and two of them undertaking to be our guides,
conducted us up the hills by a tolerably good path. In our route, we met
several people, most or whom turned back with us; so that at last our train
was numerous. Some we met who wanted us to return; but we paid no regard to
their signs, nor did they seem uneasy when we proceeded. At length we
reached the summit of one of the hills, from which we saw the sea in two
places, between some advanced hills, on the opposite or S.W. side of the
land. This was an useful discovery, as it enabled us to judge of the
breadth of the land, which, in this part, did not exceed ten leagues.

Between those advanced hills, and the ridge we were upon, was a large
valley, through which ran a serpentine river. On the banks of this were
several plantations, and some villages, whose inhabitants we had met on the
road, and found more on the top of the hill gazing at the ship, as might be
supposed. The plain, or flat of land, which lies along the shore we were
upon, appeared from the hills to great advantage; the winding streams which
ran through out, the plantations, the little straggling villages, the
variety in the woods, and the shoals on the coast, so variegating the
scene, that the whole might afford a picture for romance. Indeed, if it
were not for those fertile spots on the plains, and some few on the sides
of the mountains, the whole country might be called a dreary waste. The
mountains, and other high places, are, for the most part, incapable of
cultivation, consisting chiefly of rocks, many of which are full of
mundicks. The little soil that is upon them is scorched and burnt up with
the sun; it is, nevertheless, coated with coarse grass and other plants,
and here and there trees and shrubs. The country, in general, bore great
resemblance to some parts of New Holland under the same parallel of
latitude, several of its natural productions seeming to be the same, and
the woods being without underwood, as in that country. The reefs on the
coast and several other similarities, were obvious to every one who had
seen both countries. We observed all the N.E. coast to be covered with
shoals and breakers, extending to the northward, beyond the Isle of
Balabea, till they were lost in the horizon. Having made these
observations, and our guides not chusing to go farther, we descended the
mountains by a road different from that by which we ascended. This brought
us down through some of their plantations