276 PROFESSOR SMITH'S JOURNAL. 



dra^vings. We had still to double several points before 

 we could arrive at the village, but our orders did not per- 

 mit us to go farther. We leaped therefore on shore Avith 

 one of the sailors, each of us carrying a rifle barrelled gun. 

 I ran a few paces to the left, where the thick and dark 

 forest came down close to the strand ; but my progress 

 being obstructed by shrubs and grass so as to make it 

 impossible to proceed, I turned to the opposite side. The 

 ground was sandy. The strand was in a few places some 

 feet broad, but in general the vegetation left no inter- 

 mediate space. I met Fitzmaurice surrounded by negroes, 

 and bargaining for a turtle of immense size and a singular 

 form, being no doubt a new species. On going farther 

 I was so much obstructed by thickets of shrubs, that I 

 was obliged to step into the water up to the middle, which 

 I found to be the only way of getting at the plants, and 

 of taking a view of the outside of the trees. The most 

 common shrub was a Chrysohalanus, bearing a strong re- 

 semblance to icaco. It was mingled with another, which, 

 though without flowers and therefore hardly determinable, 

 is probably a Ximenia, and the same I found at St. Jago, 

 (whither I believed it to have been carried,) with a fruit 



resembling much a yellow , which had a fragrant 



smell, and an acid but not disagreeable taste. The in- 

 habitants higher up the river called it Gangi. The Por- 

 tuguese missionaries tell long stories about its use in putrid 

 fevers. Chrysobalanus has also a fruit called Mofva, that 

 is blhicL I saw also two large species of Arunclo, three of 

 Cyperus, one of which was the papyrus. It rather sur- 



