May 5th. — This was Monday, the fifth; and we laboured through the underbrush and matted clover with very little intermission, in the direction of east-south-east, until noon, when we thought it expedient to take some rest and refreshment. At two, P. M., we again set forward, and reached the schooner in safety at eleven o'clock the same evening, almost exhausted with fatigue and the want of sleep. We brought on board with us, among other curiosities, several birds we had shot, of the most beautiful plumage; but which, for want of proper preservation, we were obliged to throw overboard afterward. I believe, however, that the richest museum in the world might derive some new and valuable acquisitions from the interior of this unexplored country. If immense resources are as yet entirely unknown, as the avenues which lead to them are still guarded by the dragons of traditionary fable.

Source: "Narrative of Four Voyages", Capt. Benjamin Morrell Jr., New York, 1832
Transcribed: April 2007