Aftertwohours’perilousexertionswestooduponthesummitofanotherridge，anditwaswithdifficultyIcouldbringmyselftobelievethatwehadeverpenetratedtheblackandyawningchasmwhichthengapedatourfeet。Againwegazedupontheprospectwhichtheheightcommanded，butitwasjustasdepressingastheonewhichhadbeforemetoureyes。Inowfeltthatinourpresentsituationitwasinvainforustothinkofeverovercomingtheobstaclesinourway，andIgaveupallthoughtsofreachingthevalewhichlaybeyondthisseriesofimpediments；whileatthesametimeIcouldnotdeviseanyschemetoextricateourselvesfromthedifficultiesinwhichwewereinvolved。
TheremotestideaofreturningtoNukuhevaunlessassuredofourvessel’sdeparture，neveronceenteredmymind，andindeeditwasquestionablewhetherwecouldhavesucceededinreachingit，dividedaswewerefromthebaybyadistancewecouldnotcompute，andperplexedtooinourremembranceoflocalitiesbyourrecentwanderings。Besides，itwasunendurablethethoughtofretracingourstepsandrenderingallourpainfulexertionsofnoavail。
Thereisscarcelyanythingwhenamanisindifficultiesthatheismoredisposedtolookuponwithabhorrencethanaright-aboutretrogrademovement-asystematicgoingoverofthealreadytroddenground:andespeciallyifhehasaloveofadventure，suchacourseappearsindescribablyrepulsive，solongasthereremainstheleasthopetobederivedfrombravinguntrieddifficulties。
Itwasthisfeelingthatpromptedustodescendtheoppositesideoftheelevationwehadjustscaled，althoughwithwhatdefiniteobjectinviewitwouldhavebeenimpossibleforeitherofustotell。
Withoutexchangingasyllableuponthesubject，Tobyandmyselfsimultaneouslyrenouncedthedesignwhichhadluredusthusfar-