while the rest of us were looking round for easier and more
gradual means of descent. Finding a stunted tree springing from the
lower ground, close against the bluff, I leaped among its spreading
branches, and climbed down its trunk to the shore, where I found Morton
searching for some traces of the party which we had tracked almost to
the edge of the height.

In a moment we were joined by Max and Browne, who had clambered down the
face of the bank by the assistance of the shrubs and bushes growing upon
it.

"It is useless," said Browne, "to look here for the trail we have lost.
If they descended to the shore, it must have been in some place where
Johnny and Eiulo could have got down."

"The track seemed to lead directly to the sea," said Morton, "and you
must consider that a party of savages would not find much of an obstacle
in such a bank as this, and would scarcely be as careful as ourselves of
the safety of Johnny and Eiulo. In fact, I suppose they would hand or
drop them down such a height, without scruple or ceremony. What I now
begin to fear is, that our unfortunate companions have fallen into the
hands of a party of savages, landing here for some transient purpose,
and have been carried off by them."

At this moment an exclamation from Max, who had walked a little way
along the beach, announced some discovery, and turning round we saw him
beckoning to us.

"What is that?" said he, when we had joined him, stooping down, and
pointing towards a clump of stunted trees, growing in an angle or
indentation, where the bluff fell back for a short distance from the
shore, "is it not a canoe drawn up under the trees?"

It was not easy to distinguish the object clearly, on account of the
thickness of the foliage. After waiting a moment, and looking carefully
about, being satisfied that there was no one in the vicinity, we
approached the spot. Max was not mistaken; a large canoe, capable of
holding fifteen or twenty persons, was lying among the bushes, where it
had evidently been placed for concealment. In the bottom were a number
of carved paddles, a mast wound about with a mat-sail, several
calabashes containing water, and some cocoa-nuts.

Having hastily noted these particulars, we withdrew to a short distance,
behind a rock detached from the bank, and surrounded by a dense growth
of tangled shrubbery, to hold a consultation.

From the position in which we found the canoe, with no dwelling near
that we co