VILLAGE OF YALAHAO. 



347 



these. It stood on the very edge of the bank, so 

 near the sea that the waves had undermined part of 

 the long piazza in front ; but the interior was in 

 good condition, and a woman tenant in possession. 

 We were about negotiating with her for the occu- 

 pation of a part ; but wherever we went we seemed 

 to be the terror of the sex, and before we had fairly 

 made a beginning, she abandoned the house and left 

 us in quiet possession. In an hour we were com- 

 pletely domesticated, and toward evening we sat in 

 the doorway and looked out upon the sea. The 

 waves were rolling almost to our door, and Doctor 

 Cabot found a new field opened to him in flocks of 

 large sea-fowl strutting along the shore and scream- 

 ing over our heads. 



The plate opposite represents this place as taken 

 from the shore. Our house appears in the left cor- 

 ner, and at a distance down the coast is seen an an- 

 cient mound. Cut off, to a great extent, from com- 

 munication with the interior, or, at least, connected 

 with it only by a long and toilsome road, its low huts 

 buried among the cocoanut trees, but few people 

 moving about it, canoas in the offing, and a cannon 

 half buried on the shore, it seemed, what it was no- 

 torious for having been, the haunt of pirates in days 

 gone by. 



In our journey to the coast we had entered a re- 

 gion of novel and exciting interest. On the road 

 we had heard of quondam pirates, having small su- 

 gar ranchos, and enjoying reputations but httle the 



