asis in sight in the midst of this desert of green, not a
single yard could we see beyond the tree tops immediately near, which
closed in the view completely--the only break apparent being the intense
glaring blue of the burning sky just overhead, with its molten coppery
disc of a sun darting down fiery rays from the zenith.

"At last, when every man Jack of us felt that he could not proceed a
single step beyond if we had any more climbing to do, the ground
suddenly began to descend, telling us that we had reached the slope that
led into the next valley.

"This put fresh life into us and made us press onwards with renewed
vigour, everyone hoping that, as soon as we got to the bottom of the
declivity, we would reach one of those rivers which, as I had told the
men, emptied themselves from the west coast of Madagascar into the
Mozambique Channel--buoying up their drooping energies whenever they
appeared to falter on their toilsome way by holding out this dream to
them, for I believed in it fully myself.

"It was but a futile hope, however; and one, too, that was doubly
disappointing.

"On getting to the lower part of the hill, something was seen shining
through the trees, like as the sea had been observed shimmering in the
sun on the other side of the mountain, but this now evidently could not
be any portion of the Indian Ocean or Mozambique Channel, from the
direction we had been proceeding in since the morning?

"No, it could not be the sea.

"It could be nothing else, thought the men, than the much-longed-for
river which I had led them shortly to expect to see in sight; so, with a
glad cheer they rushed between the trunks and branches of the
intervening trees in mad, hot haste to quench their thirst in the
cooling stream.

"But oh! the terrible surprise!

"The water was salt and brackish, not fresh. It was a lagoon, or arm of
the sea, running up between a gorge of the hills, and not a river after
all."

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.

THE CROCODILE'S VICTIM.

"You won't think I'm exaggerating, sir, or that we were unmanly; but I
assure you that one and all of us broke down under this disappointment,
and cried as if we were a parcel of children. It was like the last
straw, you know, that broke the camel's back!

"As soon as we all recovered a bit from the disappointment, I told the
men that we must make the best or worst of it, and that it would
probably ease their thirst if they bathed in the lagoon. T