y now and then had her under my eye through the openings
in the trees.

I had no difficulty in making her out, for, contrary to the wish of the
slave-captain, the night was a bright one, with a clear moon coursing
through a sky that was without a single cloud.

Slowly as sailed the barque, it was just as much as I could do to keep
up with her. Had the path been open there would have been no
difficulty--but there was in reality no path at all, only a track made
by wild animals, which here and there was closed up above with trailing
vines and creeping plants, that stretched from tree to tree and hindered
my rapid advance. Though beasts could go under these natural bridges
without impediment, a human being had to crouch under or climb over, and
all this required time. There were so many of these obstructions that I
was greatly delayed by them, and found it just as much as I could do to
keep square with the vessel constantly moving onward. I knew that I
must get a good way ahead of her, so as to choose a place for taking to
the water and swimming out to her as she passed down. As the river grew
wider near its mouth I was likely to have a long swim for it.

Several times I was terrified by the appearance of wild beasts, whose
forms I could just distinguish in the obscurity that reigned under the
shadows of the trees. I saw several kinds, and some of immense size
that went crashing through the underwood as I came suddenly upon them.
These must have been either rhinoceroses or the large hippopotamus--I
could not tell which under the shadows--but whichever they were, they
ran off at my approach. I might have feared them more than I did, had
it not been that a greater fear was upon me. I feared to hear the
voices of King Dingo Bingo and his black guards behind me. I feared
this more than anything; and at intervals I stopped upon the path and
listened.

But indeed they would need to have been near for me to have heard them.
The forest was filled with other sounds, and only a very loud noise
could have been heard above the general chorus. There was the shrill
chirrup of cicadas and tree-crickets, the hoarse croaking of toads and
frogs--some of these as loud as the routing of a bull--there was
screaming of cats, the barking of jackals, and the chattering and
howling of monkeys. A perfect chorus of discordant sounds produced by
the barque moving down the river, and no doubt partially by my own
passage through the unde