The Princess, who expected to be quite alone, was pleased at finding herself
surrounded by a number of pretty girls, all anxious to wait on her, whilst a brilliantly-coloured parrot said the most agreeable things in the world.
I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of natives that
surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen.
No palisade
surrounded it, for, situated as it was, in the heart of loyal Waziri, its master had anticipated no possibility of an attack in force by any enemy.
The harbour consists of a fine piece of water half
surrounded by low rounded mountains of clay- slate, which are covered to the water's edge by one dense gloomy forest.
These experiences were very memorable and valuable to me -- anchored in forty feet of water, and twenty or thirty rods from the shore,
surrounded sometimes by thousands of small perch and shiners, dimpling the surface with their tails in the moonlight, and communicating by a long flaxen line with mysterious nocturnal fishes which had their dwelling forty feet below, or sometimes dragging sixty feet of line about the pond as I drifted in the gentle night breeze, now and then feeling a slight vibration along it, indicative of some life prowling about its extremity, of dull uncertain blundering purpose there, and slow to make up its mind.
Indeed to neglect surrounding a city with a wall would be similar to choosing a country which is easy of access to an enemy, or levelling the eminences of it; or as if an individual should not have a wall to his house lest it should be thought that the owner of it was a coward: nor should this be left unconsidered, that those who have a city
surrounded with walls may act both ways, either as if it had or as if it had not; but where it has not they cannot do this.
They saw few or no churches, but the prophet's mansion, the court-house, and the arsenal, blue-brick houses with verandas and porches,
surrounded by gardens bordered with acacias, palms, and locusts.
In the course of the night the free trappers
surrounded the lodge of the Pierced-nose chief and in lieu of Christmas carols, saluted him with a feude joie.
Its gardens and ample grounds were
surrounded by a separate wall, not so high or thick as the wall around the City, but more daintily designed and built all of green marble.
After penetrating through the brush, matted as it was with briars, for a few hundred feet, he entered an open space, that
surrounded a low, green hillock, which was crowned by the decayed blockhouse in question.
As he worked he hummed a tune, some music-hall air that had been popular in London the year before, so that one might have thought him working in the security of an English flying field
surrounded by innumerable comrades rather than alone in the heart of an unexplored African wilderness.
As he was indulging in these reflections, he found himself
surrounded by a whole army of Ants, near whose nest he was standing.