fVilhems Plains .] TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
he was found nodding on his post, and having shot him they rushed 
in a body to the mouth of the cavern. The poor wretches within 
started from their beds, for they slept in the day time, and flew to 
arms; a skirmish ensued, in which another of them was killed and 
two soldiers wounded ; but at length, finding their retreat cut off, 
the sentinel, who happened to be their captain and chief instigator, 
killed, and the force opposed to them too great to be overcome, they 
yielded themselves prisoners to the number of fifty-one ; and were 
marched off, with their hands tied, to head quarters, to the great joy 
of the district. Besides arms and a small quantity of ammunition, 
there was little else found in the cavern than a bag of dollars, a case 
of wine, some pieces of cloth, a slaughtered goat, and a small pro- 
vision of maize not more than enough for one day. The skull of 
their captain, who was said to be possessed of much cunning and 
audacity, was at this time lying upon a stone at the entrance of tne 
cavern ; and for narrowness of front and large extent at the back 
part of the head, was the most singularly formed cranium I ever saw. 
Little oblong inclosures, formed with small stones by the sides of the 
cavern, once the sleeping places of these wretches, also existed, 
nearly in the state they had been left; owing apparently to the super- 
stition of the black, and the policy and disgust of the white vLitants 
to these excavations. 
The stone here is mostly of an iron-grey colour, heavy, and 
porous ; and there were marks upon the sides of the middle cavern 
which might have arisen either from a sulphureous substance yielded 
by the stone when in a state of ignition, or from an impregnated 
water draining through the roof during a succession of time ; upon 
the whole, though it seemed probable that these caverns owe their 
origin to the same cause as the subterraneous canal at M&nil, the 
marks of fire in them were neither distinct nor unequivocal. The 
position of these long, winding excavations, in a country nearly level 
and of small elevation, appeared to be the most extraordinary cir- 
cumstance attending them ; but in this island they aie commonly so 
m 
180 G. 
May. 
% 
