ed
away without mercy. But, alas! the farther we advanced the thicker and
taller, and apparently the more interminable, the reeds became.

I began to think we were fairly snared, and had almost made up my mind
that without a pair of wings we should never be able to escape from the
toils, when all at once I discerned a peep of daylight through the canes
on my right, and, communicating the joyful tidings to Toby, we both fell
to with fresh spirit, and speedily opening a passage towards it, we found
ourselves clear of perplexities, and in the near vicinity of the ridge.

After resting for a few moments we began the ascent, and after a little
vigorous climbing found ourselves close to its summit. Instead, however,
of walking along its ridge, where we should have been in full view of the
natives in the vales beneath, and at a point where they could easily
intercept us, were they so inclined, we cautiously advanced on one side,
crawling on our hands and knees, and screened from observation by the
grass through which we glided, much in the fashion of a couple of
serpents. After an hour employed in this unpleasant kind of locomotion, we
started to our feet again, and pursued our way boldly along the crest of
the ridge.

This salient spur of the lofty elevations that encompassed the bay, rose
with sharp angle from the valleys at its base, and presented, with the
exception of a few steep acclivities, the appearance of a vast inclined
plane, sweeping down towards the sea from the heights in the distance. We
had ascended it near the place of its termination, and at its lowest
point, and now saw our route to the mountains distinctly defined along its
narrow crest, which was covered with a soft carpet of verdure, and was in
many parts only a few feet wide.

Elated with the success which had so far attended our enterprise, and
invigorated by the refreshing atmosphere we now inhaled, Toby and I, in
high spirits, were making our way rapidly along the ridge when suddenly
from the valleys below, which lay on either side of us, we heard the
distant shouts of the natives, who had just descried us, and to whom our
figures, brought in bold relief against the sky, were plainly revealed.

Glancing our eyes into these valleys, we perceived their savage
inhabitants hurrying to and fro, seemingly under the influence of some
sudden alarm, and appearing to the eye scarcely bigger than so many
pigmies, while their white thatched dwellings, dwarfe