re also from different quarters.

[Footnote 148: In fact, about fourteen.]

[Footnote 149: French-speaking persons from those provinces of the Low
Countries then remaining under the rule of Spain, but now constituting
the kingdom of Belgium.]

We reached the island, as I have said, about nine o'clock, directly
opposite Gouanes, not far from the watering place. We proceeded
southwardly along the shore of the high land on the east end, where it
was sometimes stony and rocky, and sometimes sandy, supplied with fine
constantly-flowing springs with which at times we quenched our thirst.
We had now come nearly to the furthest point on the southeast, behind
which I had observed several houses when we came in with the ship. We
had also made inquiry as to the villages through which we would have
to pass, and they had told us the Oude Dorp[150] would be the first
one we should come to; but my comrade finding the point very rocky and
difficult, and believing the village was inland, and as we discovered
no path to follow, we determined to clamber to the top of this steep
bluff, through the bushes and thickets, which we accomplished with
great difficulty and in a perspiration. We found as little of a road
above as below, and nothing but woods, through which one could not
see. There appeared to be a little foot-path along the edge which I
followed a short distance to the side of the point, but my comrade
calling me and saying that he certainly thought we had passed by the
road to the Oude Dorp, and observing myself that the little path led
down to the point, I returned again, and we followed it the other way,
which led us back to the place from where we started. We supposed we
ought to go from the shore in order to find the road to the Oude Dorp,
and seeing here these slight tracks into the woods, we followed them
as far as we could, till at last they ran to nothing else than dry
leaves. Having wandered an hour or more in the woods, now in a hollow
and then over a hill, at one time through a swamp, at another across a
brook, without finding any road or path, we entirely lost the way. We
could see nothing except a little of the sky through the thick
branches of the trees above our heads, and we thought it best to break
out of the woods entirely and regain the shore. I had taken an
observation of the shore and point, having been able to look at the
sun, which shone extraordinarily hot in the thick woods, without the
least breath of