Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/295

] the edge of which we perceived a great number of huts.

We had gone a little more than a mile with the savage, when he persuaded us to stop in the neighbourhood of a habitation, probably his own, for he invited us to gather the fruit of the cocoa trees which surrounded it ourselves, excusing himself from climbing the trees on account of his wounds. I gave him some pieces of cloth of different colours, and some nails, which he seemed to value highly.

Soon after another savage came to us, and both followed us till we came to the banks of a branch of the great canal which crossed the plain; it was filled with stagnant water, equally salt with that of the sea.

We perceived at a distance some women and children, when our two savages left us, after having pointed out the path which conducted us to the mountains.

At the same instant some other natives set fire to the dry grass at a great distance before us on the side of the path which we were following, and immediately disappeared in the woods.

After proceeding about half an hour, I arrived on a very agreeable eminence, where the natives had built themselves sheds about six feet in height, in order to enjoy the fresh air. They were of a