Above the rocks on the plain we
looked for ease, but found none. 'Twas like the bottom of a dry sea, all
sand and great clefts, and in every hollow monstrous crabs that scattered
the sand like spindrift as they fled from us. Some of the beasts we slew,
and the blood of them was green as ooze, and their stench like a charnel
house. Likewise there were everywhere fat vultures that dropped so close
they fanned us with their wings. And in some parts there were cracks in the
ground through which rose the fumes of sulphur that set a man's head
reeling."
Raleigh shivered. "Madre de Dios, you portray the very floor of hell."
"Beyond doubt the floor of hell. There was but one thing that could get us
across that devil's land, for our bones were molten with fear. At the end
rose further hills, and we could see with our eyes they were green. . . .
Captain Bovill was like one transfigured. 'See,' he cried, 'the Mountain of
God!
Paradise is before you, and the way to Paradise, as is
well known, lies through the devil's country.
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