with. We told Kalong to offer a handsome payment
to each man who would accompany us, and at length two fine young fellows
stepped forward and agreed to go. They would not, however, consent to
start until the following morning at daybreak. They offered one of
their huts that we might rest in it at night. We selected one which
overhung the stream, so that we might secure our boat beneath and
retreat to it if necessary. The inhabitants of the hut, who had no
heavy articles of furniture to remove, at once cleared out and gave us
possession.

As evening approached we saw them cooking in large earthen bowls.
Supper consisted of yams, vegetables, fish, and pork, some dishes being
seasoned with cocoa-nut, finely shred over them, and all very well
cooked. This showed us that the natives were not the savages they have
so generally been represented to be, and the hospitable treatment we
received gave us confidence that they intended to act honestly.

Night passed away quietly, and the next morning, after a further supply
of cooked provisions had been brought us, our two guides said that they
were ready to start. They told Kalong that they intended to row along
the coast some distance to the eastward, where there was a bay in which
we could land, and from thence proceed directly towards a village
perched on the side of a mountain, where the white men had been living
when last heard of.

We agreed at once to embark. Pulling down the river, for there was no
wind for sailing, we steered as the natives directed. The shore, as far
as we could see, was densely wooded, with high hills, also covered with
trees, rising in the far distance into lofty mountain ranges. Here and
there were openings in the forest through which we could distinguish
villages, but the natives either did not see us, or supposed that the
whale boat was one of their own canoes.

At all events we were not followed. We had rowed fifteen and twenty
miles when our pilots pointed to an opening on the shore, off which we
had arrived. A short distance ahead we saw lying off the coast a small
island thickly covered with trees. Eager to land, scarcely giving it a
second glance, we pulled in for the bay the natives pointed out. As we
approached we observed near the beach a number of houses similar to
those of our friends, and fully expected to encounter fresh difficulties
with the natives, but on getting nearer we saw no one moving about.

We told Kalong to