ch seems to be natural to man in all conditions
and climes. Then I thought of the difficulty these poor Africans have
at times in procuring food, the frequency with which they are reduced
almost to a state of starvation, and I ceased to wonder that they shot
and speared everything that came in their way.

We proceeded up the left bank of the river, keeping close in to the
shore in order to obtain the protection of the overhanging boughs and
foliage; for the sun soon began to grow hot, and in the middle of the
day became so intense that I sometimes feared that I or my companions
would receive a sunstroke. I confess that the subject of health often
caused me much anxiety; for although I knew that we were all old
experienced travellers--though young in years--and had become in a great
degree inured to hardships, I feared that the deadly climate of Central
Africa might prove too much for our European constitutions. By the free
use of quinine, however, and careful attention to the roles of health as
far as circumstances would permit, we were fortunate enough to keep in
excellent health and spirits during the whole course of our sojourn
there; for which, when I thought of the hundreds of Europeans who had
perished on that deadly coast without even venturing into the interior,
I felt very thankful. One of our chief delights, to which I in a great
degree attribute our uninterrupted health, was bathing daily in the
streams and ponds with which we fell in, or on which we paddled during
our travels. On these occasions we were fain, however, to be exceeding
careful in the selection of our bathing-pool, as crocodiles and
alligators, and I know not what other hideous animals, were constantly
on the lookout for prey, and I make no doubt would have been very ready
to try the flavour of a morsel of English food had we given them the
chance.

On these occasions, when we had made sure of our pool, we were wont to
paddle about in the cool refreshing stream, and recall to mind the
splendid dips we had had together six years before in the clear waters
of the coral island. Since that time Peterkin had learned to swim well,
which was not only a source of much satisfaction and gratification to
himself now, but, he told me, had been the means of preserving not only
his own life on more than one occasion, but the life of a little child
which he had the good fortune to rescue from drowning when cruising off
the island of Madagascar.

Pete