SOUTH EAST BAY, PEEL IS L A N D .
whom had left evidence of their visits in the stump of a tree, which showed
marks of having been smoothly cut with a large axe. There was also a
neglected bed of tomatoes, overgrown with weeds, seen stretched along the
banks of the stream, which had certainly been planted there by the hand of
man. On the gathering of all the company, who were almost worn out,
and suffered much from the excessive heat, a fire was lighted, and the boar’s
liver and kidneys being duly cooked, a very excellent extemporaneous feast,
with the addition of the pork and other rations brought with them, was prepared
and voraciously discussed. The party being refreshed by their banquet
and the rest they had enjoyed, and it being as late as two o’clock, determined
to return. When the guides announced that it was necessary to go
back the way they came, the resumption of the labors, and the exposure to
the dangers which had just been undergone, seemed quite appalling. There
was, however, no alternative, and the party was forced to retrace their steps,
but sueeeeded, finally, with a renewed experience of their former troubles,
and after excessive fatigue, in reaching the valley whence they had set out
with the “ Judge” and his Otaheitan companion.
I t was six o’clock in the evening when they arrived at the § Judge’s ”
quarters, so they spared themselves but little time for repose, but soon continued
their journeying. One of the party was so wearied with fatigue as
to be obliged to proceed to the Kanaka settlement, at the south end of
Port Lloyd, by the way of the sea, in a canoe, piloted by the Otaheitan.
The rest went by land, attempting to return by the same route as that they
had come. The path was not easily found, however, and the explorers
suffered another hard experience in the forest and over the rough crags,
where they were nearly lost among the entangled undergrowth, and much
battered by the irregularity of the ground. Another member of the party
gave out, but was brought along by main force, and having been deposited
in a safe place on the summit of the ridge, under the care of one of the men,
the rest pushed on ; and having reached the Kanaka settlement, at the south
end of Port Lloyd, took their station on a cliff which overlooked the bay,
and whenee the great hull of the Susquehanna could be barely discovered in
the surrounding darkness. Firing a volley with their guns, as a signal, they
were soon answered by the arrival of the ship’s cutter, and having sent back
for the tired member of the party, they all pulled off for the steamer, where
they arrived at ten o’clock at night, sorely bruised and fatigued by the hard
day’s work. The other party, under the command of the assistant surgeon,
returned about the same time, and the result of the observations, as reported
by Dr. Pahs, is now recorded.
The' volcanic origin of the island was clearly manifest from the existence
of ancient craters; Trap rock, intermingled with amygdaloid and green
stone, formed the basis of the island, as it did the loftiest peaks of the hills;
basaltie dykes were observed to pass through beds of sand, scoria, and