making the boat fast to a beautiful tree with broad shining leaves, and
flowers of the magnolia species, only they were rose-coloured and
not white,[*] which hung over the water, we disembarked. This done we
undressed, washed ourselves, and spread our clothes, together with the
contents of the boat, in the sun to dry, which they very quickly did.
Then, taking shelter from the sun under some trees, we made a hearty
breakfast off a "Paysandu" potted tongue, of which we had brought a good
quantity with us, congratulating ourselves loudly on our good fortune
in having loaded and provisioned the boat on the previous day before the
hurricane destroyed the dhow. By the time that we had finished our meal
our clothes were quite dry, and we hastened to get into them, feeling
not a little refreshed. Indeed, with the exception of weariness and
a few bruises, none of us were the worse for the terrifying adventure
which had been fatal to all our companions. Leo, it is true, had been
half-drowned, but that is no great matter to a vigorous young athlete of
five-and-twenty.

[*] There is a known species of magnolia with pink flowers.
It is indigenous in Sikkim, and known as _Magnolia
Campbellii_.--Editor.

After breakfast we started to look about us. We were on a strip of dry
land about two hundred yards broad by five hundred long, bordered on one
side by the river, and on the other three by endless desolate swamps,
that stretched as far as the eye could reach. This strip of land was
raised about twenty-five feet above the plain of the surrounding swamps
and the river level: indeed it had every appearance of having been made
by the hand of man.

"This place has been a wharf," said Leo, dogmatically.