… quite suddenly, at a spot where a large tree had recently fallen, we came to a break in the forest. And as we looked excitedly northwards, O'Malley and myself stood spellbound gazing at the scene of wild and lonely splendor.

Below us, on the opposite side of the Ryan [River], a large lake lay on a platform of the divide, while about two miles to the northwards; and beyond the gorge, gold and green, reaching as far as the eye could see, lay the rolling timbered slopes and grasslands of a huge valley system. On every slope were cultivated squares while little columns of smoke rising in the still air revealed to us the homes of the people of this land. … Beyond all stood the heights of some mighty mountain chain that sparkled in places with the colors of the setting sun. As I looked on those green cultivated squares of such mathematical exactness, I thought of wheatfields, or the industrious areas of a colony of Chinese. …

“My mother!,” said Sergeant Orai. “People like the sand. They have plantations. What people are they?”