The Only Apparel Which They Wear, Was Drawn Over Their Half-Naked Persons, Their Weapons Were At Their Sides, And Their Horses Were Grazing Near Them.

Most of the people retired to rest without food, yet they slept soundly, and appeared quite happy and comfortable after their day's exertion and fatigue.

One of the men fainted on the road from exhaustion, and remained very feverish and unwell.

At day break on the following day, the travellers pursued their course, and as Lander expresses himself, there wore a sweetness in the mountain air, and a freshness in the morning, which they experienced with considerable pleasure, on ascending the hills, which bordered the northern side of the pretty little Moussa. When wild beasts tired with their nightly prowling, seek retirement and repose in the lonely depths of these primeval forests, and when birds perched in the branches of the trees over their heads, warbled forth their morning song, it is the time, that makes up for the languid, wearisome hours in the heat of the day, when nothing could amuse or interest them. It is in the earlier part of the morning too, or in the cool of the evening, that nature can be leisurely contemplated and admired in the simple loveliness of a verdant plain, a sequestered grotto, or a rippling brook, or in the wilder and more mysterious features of her beauty in the height of a craggy precipice, the silence and gloom of vast shady woods, or when those woods are gracefully bending to the passing gale.

An hour's ride brought them near to the site of a town, which was formerly peopled only by robbers. It was, however destroyed some years ago, and its inhabitants either slain or dispersed, by order of the spirited ruler of Kiama, since which time the road has been less dreaded by travellers. Their path lay through a rich country covered with luxuriant grasses and fine trees, but very little underwood could be seen. It abounded with deer and antelopes, and other wild animals of a more ferocious nature; such as the lion, the leopard, the elephant, the wild ass, &c., but the solitary lowing of the buffalo was the only sound that was distinguished in the forest, although they had not the pleasure of meeting even with that animal.

At eleven o'clock, they entered a very small, cleanly-looking village, where they halted for the day. Unfortunately the governor with most of his people were at work in the fields at some distance, so that they could not get any thing to eat till rather late in the evening. It appeared that these poor villagers were forced to supply the soldiers of their sovereign with provisions, gratis, whenever business led them so far that way from the capital; and that in order to avoid the rapacity of these men, they built for themselves another hamlet in the woods, far out of the way of the path, whither they carry their goats, &c. and the corn of which they may not be in immediate want.

On their arrival they were introduced into a small grass hut, which the smoke had changed into the most glossy black, which could possibly be seen; the interior of the roof was also ingeniously decorated with large festoons of cobwebs and dust, which must have been allowed to accumulate for a number of years. Its fetish was a dried grasshopper, which was preserved in a little calabash, but upon the supposition that this was insufficient to protect it from all the danger to which huts in that country are constantly exposed, auxiliary charms of blood and feathers are likewise stuck inside of the wall. At sun-set, not having any thing to eat, Richard Lander went out with his gun into the woods, and was fortunate enough to shoot a few doves, and Pascoe, who went in a different direction, shot a guinea hen, which made them an excellent supper. Hunger had driven back their Keeshee carriers, who were to have accompanied them to Kiama, and therefore they were obliged to send a messenger to Yarro for men to supply their place. Late in the evening, the governor of the village returned from his labour in the fields, and presented them with corn and honey.

On the forenoon of Friday the 28th, the musical jingling of little bells announced the approach of a body of horsemen, who in less than a minute galloped up to their hut, and saluted them one after another with a martial air, by brandishing their spears, to their great discomfiture, within a few feet of their faces. To display their horsemanship more effectually, they caused their spirited steeds to prance and rear in their presence, and when they imagined they were convinced of their abilities, they dismounted to prostrate themselves before them, and acquainted them of the welfare of their prince. The carriers who had arrived from Kiama, had preceded them on the road, and the whole of the men then sat down to partake of a little refreshment. It was twelve o'clock exactly when they set out on their journey, and the day being so far advanced, they wished to make all the haste possible, but the weather was extremely warm, and their horses were hardly strong enough to carry their riders, so that they were obliged after all to travel very slowly. At five o'clock in the afternoon, they reached the ruins of a small town. The path was through the same forest as they had travelled through on the preceding day, but this part of it was less thickly wooded. At one place they remarked two immensely large trees, springing up almost close together, their mighty trunks and branches were twisted, and firmly clasped round each other, like giants in the act of embracing, and presented an appearance highly novel and singular. Ant hills were numerous on the road; and a few paces from it, they observed, as they rode along, little cone-shaped mud buildings, erected by the natives for the purpose of smelting iron ore, which is found in abundance in different parts of the country.

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