there, when a black lifted up his head and looked around. I
thought he had fixed his malignant eyes on me, and had probably been a
witness of what I had done. I lay trembling, expecting every moment to
have the wretch pounce upon me and bind my hands tighter than before.
However, after a little, he lay down again, and grunted away as before.

Soon after this another Maroon sat up and looked round, and then
another, and another; so that I was very glad I had not lost the
opportunity of which I had taken advantage. In another quarter of an
hour, the whole force was on the move. I looked anxiously to ascertain
whether they had discovered that the captain's bands had been loosened;
but without examining him, they lifted up the litter, and bore him on as
before. In consequence of this I walked on much more cheerily than I
had previously done, though I still got an occasional prick to hasten my
steps.

As we advanced, we got into still more hilly and wild country. All
signs of cultivation had ceased, and vegetation revelled in the most
extravagant profusion. Our chief difficulty was to avoid the prickly
pears, and the cacti, and the noose-forming creepers, which extended
across our path. We were in the advance party; the rest of the white
men followed at a distance from us, so that we had no prospect of
communicating with them.

The encouragement the captain had given me helped to raise my spirits,
and I endeavoured further to keep them up by whistling and singing
occasionally, but it was with a heavy heart that I did so. My great
consolation was all the time that my friend Peter Poplar was not in the
same predicament. He would have felt it more than any of us. He had
long been prepared for any misfortune which could happen to him at sea,
but he had not made up his mind to undergo hardships on shore as well.

At last I began to grow very weary of walking so far over such rough and
uneven ground, and I was glad to find that the blacks were approaching
their encampment or village. It consisted of a number of rude huts,
built on the summit of a high rock, with steep precipices on every side.
A narrow causeway led to it from another rock, which jutted out from
the side of the hill. It was a very strong place, for it extended too
far into the valley to be reached by musketry from the hill; and the
hill itself was too rugged to allow cannon to be dragged up it. The
rock appeared to have rude palisades and embankmen