as fast as we possibly could, but all in vain, for
here in the mouth of the river the islands were so numerous that it was
very easy for us to lose them a second time. After much trouble and toil
we did at last find the mouth of the river, but here the tide was again
coming in, so that though we were within a stone's throw from the mouth
of the river, we could not go through it, but were forced to put ashore
and wait for better water. Accordingly we hauled our canoe close by the
bushes and fastened it to a tree which the tide had almost covered.

[Illustration: WE ROWED AWAY DOWN THE RIVER IN PURSUIT]

As soon as the tide began to turn, we rowed away again, crossing the
Gulf of Miguel. Here we had a very hard time fighting the waves, which
dashed against our canoe and might easily have filled and overwhelmed
it, for the boat was nearly twenty feet long and not over one and a half
broad where it was widest. At dark we landed on an island where we had
the most sorrowful resting place I ever experienced in my whole life. It
rained impetuously all night long, in so much that we were wet from head
to foot and had not one dry thread about us; and so violent was the
rain that we could not keep any fire going to warm or dry ourselves. Not
one minute's sleep did we get during the whole night, and our plight was
indeed an awful one, remote from our companions and wholly destitute of
all human comfort. As morning broke, our plight was little relieved, for
a vast sea surrounded us on one side, and on the other we could see
nothing but high mountains and rocks. Our boat was but an eggshell, and
we had few clothes to defend us from the weather. In fact, not one of us
at that time had a shoe to his foot.

Wet and cold as we were, however, we put forth to sea and rowed away,
passing several islands. In the open sea the smallness of our vessel put
us again in deadly peril, and it always required one man and sometimes
two to bail out the water that came over the sides of the boat. When we
had struggled for some time with these difficulties, and when we were
near one of the smaller islands, a huge wave overturned our boat and we
were all forced to swim for our lives, but did manage to get to shore,
where soon our canoe was thrown after us. All our bread and fresh water
were spoiled, but as our guns were lashed to the boat and were kept in
waxed cases, we lost none of them. Our first business was to take them
out and clean them.

Scarc