were at liberty to take as
much fruit as we chose, and sent off several boats filled with oranges and
limes, as well as a vast quantity of yams, sweet potatoes, cocoanuts and
cocoas, besides fresh calelu (wild spinach), which is considered a fine
anti-scorbutic. We found some arrowroot, which was also of great service.
In one of our rambles we met a party on mules going to the town of Donna
Maria, which was not far distant. It consisted of two young
mustiphena-coloured men, an elderly mulatto woman, with an infant on her
lap, and a black manservant. They saluted us in passing, when we remarked
that the men had delicate European features, and that the infant was
white.

A short time afterwards we stumbled on a burying-ground, and seated on one
of the graves we found the two persons we had taken for men, the eldest of
whom was suckling the infant. They proved to be the wife of the Governor
of Donna Maria, who was a native of France, and her sister. The old woman
was the nurse, and the black man their factotum. They spoke French, which
some of our party understood, and we spent a very agreeable half-hour in
their company. After having given us an invitation to their house, they
bade us adieu and proceeded on their journey. I afterwards found it was a
common custom for the better class of females in this island to ride and
dress like men when they made any distant journey, as the greater part of
the island is too mountainous to admit of travelling in carriages.

One of the lieutenants, who was fond of voyages of discovery, had
permission to take one of the cutters to survey a deep inlet about three
miles from where we anchored. He asked me if I should like to be one of
the party. I thankfully said yes. "Well," said he, "to-morrow morning at
daylight I intend going round the Cape Donna Maria (which has the shape of
the mysterious helmet of Otranto), and exploring a river which runs into a
large lagoon, and we shall be away most likely two days. I shall find
prog, but don't forget your great coat and drawing apparatus."

At four o'clock the following morning we left the ship, and after pulling
for two hours we entered the river, which was narrow and enclosed between
two thickly-wooded hills. The noise of our oars startled a vast number of
large and small birds, which made a horrible screaming. I fired at one of
the large ones and broke its wing; it fell ahead of the boat, and we
picked it up. It was twice the size of a gull,