the dawn of the next morning found o'donell on the sumit of a high mountain which overlooked the city he had stopped to take a farewell view of the place of his nativity. all along the eastern horizon there was a rich glowing light which as it rose gradually melted into the pale blue of the sky in which just over the light there was still visible the silver crescent of the moon in a short time the sun began to rise in golden glory casting his splendid radiance over all the face of nature and illuminating the magnificent city in the midst of which towering in silent grandeur there appeared the palace where dwelt the mighty prince of that great and beautiful city. all around the brazen gates and massive walls of which there flowed the majestic stream of the guadima whose banks where bordered by splendid palaces and magnificent gardens behind these stretching for many a league were fruitful plains and forests whose shade seemed almost impenetrable to a single ray of light while in the distace blue mountains were seen raising their heads to the sky and forming a misty girdle to the plains of dahomey. on the whole of this grand and beautiful prospect [4] o'donells gaze was long and fixed but his last look was to the palace of the king and a tear stood in his eye as he said ernestly may he be preserved from all evil may good attend him and may the cheif geni spread their broad sheild of protection over him all the time of his sojourn in this wearisome world. then turning round he began to decend the mountain he pursued his way till the sun began to wax hot when he stopped and sitting down he took out some provisions which he had brought with him and which consisted of a few biscuits and dates while he was eating a tall man came up and acosted him o'donell requested him to sit beside him and offered him a biscuit this he refused and taking one out of a small bag which he carried he sat down and they began to talk. in the course of conversation o'donell learnt that this mans name was alexander delancy that he was a native of france and that he was engaged in the same pursuit with himself i-e the search of happiness they talked for along time and at last agreed to travel together then rising they pursued their journey towards night fall they lay down in the open air and slept soundly till morning when they again set off and thus they continued till the 3 day when about 2 hours after noon they aproached an old castle which they entred and as they were examining it they discovered a subteaneous passage which they could not see the end of let us follow where this passage leads us and perhaps we may find happiness here said o'donell delancy agreed the 2 stepped into the opening imediately they a great stone was rolled to the mouth of the passage with a noise like thunder which shut out all but a single ray daylight. "what is that! exclaimed o'donell "i cannot tell," replied delancy "but never mind i supose it is only some genius playing tricks" "well it may be so returned o'donell and they proceeded on their way after traveling for a long time as near as they could reckon about 2 days they perceived a silvery streak of light on the walls of the passage something like the light of the moon in a short time they came to the end of the passage and leaping out of the opening which formed they entred a new world they where at first so much bewildred by the different objects which struck their senses that they almost fainted but at length recovering they had time to see every thing around them they were upon the top of a rock which was more than a thousand fathoms high, all beneath them was liquid mountains tossed to and fro with horrible confusion roaring and raging with a tremendous noise and crowned with waves of foam all above them was a mighty firmament in one part covere with black clouds from which darted huge and terrible sheets of lightning in another part an imense globe of light like silver was hanging in the sky and several smaller globes which spakled exceedingly surounded it. in a short time the tempest which was dreadful beyond description ceased the large black clouds cleared away the silver globes vanished and another globe whose light was of a gold colour appeared it was far larger than the former and in a little time it became so intensely bright that they could no longer gaze on it so after looking around them for some time they rose and pursued their journey. they had travelled a long way when they came an imense forest the trees of which bore a large fruit of a deep purple colour of which they tasted and found that it was fit for food, they journeyed in this forest for three days and on the 3 day they entred a valley or rather a deep glen surounded on each side by tremendous rocks whose tops where lost in the clouds in this glen they continued for some time and at last came in sight of a mountain which rose so high that the could not see the sumit though the sky was quite clear. at the foot of the mountain there flowed a river of pure water border by trees which had flowers of a beautiful rose coulour except these trees nothing was to be seen but black forests and huge rocks rising out of a wilderness which bore the terrible aspect of devastation and which stretched as far as the eye could reach in this desolate land no sound was to be heard, not even cry of the eagle or the scream of the curlew but a silence like the silence of the grave reigned over all the face of nature unbroken except by the murmur of the river as it slowly wound its course through the desert