ame up with the remainder of the party and reported that
Stiles was missing. As he could have no difficulty in finding us I merely
took the precaution to make the men sit in such positions that he could
distinguish us from the summit of the opposite cliffs when he arrived
there, and we patiently awaited that moment. Time however wore on, and
some of the men finding a species of geranium with a root not unlike a
very small and tough parsnip, we prepared and ate several messes of this
plant. At length, no signs of Stiles having been seen, I sent Mr. Walker,
Corporal Auger, and Kaiber to the top of the cliffs we had descended to
try if they could discern anything of him or his tracks. During their
absence I expressed, in the hearing of some of the men, my anxiety lest
he should have lingered behind and have fallen in with the natives; upon
which they smiled and said that "Tom Stiles was a man who did not care
about the natives; and that only that morning he had said he didn't mind
for all the natives in the island, d--- them;" and that they thought he
had stopped behind on purpose.

GATHERING OF NATIVES. SCENE WITH NATIVES.

The absence of Mr. Walker and his party continued much longer than I
expected, and just at the moment that I had become rather alarmed about
it Coles reported to me that he saw natives on the opposite cliff,
jumping about and running up and down brandishing their spears in the
manner they do before and after a fight. Coles was at this time posted as
sentry on a terrace just above where we were, and the ascent to which was
very difficult. I got up on this as fast as I could; it was only two or
three yards broad and ran apparently along the whole length of the
valley. The natives used it as a path, and a very steep hill rose behind
it. I could not however make out the natives, and as the opposite cliffs
were a long way off I thought that Coles might have been mistaken. When I
told him this he merely said "Look there, then, Sir," and pointed to the
top of Mount Fairfax, distant about 400 yards due north of us, and sure
enough there were a party of natives, well armed and going through a
variety of ceremonies which the experience of centuries had proved to be
highly efficacious in getting rid of evil spirits. In the present
instance however their wonted efficacy failed, but the natives appeared
every moment to be getting more vehement in their gestures.

Our situation by no means pleased me: Stiles and a