88 
Journal of an Expedition [no. 3, new series, 
ble. From the absence of nullahs, we appeared to be following 
a ridge, and the direction was due east. 
The path continued very level till we had travelled about 5| 
miles ; when we began the ascent of a hill called by our guide 
Sholamooddy. The first ascent, which was at a slope of about 
6 or 7 to one, occupied a quarter of an hour,* after which, the rise was 
gradual for one mile and a half ; the whole height being perhaps 
350 feet. After turning the summit of this we descended rather 
rapidly for a few minutes, and came to the river which was reckoned 
upon as the end of our first day's march ; if we were to be three 
days in getting through ; and the coolies had been preparing me 
for a halt by complaining of fatigue. But I was to be saved a day 
in a way I least expected. As we reached the nullah the guide 
came running back with his hand over his mouth, and said in a 
whisper that the place was occupied by a gang of smugglers, which 
frightened the coolies out of their fatigue at once. I sent the 
guide on to tell the smugglers that I did not want to see them, and 
if they did not wish for a meeting, they had better get into the 
jungle out of sight; which they did, leaving one man at the 
edge of the wood to see, I suppose, what sort of party we were 
and what we did with the loads they had left. To my delight 
the coolies now pressed on ; I counted the loads of 30 men, but 
had no further communication with the party. After two miles 
more, we came upon a small stream, and the guide reported another 
gang. These men all left the ground but one, who was the leader 
of the party, a fine manly looking Nair who evidently had too 
much at stake to be easily intimidated. The tobacco to the amount 
of about 30 loads was in heaps undergoing the operation of sort- 
ing, and was very lately gathered, much too wet to smoke, and acrid 
enough to have cured the most inveterate Virginian of his love of 
chewing. My coolies however could not overcome their taste for 
pilfering, aijd seeing that the smuggler was on peaceful terms 
with us, they began to rob the heaps, but this I put a stop to, and 
bought a bundle of the nastiness to satisfy them all ; putting myself 
on a footing with the smuggler chief, and bringing myself under the 
Cochin Code, within the reach of section this, of regulation that. 
