my friends, is the small corner of the world on which the hand of the Almighty has thrown us. It’s here that we’re going to live a long time perhaps. Maybe unexpected help will arrive if some vessel passes by chance … I say by chance because this island is not very important. It offers nothing which can serve as a port of call for ships, and I fear that it’s situated outside the ordinary shipping lanes. It’s too far south for the vessels which frequent the archipelagos of the Pacific, too far north for those that go to Australia by doubling Cape Horn. I wish to conceal nothing from you.”
“And you are right, my dear Cyrus,” the reporter replied eagerly. “You are dealing with men. They have confidence in you and you can count on them. Isn’t that so, my friends?”
“I will obey you in everything, Mr. Cyrus,” said Harbert.
“My master, always and everywhere!” said Neb.
“As for me,” said the sailor, “may I lose my name if I shirk my work. If you wish, Mr. Smith, we’ll make this island a Little America! We’ll build towns, railroads, telegraphs, and one fine day when it is transformed and civilized we’ll offer it to the government of the Union! I ask only one thing.”
“What’s that?” asked the reporter.
“That we no longer think of ourselves as castaways but as colonists, here to colonize.”
Cyrus Smith could not restrain a smile and the sailor’s motion was adopted. Then he thanked his companions and added that he counted on their energy and on the blessing of Heaven.
“Well then, on to the Chimneys!” said Pencroff.
“One moment, my friends,” said the engineer. “It seems best to give a name to this island, and its capes, its promontories, and the watercourses that we saw below.”
“Very good,” said the reporter. “In the future, this will simplify the instructions that we’ll have to give or follow.”
“In fact,” replied the sailor, “it’s already something to be able to say where you’ve been and where you’re going. At least you have the feeling of having been somewhere.”
“The Chimneys, for example,” said Harbert.
“Right!” replied Pencroff. “This name was the most convenient, and it was the only one that came to me. Shall we keep this name for our first camp, Mr. Cyrus?”
“Yes, Pencroff, since you so baptized it.”
“Good! As to the others, that will be easy,” the sailor replied in good spirits. “Let’s use names like the Robinsons did. Harbert read their story to me more than once; ‘Providence Bay,’ ‘Cachalots Point,’ ‘Cape of Deceived Hope’ …”
“Or rather the names of Mr. Smith,” replied Harbert, “of Mr. Spilett, of Neb! …”
“My name!” said Neb, showing his sparkling white teeth.
“Why not?” replied Pencroff. “‘Port Neb’ would be very good. And ‘Cape Gideon.’”
“I would prefer names borrowed from our country” replied the reporter, “which would remind us of America.”
“Yes, for the main features,” said Cyrus Smith, “for those of the bays or the seas, I fully agree. We could give to this vast bay in the east the name Union Bay for example, to this large indentation in the south that of Washington Bay, to the mountain on which we’re now standing that of Mount Franklin, to the lake which extends beneath us that of Lake Grant;2 nothing could be better, my friends. These names will remind us of our country and those great citizens who have honored it. But for the rivers, the gulfs, the capes, and the promontories which we see from the top of this mountain, let’s choose names which will recall their particular configuration. It will make them easier to remember, and it will be more practical at the same time. The shape of the island is strange enough so we’ll have no difficulty in imagining names by which to remember it. As to the watercourses that we don’t know, the various parts of the forest that we’ll explore later, the creeks that will be discovered in due time, we’ll name those when we discover them. What do you think, my friends?”
Gideon Spilett inscribed the names on his map.
The engineer’s proposition was unanimously adopted. The island was there under their eyes like an open map, and they had only to specify names for all its features. Gideon Spilett would draw it to scale and the geographical nomenclature of the island would be formally adopted.
First they named Union Bay, Washington Bay, and Mount Franklin, as the engineer had proposed.
“Now,” said the reporter, “this peninsula which projects to the southwest of the island, I propose to give it the name of Serpentine Peninsula, and the name Reptile End to the curved tail at its end because it’s truly a reptile’s tail.”
“Adopted,” said the engineer.
“Now,” said Harbert, “for this other extremity of the island, this gulf which so singularly resembles an open jaw, let’s call it Shark Gulf.”
“Well done!” said Pencroff, “and we’ll complete the picture by giving the two parts of the jaw the name Mandible Cape.”
“But there are two capes,” observed the reporter.
“Well then,” replied Pencroff, “we’ll have North Mandible Cape and South Mandible Cape.”
“They’re so registered,” replied Gideon Spilett.
“How about the point at the southeast end of the island?” said Pencroff.
“You mean the end of Union Bay?” replied Harbert.
“Cape Claw,” Neb shouted out. He also wanted to be the godfather of some piece of this domain.
In truth, Neb had found an excellent name because this cape really represented the powerful claw of the fantastic animal which resembled the outline of the island.
Pencroff was delighted by this turn of events. And their somewhat overexcited imaginations had soon given:
To the river, which furnished fresh water to the colonists near where the balloon had thrown them, the name of the Mercy, a true thanks to Providence;
To the islet, on which the castaways had first set foot, the name of Safety Island;
To the plateau, which crowned the high wall of granite above the Chimneys and from where they could see all of the vast bay, the name Grand View Plateau;
Finally to this massive impenetrable woods, which covered Serpentine Peninsula, the name Forests of the Far West.
The nomenclature of the visible and known parts of the island was finished, and later they would complete it with new discoveries as they went along.
As to the geographical orientation of the island, the engineer had determined it approximately by the height and position of the sun which put Union Bay and all of Grand View Plateau to the east. But
