch we found some bushes that had very unusual berries which stuck to our fingers. They were candle-berries. When we returned home we filled a saucepan with the berries and slowly heated them over the fire until all the wax was removed.

My wife made wicks from the threads pulled from a piece of canvas. These we dipped into the wax and let them cool until they had hardened. We dipped them into the wax many times until the wicks became thick candles. They burned with a strong, clear light. Now we would not have to go to bed at sunset.

Aboard the ship had been many young fruit trees which were to have been planted at the end of our voyage. Because of the wonderful climate the trees grew very quickly. We planted orange and lemon trees close to Tent House, and between there and Falcon's Nest we planted a long avenue of fruit trees. We hoped these would not only give us fruit, but also a shady walk protecting us from the fierce sunshine. Some trees with prickly branches we used as hedges to stop our animals from straying.

While we were planting and digging, we thought we would make our camps safer in case anybody should attack us.

Upon the tops of two small hillocks near the river I placed two cannon from the wreck. We had built a bridge across the river. Since it was very easy to cross we rebuilt it as a drawbridge so that it could be raised or lowered.

All these improvements took about six weeks, and our hard work had worn out most of our clothes. I knew that there were plenty of seamen's clothes on the wreck, so I set out with the boys. We spent several days removing chests full of clothes and anything else that could possibly be useful.

When there was nothing of any value left aboard I decided to blow up the ship. I knew that the wind and waves would blow the planks and timber ashore, and we could then store them for future use.

We rolled a cask of gunpowder to the bottom of the hold and to it attached a long fuse that would burn for several hours. We lit it and quickly returned to the island. After supper we climbed to the top of one of the hillocks. Just as it was getting dark there was a terrific explosion, the flash lighting up the night sky. The wreck was gone.

The next morning the whole family set off on an expedition as we needed many things from the forest. We wanted bamboo canes to support some of the fruit trees and as our supply of candles and sugar was running low we wanted some more berries, and sugar cane. We had made the sledge into a cart, so we harnessed the cow and donkey to it and set off.

We spent the afternoon picking coconuts and candle-berries and cutting the sugar cane and bamboo we needed.

As darkness fell we built a shelter from branches and a piece of canvas. We would stay the night.

Then something upset the donkey; he began braying, then ran off into the forest and disappeared. We could not find him that night. The next morning Jack and I followed his trail for many miles until we came to some tall grass. As we pushed our way through it, we suddenly came face to face with a herd of wild buffaloes.

They turned and faced us. Those that were lying down slowly got to their feet. We were about to slip quietly away when our dogs burst through the long grass and seized a young calf. The buffaloes charged. We were terrified. Raising our guns we both fired, and the whole herd, except the calf, ran away. We roped the calf and led him along behind us. There was no sign of the donkey, and we gave him up for lost.

We arrived back with the family before dark to discover that Fritz had captured a young eagle. Young eagles can be easily tamed and we thought that he could be trained to hunt for us.

After staying at the camp that night we set off the following morning to Falcon's Nest. The young buffalo we harnessed beside the cow and the two of them pulled the cart.

The dogs ran on ahead, and suddenly we heard them barking excitedly. We rushed up to find our old sow which had disappeared a few days before. Beside her was a litter of six or seven piglets. We decided to leave the little family there and not take them back to Falcon's Nest until they were bigger.

One of our difficulties at Falcon's Nest was climbing the rope ladder. I was afraid that somebody would slip off and hurt themselves. My wife had noticed that the tree trunk was partly hollow. If it was hollow all the way up the trunk then we could build a staircase up to our home.

When I came to look at it next day, I discovered that the whole trunk was hollow. It would not be too difficult to build a staircase. To start with, we cut a doorway, and fitted one of the doors from the wreck. As the staircase was built I cut three windows. In three weeks it was finished.

At this time our goats had two kids, our sheep had five lambs and one of our dogs had puppies.

Gradually we trained our young buffalo to carry loads on his back. The boys also learned to ride him like a horse, and Fritz was busy training his eagle.

Our farm was getting bigger. The donkey returned one day bringing with him a wild ass which we captured and tamed, and our hens hatched out forty chicks. Now we had to build barns to keep the animals in, for the rainy season was coming. We had to gather in our winter stores, too, and plant crops which we hoped would grow in the wet season.

No sooner had we finished these tasks than the storms began. The howling winds tore branches off the drove the rain into our tree house. We had to leave, and we spent the rest of the winter living with the animals.

For the first time since we had been shipwrecked we were uncomfortable. With no proper fireplace we could not keep warm and the animals soon ate up their winter stores, so that we had to feed them from own stores. The long nights and short days of winter seemed endless.