A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 | Page 7

to
be land-marks for the division of property, as they only met with them
where the wild plantains grew. The trees, which are of the same kind
with those we called the spice-tree at New Holland, were lofty and
straight, and from two to four feet in circumference.

After they had advanced about ten miles in the wood, they had the
mortification to find themselves, on a sudden, within sight of the sea,
and at no great distance from it; the path having turned imperceptibly to
the southward, and carried them to the right of the mountain, which it
was their object to reach. Their disappointment was greatly increased
by the uncertainty they were now under of its true bearings, since they
could not, at this time, get a view of it from the top of the highest trees.
They, therefore, found themselves obliged to walk back six or seven
miles to an unoccupied hut, where they had left three of the natives and
two of their own people, with the small stock that remained of their
provisions. Here they spent the second night; and the air was so very
sharp, and so little to the liking of their guides, that, by the morning,
they had all departed, except one.
The want of provisions now making it necessary to return to some of
the cultivated parts of the island, they quitted the wood by the same
path they had entered it; and, on their arrival at the plantations, were
surrounded by the natives, of whom they purchased a fresh stock of
necessaries; and prevailed upon two of them to supply the place of the
guides that were gone away. Having obtained the best information in
their power, with regard to the direction of their road, the party, being
now nine in number, marched along the skirts of the wood for six or
seven miles, and then entered it again by a path that bore to the
eastward. For the first three miles they passed through a forest of lofty
spice-trees, growing on a strong rich loam; at the back of which they
found an equal extent of low shrubby trees, with much thick
underwood, on a bottom of loose burnt stones. This led them to a
second forest of spice-trees, and the same rich brown soil, which was
again succeeded by a barren ridge of the same nature with the former.
This alternate succession may, perhaps, afford matter of curious
speculation to naturalists. The only additional circumstance I could
learn relating to it was, that these ridges appeared, as far as they could
be seen, to run in directions parallel to the sea-shore, and to have
Mouna Roa for their centre.
In passing through the woods they found many canoes half-finished,
and here and there a hut; but saw none of the inhabitants. Having

penetrated near three miles into the second wood, they came to two
huts, where they stopped, exceedingly fatigued with the day's journey,
having walked not less than twenty miles, according to their own
computation. As they had met with no springs, from the time they left
the plantation-ground, and began to suffer much from the violence of
their thirst, they were obliged, before the night came on, to separate
into parties, and go in search of water; and, at last, found some left by
rain in the bottom of an unfinished canoe, which, though of the colour
of red wine, was to them no unwelcome discovery. In the night, the
cold was still more intense than they had found it before; and though
they had wrapped themselves up in mats and cloths of the country, and
kept a large fire between the two huts, they could yet sleep but very
little, and were obliged to walk about the greatest part of the night.
Their elevation was now probably pretty considerable, as the ground on
which they had travelled had been generally on the ascent.
On the 29th, at day-break, they set out, intending to make their last and
utmost effort to reach the snowy mountain; but their spirits were much
depressed, when they found they had expended the miserable pittance
of water they had found the night before. The path, which extended no
farther than where canoes had been built, was now at an end; and they
were therefore obliged to make their way as well as they could; every
now and then climbing up into the highest trees, to explore the country
round. At eleven o'clock, they came to a ridge of burnt stones, from the
top of which they saw the snowy mountain, appearing to be about
twelve or fourteen miles from them.
It was here deliberated, whether they should proceed any further, or rest
satisfied with the view they now had of Mouna Rao. The