But to return to the movements of the trio. Having left the concealment of the shrubbery, the whole party paused, and with different feelings gazed upon the landscape stretched before them. The slight declivity upon the brow of which they were standing, had been cleared, and was now planted with tobacco, whose broad green leaves, and delicate trumpet flowers, attracted the attention of numerous gorgeous insects. This plantation stretched to the end of a wild copse, where every native shrub and brushwood grew together with the loftier trees, and formed an almost impervious thicket. Beyond this copse, the waters of a beautiful creek, which ran a short way inland, glittered like gold in the beams of the setting sun; while on every side rose undulating hills, begirt with many an infant plantation, belonging to some of the earlier settlers. Further off, the broad ocean stretched its interminable waves, its billows sleeping in calmness; except in one part, where a long ridge of shelving rocks fretted them into motion, and caused them to send forth their angry roar.[89] At the bottom of the hill upon which they were standing ran a bridle-path, which, winding in and out, branched off in two directions; one passing through the populous town of Falmouth, the other extending to the shores of a beautiful harbour,[90] where some industrious settlers were cultivating the adjoining country. Along this path a single horseman was seen slowly advancing, in the direction of the harbour. As he gained the skirts of the hill, he reined up for a moment his prancing steed, and, looking towards the party, raised his plumed hat and bent forward in graceful obeisance. The dark eyes of Zulmiera sparkled with delight, and standing, as she did, behind the governor and his daughter, unseen by them, she raised her hand and waved a return, while, at the same instant, the rosiest blush sprang to the cheeks of Bridget, and crimsoned her very throat. The horseman again bent his head, and then, replacing his hat, shook the broidered reins and galloped off in the direction he had chosen for his equestrian amusement.