II % 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. advanced, was growing Hill more fo. The deep chinks, 
aicl ‘ , with which the ground was every where broken, be¬ 
ing flightly covered with mofs, made them humble at 
almoft every ftep; and the intermediate fpace was a fur- 
face of loofe burnt hones, which broke under their feet 
like potfherds. They threw hones into feveral of thefe 
chinks ; which, by the noife they made, feemed to fall 
to a conhderable depth, and the ground founded hol¬ 
low under their feet. Behdes thefe difcouraging cir- 
cumhances, they found their guides fo averfe to going 
on, that they believed, whatever their own determina¬ 
tions might have been, they could not have prevailed 
on them to remain out another night. They, there¬ 
fore, at lah agreed to return to the fhips, after taking a 
view of the country, from the higheft trees which the 
place afforded. From this elevation they faw themfelves 
furrounded, on all lides, with wood ; toward the fea, 
they could not diftinguifh, in the horizon, the iky from 
the water; and between them and the fnowy mountain, 
was a valley about feven or eight miles broad, above 
which the mountain appeared only as a hill of a mode¬ 
rate lize. 
They relied this night at a hut in the fecond wood, and 
on the 30th, before noon, they had got clear of the firft, and 
found themfelves about nine miles to the North Eall of the 
fhips, toward which they directed their march through the 
plantations. As they paffed along, they did not obferve a 
jingle fpot of ground, that was capable of improvement, left 
unplanted; and, indeed, it appeared, from their account, 
hardly poflible for the country to he cultivated to greater 
advantage for the purpofes of the inhabitants, or made to 
yield them a larger fupply of neceffaries for their fublill- 
ence* 
