r present adventurous discovery, and at last arrived at a new,
magnificent, and extensive space, all bespangled, like the first,
with brilliant stalactites, and in no way inferior to the former in
the gorgeous beauty of its details. Here again we gave ourselves up
to the most minute examination of the many wonders surrounding us,
and which shone like prisms by the light of our torches. We gathered
from off the ground several small stalagmites, as large and as round
as hazel-nuts, and so like that fruit, when preserved, that some days
later, at a ball at Manilla, we presented some of them to the ladies,
whose first movement was to put them to their mouth; but soon finding
out their mistake, they entreated to be allowed to keep them, to
have them, as they said, converted into ear-ring drops. Having fully
enjoyed the beautiful and brilliant spectacle presented to our eyes,
we now began to feel the effects of hunger and fatigue. We had been
walking in this subterraneous domain to the extent of more than three
miles, had taken no rest or refreshment since morning, and the day
was already far advanced.

I have often experienced that our moral strength decreases in
proportion as our physical strength does; and of course we must have
been in that state when sinister suppositions took possession of
our imaginations. One of our party communicated to us a reflection
he had just made--which was, that a falling-in might have taken
place between us and the issue from the grotto; or, what appeared
still more probable, that the enormous rock, that was suspended and
buttressed up by the column, might have fallen down, and thus bar
up all passage through the hole we had so rashly made. Had such a
misfortune happened to us, what a horrible situation we should have
been in! We could hope for no help from without, even from our friend
Genu, who, as we had witnessed, had been so upset by fear; so that,
rather than suffer the anguish and die the death of the wretch buried
alive in a sepulchre, our poignards must have been our last resource.

All these reflections, which we analysed and commented upon, one by
one, made us resolve upon returning, and leaving to others, more
imprudent than ourselves, if any there be, the care of exploring
the space we had still to travel over. We soon got over the ground
that separated us from the place we had most to dread. Providence
had favoured and protected us--the large fragment of rock, that
object of a