406 MEMOIR OF A SURVEY OF 



of their coming " in such a questionable shape," and received for answer 

 simply, that they were there to oppose our progress towards the Bor 

 Abo?- villages — the vengeance of the tribe would fall on them, they said, if 

 they dared to permit our advance. 



I do not suppose that they intended to fight ; the alarm of the first 

 musket shot would, at all events, have been sufficient to clear the field — 

 however, it would not do to provoke actual partiality. I therefore inform- 

 ed them that we would not advance to the country of the Bor Abors 

 without having previously conferred with that tribe, and that our 

 intention was only to proceed along the banks of the river as far as 

 we should find it practicable, and without interfering with any one, or 

 deviating from our path to seek their villages ; that if the information 

 which they had given us, with so many protestations of its truth, should 

 be found correct by us, they had nothing to fear, as we must necessarily 

 turn back, when we should find it impracticable to advance, but we begged 

 for guides to answer such questions as we should put about names and 

 hills or rivers. They thought this reasonable, and putting confidence in 

 our promises, they withdrew in the morning, leaving two guides according 

 to our request. 



We continued to advance from an early hour, to near one o'clock, 

 along the left bank, interrupted only by the unevenness of the path, 

 when it passed over enormous blocks of stone on the very base of the hill. 



The river was generally calm, and gliding with an easy current. The 

 solitude of the heavy woods was only disturbed by the loud solemn tones 

 of the bell-bird, which we now heard for the first time, and not being 

 acquainted with its note, were almost assured that some solitary being, 

 perched on the summit of one of the wild cliffs above us, was either em- 

 ployed in chiming his matins to the Sylvan Deities, or perhaps, spreading 



