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 5f 

 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 ovsrcome their taste for 

 pilfering, and 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. 



