Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

RKTURN TO MOUNT MISERY. 167
mination which he would have done at an¬
other time; but crawling out as he came in.
he went and told the first he met of what he
had seen. Some had the curiosity to go in
likewise. I had forgot to mention that there
was another range of bodies, deposited in the
same manner, upon another platform under
the bier. Probably this was the burial place
of their great men, called caciques; but from
whence they could be brought we were utter¬
ly at a loss to conceive, there being no traces
of any Indian settlement hereabout. We had
seen no savage since we left the island, or ob¬
served any marks in the coves or bays to the
northward, where we had touched,—such as of
fire-places, or old wigwams, which they never
fail of leaving behind them; and it is very pro¬
bable, from the violent seas that are always
beating upon this coaat, its deformed aspect,
and the very swampy soil that every where
borders upon it, that it is little frequented.
We now crossed the first bay for the head¬
land we left on Christmas-day, much dejected;
for under our former sufferings, we were in
some measure supported with the hopes that,
as we advanced, however little, they were so
much the nearer the termination; but now our