ers rendered reckless by
vexation, I do not know. It made us fancy that they had very few men to
spare for any service but that of actual warfare.

They had our word that we would not run away, but certainly we had given
no pledges that we would not indulge ourselves in any frolic which might
be suggested to our fertile imaginations.

The word at last was given, and off set our cavalcade from the town of
Cape Francois, the negroes shouting and the mules kicking and snorting
and making all sorts of wonderful noises. We did not leave the place
with any especial regret, but we should have done so had we known where
we were going. Robson, whose head was pretty strong, soon recovered his
equilibrium, and he, Delisle, O'Driscoll, and I rode together. I am no
great hand at describing scenery. I remember it was wild in the
extreme--blue ranges of hills and deep valleys, and plains partly
cultivated, but mostly left in a state of nature overgrown with giant
ceybas, between which were seen in rich profusion every species of
parasitical plant twining and twisting and hanging in drooping wreaths,
which monkeys converted into swings, while humming-birds at the pendant
ends built their tiny nests. Then there were mango thickets, which as
we journeyed among them, with their dense foliage, shut out the view on
every side, and tall palm-trees towering up proudly here and there in
the plain. There were rice and sugar plantations also, and their houses
of one storey and red-tiled roofs and broad verandahs, and gangs of
negroes as they trudged, laughing and shouting, to their work at the
baking-house or mills for crushing the canes, and in the wide savannahs
there were cattle grazing and herds of long-eared, fine mules, which put
our sorry steeds to shame.

"I say, this is terribly slow work," quoth O'Driscoll, ranging up
alongside me; "what do you say to giving our nigger friends the go-by?
We can't come to much harm. We've got the bearings of Ou Trou, I
fancy--indeed, I don't think that there is any other town in that
direction. At all events, we may meet with some adventure, and it will
be pleasanter than jogging along at this rate."

The proposal was one which jumped amazingly with the fancy of all the
party. We had not long to wait before we had an opportunity of putting
our scheme into execution. We four were ahead of the rest of the party.
Suddenly we came upon a spot where four roads branched off in different
directi