294 ACCIDENT TO THE BOAT. 



reaches became again tortuous, but we still made 

 some progress. The mangroves were no longer to 

 be seen fringing the banks with their garden shrub- 

 bery appearance. In a broad easterly reach, some 

 natives were burning the country close to the west 

 bank, but they did not shew themselves. At the 

 end of it the river expanded into a beautiful sheet 

 of water a quarter of a mile in width, though only 

 three feet deep. Some low grassy islets were scat- 

 tered here and there, reposing in emerald verdure 

 on the surface of the stream, which was reverting 

 under the influence of the tide, towards its source, 

 and now hurried the boat so rapidly through a nar- 

 row channel between the west side of a large island 

 and a low line of earthy cliffs, as to carry her foul 

 of a submerged tree and half fill and almost capsize 

 her. In order to ascertain the extent of the damage, 

 we landed on a small sandy beach, in which was the 

 fresh print of a native's foot ; but we neither heard 

 nor saw him or his companions, although columns 

 of smoke from their fires stole upwards through the 

 calm still air on all sides. A fine sheet of water 

 now lay before us, trending southwards for upwards 

 of two miles, with a width of about a quarter ; and 

 it was with increasing interest and anxiety that we 

 pulled up it. 



Passing a line of cliffs, twenty feet high, the 

 banks became green and grassy, descending with an 

 almost imperceptible slope into the stream, and 

 blending with their vivid reflections so as to render 



