Honey was plentiful and, given
that the bees were protected against voracious enemies, might have been
stored in marketable quantities. But was I not bound by honour as well as
sentiment to protect the birds? Was not my coming hither due to a certain
extent to a wish for the preservation of bird-life? Was there not in my
presence an implied warranty to that effect? Had not the island since my
occupancy become a sanctuary, a city of refuge, a safe abiding place, a
kingdom where all the birds of the air--save tyrants and cannibals were
welcomed with gladness and enthusiasm? Had I not warned others of the
dreadful consequences that would befall any disturbance of the sacred air
by so much as the unauthorised report of a gun? How then was I to deal
out justice to the defenceless bees that I had hurried hither,
willy-nilly, without consideration of their likes and dislikes and their
multitudinous descendants? How protect my investment in apiarist plant?
How maintain the stock of honey, white, golden and tawny brown,
excellent, wholesome delicious food, and still preserve the natural
rights, the privileges of the birds? Had not the birds the right of prior
occupancy and other legitimate claims, in addition to sentimental demands
upon my conscience? Not only, too were the birds beautiful to look upon
and of engaging habits; not only had they become companionable and
trustful; not only were they among the primeval features of the island
that I was so eager to leave unspotted from the world; but they were
eminently useful in the work of keeping within bounds the rampant host of
insects to which mankind is in the habit of applying the term injurious.
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