The only path, that which the guides said we must follow, ran by the seashore for a few hundred yards and then turned inland through Hassan's village where he lived, for it seemed that the old mission house was not used by him.

As we marched along a little rocky cliff--it was not more than ten feet high--where a deep-water channel perhaps fifty yards in breadth separated the mainland from the island whence the slaves had been loaded on to the _Maria_, some difficulty arose about the donkeys.

One of these slipped its load and another began to buck and evinced an inclination to leap into the sea with its precious burden.

The rearguard of hunters ran to get hold of it, when suddenly there was a splash.
The brute's in! I thought to myself, till a shout told me that not the ass, but Hassan had departed over the cliff's edge.

Watching his opportunity and being, it was clear, a first-rate swimmer, he had flung himself backwards in the midst of the confusion and falling into deep water, promptly dived.