Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/293

] extent. They looked at us without stopping, notwithstanding the signs of invitation we made them to come to us. One of them carried on his shoulder, at the end of a stick, a basket, in all probability filled with roots.

We had only a few more small hills to cross before we reached the plain, when several of our companions, apprehensive that we should be in want of victuals if we went much farther, or perhaps that we should meet with numerous parties of savages, left us and returned to the ships early in the day. Our number was now reduced to fifteen, upon their departure; nevertheless we continued our journey. We soon found by the side of a path which seemed much frequented by the savages, several cabbage-palms, and having refreshed ourselves with the tender leaves from the tops of those trees, we descended into a hollow, where several fine aleurites added to our repast a plentiful dessert of fruit, the kernels of which we found of a very agreeable flavour.

The quartz and mica which were spread over a large space, formed in that place a foliated rock of a very brilliant appearance, composed of a thin strata.

We at length gained the plain, where the melancholy sight of a habitation entirely destroyed, and cocoa trees cut up by the roots, furnished