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

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 road, ever since the path ceased, had become exceedingly fatiguing; and every step they advanced was growing still more so. The deep chinks, with which the ground was every where broken, being slightly covered with moss, made them stumble at almost every step; and the intermediate space was a surface of loose burnt stones, which broke under their feet like potsherds. They threw stones into several of these chinks, which, by the noise they made, seemed to fall to a considerable depth, and the ground sounded