From this little incident, however, we saw how dangerous was our position, and how difficult escape would be should any fierce beast steal upon us unawares; we therefore hastened to make our way to the open seashore. Here the scene which presented itself was indeed delightful. A background of hills, the green, waving grass, the pleasant groups of trees stretching here and there to the water's edge, formed a lovely prospect. On the smooth sand we searched carefully for any trace of our hapless companions, but not a mark of a footstep could we find.
We pushed on until we came to a pleasant grove which stretched down to the water's edge; here we halted to rest, seating ourselves under a large tree, by a rivulet which murmured and splashed along its pebbly bed into the great ocean before us. Gayly plumaged birds flew twittering above us, and Fritz and I gazed up at them.
My son suddenly started up. "A monkey," he exclaimed; "I am nearly sure I saw a monkey."
As he spoke he sprang round to the other side of the tree, and in doing so stumbled over a round substance, which he handed to me, remarking, as he did so, that it was a round bird's nest, of which he had often heard.
"You may have done so," said I, laughing, "but you need not necessarily conclude that every round hairy thing is a bird's nest; this, for instance, is not one, but a cocoanut."
We split open the nut, but, to our disgust, found the kernel dry and uneatable.
"Hullo," cried Fritz, "I always thought a cocoanut was full of delicious sweet liquid, like almond milk."
"So it is," I replied, "when young and fresh; but as it ripens the milk becomes congealed, and in the course of time is solidified into a kernel."
As cocoanuts must be overripe before they fall naturally from the tree, it was not without difficulty that we obtained one in which the kernel was not dried up.
Continuing our way through a thicket, which was so densely overgrown with lianas [Footnote: Lianas are climbing plants which have thick, woody stems, and which wind themselves about other plants for support. They are particularly plentiful in the Amazon region of South America] that we had to clear a passage with our hatchets, we again emerged on the seashore beyond, and found an open view, the forest sweeping inland, while on the space before us stood at intervals single trees of remarkable appearance.