170 
VOYAGE TO THE 
from rocks at least 400 feet in height. From the village 
they began their ascent at about mid-day, attended by two 
men from the ship and five kanakas, and by sunset reached 
the last inhabited place on the mountain. Their walk, 
though rough under foot, was through the finest vegetation, 
of a new character to most of them, and presenting to the 
botanist many a new and many a rare plant and flower. 
When they passed through any villages, the natives, 
though they evidently watched all their actions, betrayed no 
surprise at seeing them. The children, indeed, were fright¬ 
ened, but their parents contented themselves with sitting 
down in rows and narrowly observing the strangers; not 
moving unless any little service was required of them, when 
they performed it cheerfully and kindly. 
The next morning they resumed their walk, the ther¬ 
mometer being only at 64°; and as their way lay through a 
thick shady forest, heat was not the evil they had to com¬ 
plain of, but the path they trod was most rugged; lava and 
scoriae, in whose interstices plants and trees of various de¬ 
scriptions root themselves, form the hitherto untrodden road, 
and that is impeded by the fallen fern-trees, which lie in 
great numbers across the way, aged and overgrown with 
moss and creepers. However, five hours’ walk brought 
them to the hut of a rough but useful European, commonly 
