After
Pitching Our Tents, Our Guides Went Out, And Returned With A Small Iguana
(Vergar), And With Pods Of The Rose-Coloured Sterculia, Which They
Roasted On The Coals.
I succeeded in saving a great part of our meat by
smoking it.
Our horses were greatly distressed by large horse-flies, and every now
and then the poor brutes would come and stand in the smoke of our fires
to rid themselves of their persevering tormentors. This want of rest
during the night contributed very much to their increasing weakness;
though most of them were severely galled besides, which was prevented
only in two by the most careful attention, and daily washing of their
backs. On this stage we again passed one of those oven-like huts of the
natives, thatched with grass, which I have mentioned several times, and
which Nyuall's tribe called "Corambal." At the place where we encamped,
the ruins of a very large hut were still visible, which indicated that
the natives had profited by their long intercourse with the Malays and
Europeans, in the construction of their habitations.
Dec. 14. - When we started, intending to follow the foot-path, our native
guides remained behind; and, when I had proceeded two or three miles, my
companions came up to me and stated, that the natives had left us, but
that they had given them to understand that the foot-path would conduct
us safely to Balanda. They had attempted to keep the large tomahawk, but
had given it up when Brown asked them for it.
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