Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/387

] the trunks of these beautiful trees destroyed and sacrificed to such a momentary gratification.

Peacocks were very common in these forests through which we rambled in every direction, and we shot several of them. Amongst other plants, I collected several beautiful species of uvaria, helecteres and bauhinia.

The natives were employed in clearing a fine piece of ground at the foot of the eastern mountains. The smaller trees they cut down with axes; the larger they only stripped of their bark near the root, in order to make them decay.

In the afternoon a distant sound of thunder ushered in a violent fall of rain, as is usual at this season, which compelled us to hasten back to our habitation. The Tomagon, before he returned to Banguil, repeated the orders he had already given to the natives, to provide for our safety and our wants.

On the following days we visited the mountains of Panangounan, penetrating into the territory of the Emperor of Solo through vast forests of tek-trees, under the shade of which the pancratium amboinense grew in abundance. Our guides often expressed their fear of meeting with tigers, which, they told us, were very common in the thickets on the banks of the rivers, where they lie in wait for the animals that come to