the cataract, since they could hear it nearly a league away,
but to mark the side on which they ought to land. This plan saved a
number of lives, nevertheless many others were lost.

The bananas which we found on the river bank were almost our only
nourishment, and saved us from dying of hunger; for, though there was
plenty of game, our powder and weapons were all wet and spoiled, so that
we could not hunt.

Some days after we had begun to descend the river, as we were travelling
separate, several freebooters who had lost all their spoils in gambling
were guilty of most cruel treachery. Having gone in advance, these
villains concealed themselves behind some rocks commanding the river, in
front of which we all had to pass, and as everyone was looking after
himself, and we descended unsuspiciously, at some distance from each
other--for the reasons already given--they had time to fix upon and to
massacre five Englishmen, who possessed greater shares of booty than the
rest of us. They were completely plundered by these assassins, and my
companion and I found their dead bodies on the shore. At night, when we
were encamped on the river bank, I reported what we had seen, and the
story was confirmed both by the absence of the dead Englishmen and of
their murderers, who dared not come back to us, and whom we never saw
again.

On the 20th of February we found the river much wider, and there were no
more cataracts. When we had descended some leagues further it was very
fine, and the current was gentle, and seeing that the worst of our
perils were over, we dispersed into bands of forty each to make canoes,
in which we might safely complete our voyage down the river.

On the 1st of March, by dint of great diligence, having finished four
canoes, a hundred and twenty of us embarked, leaving the others, whose
canoes were still incomplete, to follow.

On the 9th we reached the mouth of the river in safety, and lived there
among the mulattos and negroes who inhabit the coast, till an English
boat, touching there, took on board fifty of us, of whom I was one. On
the 6th of April, without any other accident, we arrived at our
destination, St. Domingo.

PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

FOOTNOTE:

[29] 'The return of the French Freebooters from the South Sea, by the
mainland, in 1688.' Written by Sieur Raveneau de Lussan, one of the
party, taken from his _Journal du voyage