234 ANCHOR FOR THE NIGHT. 



have much liked to examine the house, but we 

 were too few to overawe them without coming to 

 positive hostilities ; so we took to our oars, and went 

 rapidly down the river with a current in our favour, 

 apparently due to the ebb tide. They followed us 

 in their canoes for a little distance, and we passed 

 another small hut, from which a man ran out with 

 his bow and arrows, and gazed on us as we went 

 by. Here they halted, and as it was now near sun- 

 set, we proceeded with all haste in order to get a 

 secure place at some distance in which to anchor for 

 the night. Having proceeded about four miles, we 

 reached the straight broad reach running nearly 

 north and south, from which we got a glimpse of 

 Aird's Hill in the morning. About the middle of 

 this we anchored. All night long we heard similar 

 noises in the woods and jungles around us to those 

 we had heard last night. 



May 13. — We determined to discover if possible 

 what these sounds proceeded from, so just at dawn- 

 ing pushed the boat into one of the small lateral 

 canals leading into the jungle. We were soon 

 obliged to lay in our oars, and either pole along or 

 draw the boat on by grasping the over-hanging 

 boughs, and found ourselves in a small muddy 

 channel, environed by a great wood of very tall 

 trees. In one of the dark recesses a cuscus was 

 seen on a branch of a tree, but I strained my eyes 

 in vain to discern it, till one of the men put some 

 shot into his masket over the ball, and knocked it 



