340 rOTJGE FROM CERA3I [chap. xxxv. 



island, finding a place where meat had been smoked, a 

 turtle-shell still greasy, and some cut wood, the leaves of 

 which were still green, — showing that some boat had been 

 here very recently. We then entered the jungle, cutting 

 our way up to the top of the hOl, but when we got there 

 could see nothing, owing to the thickness of the forest. 

 Eeturning, we cut some bamboos, and sharpened them to 

 dig for water in a low spot where some sago-trees were 

 growing ; when, just as we were going to begin, Hoi, the 

 Wahai man, called out to say he had found water. It was 

 a deep hole among the sago-trees, in stiff black clay, full 

 of water, which was fresh, but smelt horribly from the 

 quantity of dead leaves and sago refuse that had fallen 

 in. Hastily concluding that it was a spring, or that 

 the water had filtered in, we baled it all out as well as a 

 dozen or twenty buckets of mud and rubbish, hoping by 

 night to have a good supply of clean water. I then went 

 on board to breakfast, leaving my two men to make a 

 bamboo raft to carry us on shore and back without 

 wading. I had scarcely finished when our cable broke, 

 and we bumped against the rocks. Luckily it was smooth 

 and calm, and no damage was done. We searched for and 

 got up our anchor, and found that the cable had been cut 

 by grating all night upon the coral. Had it given way 

 in the night, we might have drifted out to sea without our 

 anchor, or been seriously damaged. In the evening we 



