e situation, and to
request his assistance to enable the expedition to find the place.

But no sooner was Earle's project mentioned than Jiravai began to throw
cold water upon it. First of all, he denied all knowledge whatsoever of
any city named Manoa; and when Earle met this denial with the admission
that there might possibly be some mistake in the matter of the name,
explaining that it was not this that was of importance, but the fact
that there was a city distinguished by certain curious and remarkable
characteristics that he was anxious to find and visit, the king, while
reluctantly admitting that he had certainly heard of such a city, most
earnestly besought Earle at once and for ever to abandon his intention
of visiting the place, since rumour had it that the inhabitants so
strongly objected to the intrusion of strangers among them that, of the
few who had been known to force a way in, not one had ever been known to
come out again. Jiravai asserted that he knew nothing whatever about
the city, beyond the above-named peculiarity, and the fact that its
actual name was Ulua--bluntly adding that he desired to know no more--
and he greatly doubted whether there was any Mangeroma now living who
possessed more information on the subject than himself; yet, if the
white lords very particularly desired it, he would cause immediate
inquiries to be made. To which statement Earle replied that the white
lords desired the information in question more than anything else,
except to find themselves within the walls of Ulua itself; and that the
king could not more conclusively demonstrate his friendship than by
causing the most exhaustive inquiries to be made forthwith. And there
the matter rested for nearly a fortnight, during which Earle and Dick
wandered about the district together, shooting, but finding very little
game; for they soon discovered that the Mangeroma country was pretty
thickly inhabited, and that, between hunting and the clearing of the
land for cultivation, the game had been nearly all driven away or
exterminated.

At length, however, in response to the inquiries which the king caused
to be made, an old man was found who asserted that, many years ago, when
he was but a lad, he had been lost while engaged in a hunting
expedition, and in his wanderings had actually seen, from the summit of
a high hill, a great city of palaces, which he believed could be none
other than the legendary city of Ulua, but that he h