stunted bushes. Having done this, he was returning to
the path, when he perceived that Allen and the half-breed had
accompanied him. They were all three approaching the mouth of the
fissure, when they were thrown down by a sudden and violent shock.
At the same moment the crumbling masses of the hill slid down upon
them and they instantly concluded that they were doomed to be buried
alive.

Alive--all three? No! Allen had been so deeply covered by the
sliding soil that he was already smothered, but Arthur Pym and Dirk
Peters contrived to drag themselves on their knees, and opening a
way with their bowie knives, to a projecting mass of harder clay,
which had resisted the movement from above, and from thence they
climbed to a natural platform at the extremity of a wooded ravine.
Above them they could see the blue sky-roof, and from their position
were enabled to survey the surrounding country.

An artificial landslip, cunningly contrived by the natives, had
taken place. Captain William Guy and his twenty-eight companions had
disappeared; they were crushed beneath more than a million tons of
earth and stones.

The plain was swarming with natives who had come, no doubt, from the
neighbouring islets, attracted by the prospect of pillaging the
_Jane_. Seventy boats were being paddled towards the ship. The six men
on board fired on them, but their aim was uncertain in the first
volley; a second, in which mitraille and grooved bullets were used,
produced terrible effect. Nevertheless, the _Jane_ being boarded by
the swarming islanders, her defenders were massacred, and she was
set on fire.

Finally a terrific explosion took place--the fire had reached the
powder store--killing a thousand natives and mutilating as many
more, while the others fled, uttering the cry of _tekeli-li!
tekeli-li!_

During the following week, Arthur Pym and Dirk Peters, living on
nuts and bitterns' flesh, escaped discovery by the natives, who
did not suspect their presence. They found themselves at the bottom
of a sort of dark abyss including several planes, but without issue,
hollowed out from the hillside, and of great extent. The two men
could not live in the midst of these successive abysses, and after
several attempts they let themselves slide on one of the slopes of
the hill. Instantly, six savages rushed upon them; but, thanks to
their pistols, and the extraordinary strength of the half-breed,
four of the assailants were killed. The fifth