ivals by sea. Before we parted, we all knelt to invoke
the blessing of God on our endeavours. Fritz and Jack, as the most
active, were to visit the interior of the island, and to return with
information as soon as possible. To be prepared for any chance, I gave
them a game-bag filled with toys, trinkets, and pieces of money, to
please the savages; I also made them take some food. Fritz took his gun,
after promising me he would not fire it, except to defend his life, lest
he should alarm the savages, and induce them to remove their captives.
Jack took his lasso, and they set out with our benedictions, accompanied
by the brave Turk, on whom I depended much to discover his mistress and
his companion Flora, if she was still with her friends.

As soon as they were out of sight, Ernest and I set to work to conceal
as much as possible our pinnace from discovery. We lowered the masts,
and hid with great care under the deck the precious chest with our
treasure, provisions, and powder. We got our pinnace with great
difficulty, the water being low, behind a rock, which completely
concealed it on the land-side, but it was still visible from the sea.
Ernest suggested that we should entirely cover it with branches of
trees, so that it might appear like a heap of bushes; and we began to
cut them immediately with two hatchets we found in the chest, and which
we speedily fitted with handles. We found also a large iron staple,
which Ernest succeeded, with a hammer and pieces of wood, in fixing in
the rock to moor the pinnace to. We had some difficulty in finding
branches within our reach; there were many trees on the shore, but their
trunks were bare. We found, at last, at some distance, an extensive
thicket, composed of a beautiful shrub, which Ernest recognized to be a
species of mimosa. The trunk of this plant is knotty and stunted, about
three or four feet high, and spreads its branches horizontally, clothed
with beautiful foliage, and so thickly interwoven, that the little
quadrupeds who make their dwellings in these thickets are obliged to
open covered roads out of the entangled mass of vegetation.

At the first blow of the hatchet, a number of beautiful little creatures
poured forth on all sides. They resembled the kangaroos of our island,
but were smaller, more elegant, and remarkable for the beauty of their
skin, which was striped like that of the zebra.

"It is the striped kangaroo," cried Ernest, "described in the voyages of