th it, we endeavoured to
hold, as nearly as possible, the course we had taken in the morning.
After leaving the stream, a good part of our way was through the open
country, where there was nothing to prevent us from seeing or being seen
at a considerable distance in the bright moonlight. But the only
alternatives were, either to creep on our hands and knees, the whole
distance from the edge of the forest to the shore, and so avail
ourselves of such concealment as the rank grass and weeds afforded,--or
to push boldly and rapidly forward, at the risk of being seen: we
preferred the latter, and soon got over this dangerous ground, running
part of the time, in the most exposed places. On reaching the bluff,
over the beach, we lay down among the bushes a few moments to recover
our breath, and reconnoitre, before taking a fresh start. All was
perfectly silent around us, and no living thing could be seen. When
sufficiently rested, we proceeded cautiously along the edge of the
height, where we could command a view both of the beach below, and of
the open country inland. The bluff extended about a quarter of a mile,
when it gradually sunk to the level of the beach, and was succeeded by a
low, flat shore, lined with large trees. We had gone but a little way
along it after this change, when we came quite unexpectedly upon an
inlet, or salt-water creek, setting in to the land, and bordered so
thickly with mangroves, that we narrowly escaped going headlong into it,
while endeavouring to force our way through the bushes to continue our
course along the beach.

It was some twenty yards wide; but I could not see how far inland it
ran, on account of the immense trees that overhung it on every side,
springing up in great numbers just behind the low border of mangroves.
Holding fast by one of these bushes, I was leaning forward over the
water, looking hard into the gloom, to gain, if possible, some notion of
the extent of the inlet and the distance round it, when Morton grasped
my arm suddenly--

"What is that, under the trees on the opposite shore?" whispered he; "is
it not a boat?"

Looking in the direction in which he pointed, I could distinguish some
object on the opposite side of the inlet, that might from its size and
shape be a boat of some kind, as he supposed, and, continuing to gaze
steadily, I made out quite plainly, against the dark masses of foliage
on the further shore, what appeared to be a white mast. A profound