om whom we should probably gain valuable
information, I jumped from tree to tree in hot pursuit, and when the
bay opened out clearly, I was only a short distance in the rear.

"Now I've got you," I muttered, as the black fellow jumped on to the
last stool of roots, and as I was eagerly following, holding my breath
for a tussle; when, to my intense mortification, he plunged headlong
into the sea, leaving me disconsolate and out of wind, to get back as
best I could. I waited until his head reappeared, which was not until
he had put a good thirty yards between us, and, pointing my carbine,
shouted to him to return or I would fire. It was quite useless. He
went quietly out seaward, and at the last, when I turned unwillingly to
retrace my steps, I saw his black head bobbing about on the calm
surface. When, after a series of involuntary feats on the mangrove
rope, I again stood on 'terra firma', all the pigeons had left; and I
was compelled to make my way back to camp, empty-handed, muddy, cut
about the shins, and with my boots almost in tatters. "So much,"
thought I, "for trying to catch a black fellow single-handed."

My companions had shot plenty of pigeons, after roasting which we
started for the interior of the island, and without meeting with
anything beyond the ordinary routine of bad bush and mountain
travelling; certainly encountering nothing that would justify me in
inflicting a prolix description upon the reader--we arrived late on the
following evening at the rendezvous, found the 'Daylight' safely at
anchor, and thus completed one portion of our search, without having
obtained the faintest clue to an elucidation of the mystery of the
'Eva'.

The pilot reported that, to the best of his belief, no blacks had
succeeded in making their escape to the mainland; several canoes had
attempted to cross, but they had been seen and intercepted, though none
of their occupants had been captured. One canoe he had taken
possession of, and now showed us, which was, I think, the most
primitive piece of naval architecture any of us had seen. Canoe it
could hardly be called, for it was only a sheet of bark curled up by
the action of fire; the bow and stern formed by folding the
extremities, and passing a tree-nail, or, rather, a large skewer,
through the plaits. When placed in the water, the portion amidships,
which represented the gunwale, was not four inches above the surface,
and so frail that no European could have got