to throw it
about, and hard pulling was necessary. The heat of the sun was very
severe, and it proved impossible to use an umbrella or any kind of
shade, as it made steering more difficult. Snags and floating timbers
were very troublesome. Twice we hurried up to the bank out of the way of
passing gunboats, but they took no notice of us. When we got thirsty, it
was found that Max had set the jug of water in the shade of a tree and
left it there. We must dip up the river water or go without. When it got
too dark to travel safely we disembarked. Reeney gathered wood, made a
fire and some tea, and we had a good supper. We then divided, H. and I
remaining to watch the boat, Max and Annie on shore. She hung up a
mosquito-bar to the trees and went to bed comfortably. In the boat the
mosquitos were horrible, but I fell asleep and slept till voices on the
bank woke me. Annie was wandering disconsolate round her bed, and when I
asked the trouble, said, "Oh, I can't sleep there! I found a toad and a
lizard in the bed." When dropping off again, H. woke me to say he was
very sick; he thought it was from drinking the river water. With
difficulty I got a trunk opened to find some medicine. While doing so a
gunboat loomed up vast and gloomy, and we gave each other a good fright.
Our voices doubtless reached her, for instantly every one of her lights
disappeared and she ran for a few minutes along the opposite bank. We
momently expected a shell as a feeler.

At dawn next morning we made coffee and a hasty breakfast, fixed up as
well as we could in our sylvan dressing-rooms, and pushed on; for it is
settled that traveling between eleven and two will have to be given up
unless we want to be roasted alive. H. grew worse. He suffered terribly,
and the rest of us as much to see him pulling in such a state of
exhaustion. Max would not trust either of us to steer. About eleven we
reached the landing of a plantation. Max walked up to the house and
returned with the owner, an old gentleman living alone with his slaves.
The housekeeper, a young colored girl, could not be surpassed in her
graceful efforts to make us comfortable and anticipate every want. I was
so anxious about H. that I remember nothing except that the cold
drinking-water taken from a cistern beneath the building, into which
only the winter rains were allowed to fall, was like an elixir. They
offered luscious peaches that, with such water, were nectar and ambrosia
to our parched