3} PETER ROTTE'S MOUNTAIN. 



lighted a cigar, as we seated ourselves to wait for the appointed hour for 

 our signal of success. It was a glorious sight, to look down from that 

 <nddy pinnacle, over the whole island, lying so calm and beautiful in the 

 moonlight, except where the broad black shadows of the other mountains 

 intercepted the light. Here and there we could see a light twinkling in the 

 plains, or the fire of some sugar manufactory; but not a sound of any 

 sort reached us, except an occasional shout from the party down on the 

 shoulder (we four being the only ones above). At length, in the 

 direction of Port Louis, a bright flash was seen, and after a long interval 

 the sullen boom of the evening gun. We then prepared our pre-arranged 

 signal, and whiz went a rocket from our nest, lighting up, for an instant, 

 the peaks of the hills below us ; and then leaving us in darkness. We 

 next burnt a blue light, and nothing can be conceived more perfectly 

 beautiful than the broad glare against the overhanging rock. The wild 

 looking groups we made in our uncouth habiliments, and the narrow 

 ledge on which we stood, were all distinctly shown, while many of the 

 tropical birds, frightened at our vagaries, came glancing by the light, 

 and then swooped away, screeching into the gloom below; for the gorge, 

 on our left, was as dark as Erebus. We burnt another blue light, and 

 threw up two more rockets, when our laboratory being exhausted, the 

 patient-looking insulted moon had it all her own way again. We now 

 rolled ourselves up in our blankets, and having lashed Phillpots, who is 

 a determined sleep walker^ to Keppel's leg, we tried to sleep, but it blew 

 strong before the morning, and was very cold. We drank all our 

 brandy, and kept tucking in our blankets the whole night, without 

 success. At day-break we arose, stiff, cold, and hungry; and shall 

 conclude briefly, by saying, that after about four or five hour's hard 

 work, we got a hole mined in the rock, and sank the foot of our twelve 

 foot ladder deep in this, lashing a water barrel as a land mark at the 

 top, and, above all, a long staff, with a union-jack flying. We then, in 

 turn, mounted to the top of the ladder, to take a last look at a view, such 

 as we might never see again, and bidding adieu to the scene of our toil 

 and our triumph, descended the ladder, to the neck, and casting off the 

 guys and training lines, cut off all communication with the top." 



The adventurous party descended in perfect safety from this perilous 

 attempt, which was one :f the most daring that ever was accomplished. 



