t the
head of my sticking and floundering party, I waded on, putting to flight
whole armies of crabs who had taken up their abode in these umbrageous
groves, for such they certainly were. The life of a crab in these
undisturbed solitudes must be sweet in the extreme; they have plenty of
water, mud, and shade; their abodes are scarcely approachable by the feet
of men, and they can have but little to disturb their monotonous
existence save the turmoils of love and domestic war.

After about two miles of wading of this description, which we
considerably increased by turning and winding about to avoid soft places,
we at length fairly stepped on terra firma and found ourselves at the
base of some almost imperceptibly-sloping ground which gradually rose
into low, red, sandy, loamy hills, thinly covered with grass, bushes, and
stunted trees. Across these we bent our steps in a south-east direction,
no change whatever taking place in the character of the country as far as
we went or as far as we could see. But our travels in this line only
extended for about three miles, when we suddenly came upon a lagoon of
fresh water lying between two of the hills. All bent the knee at once, at
this discovery, to plunge their faces deep in the pool, and, presently
raising them up again, a black watery line, extending round the
countenance, showed plainly how deeply each one had dipped.

Mr. Smith and myself laughed heartily at our dirty-faced companions, who
knelt on their hands and knees round the pool; and whilst they were
filling the beakers with water we rested under the shade of the bush for
a few minutes, and then walked off towards the interior; but from the
undulating low nature of the ground our view was very limited, and as far
as we could see there was no sign whatever of any change in the character
of the country. On returning again to the party we found the beakers and
men equally full of water and ready for a start to the boats.

WADING THROUGH THE MUD.

When we reached again the mangrove flats a most amusing scene commenced;
wading through the mud was bad enough before, but now that each man had a
heavy keg of water upon his shoulders the movements became truly
ludicrous, more especially as both landsmen and sailors were equally out
of their element. Each desperate plunge elicited from the sufferers oaths
and expressions which only those who have seen sailors completely at a
nonplus on shore can conceive. They were half hu