LOST I^J THE illST. 99 



to overcome here, occasioned bj the force of the vegeta- 

 tion, and were obliged to cut their way through this 

 forest : the negroes walked before them with cutlasses, 

 chopping down the limbs that opposed them. 



On a sudden they found themselves enveloped in a 

 thick mist; the compass alone could guide them. In 

 advancing northward they were in danger at every step 

 of finding themselves on the brink of an enormous wall 

 of rocks, which descended almost perpendicularly to the 

 depth of six thousand feet towards the sea. They were 

 obliged to halt. Surrounded by clouds sweeping the 

 ground, they began to doubt whether they should reach 

 the eastern peak before night. Happily, the negroes 

 who carried their water and provisions, rejoined them, 

 and they resolved to take some refreshment. Their re- 

 past did not last long. As it was only two o'clock in 

 the afternoon, they entertained some hope of reaching 

 the eastern summit of the Saddle before sunset, and of 

 re-descending into the valley separating the two peaks, 

 intending there to pass the night, to light a great fire, 

 and to make their negroes construct a hut. They sent 

 off half of their servants with orders to hasten the next 

 morning to meet them with a supply of salt beef. They 

 had scarcely made these arrangements when the east 

 wind began to blow violently from the sea. In less than 

 two minutes the clouds dispersed, and the two domes of 

 the Saddle appeared singularly near. 



They shaped their course to the eastern summit, which 

 they were three-quarters of an hour in reaching. They 

 were now over eight thousand feet high, and they gazed 

 on an extent of sea, the radius of which was tbirty-six 

 leagues. It was as smooth as glass, but in the distance 



