110 VOYAGE TO THE 



and grasping every tuft of grass and bough that 

 offered its friendly support, we were overtaken by a 

 group of chubby little children, trudging uncon- 

 cernedly on, munching a water melon, and balancing 

 on their heads calabashes of water, which they had 

 brought from the opposite side of the island. They 

 smiled at our helplessness as they passed, and we felt 

 their innocent reproof ; but we were still unpractised 

 in such feats, while they, from being trained to 

 them, had acquired a footing and a firmness which 

 habit alone can produce. 



It was dark when we reached the houses, but we 

 found by a whoop which echoed through the woods, 

 that we were not the last from home. This whoop, 

 peculiar to the place, is so shrill, that it may be heard 

 half over the island, and the ear of the natives is so 

 quick, that they will catch it when we could dis- 

 tinguish nothing of the kind. By the tone in which 

 it is delivered, they also know the wants of the per- 

 son, and who it is. These shrill sounds, which we 

 had just heard, informed us, and those who were at 

 the village, that a party had lost their way in the 

 woods. A blazing beacon was immediately made, 

 which, together with a few more whoops to direct 

 the party, soon brought the absentees home. Their 

 perfection in these signals will be manifest from the 

 following anecdote : I was one day crossing the 

 mountain which intersects the island with Christian ; 

 we had not long parted with their whale-boat on the 

 western side of the island, and were descending a 

 ravine amidst a thicket of trees, when he turned 

 round and said, " The whale-boat is come round to 

 Bounty Bay ;" at which I was not a little surprised, 

 as I had heard nothing, and we could not see through 



