no 
A VOYAGE TO 
i 779 . night; and the air was fo very fharp, and fo little to the 
liking of their guides, that, by the morning, they had all 
departed, except one. 
The want of provifions now making it neceffary to re¬ 
turn to fome of the cultivated parts of the illand, they 
quitted the wood by the fame path they had entered it; 
and, on their arrival at the plantations, were furrounded 
by the natives, of whom they purchafed a frefh hock of 
necelfaries; and prevailed upon two of them to fupply the 
place of the guides that were gone away. Having obtained 
the belt information in their power, with regard to the di¬ 
rection of their road, the party, being now nine in num¬ 
ber, marched along the fkirts of the wood for fix or feven 
miles, and then entered it again by a path that bore to the 
Eaftward. For the firft three miles, they paffed through a 
foreft of lofty fpice-trees, growing on a ftrong rich loam ; 
at the back of which they found an equal extent of low 
fhrubby trees, with much thick underwood, on a bottom 
of loofe burnt hones. This led them to a fecond foreft of 
fpice-trees, and the fame rich brown foil, which was again 
fucceeded by a barren ridge of the fame nature with the 
former. This alternate fucceflion may, perhaps, afford 
matter of curious fpeculation to naturalifts. The only ad¬ 
ditional circumftance I could learn relating to it was, that 
thefe ridges appeared, as far as they could be feen, to run 
in directions parallel to the fea-fhore, and to have Mouna 
Roa for their centre. 
In palling through the woods, they found many canoes 
half-finiftied ; and, here and there, a hut; but faw none of 
the inhabitants. Having penetrated near three miles into 
the fecond wood, they came to two huts, where they flop¬ 
ped, exceedingly fatigued with the day’s journey, having 
walked 
