elephants, or bears, or other wild beasts.
The contemplation of such a catastrophe was not pleasant; but still,
what was to be done? I asked the question of myself over and over
again, I examined my ammunition, and found that I had eight bullets and
a dozen or more charges of small shot, with an ample supply of powder;
so that, if I did not throw my shots away, I might hope to supply myself
with food for several days. To stand still would never do. I believed
my friends were to the south of me, so I was pushing on in that
direction, when suddenly I came upon an open space free from jungle,
with a beautiful expanse of water, blue and glittering in the sunshine,
spread out before me. Tall trees fringed the greater part of its banks;
but here and there columns, and domes, and carved arches, and huge
statues appeared among them, their strange and fantastic images
reflected in the mirror-like surface. Beyond them, towering up into the
clear sky, rose at different distances several of those prodigious
structures, the dagobas, which I have described. The whole scene, as I
beheld it in the light of that clear atmosphere, under the blaze of the
noonday sun, was most enchanting, while I sat down to shekel myself from
the heat beneath the shade of a mass of ruins, with wide-spreading
branches extending from their walls, which formed a complete roof over
my head. The site of the ruined city into which I had wandered must
thus, I discovered, be of many miles in extent, and gave me an idea of
the power and magnificence of the monarchs who once possessed the
territory. While England was scantily inhabited by tribes of painted
barbarians, here existed a people who had attained a high state of
civilisation, living in richly adorned palaces, having magnificent
temples, carving statues of gigantic proportions, erecting tombs and
monuments equal in height to mountains, and forming reservoirs of
lake-like extent. And now, how great the contrast! Those people were
then, and have ever since remained, sunk in the grossest superstition;
while the British, blessed with the light of gospel truth, have risen to
that height of civilisation which has given us the complete mastership
over the now fallen race which inhabit the country. I do not know that
I said this in exactly these terms, but such was the tenor of the
thoughts which passed through my mind.

While I was resting and trying to determine some definite plan to pursue
in order t