However, We Started, And After Skirting The Doolana Tank For
Some Distance, We Rode Five Miles Through Fine Forest, And Then Arrived
On The Banks Of The Mahawelle River.
The stream teas at this time very
rapid, and was a quarter of a mile in width, rolling along between its
steep banks through a forest of magnificent trees.
Some hours were
consumed in transporting the coolies and baggage across the river, as
the canoe belonging to the village of Monampitya, on the opposite bank,
would only hold four coolies and their loads at one voyage.
We swam the horses across, and attending carefully to the safety of the
cook before any other individual, we breakfasted on the opposite bank,
while the coolies were crossing the river.
After breakfast, a grave question arose, viz., which way were we to go?
The trackers that the headman had given us, now confessed that they did
not know an inch of the Veddah country, into which we had arrived by
crossing the river, and they refused to go a step farther. Here, was a
'regular fix!' as the Americans would express it.
The village of Monampitya consists of about six small huts; and we now
found that there was no other village within forty miles in the
direction that we wished to steer. Not a soul could we obtain as a
guide--no offer of reward would induce a man to start, as they declared
that no one knew the country, and that the distance was so great that
the people would be starved, as they could get nothing to eat.
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