All the Dutchmen who had been hewing timber were called upon to take part in the work, and it went on with amazing rapidity, for Master Minuit was not one who gave those in his employ much chance to suck their fingers. The fort was made in the form of a triangle, with bastions, or projections, at each corner, so that while within them the defenders could have a view of each side-wall. Around the entire building, say at a distance of twenty feet, was a palisade, or fence, of cedar logs planted upright in the earth, and fastened together with heavy timbers at the top. A more solid fortification of wood I have never yet seen, nor have I known of a like defence to have been made in so short a time. IN CHARGE OF THE GOODS Before the fort was finished, two of the gentlemen traders came back, their chests emptied of beads, cloth, and trinkets, but the boats piled high with furs of all kinds, and I heard Master Minuit say that one such cargo was worth more than all the grain that could be raised in two years, by all the white men on the island. The log house was taken for a storeroom, and Hans set at work making a list of the furs, which was anything rather than a pleasant task, for these skins were none of the sweetest or most cleanly, and the Dutchman both looked and smelled very disagreeably. [Illustration] While Hans was sweating over the furs in the log house, I stayed in the great cabin of the _Sea Mew_, refilling the chests with goods, and before the task was finished, Master Minuit told me that I was to have charge of all the things brought for trade with the savages. In other words, I was no longer to be body servant, but a real storekeeper, which was more of a jump in the world than I had even hoped to make for many a long year to come. The palisade of the fort was not yet wholly done, when a dozen or more of the men were set about building inside the fortification a log house, where the goods were to be kept and where I was to find lodgings. Kryn Gildersleeve, like the honest lad he was, gave me joy because of my thus having become, as it were, a real member of the Company; but Hans was angry, believing if any of the servants were to be promoted, it should have been himself, and I am told that he declared I would not long be allowed to enjoy my high station. By the time the palisade had been built my house was finished, and all the goods brought from the _Sea Mew_, which gave me much of work to do, because my orders were to unpack and store the different articles where I could bring them out at a moment's notice. You must not understand that Master Minuit had entrusted to me the trading. That portion of the work was for himself and the gentlemen who had come with him; but I was in charge of the goods, as Hans was keeper of the furs, while Kryn alone waited upon the master as body servant.