Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/97

 a state of abandonment since the shock of the earthquake, which the inhabitants assert to have produced a depression of the ordinary level, that exposed the settlement to inundation; and, in fact, by a sudden encroachment of the river, which carried off the land for more than a quarter of a mile in breadth, all the habitations, except the the two now surviving, were swept into the river. About a mile and a half below commences the 60th island of the Navigator; the right channel was now choked up with sand at its outlet. A little distance below we landed at a store to purchase some necessaries. Considerable tracts of good and elevated land, once numerously peopled by the natives, appear in this quarter, over which the conspicuous devastations of a hurricane now added horror to solitude.

The scrub-grass or rushes, as they are called here (Equisetum hiemale), from about 50 to 60 miles above, to this place, appear along the banks in vast fields, and, together with the cane, which is evergreen, {59} are considered the most important, and, indeed, the only winter fodder for all kinds of cattle. The cane is unquestionably saccharine and nutritious, but the scrub-grass produces an unfavourable action on the stomach, and scours the cattle so as to debilitate and destroy them if its use be long continued.

We proceeded, without any accident worthy of remark, about six miles, below the "Little Round island," noticed in the Navigator, which from its uncommon aspect affords a pretty good local object for the boatmen. While passing the island we were accosted by some, to us, suspicious characters, mimicking distress to draw us to land, but in vain. We had been well assured of the existence of gangs of pirates occasionally occupying these solitudes.

9th.] We continued, as usual, soon after day-break, and