ps of thorny scrub, and anon opening out a
glorious prospect of gently undulating, fertile country, dotted with
plantations,--the smoke-blackened roofless walls of some of the mansions
built on them clearly suggesting a recent visit from the late Petion and
his fellow-outlaws,--and, beyond all, the grand old ocean, blue, save
where darkened by the drifting cloud shadows, and flecked here and there
with white from the scourging of the trade-wind. At length, however,
when the sun had declined to within a span's length of the western
horizon, we bore away sharply toward the north, and presently came in
sight of an indentation in the coast which, at the first glimpse, had
the appearance of being land-locked; but which, as we approached it more
closely, I saw was really a nearly circular bay about a mile in
diameter, the entrance of which was most effectively masked by a small
islet stretching completely across it and leaving only two narrow
passages, one to the east and the other to the west of it. A small
felucca lay at anchor a cable's length from the shore; and when at
length we reached the lip of the basin-like depression, the bottom of
which formed the bay, or cove rather, I perceived, to my amazement, that
a sort of village of quite respectable extent had been built along its
southern margin, some of the buildings being so large that I at once set
them down as storehouses. A number of people were moving about the
buildings; and quite a dozen boats were hauled up on the beach above
high-water mark.

And now I noticed a very remarkable peculiarity in connection with the
cove: the sides of the basin wherein it lay consisted everywhere of
perfectly vertical cliffs, some two hundred feet high, so that, look
where I would, I could at first discover no way down into it. Looking a
little closer, however, I presently became aware of an exceedingly
narrow and dangerous zigzag path traversing the cliff-face, about a
quarter of a mile farther on, and toward this we at once made our way.
A quarter of an hour later, having first encountered a sentry at the
upper end of the path, to whom Carlos whispered some password which I
could not catch, we found ourselves safely at the base of the cliff and
at the extreme end of the village. Arrived here, we directed our steps
toward the most important-looking house in the place, at the door of
which Carlos knocked. An ancient, frosty-headed negro responded to the
knock and, in reply to