16 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
gaping clefts, through which we clambered to escape 
the walled precipices which continually opposed us. 
At last we were rewarded for our toil, by finding 
our fancied ocean no delusion ; a height was gained 
whence we could fairly view its broad waters; and, 
upon the plain before it, to our joy we descried a little 
village, which, though far distant, and quickly fading 
from our sight in the closing twilight, was at least a 
promise of eventual escape from hunger and extreme 
fatigue. 
With renewed vigour we quickened our steps, and 
just as night had completely overspread the island we 
arrived at our promised shelter. We entered the first 
cottage; but the utmost hospitality which we could 
extort from the suspicious and bandit-looking inmates 
amounted only to a scanty draft of execrably sour 
wine and a modicum of garlic-flavoured bread; ren- 
dered still less palatable by the unwelcome intelligence 
that we were four leagues from Praya. Four leagues 
indeed ! what a blank each face presented ! We knew 
not whether our present position was any amelioration 
of the melancholy bivouac which we had anticipated on 
the borders of the forest. We had speedily become the 
centre of a group of the most wild and lawless-looking 
gentry it has ever been my fortune to behold, the 
objects of a most unpleasant and unceremonious scru- 
tiny, of certain monosyllables and significant gestures, 
having especial reference to our guns, which con- 
vinced us that, however weary, it would be prudent to 
