was found to be full of seeds, imbedded in a whitish pulp, and
of a not ungrateful taste.

This place, latitude 17 degrees 5 minutes South, may be considered the
limit of its growth in that direction, and the Victoria River, of which I
shall have occasion to speak hereafter, in latitude 14 degrees 55
minutes, the northern boundary of its indigenous empire.

We saw no traces of inhabitants, not even the thin rising smoke, which so
often greeted our eyes near the coast we had recently surveyed. I climbed
the highest tree we could find, and from the elevation it afforded looked
southwards over a wide prospect of nothing but mangroves and mudbanks;
still interesting from the fact that upon them the wondering gaze of the
curious European had never yet been bent!

THE MOSQUITOES.

Procuring the necessary observations completed the duties of the day;
but, alas! the sleep all could have enjoyed so much after our work, was
rendered impossible by the swarms of mosquitoes, who at sunset relieved
those of their tribe upon whom the day duty had devolved, and commenced a
most unsparing attack upon us: all devices to escape them were tried in
vain, and some of the men were really half mad with the insufferable
annoyance: at last, about eight o'clock, when all patience seemed
exhausted, a welcome peal of thunder, and bright flashes of lightning
announced the expected and much desired squall. It served to blow away
some of our persecutors; but our rest was of very short duration, and I
was at length compelled to order the people to take to the boats, fairly
driven from the shore by our diminutive but invincible assailants. The
tide set past the boats at the rate of four knots per hour, and it fell
33 feet, being 6 feet more than we had as yet found it. The only rock
seen here was a block, visible at low-water; it was a conglomerate, and
the most southerly formation of the kind we met with.

THE FLOOD-TIDE.

February 26.

The daylight found us all anxiously speculating upon the probable results
to be accomplished before the darkness once more closed in upon us, but
the morning being perfectly calm, we were compelled to wait till the
flood-tide made: this soon took us past an island four miles from the
eastern shore, seen the evening before, and which now proved to be a
narrow strip, covered with the never-failing mangrove; and having two
smaller islands, nearly identical in character, lying two miles south of
it. We passed them