EXPLORATION OF LEW CHEW. 181 



US to reacli Naplia; this did not correspond with our own ideas of oiir position, and we deter- 

 mined to attempt reaching Napha the next evening', as we had been ordered. 



We passed through the village of Uii-fla, and over the headland to a deep hay. The tide was 

 running out, and instead of wading through the sand around its entire curve, we made a straight 

 line for the opposite shore, tramping through water two or three inches deep over beds of 

 decomposing coral. We had proceeded along the shore for an hour and a half, when A-shing, 

 one of the Chinese coolies, fell sick in consequence, as it afterwards appeared, of drinking 

 sackee, and eating green peaches. His load was given to the Lew Chew coolies, and he obtained 

 a temporary relief by punching his throat, in three places, so violently as to produce an extra- 

 vasation of blood. Counter irritation is the usual Chinese remedy for all ailments, and it is 

 frequently very efficacious. We were near a fishing village, and Mr. Jones endeavored to obtain 

 a canoe, in which to send both our Chinamen back to the vessel. The Pe-ching begged him to 

 give up the idea, since one of the native officers would be obliged to accompany them, and they 

 all feared to trust themselves in the frail craft. They brought a Jcagoo, or rude sedan, in which 

 they offered to have the man conveyed to Napha, but he was better by this time and declared 

 himself able to proceed on foot. The officers expressed the greatest satisfaction when they found 

 that none of them would be required to return in the canoe. 



In the meantime the rest of us had pushed forward with the baggage. The morning was 

 very hot, the glare from the white beach-sand struck in our faces^ and we began to tire of an 

 endless tramp around cove after cove, and headland after headland. We were now^ as we 

 calculated, opposite the head of Barrow's Bay, and Sheudi was almost in a due southerly direc- 

 tion ; yet the road still clung to the coast, as if intent on carrying us to the extreme point of 

 Cape Broughton, thus greatly lengthening our journey, besides which, our orders were to return 

 through the centre of the island. In answer to all our inquiries, the native officers and guides 

 pointed along the shore, and were extremely anxious to prevent our taking any inland paths. 

 This excited our suspicion, and we imagined their object to be to prevent our seeing the interior. 

 Finally, coming to a well-trodden path, which struck off up the hills, we shut our ears to all 

 remonstrance and took it. In a short time it brought us to a handsome village, shaded not 

 only with bamboo, but with splendid banyan trees. Beyond it there was a deep ravine, with a 

 faintly marked foot-path leading to some svater at the bottom. Again the natives entreated us 

 to take a path which plainly led to the shore. They pointed to the gorge, crying "mizi," 

 intimating that the path went no further than the water. Nevertheless, seeing traces of a path 

 on the opposite side, we descended, followed by the unwilling officers and coolies. The pool of 

 water which supplied the village was shaded by the largest pines I saw on the island. They 

 were 70 or 80 feet in height, whereas the average is not more than 40 feet. 



Our suspicions did injustice to the natives, for we soon found that they had our convenience 

 in view. Our path struck into a side-branch of the ravine, which, though not more than twenty 

 feet wide, was a rice-swamp at the bottom. The sides were nearly perpendicular walls of earth 

 and loose rocks, so that we were obliged to plunge up to the knees in mud. One of the men, 

 Smith, sank so deep that it required the strength of three natives to extricate him. When, at 

 last we reached the top of the hill, we found it covered with waste thickets, and no path to be 

 seen except one on an opposite height, which we reached with some trouble. The path, an old 

 and unused one, led us back to the beach, which it now seemed impossible to leave. The coolies, 

 who had had a hard tug to get through the rice-swamp, took the whole matter very good 

 humeredly, and the officers laughed, as I thought, with a sort of malicious pleasure at our dis- 



