418 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



pletely Md its outer edge. Besides, our horse was 

 wholly unaccustomed to a carriage, and only half- 

 trained, and every few moments took it into his head 

 to stop so short that we had to hold on to the car- 

 riage all the time, or at an unexj^ected moment find 

 ourselves going over the fender. The road was now 

 taking us out toward the end of the spur, the ravine 

 was growing deeper and deeper with an alarming 

 rapidity, and I began to wish myself out of the car- 

 riage, but the inspector was unwilling to stop the 

 horse for fear we could not get him started again. A 

 Malay was guiding our wild steed by the bit, and 

 away we were dashing at full gallop, when suddenly, 

 as we rounded the spur, the road, which was cut in 

 the rock, was so narrow that the outside wheels of 

 the carriage were just on its outer edge, and from 

 that verge the rock descended in such a perpendicu- 

 lar precipice that I could look from my seat in the 

 carriage down fully two hundred feet, with a boiling 

 torrent beneath me. It was e^ddently too late to 

 jump then, so I seized hold of the carriage, deter- 

 mined not to go off before my companion, the in- 

 spector, who, realizing at once our great danger, and 

 perceiving that the only thing that we could do was 

 to keep the horse going at the top of his speed, 

 shouted to the horse, and, in the same breath, threat- 

 ened to take oif the Malay's head if he should let go 

 of the bridle. Some fragments of rock had fallen 

 down into the road, and our fore-wheel, on the 

 inner side, struck these with such violence that I 

 thought certainly we should be thrown off the nar- 

 row shelf down the precipice. For two minutes we 



