LOST IN THE WOODS. 299 



were, and allowed him to exercise his own discretion, 

 when, after conducting me through numerous dense 

 thickets ; walking with me up rugged, stony, precipitous 

 steps, nearly perpendicular; now stumbling over loose 

 stones, and now half-hanging me, like Absalom, on the 

 branches of the trees ; after traversing the beds of shallow, 

 running rivulets, and threading marshes, almost knee-deep 

 in mud, I found, to my great vexation, and regret for 

 equine sagacity, that the foolish animal had, after all, 

 mistaken his road, and had conducted me to the margin 

 of the sea, in a beautiful, wild and desolate spot, with 

 enormous rocks, clothed with verdure, towering around 

 and above me, and huge masses of broken coral strewing 

 the strand beneath. I had not much time, however, 

 allowed me to contemplate the beauties of the scene, or 

 the novelty of my situation, for the jealous vigilance, or 

 polite hospitality as they wished it to be considered, of 

 our friends, the poor islanders, interrupted my reverie, 

 and prevented my being altogether food for the crows. 

 They kindly urged me forward in the right road, and 

 persuading me to quicken my pace, before long, I was 

 comfortably lodged in a temporary house built in a few 

 minutes, for the accomodation of the Captain, on the 

 summit of a hill, surrounded, on every side, with beau- 

 tiful woods. Here we bivouacked for the night on beds 

 of dry grass, the natives crowding round large fires in 

 the open air, and the mandarins seated on mats, under a 

 shed, smoking their pipes, drinking innumerable small 

 cups of tea, and talking together nearly the whole of the 

 night. Sometimes our path lay along a grassy plain, 

 varied at intervals by huge piles of rocks and stones, 



