some days. We advanced the following day: and
although we reached several villages, the grain had been removed
from them all; which, in all probability, was done immediately upon
their hearing of the fall of their supposed impregnable Patusen. In
the evening we took the same precautions as on the preceding night,
considering that our enemies were not to be despised. Owing to heavy
rains which fell during the night, and caused a strong current, our
progress was considerably retarded. The scenery was beautiful--more
so than in any of the rivers we had yet visited. We likewise now
repeatedly fell in with small detachments of the enemy, and spears
were thrown from the banks, which added considerably to our excitement
and amusement. On every point we found the remains of the preceding
night's watch-fires, so that news of our approach would have been
conveyed rapidly along. While leading in the gig with a select
few of our followers, we came suddenly on a boat full of warriors,
all gorgeously dressed, and apparently perfectly unconscious of our
approach. The discharge of our muskets and the capsizing of their
war-boat was the work of an instant; but most of their crew saved
their lives by escaping into the jungle.

This evening, Sunday, the 18th, we experienced some difficulty
in finding a suitable place for our bivouac. While examining the
most eligible-looking spot on the bank of the river, the crew of
one of the Phlegethon's boats, having crept up the opposite bank,
came suddenly on a party of Dyaks, who saluted them with a war-yell
and a shower of spears; and it was absurd to see the way in which
they precipitated themselves into the water again to escape from
this unexpected danger. The Dyaks, too, appear to have been equally
surprised. The place we selected for the night was a large house about
forty yards from the edge of the river; and for a musket-range around
which we had not much difficulty in clearing the ground. Here we all
united our different messes, and passed a jovial evening. The night,
however, set in with a most fearful thunder-storm, accompanied by the
most vivid flashes of lightning I ever witnessed. The rain continued
to fall in torrents; it cleared up at daylight, when we proceeded. As
yet the banks of the river had been a continued garden, with sugarcane
plantations and banana-trees in abundance. As we advanced, the scenery
assumed a wilder and still more beautiful appearance, presenting high
steep