air stirring. We made our way at last as well as we
could out of the woods, and struck the shore a quarter of an hour's
distance from where we began to climb up. We were rejoiced, as there
was a house not far from the place where we came out. We went to it to
see if we could find any one who would show us the way a little. There
was no master in it, but an Englishwoman with negroes and servants. We
first asked her as to the road, and then for something to drink, and
also for some one to show us the road; but she refused the last,
although we were willing to pay for it. She was a cross woman. She
said she had never been in the village, and her folks must work, and
we would certainly have to go away as wise as we came. She said,
however, we must follow the shore, as we did. We went now over the
rocky point, which we were no sooner over than we saw a pretty little
sand bay, and a small creek, and not far from there, cattle and
houses. We also saw the point to which the little path led from the
hill above, where I was when my comrade called me. We should not have
had more than three hundred steps to go to have been where we now
were. It was very hot, and we perspired a great deal. We went on to
the little creek to sit down and rest ourselves there, and to cool our
feet, and then proceeded to the houses which constituted the Oude
Dorp. It was now about two o'clock. There were seven houses, but only
three in which any body lived. The others were abandoned, and their
owners had gone to live on better places on the island, because the
ground around this village was worn out and barren, and also too
limited for their use. We went into the first house which was
inhabited by English, and there rested ourselves and ate, and inquired
further after the road. The woman was cross, and her husband not much
better. We had to pay here for what we ate, which we had not done
before. We paid three guilders in zeewan, although we only drank
water. We proceeded by a tolerably good road to the Nieuwe Dorp,[151]
but as the road ran continually in the woods, we got astray again in
them. It was dark, and we were compelled to break our way out through
the woods and thickets, and we went a great distance before we
succeeded, when it was almost entirely dark. We saw a house at a
distance to which we directed ourselves across the bushes. It was the
first house of the Nieuwe Dorp. We found there an Englishman who could
speak Dutch, and who received us v